Thank you, thank you very much!

I am a big fan of thank you cookies! The latest were for my son's faith formation teachers...you have to love the people that volunteer their time every week to teach, they are amazing, and they make it fun! (Instructions for these cookiesbelow.)

I love the little hearts on these. When I worked at a preschool, one of my students was from Japan, and whenever her mother sent a note to school, the a's, o's and g's all had little hearts inside them. I thought that was the cutest thing...I loved getting notes from that mom and she inspired the hearts on these cookies.

These were for a thank-you gift for a friend's OB and staff after her baby was born. I think they are my favorite.

To decorate "thank you" cookies as shown at the top:

• Using a #2 or #3 tip, outline cookies in white royal icing.
• Thin royal icing with water in the background color to the consistency of thick syrup, cover with a damp towel and let sit several minutes. (AmeriColor Avocado)
• Stir gently using a rubber spatula to break any bubbles that have formed on the surface and pour icing into a squeeze bottle.
• Fill in cookies with the flood icing, using a toothpick to spread into corners.
• Let dry at least 1 hour.
• Using a #1 or #2 tip (test your writing on a plate first to see which looks best and which you are more comfortable with), pipe "thank you" on the cookies in white icing. (I start from the middle letter in the middle of the cookies and work my way out.)
• Using a #1 tip, pipe hearts (a fat "v") in the center of the a and o and for the exclamation point. (for the salmon-y hearts above, I used just a bit of AmeriColor Super Red.)