Mint

Last week I promised Valentine’s Day DIY projects, and I’m happy to say that Ivana from Love Ardently is here to get us started! Stay tuned, because we’ve got 5 more projects coming throughout the week. Without further ado… Ivana!

Hey there, Mint readers! I’m Ivana from Love Ardently, a wedding and stationery design studio.

Today, I’m sharing with you a DIY project for you to make your loved ones on Valentine’s Day. I love sweets and baking, so surely this Valentine’s Day I’m planning to bake something. However, life has been really busy and I think I won’t have time to bake something elaborate from scratch like this Paula Deen’s recipe I’m drooling over.

Inspired by Paula’s recipe, I present to you Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies that are so fun and super easy to make! Pssst… It’s super easy because I used a cake mix instead of making it from scratch. Along with the sandwich cookies, I’ve created a few sleeve designs to dress up the plain white treat boxes.

To see more photos and get the step by step instructions & box sleeve pdfs, click below:

First, let’s make the red velvet cookies. You’ll need:
1 box (18.25 oz) red velvet cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
2 large eggs
1 stick butter (1/2 cup), at room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, butter, and eggs until it doesn’t have lumps. It takes a while to get rid of the lumps, but you’ll get there! :)
3. Use a spoon or a mini scoop to shape dough into balls (about 2″ diameter). Place on a greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
4. Bake in the oven for about 9 – 12 minutes, until the tops start to crack. Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.
5. You may use the cookies as is, or you can use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut through the round cookies to keep it with the valentine theme.

Warning: The remaining scraps are yummy. I kept on munching them.
Now, onto the cream cheese filling.
1 stick butter (1/2 cup), room temperature
1 package cream cheese (8 oz), room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar (you may add more sugar, if you like it sweeter)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pecan

1. Toast pecan in the oven for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees F. Let it cool and then chop coarsely.
2. In a medium bowl, beat butter, cream cheese, and vanilla extract with electric mixer on low speed until smooth.
3. Add in powdered sugar gradually, while keep beating until smooth.
4. Stir the pecan in to the cream cheese mixture.

To assemble the sandwich cookies, spoon the filling generously on the flat side of one cookie. Sandwich it with another cookie and press together until you see the filling almost coming out of the edge. If you want the filling to look neater, you can use a piping bag to put in the filling :)

Now, you’re not eating these cookies alone, aren’t you? My husband is not a dessert fan, sadly. In fact, one of my New Year’s resolution is to get him eat more sweets, so I can bake more without having to eat them all. Although I successfully got him to had a bite of these, I knew I wanted to share these sweets with someone else as well.

To share it with your loved ones on Valentine’s day, package it to make it even more festive! My friends should know me pretty well and they would guess that I won’t let these cookies out in a plain white treat box :)

What you’ll need:
Plain white treat boxes (mine were from Michaels, size 1.5 x 4.5 x 4.5 in)
8.5 x 14 (Legal) paper
Color printer
Paper trimmer or X-acto knife
Bone folder
Ruler
Wax paper
Double-sided tape
Ribbon

1. Download one (or all!) of the sleeve templates that I’ve created for you.
{ baked with love |  brown pattern |  hot pink polkadot }
2. Print the template onto the legal size paper with a color printer.
3. Using a paper trimmer or x-acto knife, trim along the edge of the template image. Using a bone folder and a ruler, score along the dotted lines.

4. Line the box with wax paper and put your sandwich cookies in.
5. Wrap the sleeve around the box and seal the open ends at the back of the box with double-sided tape.
6. Decorate with ribbon and heart tags, and you’re ready to share it with your loved ones!

{recipe credits: adapted from allrecipes.com and foodnetwork.com}

Thanks so much, Ivana!