The perfect homemade treats to make for your sweetheart or Valentine! These lemon hoey cookies are frosted with marbled royal icing.

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I hated Valentine’s Day during my emo teenage years. I couldn’t understand why a boy like Chris Carrabba from Dashboard Confessional wasn’t outside my window serenading me with silly love songs on his acoustic guitar.  

Thank goodness those days are long gone.

As you get older, you realize it is just another day.  That is, until you meet someone that gives it meaning.  

Table of Contents

Decorating with Icing Royal

STEP 1: Prepare three colors of royal icing- white, pink, and hot pink.

STEP 2: Pipe white royal icing around the edges of each cookie to form the border.
STEP 3: Pipe white icing into the middle of the cookie, allow the icing to run to the edges of the border. While the icing is still wet, pipe random sizes of dots and lines using the pink and hot pink icing.
STEP 4: Using a toothpick, quickly swirl the colors together until you get your desired look. Let cookies dry completely. This may take anywhere from 2 hours to overnight, depending on the humidity of your environment.
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Lemon Honey Cookies

By Maryanne Cabrera
Lemon infused sugar cookies sweetened with honey powder and frosted with royal icing.
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Ingredients

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 3/4 cup (6 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup honey powder*
  • finely grated zest from 2 lemons
  • 1 large egg, room temperature
  • juice from 1 lemon, about 2 Tablespoons
  • 3 Tablespoons whole milk

Royal Icing: (makes about 1 cup)

  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons meringue powder
  • 2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • lemon oil, vanilla extract, or almond extract, if desired
  • pastel pink and electric pink gel-paste food coloring, as needed

Instructions 

  • Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar, honey powder, and lemon zest. Add egg and combine.
  • In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice and milk. Set aside.
  • Alternate adding flour mixture and milk mixture into the creamed butter. Start and finish with the flour. Mix until just combined.
  • Turn dough out into a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into three disks. Plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or overnight.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line sheet trays with parchment paper
  • On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out desired shapes using a floured cutter. Transfer cut outs to prepared sheet trays.
  • Bake for 13-15 minutes until the edges are golden brown. Let cool on sheet for a couple minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Royal Icing:

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine meringue powder, confectioners’ sugar, and warm water.  Also add extract, if using any.  Mix on medium speed until mixture is fluffy and has thickened.
  • Add water to thin out icing to desired consistency. Add water 1 teaspoon at a time. (*Note: To test consistency, drizzle a little of icing onto a bowl. A ribbon should remain on the surface for about 5 seconds.)
  • Divide royal icing in half. Keep one half white. Divide the remaining half into two. Color one pink and the other hot pink. Transfer royal icings into piping bags or parchment bags. To decorate, follow photos and directions above.
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18 Comments

  1. Willow says:

    Beautiful post, and thank you so much for the award!

    1. the little epicurean says:

      Thank you, Willow! You are very welcome :)

  2. Courtney J says:

    These are so so so pretty! :)

    1. the little epicurean says:

      Thank you, Courtney!

  3. Sunday Morning Banana Pancakes says:

    Those cookies are absolutely gorgeous!Thank you so much for including Sunday Morning Banana Pancakes in your picks- I truly appreciate it :)

    1. the little epicurean says:

      Thank you! And you are very welcome. I enjoy reading your blog :)

  4. janet@fromcupcakestocaviar says:

    These are adorable!! I don’t if I’d want to eat them or save them :-P

    1. the little epicurean says:

      Thank you, Janet! Take a picture of the cookies and then eat them!

  5. Lindselicious says:

    Too cute!! Congrats on the award as well.

    1. the little epicurean says:

      Thanks, Lindsey! I read some of your blog posts and I LOVE ramen. I live in LA and I’d be more than happy to volunteer on your ramen tours. lol

  6. Ambika says:

    Lovely cookies!! Congrats on the award, such a beautiful space you have here :)

    1. the little epicurean says:

      Thank you very much, Ambika!

  7. Maggie says:

    Congrats on the Liebster award! Such an honor to be recognized. Your cookies are gorgeous…a perfect valentine’s treat!

    1. the little epicurean says:

      Thank you, Maggie! Yup, I hope to make some again and package them for friends :)

  8. bananamondaes says:

    These are such lovely cookies. I love Valentines too now I have someone. Although he gets so excited he gives me my gifts early!

    1. the little epicurean says:

      Thanks! Aw, how lucky?! That’s so sweet. He’s definitely a keeper!

  9. Tina says:

    Lovely cookies. It is nice to come across something that is lighter instead of the traditional chocolate for Valentine’s. The swirls do ad a wonderful appearance to these and the lemon/honey combo sounds delicious.Funny how our feelings about Valentines changes as we get older! Have a great afternoon.

    1. the little epicurean says:

      Thanks, Tina! Have a wonderful week :)