What a shocker.

For the Love Mix cookie box I was determined to create a heart-shaped sugar cookie with royal icing. I wanted them to look like conversation heart candies after seeing a bunch of really cool inspiration circulating on social media.

I decided to try my hand at it despite the fact that I don’t like royal icing. Breaking my rules! I said if I don’t really love the way something tastes I wouldn’t make it. Different people like different flavors and have different preferences when it comes to sweetness and that is great! Otherwise there would be one recipe for every type of cookie out there and no variations whatsoever.

If I make something I do not love, there is no way it will come out well. I have experienced this many times in my life. It is only true with baking and cooking because in the world of design there is a constant necessity to create collateral that you do not love the look of, even if it is designed well. Same goes for baking.

My royal icing came out the right texture. My piping is still not great—guess why? I DO NOT LIKE ROYAL ICING, nor do I enjoy piping it. Put frosting in the piping bag and I come to life.

I didn’t love the final flavor. The cookie itself is really nice, not overly sweet, not too crispy as some sugar cookies can be, and I modified the recipe slightly to my own liking.

Sometimes you make something and it flops for you. Not the fault of the recipe, which was just wonderful, or even the royal icing, which came out perfectly (notwithstanding the piping technique).

I really believe you have to like what you create. At bare minimum you have to like it and ultimately you should love it. Otherwise, what’s the point? This goes beyond baking. We all have to do things we don’t enjoy but when you can actually choose what you want to create in this world, why choose something that doesn’t bring you joy?

Anyway. No more royal icing ever again.

It was time to pivot and… sigh… break one more rule. I turned to white chocolate. Not my favorite, but better than royal icing by far. There was actually a scone I used to love that was orange and white chocolate. It was fantastic really, and one day I will try to remake it.

White chocolate became a clear choice, but the sweetness demanded to be tamed. I wasn’t going to make more sandwich cookies, and I didn’t want to go with strawberry. What could I sprinkle on top to give it this little nod of of tartness and fun and just plain old prettiness.

Hello freeze dried fruit. Hello freeze dried, tart, fantastic color raspberry.

Of course I had to taste it first, I’ve had freeze dried strawberries before but not raspberries. First of all, they were beautiful. They were whole. Their color was gorgeous. And then I ate one.

OH. MY. TART.

Incredible. Perfect!

And so, from the pits of royal icing came a surge of creativity fueled by the fact I had a flavor—and decorating—problem to solve. Flavor first, decorating second. I am not a fancy cookie decorator and I don’t know that I ever will be. I will save that space for someone else who can truly own it. If your flavor is no good, what’s the point?

I love these cookies. I love that a few wrong turns led to something better than initially imagined. Joy. Flavor. Success (in my opinion).

Keep it Disco!