THE DISH
Sugar cookies with buttercream and royal icing (Recipe below)

THE INSPIRATION
No CALL ME’s or HUGS & KISSES here! Each cookie has a different love-themed song title. I know they’re not all mushy love songs, but it’s more based on the titles than the lyrics…To make these even more precious, I had help from the cutest music-biz couple I know: Heidi Greenwood and Bryan Vaughan, who run Brooklyn’s Paper Garden Records. Paper Garden is home to one of my favorite discoveries of the past year, Peasant, as well as Danish up-and-comers Alcoholic Faith Mission, and several other acts. Heidi and Bryan were gracious enough to spend more than four hours with me on these … they are amazing and I can’t thank them enough! Enjoy some super-cute photos of them below.

THE PLAYLIST
Tracklisting is at bottom of the post.

http://listen.grooveshark.com/widget.swf

THE RECIPE
(Cookies, buttercream frosting, royal icing)

Old-fashioned sugar cookies (from my mom’s cookbook; makes about 50 cookies)

Ingredients:

4 c flour (+ more for rolling out the dough)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 c butter, softened
1.5 c sugar
1 egg
1/2 c sour cream
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar and egg at medium speed, until light and fluffy.
• At low speed, beat in the sour ream and vanilla until smooth.
• Gradually add the flour mixture, beating until well combined.
• Form dough into a ball (use a rubber spatula to scrape down the edges), wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Refrigerate until ready to make the cookies. I made these two days before baking and it was fine.
• Take the dough out of the fridge to soften up about half an hour before you’re ready to roll it out.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets.
• Divide the dough into four pieces. Coat your workspace (my kitchen table) and rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough until it’s about 1/4-inch thick. Cut out the hearts with a cookie cutter, pull away the rest of the dough, roll it into a ball and repeat. Make sure there’s flour underneath so you don’t have to scrape the hearts off the table.

• Bake for about 8 minutes.

Buttercream frosting
This is to cover all the cookies (not for the borders or text). You can use premade frosting if you want, but what’s the fun in that?

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:
• Cream the butter with an electric mixer.
• Add vanilla and gradually add the sugar. Depending on the consistency and your taste, you can add more powdered sugar as needed.
• Divide into separate bowls; add food coloring as desired.

Royal icing (from Sweet Pea’s Kitchen)
This is for the borders and the writing. If you’re making one batch of cookies, halve the recipe from the link above. I highly recommend reading the writer’s tips on this! Use a piping bag and a small-ish tip for the cookie borders, and the smallest tip possible for the writing.

THE PLAYLIST
She & Him, “Sentimental Heart”
Camera Obscura, “The Sweetest Thing”
Kate Nash, “Kiss That Grrl”
Best Coast, “Crazy For You”
Allo Darlin’, “My Heart Is A Drummer”
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, “This Love Is Fucking Right!”
Yo La Tengo, “If It’s True”
Wilco, “I’m Always In Love”
Lost in the Trees, “Love On My Side”
Björk, “All Is Full Of Love”
Beach House, “Lover Of Mine”
Sufjan Stevens, “Too Much”
the bird and the bee, “Fucking Boyfriend”
The Blow, “Hey Boy”
Allo Darlin’, “Kiss Your Lips”