Wait until the oven cools
Hard sugar candy belongs on top of the treat after the heat is gone. If you stir conversation hearts into raw cookie dough or cake batter before baking, the hot oven melts each heart into a hard puddle of tinted syrup. The words vanish completely. Let your sheet pans cool on the counter first.
Once your sugar cookies or chocolate cupcakes reach room temperature, spread a thick layer of vanilla buttercream over each one. The soft frosting acts like paste. Press each heart lightly into the icing so the letters stay clean and clear on top. A gentle touch keeps the crisp shape neat while the icing sets around it.
- Bake your cookies or cupcakes first
- Cool the treats on a wire rack
- Spread soft frosting over each top
- Press hearts lightly with words facing up
Baking day with young helpers
Cookie decorating with children works best when you keep the steps simple and messy on purpose. Give each baker a plastic butter knife and a small bowl of colored icing. A small person can spread frosting, choose a saying, and stick it right in the middle without any special baking tools.
Kids love looking through the pile for their favorite phrases. One child might want only CUTIE PIE for grandma, while another looks for LOVE BUG or KISS ME for their school friends. The random mix in our bags turns the kitchen counter into a small reading lesson while the sprinkles scatter across the floor.
Sort colors on the table
Setting out small muffin tins makes sorting by shade fun and quick. Dump the candies across the center of your table and separate the assorted fruit flavors into little bowls. Pink hearts sit in one cup, yellow in another, and green beside the white ones. The table looks bright before you even start frosting.
You can match the candy shade to your frosting for a tidy single-color look. Pink icing topped with a pink TRUE LOVE looks tailored and neat on a plate. You can also contrast shades, placing a pale green heart on top of bright white icing so the red letters catch the eye right away.
Choose the right package size
Our little three-box sets work well for lunchboxes, but big kitchen projects call for two ten-point-five ounce bulk bags. Having a large heap of candy ready means nobody has to open ten tiny boxes while their fingers are covered in sticky powdered sugar. You get plenty of pieces to sort and share freely.
We make these motto candies in Bryan, Ohio, pressing small sayings into crisp sugar since 1902. Our press turns out classic phrases like HUG ME, MISS YOU, and XOXO alongside fruit flavor. Having plenty on hand lets you decorate a whole classroom batch of cupcakes without running out of your favorite words.
