Red Dress Cookies

Ever since my Other Half found Ann Clark's Little Black Dress cookie cutter at Candyland Crafts, I've been making Red Dress Cookies for the first Friday of February, "Wear Red" day.

The process is simple:
I start with my go-to Sugar Cookie recipe ("Basic Sugar Cookie" from Woman's Day's 2009 Holiday Cookies "Special Interest Publication"). It's unusual in that one third of the sugar (by weight) is replaced by confectioner's sugar. The cookie recipe is designed for 1/8" thick cookies, which is perfect for a simple cookie cutter. (Plunger cookie cutters, and those with internal designs, require a 1/4" thick cookie. Those recipes tend to be closer to shortbreads than to classic sugar cookies.)

I use a variation of the "Frosting Glaze" that follows that recipe, rather than a more traditional Royal Icing. The cookie glaze does not use egg whites or meringue powder, just confectioner's sugar, a bit of corn syrup (or I might substitute honey, molasses, or maple syrup depending on what flavor profile I'm looking for), vanilla (or other flavoring), and milk (though I usually use skim milk or water).

Once colored, I thin down the icing enough to paint on the dresses — a method I generally prefer over piping the edges and flooding the centers — and then add a white heart sprinkle to the left chest, consistent with The Heart Truth Red Dress pins.

Current Red Dress Images from GoRedForWomen.org Shop

NHLBI's "original" Red Dress Pin

Some years, I need to purchase a bottle of red, white, and pink Wilton hearts. Other years, I need to fish out the white hearts from a bottle of multicolored hearts. My current supply is a bag of white Sweet Tooth Fairy hearts meant for custom coloring.


In past years, I've used other cookie cutters and designs as well. The cookies below (made in 2011) use a cutter CK Products calls "Gown", and which other distributors (such as Sur La Table) have called "Wedding Gown" or "Bridal Gown", decorated for a group of Renaissance Faire friends. At the time I got this cookie cutter, there was also a tank dress design that was sometimes called "Bridesmaid".

While some may cavil at the use of butter, sugar, and wheat flour — ingredients said to put one at greater risk for heart disease — everyone loves a good sugar cookie. Using them to remind people of "Go Red" and women's heart health is just the icing on top.