Love is almost as sweet as these ombre pink love heart sugar cookies

INGREDIENTS

240g plain flour

20g corn flour

2g salt

110g unsalted butte

100g pure icing sugar, sifted

1 medium egg

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

225g icing sugar

110g unsalted butter

1/2 tablespoon of vanilla bean paste

pink gel or oil based food colouring

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sifted icing sugar using a paddle attachment on high for 5 minutes until mixture is light and fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla bean paste and mix on medium speed for 1 minute until emulsified.
Add sifted flour, corn flour and salt and mix on medium/low speed until dough forms and comes away from the edges of the bowl as the beater rotates.
Cut two pieces of baking paper at about 45 - 50cm, so that it is large enough for your cookie dough to be rolled out on.
Tip your dough on to one piece of baking paper and using your hands, flatten as evenly as possible until around 1cm thick.
Place the second piece of baking paper on top of the dough (to form a paper-dough-paper sandwich) and then using a rolling pin, roll until smooth and even at roughly 0.7cm thick
Transfer the rolled dough to the fridge and allow to chill for 20 minutes until firm
Remove dough from the fridge and using your love heart cookie cutter, cut as many cookies as you can. You can re-roll the dough until you have no dough left.
Transfer each heart to a cookie sheet covered in baking paper leaving a 2cm gap between each cookie. Once the sheet is full, transfer to a freezer for 20 minutes, and in the meantime preheat your oven for 145 degrees celsius.
Once frozen, bake in the oven for 18 minutes - 20 minutes. The cookies will be blonde when cooked. Allow to cool completely on the tray before icing.

To make the icing, place butter and sifted icing sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and using the paddle attachment, incorporate on lowest speed for 1 minute.
Once all icing sugar is mixed in, turn the speed up to high and allow to whip for 10 minutes to whiten.
After 10 minutes, add vanilla bean paste and mix for 30 seconds.

add 1 -2 drops of pink icing to create a very pale pink buttercream. Using a small offset spatula cover the surface of the cookie.
Repeat this process, deepening the shade with one or two drops of colour each time.