Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies

Last Friday, I shared with you how excited I am about the upcoming PINK Holiday!  Yes people, I am referring to Valentine's Day!!!  It's one of my favorite holidays.  I know some people don't like it or view it as a "fake" holiday...but I am not one of them!  Any holiday that brings love and the color pink into focus is a great reason to celebrate!

This week I had actually planned on sharing a different Valentine's Day dessert with you (one that I made John last year) but then I was at Wegmans and inspiration hit me in the holiday aisle!  I came across this

 VALENTINE'S DAY FUNFETTI CAKE MIX!!!

And then I saw a package of these

VALENTINE'S DAY HUGS KISSES

And I was INSPIRED!  I knew I needed to make cookies with these two ingredients! 

So I came home and whipped up a batch of Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies!  They are just like the ones I made at Christmas...but even better for two reasons:

1. They are a cake mix recipe (cake mix recipe #23 to be exact)!

2. They are PINK! (and red and white too)

Here's What You Need to Make the Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 box Valentine's Day Funfetti Cake Mix 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 24 unwrapped Raspberry Hugs Kisses - they are so so so pretty 
  
• assorted sugar sprinkles in holiday colors - I used hot pink, a light pink and white mixture, and red

Now Let's Make the Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, eggs, and vanilla extract
3. Add the cake mix and the baking powder and beat together until a soft dough forms
   
4. Use a cookie scoop to form dough into 24 balls (about 1 inch each)
5. Roll each dough ball into the sugar sprinkles
   
6. Place onto prepared baking sheets and bake in oven for 10 minutes
7. Remove from oven and immediately press a kiss into the center of each cookie
8. Allow to cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely
9. Once cookies are cool and the kiss has reset, store in an airtight container

These cookies taste amazing and look so pretty at the same time!  It doesn't hurt that I was able to whip up the dough in about 3 minutes...in fact rolling the dough in the sprinkles is the most time consuming part - and if you have older kiddos they can definitely help you with that!

Can't find the Valentine's Day Cake Mix?  You can use white cake mix and add extra sprinkles to the batter! 

Happy Pink Baking!