About Recipe

As a child, receiving boxes of conversation hearts from my mom on Valentine’s Day was just so sweet. We only got candy on holidays or special occasions, so we always looked forward to our own special box of these unusual confections. Although each heart was only a small little bite of candy, I wouldn’t pop a whole bunch into my mouth. Rather, I would examine each one closely, reading the mushy or corny little phrase printed on top. I have vivid memories of trying to lick just the words on a heart, trying to taste the ink they used to print on the candy. I remember pondering the question, “how did they get those tiny letters onto those little bity hearts and why did it taste so sweet?” Technology wasn’t where it is today. No one was printing peoples faces on candy back in the 70’s. So conversation hearts seemed pretty cool and high tech to a little freckle faced girl. I just couldn’t figure out how ink of any kind could taste good. I was baffled, but I didn’t let it stop me from enjoying my sweet little hearts. When I got a little older I learned to use food coloring to tint frosting for decorating cookies and cakes and realized that they use food coloring as their ink. Although I couldn’t make my own conversation heart candy, I did enjoy making conversation heart cookies decorated with vibrantly colored frosting and adorned with fun little love related phrases.