I don't know about you, but Valentine's Day has got to be my all-time favorite cookie decorating holiday. The very shape of a heart allows for so much design versatility, and there's no shortage of pithy puns ("Bee mine", "I love ewe", "My tweetheart", to name a few) that lend themselves perfectly to "un-bear-ably cute" cookie animal pairings! 
Cuteness aside, there's also abundant possibility for elegance, as evidenced by the cookies topping this week's hot list.* Below, you'll be romanced by everything from lovingly piped lace and handpainted flowers to swoon-worthy color combinations and opulent layers of embossed fondant.
I did mention that Valentine's Day is my favorite cookie holiday, didn't I? Please spread the cookie love by saying congrats to this week's deserving cookiers! 
#1: Thinking of You by Gwen's Kitchen Creations
#2: Fondant and Pearls by Tina at Sugar Wishes
#3: Purple Valentines by Creative Cookies Belgrade
#4: Toile de Jouy Cookies by Evelindecora
#5: Cupid's Arrows by Allison at Baked on Briar
#6: Lace Heart Cookies by Gerrit de Vries [EDITOR'S NOTE: Special congrats to Gerrit, a Cookie Connection neophyte and self-proclaimed beginner. If this is "beginner", then . . . I'm at a loss for words.]
#7: Tufted Heart Cookies by Bobbie Bakes
#8: Be My Valentine by Sarah's Sweets
#9: Love Cookies by BlauKitchen
#10: More Fondant and Pearls by Tina at Sugar Wishes
* As a reminder, a word about how the rankings are determined: The rankings are not at all subjective. In fact, they are determined essentially by you, our members, and the activity (number of views, likes, and comments) you've bestowed on each photo. The site uses a top-secret algorithm that weighs these various factors to determine which photos are trending most quickly (i.e., are the "hottest") over specified periods of time. As such, the hot list at the time of this announcement may look a little different a few hours or a day from now as more photos are added to the site.
So that no one has an unfair advantage in making it onto a hot list, the algorithm is secret even to site administrators. Only our platform developers know the code, which has been exhaustively tested by those developers and Cookie Connection staff.
All photos shown here are the courtesy (and copyright) of the designers listed.
To check out our other hot lists, at any time of day, visit our Hot Spot, also found in the site's main navigation line.
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