In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (approximately 2 minutes).

Add the egg, cream, vanilla, and lemon zest and blend until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Gradually at the flour mixture to the creamed butter mixture in increments, and blend just until the dough comes together, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Turn the cookie dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently bring it together to form a round disc.

Divide the dough in half and wrap each half with plastic wrap.

Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes (but longer is better).

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

Once thoroughly chilled, evenly roll one of the dough portions out on a lightly floured surface to ¼" thickness, keeping the second dough chilled until ready to roll.

Use a 2½" heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out as many cookies as you can from the first roll and place them (spaced slightly) on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Reroll the scraps of dough from the first cutting, and proceed to cut as many additional cookies as possible.

Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets halfway through baking. The cookies should be very lightly browned.

Completely cool on a wire rack before decorating.

Continue with the remaining refrigerated dough using the same steps.

Add the confectioner's sugar, meringue powder, almond extract, and corn syrup to a large bowl.

Start by adding a small amount of warm water until you reach the desired piping consistency (thick, but not too thick to be difficult to pipe). A good rule of thumb is when the icing can be drizzled back upon itself and you'll still see the ribbon in the icing for 4-5 seconds before disappearing.

Divide the piping icing into two bowls (making sure to leave some of the icing white) and use the gel food color to color the piping icing your preferred color (I colored mine dark pink).

*IMPORTANT - Make sure to cover any icing not being used at the time with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.

Add the colored piping icing to a prepared piping bag and pipe a border around each heart cookie. Cover the icing with plastic wrap when not in use.

Add additional warm water to the piping icing to make a flooding consistency. A good rule of thumb is when the icing is drizzled back into the bowl and almost immediately disappears into an icing puddle.

Add the flooding icing to a piping bag (or a squeeze bottle works great) and add a dollop into the center of the piped cookie.

Working somewhat quickly, use a clean paintbrush (shown in the video) or a toothpick to help the flooding icing evenly cover the surface of the cookies.

Thin the plain white royal icing to a flooding consistency, and add it to a piping bag (or zip-top bag with a small portion of the corner snipped), and quickly but carefully add small polka dots to the flooded heart cookies while the pink icing is still wet.

Continue the same process with all the cookies and allow them to dry completely (in a single layer) for at least 24 hours. After that time, stacking the cookies is no longer an issue.

Serve and enjoy!