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Soft, Frosted Sugar Cookies

Cookies· Easter· Holiday Favorites· Valentine's Day

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Soft, Frosted Sugar Cookies – These soft, frosted sugar cookies taste identical to the ones you love to buy at the grocery store bakery. They are so fun to make at home and have none of the preservatives that you get in the store-bought version.

Soft, Frosted Sugar Cookies decorated for valentines dayHappy February! And so begins the month of sweets, romance, chocolate, strawberry, and champagne. So it makes sense that it’s also my birthday month. Woohoo!

This month I turn 29 and a whole year closer to 30. Yikes. But let’s not worry about that yet. I still have year 29 to celebrate! You can expect an awesome sweet treat next week to celebrate my special day, so keep a lookout!

Okay now for today’s recipe.

Back in September, I started welcoming each new month with a cookie recipe because, well, I LOVE cookies. Let’s recap what we’ve covered so far:

For February, I thought I’d share my favorite sugar cookie (and perhaps the only sugar cookie I’ve ever loved): soft, frosted sugar cookies with pink frosting.

Soft, Frosted Sugar Cookies with pink icing and heart sprinkles Tray of Soft, Frosted Sugar Cookies decorated for valentines day

After falling for them early in my childhood, I’ve always been a chocolate chip cookies kind-of-gal. Sugar cookies were never enticing to me because they didn’t have enough oomph. Just boring, bland, pale cookies. Not for me.

That is, until a fateful day in 8th grade…We were having a class party and someone brought these soft sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles that they had purchased from a grocery store bakery. I was intrigued because they looked like half-cookie-half-cupcake. I tried one of those cookies and my opinion of sugar cookies changed FOREVER.

Those sugar cookies were soft, yet dense, with sweet colored frosting. Enough sugar to get my heart beating a mile-a-minute, that’s for sure. But that soft cookie is what sold me, for sure.

And now I can make them at home and eat them anytime I want! Well, I probably shouldn’t, but I’m just happy to know that I can (as is my husband). These are his favorite cookies!

Soft, Frosted Sugar Cookies with a bite missing Holding up a Soft, Frosted Sugar Cookies with a bite missing

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that you can easily make it all year long. Just switch up the color of the frosting and sprinkles to make them fit each season and/or holiday. You can even switch up the shapes, too! Hearts, shamrocks, flowers, stars, Christmas trees, pumpkins…the possibilities are endless!

This is also a great recipe to do on a day where you need some baking therapy. You can turn on some tunes, roll out some dough, bake some cookies, and take your sweet time frosting each one. I did this exact thing last weekend and it was magical. My tunes of choice: the soundtrack to La La Land. I’m obsessed!!!

Half Eaten Soft, Frosted Sugar Cookies Stack of Soft, Frosted Sugar Cookies

You probably haven’t made very many cookies like this before. The dough is super sticky and may be tricky to manage on your first try. But fear not! I’m here to give you some tips to make sure you get it right the first time:

  1. This dough needs to chill overnight. Do not skip this step! The dough is really messy when we first make it so it needs to chill so you can easily roll it out and cut out circles.
  2. When rolling out the dough, flour your surface and rolling pin really, really well. This will keep the dough from sticking. If the dough starts to stick, form into a ball, add more flour, and roll out again. If it gets too sticky to work with, just place in freezer for a few minutes to cool it down – cool dough is easier to work with.
  3. This recipe makes 48 cookies. You will need to bake these cookies on two baking sheet and in two batches. These half sheet pans are my favorite baking sheets because they are big and sturdy. I use them in all my cookie recipes.
  4. Make sure the cookies are completely cool before you begin frosting them. Otherwise, the frosting will melt all over the place.
  5. To make sure the sprinkles stick, add them right after you frost each cookie because the frosting tends to dry quickly.
  6. When frosting cookies or cupcakes, I always recommend using an offset spatula. It helps create a smooth, even layer of frosting. Here is the small one I used for this recipe.

Here are all the kitchen tools and serveware that I used in this post. For each item that is sold, I receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting the brands that support CPA!

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Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies on a baking sheet with sprinkles on top
Print Recipe

Soft, Frosted Sugar Cookies

These soft, frosted sugar cookies taste identical to the ones you love to buy at the grocery store bakery. They are so fun to make at home and have none of the preservatives that you get in the store-bought version.
Prep Time30 mins
Cook Time15 mins
Total Time8 hrs 45 mins
Servings: 48 cookies

Ingredients

For the cookie dough:
  • 6 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup butter salted, softened
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups light sour cream
For the frosting:
  • 1 cup butter unsalted, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 5 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 6 tablespoons heavy cream
  • pinch of salt
  • food coloring
  • sprinkles

Instructions

For the cookie dough:
  • In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder until combined. Set aside.
  • Place softened, salted butter and granulated sugar in bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium-high for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Add vanilla and sour cream and mix on low until combined.
  • Add all of dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix on low until just combined. Do not over-mix or the dough will get tough. The dough will be sticky. Grab plastic wrap and lay out two large sheets. Separate dough onto each sheet so you have two even piles of dough. Cover dough with plastic wrap and form into a flat rectangle. Refrigerate overnight. Do not skip this step! It will be impossible to roll out the dough if it is not cold.
  • The next day, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare two baking sheets by laying with parchment paper or using a silicone mat. Flour your work-surface and rolling pin extremely well. Don't skimp on the flour - the dough will be super sticky so we need the flour to keep it from sticking to the counter.
  • Remove rectangle of dough from fridge and unwrap. Flour both sides of the dough pretty well so it does not stick as we roll it out. Roll out dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Using a 2 1/2-inch cookie/biscuit cutter, cut out 24 rounds from the dough. You may have to combine scraps and roll out again to achieve this. Place dough on two cookie sheets (12 per sheet), about an inch apart.
  • Bake for 4 minutes, rotate, and bake for 4 more minutes until slightly golden on the edges. Do not over-bake! We want these to stay soft. Remove from oven and transfer cookies to wire cooling racks. Do not frost until completely cooled. Repeat process with second rectangle of dough.
For the frosting:
  • Beat butter, vanilla, and pinch of salt until creamy and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add 4 cups of powdered sugar slowly, about 1 cup at a time.
  • Add heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time. Taste frosting. If you approve of the texture, then you can skip to next step. I thought it tasted too butter-heavy so I went ahead and added 1 1/2 more cups of powdered sugar. But you should test it out slowly by adding only 1/2 cup at a time until you reach the flavor you're looking for.
  • Add a couple drops of your favorite food coloring to the frosting mixture. Mix until colored. If you want a deeper color, add another drop or two.
  • Once the cookies have all cooled, you can begin to frost and sprinkle them. I recommend using a offset spatula to help spread frosting on evenly and cleanly.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Sweet Pea's Kitchen

Soft, Frosted Sugar Cookies photo collage

More cookie recipes that you’ll love:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites with Fudge Frosting

Holding Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites with Fudge Frosting

Monster Cookies

Monster Cookies on a cookie sheet

Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Cookies

Reese's Pieces Peanut Butter Cookies with Reese's pieces scattered around

Comments

  3. Amanda says

    These are so pretty and look just like the ones from the store! Great texture, and I love the shade of the frosting!

    Reply

  4. Charlotte says

    Awww, I love love love sugar cookies and haven’t made them in ages. These look perfect for Valentine’s Day <3 Your treats are always SO incredibly pretty!!

    XOXO

    Reply

  8. Kimberly @ Berly's Kitchen says

    Frosted sugar cookies are my husband’s favorite! This looks like the perfect recipe for him. The frosting I try to make never works for sugar cookies so will have to try this. đŸ™‚

    Reply

  18. Mytha Reyna says

    The sugar cookies look sooooo good! I’ve always wanted to make cookies from scratch but scared of the turnout lol

    Reply

  20. Dominique says

    They look delicious – and perfect for Valentines Day! That recipe makes a lot… I feel a bit nervous that I would eat all 48 of them! LOL! PS Don’t stress too much about getting closer to 30. I’m coming up for 31 this year and I can’t even remember my age when people ask me… so it’s no big deal, you totally forget your age after 30 anyway đŸ˜‰

    Reply

    • Sharon says

      Haha it sure does! I sent many of them with my husband for his coworkers. And yeah, I’m already starting to forget my age and I’m not even 30 yet! I had to do math the other day to get to it! haha

      Reply

  22. Nicole says

    These look amazing and I hope to try them soon!

    It was college when I first began to love sugar cookies. A roommate’s mother baked a tin for us and they were everything you described. It wasn’t long before my roommates and I began writing love notes to this wonderful mom (who kept baking them for us).

    Thanks for sharing your recipe and technique!

    Reply

  27. Krysten says

    These seriously remind me of the cookies of my childhood. I have been looking for a recipe to replicate them and have failed so far. I am so glad I found this post!

    Reply

  28. Neely Moldovan says

    Your cookies look amazing. My husband keeps asking for sugar cookies. I should probably make him some lol

    Reply

  30. Liz says

    These are so pretty! I’m going to try them for a Valentine’s Day party at my daughter’s school. Would be a cute gift for teachers too!

    Reply

  34. Julie says

    Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’ve never seen a sugar cookie recipe that has sour cream in it. I love your pictures of them, too. Can’t wait to make. Happy Birthday month!

    Reply

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