Frosted Soft Sugar Cookies

How to Make Frosted Soft Sugar Cookies

Our frosted cookies are easy to make and deliver the best homemade flavor. Use these fundamentals to understand how they come together, and the recipe below for all the specifics:

Mixing Sugar Cookie Dough

Combine Betty Crocker™ sugar cookie mix, dry vanilla instant pudding and pie filling, softened butter, water, and an egg and mix in a large bowl.

Shaping and Placing the Dough

Shape the dough into 12 balls (about 3 tablespoons of dough each). Place 3 inches apart onto two large cookie sheets. You might be tempted to fit them all on one cookie sheet, but the dough is meant to spread, so be sure to leave plenty of room between them, using only about six balls of dough per cookie sheet!

Baking and Cooling the Cookies

Bake cookies until the edges are set. The centers of the cookies will still be soft. We prefer to bake one cookie sheet at a time in the center of the oven. If you want to make them quickly, you can put both sheets on separate racks in the oven (with room all around them to bake evenly) to bake at once. Cool them on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes so they’ll be sturdy enough to move. Then move onto cooling racks to cool completely.

Mix the Buttercream Frosting

Beat softened butter with a mixer until ultra smooth. Mix powdered sugar with almond extract and some of the milk to make the mixture creamy. Then add the remaining milk a teaspoon at a time to control the thickness of the frosting without making it too thin. If you want to tint your frosting, be sure to use gel food color as liquid can have a thinning effect. Check out our favorite tips for making sugar cookie frosting.

Frosting the Cookies

These cookies get a generous amount of frosting, for an indulgent finish. After frosting, you can even decorate the cookies with sprinkles before putting them in the refrigerator to allow the frosting to set.

How to Frost Sugar Cookies

Following the instructions, once you’ve added just enough milk to make a frosting that’s easy to spread (it’s not too stiff or too thin), place about 2 tablespoons on a cookie. Holding the cookie in one hand, use an off-set metal spatula or a butter knife to spread the frosting over the top of the cookie. You can stop when you’re about 1/4-inch from the edge.

The frosting is initially soft, due to the softened butter in it, but when the cookies are refrigerated (or the temperature of your kitchen is on the cool side), the butter will firm up. For this reason, you’ll want to add sprinkles, over the Buttercream frosted sugar cookies before the butter has a chance to firm up.

Want to know the secrets to professionally frosted cookies? Check out our best frosting tips!

If you love classic shaped frosted Christmas cookies, you’ll love this top-rated classic sugar cookie recipe.

Crazy for Christmas cookies? You could always color these soft sugar cookies green and red for the holiday season! If you’re looking for even more options, we have Mrs. Claus’ favorite recipes all in one place, with our Christmas Cookie Headquarters.

Storing Frosted Soft Sugar Cookies

For the best frosted sugar cookie texture and flavor, we prefer these cookies baked and enjoyed the same day they are made. However, if you want to make them ahead of time, here’s what we recommend:

Refrigerator Storage: Store cookies, single layer in a loosely covered container for up to 3 days. Enjoy them cold right out of the fridge or remove and uncover them 30 minutes before serving (but do not store cookies at room temperature).

Freezer Storage: Baked (unfrosted) cookies can be stored in freezer-safe food-storage containers or resealable freezer bags up to 3 months. Frosted cookies can be stored in a single layer in freezer-safe food-storage containers for up to 1 month. To thaw, place frozen cookies on plate or tray at room temperature about an hour before serving.