Sugar Cookie Frosting
Updated
Updated
Look no further for the best homemade Sugar Cookie Frosting – this is it! Creamy frosting that hardens too, so you can stack those sugar cookies. Made in minutes to spread or pipe and it tastes amazing!
This sugar cookie frosting recipe along with our easy sugar cookie recipe are the absolute perfect pair!
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Frosting vs Icing
We adore this sugar cookie frosting recipe as much as our sugar cookie icing. They are both awesome, but shouldn’t be confused with one another. They are very different in taste, texture, and honestly, purpose.
Typically speaking, frosting is thick and fluffy, great piped or swirled onto cookies or cakes with a star tip. Icing, on the other hand, is thinner, smooth, and glossy – perfect used as a simple glaze or for decorating. I use both depending on the occasion.
Best Sugar Cookie Frosting
Sugar cookies are wonderful, but frosted sugar cookies are even better! This recipe has been my go-to ever since my kids were very little. Here’s why we love it:
- Quick and Easy: Only a few common pantry ingredients, a bowl, blender, and 2 minutes are needed.
- Perfect Texture: Perfectly creamy, but also develops a “crust”, giving you a sugar cookie frosting that hardens enough so cookies can be stacked without sticking to each other. WOOT.
- Best Taste: Neither of those things would matter if it didn’t taste good, right? But this frosting tastes fantastic. With a little bit of vanilla and also almond extract, it tastes like cherry! (Don’t like cherry flavored desserts? No worries, you can make it with just the vanilla.)
How to Make Frosting for Sugar Cookies
If you prefer to skip the helpful information and recipe tips, feel free to scroll below to the complete printable recipe card.
This is truly the easiest sugar cookie frosting recipe ever. It includes the following:
- Butter: Salted or unsalted butter can be used, depending on your flavor preference. It needs to be softened to room temperature.
- Vegetable shortening: This is what allows a “crust” to form so you can stack your frosted sugar cookies without them sticking to each other. If that doesn’t matter to you, simply replace it with an equal amount of butter for a true buttercream frosting.
- Powdered sugar: Powdered sugar (also known as confectioners’ sugar and icing sugar) is what you need for this recipe. Do not use granulated white sugar.
- Whole milk: Milk is used to thin the frosting. I recommend whole milk or 2%. Skim milk is ok, but will produce a thinner result and you might end up needing to add more powdered sugar.
- Vanilla extract: For flavor and always gives baked goods that extra something.
- Almond extract: This gives the frosting an unexpected wow factor, adding a subtle cherry flavor. To me, it’s what makes this frosting recipe over the moon. But you can leave it out without ruining the integrity of the frosting.
- Food coloring, optional: If you want your frosting to have color, blend in a few dots of food dye. Fun for baby showers, sporting events, holidays, and parties.
To make the frosting, you simply dump all your ingredients into a bowl and blend with an electric mixer until combined and smooth, adding a touch more milk, if needed, to get the desired consistency. The frosting can be colored with food dye or left white. Then use as desired.
How to Frost Sugar Cookies
This frosting can be spread in a thin layer onto a sugar cookie with a dull butter knife, or transferred to a piping bag with a frosting tip and piped or swirled onto cookies. Leave the frosting plain or jazz it up with some sprinkles!
Sugar Cookie Frosting That Hardens
This recipe includes butter and shortening, which stabilizes the frosting and allows it to form a “crust.” It won’t harden 100% like our sugar cookie icing, but it hardens enough so cookies can be stacked. You can use all butter for a true buttercream frosting, if you prefer, but know that it will not be as sturdy for stacking or keep its shape for piping.
Proper Storage
Make ahead: This frosting literally comes together in minutes, but if you do want to make it ahead of time, you can. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 5 days. Bring it to room temperature before using it, otherwise it will be too hard to spread or pipe. You can also fluff it back up by whipping it again with an electric mixer.
How to store frosted cookies: Once you’ve frosted your cookies, you can store any that weren’t eaten at room temperature, covered, for up to 3 days.
Homemade Sugar Cookie Frosting Video
Some of our Favorite Easy Cookie Recipes
- Sugar Cookies (only 3 ingredients!)
- Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies
- No Bake Cookies
- DoubleTree Cookies (Famous Recipe)
I hope you love this delicious and easy recipe – be sure to give it a review below! Also don’t forget to follow Belly Full on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube!
Sugar Cookie Frosting
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter, , softened
- 3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
- 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup whole milk, (see note)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- Food gel coloring, , optional
- Sprinkles, , optional
- Plain cooled sugar cookies, , for decorating
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the butter, shortening, powdered sugar, 1/4 cup milk, the vanilla extract and almond extract with an electric hand mixer. Add a bit more milk at a time, if needed, until it’s the desired consistency – it should be thick, but spreadable.
- If coloring the frosting with different colors, divide into bowls and color as desired at this point.
- Spread on top of cookies with a dull knife or transfer to a piping bag.
- Top with sprinkles , if desired (they need to be added right away before the frosting sets.)
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and any changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are very important to you, I would recommend calculating them yourself.
Did you make this? Leave a rating below!
Perfect taste and texture and super easy to make, thanks!
This recipe is delicious and so easy. Giving away tomorrow to my postal friends. Yum?
Excellent flavor and form for frosting my fav sugar cookies,
Can I use butter crisco?
Butter Flavor Crisco shortening performs the same as regular Crisco shortening, but will add a rich buttery flavor to the frosting, if that’s what you want.
Can you save frosting to use later?
Hi Lynn – All storage information is included in the article.
Can I omit the vegetable shortening and use 6 Tbsp butter and still get the same result? Thank you!
No, sorry. It needs the shortening for proper results.
Recipe taste good and I followed directions
Can you use unsweetened almond milk?
Great frosting recipe!! I am so glad I made it! Tastes delish!
I’ve been searching for a good sugar cooking frosting and my search is over – this recipe delivers the perfect texture and taste!
I was looking for an icing that had texture that looked like snow hanging from a tree. This icing was perfect for that. It formed a crust so the icing actually stayed in place. It tastes good too! Thanks for sharing.
This was perfect for our cookies I had to bake at the last minute. Definitely a keeper!
Wondering if I can use Tenderflake (Animal Shortening) instead of Vegetable shortening?
Hi Jason – I’m not familiar with that, so without further recipe testing I can’t say, sorry.
This is exactly what I’d been looking for! Thankyou
Perfect texture and taste, thank you!
I needed a cookie topping in a hurry. The set was perfect for arranging the cookie gift.
Delicious and SO easy! Love the flavor with both almond and vanilla extracts. It spread really easily on my sugar cookies, and everyone loved them!
I was just wondering if I could use Almond milk?
Perfect and easy
I love this recipe
I’ve made the cookies and I’ll wait awhile before I make the frosting. Once frosted, what are your recommendations for freezing?
This was great. Very easy to get your own desired consistency. Used it for Valentine’s Day cookies and will keep pinned for alllllllll the cookie decorating holidays!
Used this recipe to frost Valentine’s cookies for tomorrow (half pink, half red.) Love the texture and taste. I used whole milk and needed a scant 1/2 cup. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
This is a great recipe. Will definitely use again.
Easy, delicious and glad you mentioned that using 1% milk will make the frosting runny which it did so I had to add more sugar so it would stiffen a bit. Refrigerated cookies to set frosting as well.
Used this frosting for Santa cookies this year. Easy, perfect texture, and tasted great!
This seems like a great recipe for what I want to make. Plan to make sugar 7 dozen cookie for a gathering and use your icing. Will this icing hold well if I placed the cookies in an individual baggies with another cookie?
Also when I make it in advance, is it OK to just use right out of the refrigerator without rewhipping it? Is the texture different compared to rewhipping? Thank you in advance
Hi Irena – just to be clear, you’re commenting on our sugar cookie frosting recipe, not our sugar cookie icing. Just want to make sure I’m answering you correctly. I would not frost these and put them with another cookie. You don’t want other moisture to deflate the frosting. As for storage, there’s a section in the article where we mention that – after chilling, you’ll want to bring it to room temperature before using it, otherwise it will be too hard to spread or pipe. You can also fluff it back up by whipping it again with an electric mixer. Enjoy!
I’m sorry for the confusion, j just always call frosting icing and didn’t even think about the difference. Yes I meant this frosting recipe for sugar cookies. Would it be ok to put these in baggies by themselves? I was initially planning to bag them with a chocolate chip cookie. Thank you!
Yes, they can go in baggies alone. Keep in mind that the frosting does stiffen enough to form a crust, but it doesn’t harden like royal icing. So if you’re making a decorative piping of any sort, be careful transporting them.
Loved this recipe. Great alternative to a glaze. It did set up enough to stack, too. Thank you!
This recipe did NOT disappoint! Perfect for using cookie cutting shapes. Cookies are so yummy and hold their shape PERFECTLY!
GREAT recipe! Easy, it did harden enough to stack, and tasted wonderful. Don’t skip the almond extract!
Did you pipe a design and stack? I need to know if let’s say you pipe stars and stack the cookie isn’t going to smash the tips of the star?