These Soft Sugar Cookies are easy to make and great for birthdays and other special occasions. The sugar cookies are perfectly soft and have a delicious homemade icing on top. Decorate with any color sprinkles you like!
Love sugar cookies? Check out my Soft Maple Sugar Cookies and Soft Sprinkle Sugar Cookies recipes too!
These Soft Sugar Cookies With Icing And Sprinkles Are Perfect For Birthdays
When friends contact me for birthday requests, they usually ask for cupcakes. Big surprise right? 🙂 Occasionally they will branch out from the cupcakes and ask for a layered cake. But I have never been asked to make cookies. Seriously, never! Cookies say picnic or lunchbox, but they do not say Birthday. But being a good friend, I was committed to delivering what the birthday girl wanted.
So after much soul cookie searching, I decided on soft sugar cookies with icing…or as more often known Lofthouse Sugar Cookies. These cookies are scarily close to the store bought version. I can’t even begin to tell you how dangerous this will be for me, my jeans, and my sprinkle collection. Yes, I said sprinkle collection. A girl can never have too many sprinkles!
P.S. Boy was I wrong! Cookies can scream Birthday, or at least these cookies can!
Soft Sugar Cookies
These homemade sugar cookies are perfectly soft and have a delicious homemade icing on top. They're great for birthdays and special occasions because you can decorate with any color sprinkles you like!
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 6 cups flour, divided
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups light sour cream
Icing:
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 6 tablespoons heavy cream
- Sprinkles
Instructions
For the cookies:In a medium bowl, whisk 5 cups of flour, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time beating until each is incorporated. Add the vanilla and sour cream and beat at low speed until combined.
Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed. Dough needs to obtain the right consistency for rolling, so add additional flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until this is achieved (up to 1 cup more flour). Divide dough into two sections. Flatten into rectangles about 1 1/2 inches thick, then wrap with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator overnight.Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray, set aside.
Generously flour a work area and rolling pin. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out circles and transfer to a baking sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes, until pale golden. Immediately transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.
For the frosting:To make the frosting, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and vanilla. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar. Once smooth and creamy, add in heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time until the desired spreading consistency is achieved.
Once cookies have cooled completely, frost and add sprinkles. Allow frosting to set, then store in an air-tight container. Let cookies sit overnight before serving to allow the flavors to develop.
Notes
Recipe Note: Make sure and let these sit overnight!
Adapted from RecipeSecrets.net
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
24Serving Size:
2 cookiesAmount Per Serving: Calories: 435Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 216mgCarbohydrates: 60gFiber: 1gSugar: 35gProtein: 5g
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Just wanted to say these are my go to recipe for sugar cookies. Everyone loves them and I make them a few times a year. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
We made these cookies in October and my whole family loved them! The dough is a tad sticky but just dust your hands with some flour. Will definitely make again!
After reading your reviews on these cookies I’m not at all into wasting my time.
Most of the reviews are “pretty sprinkles”, “gonna try it soon!”.
Please has anyone made these?,tried them?.
I go by reviews of actually from people who have tried the recipes,not because they like the photos.
So hoorah!,for pretty sprinkles,let’s hear a shout out for how they actually worked out and tasted. That’s what I’d like to read about.
I’m sorry for any rubbing any shoulders,or being negative I’m just being honest about, why I’ll be moving on with my search for a cake like “suger cookie recipe”.
One more note ,if there are reviews from people who made these cookies,may I suggest putting or mixing those into the top ten to read first not “oh how pretty”.
Have these on my pinterest board. And they are very good! Made them a few times now and everyone enjoys them.
I have been looking forever for a recipe for
soft sugar cookies! THANK YOU. These are
SO GOOD!!
Is normal for the dough to be super sticky?? I added the additional 1 cup of flour however it was very stick, decided not to add anymore flour. Sitting in the fridge now, hopefully it will turn out good.
Do I store them in the fridge or on the counter to let the flavor develop?
I know that a lot of cookie recipes say they makes a bunch of cookies, such as 4 dozen cookies. Then, once you make them it only makes half (or less) the cookies the recipe says it makes.
Does this really make 4 dozen cookies?? How big are the cookies? Are they the same size as the original loftouse cookies, 2 inches? Does it make 4 dozen 2 inch cookies?
I’ve got my dough sitting in the fridge but was really hoping to bake them tonight. Does the dough have to sit in the fridge all night before I can bake them or can I just chill it for a couple hours and then bake them?
Thanks!
-Jess
Hi! They will still be tasty if you make them immediately, but they are best if you let the dough rest. The flour absorbs the moisture and it’s much better texture of the cookies similar to the store bought ones.
I made these cookies for Easter, they turned out wonderful. Easy peasy. I made lavender, pink and yellow with a hand mixer. Nice, soft and delish.
Recipe calls for 1 cup of butter 2 different times on the ingredients list. Was that a typo? Or should I be using 2 cups of butter to cream with the sugar?
1 cup of butter is for the frosting and 1 cup of butter is for the cookie batter/dough! 🙂
Hey, I don’t have heavy cream at the moment and I really want to make these. Do you have any substitutions on that?
I have made these cookies before, and they are amazing! My favorite soft sugar cookie that I’ve made. I’m about to make them right now, and realize that I don’t have sour cream…. Would plain greek yogurt make an okay substitute?
I’ve made these probably dozens of times now, I love them so much! I bring giant plates into work and they are gone in minutes. Most recently I added 1tsp of nutmeg to make christmas cookies. So good!!!
These look and sound amazing, yum!
xx Kelly
Sparkles and Shoes
Hey, to all of you who need a much stiffer icing. Make royal icing, it has meringue in it and it hardens up but is still edible. And for all of you who need a clear Vanilla for the icing and white cookie, use Wilton’s Clear vanilla, you can purchase it at Walmart and Michaels “in the cake decorating section”, I also use clear butter flavoring. But when you change flavorings make sure to keep the same measurements of liquid so not to change the wetness of the recipe. And real butter has salt in it unless it is stated on the package; this recipe doesn’t call for unsalted butter, so it is regular butter.