Bake & Decorate: The Ultimate Sugar Cookie Recipe 

Christmas is the season for baking cookies, and I just love it! There’s nothing better than a planned day in the kitchen with Christmas music, the heat of the oven, and the smell of freshly baked cookies just waiting to be transformed with some icing and candy embellishments. Today I want to share all my cookie decorating secrets, including the absolute best sugar cookie recipe. I’m also going to talk about how to choose and prepare your ingredients, the decorating supplies I love, and some other cookie recipes that I just cannot resist sharing. 

Let’s get started! 

Cookie baking and decorating has a long history in my family. One of my very favourite holiday traditions is spending the entire afternoon in the kitchen with my girls, baking and decorating cookies to eat later ourselves and share with their teachers and our friends and family.  It’s something we all look forward to every year!

If you want to start your own cookie baking and decorating traditions with your own family, now is a great time to start! And sugar cookie decorating is simple and fun, especially if you set yourself up for success with the right recipe.

How to Choose and Prep Your Ingredients for Sugar Cookies

My favourite sugar cookie recipe involves chilling the dough thoroughly and then rolling it out. For a recipe like this, you want to make sure you choose the right ingredients and prep them properly so that your dough is firm enough to stand up to rolling and cutting and sturdy enough to handle being decorated and transported without breaking. But you also want to make sure your cookies end up soft and delicious too! Here are my tips for choosing and prepping your ingredients. 

Flour

In case you’re thinking this is obvious, there are still things to consider with this most basic of baking building blocks! Here are my tips: 

• Stay away from whole wheat for this recipe. Some cookies and cakes can handle a mix of white and brown flour but sugar cookies are not one of them!
• DO NOT use cake flour. Some people might be tempted by this option because they think sugar cookies are delicate and therefore cake-like, but that’s a mistake! Sugar cookies are actually quite dense and cake flour will not hold them together the way you need it to.
• DO use all purpose flour! The higher protein content of this type of flour allows the cookies to hold their shape and works for decorating. 

Make sure you measure your all purpose flour carefully with the proper dry measuring cup. Too much or too little flour will affect the density of the sugar cookie dough and lead to dough that is either too dry or too runny to roll out properly. And, make sure you do not overmix to avoid the flour becoming tough and hard to work with. 

Sugar

The type of sugar you use matters just as much as the flour! 

• DO NOT use icing sugar. You might be tempted to do this because of the delicate nature of the dough, but it will not give you the right consistency, and your dough will not roll out properly or hold its shape later.
• DO use granulated sugar. This type of sugar combines perfectly with the butter during creaming and gives you a firm cookie with a bit of crispness. The perfect texture!
• Make sure you beat the sugar into the butter properly before adding other ingredients! This process is essential to the perfect sugar cookie makeup. Don’t skip it. 

Butter

Salted or unsalted: the eternal baking question. For sugar cookies, I recommend unsalted butter. This allows you to control the salt flavor more tightly since salt is an added ingredient. We all know what too much salt tastes like, and the answer is not great! 

The other really important thing to remember with the butter is that you want it to be soft when you mix it. I recommend taking it out of the fridge about an hour before you bake and making sure it sits at a reasonable room temperature during that time. This is something that just cannot be rushed, so don’t plan to put your cold, hard butter in the microwave right before you mix your cookies. Your butter needs to be soft but not melted, which is what will happen if you don’t let it sit and thaw naturally. 

Eggs

I use large eggs in my recipe. And this might surprise you, but egg temperature matters too! Make sure your eggs are at room temperature before cracking them into your dough. This means letting them sit outside your fridge for about 30 minutes before you need them. 

Other Ingredients 

There are just a few more ingredients that are essential to the perfect sugar cookie!

• Baking powder: I like this instead of baking soda for sugar cookies because of the slight and even lift it provides. Make sure your baking powder package is no older than 6-12 months for top performance.
• Salt: either fine sea salt or table salt will work for this recipe. Avoid coarse salt.
• Vanilla extract: This is the classic sugar cookie taste in a bottle! If you are feeling adventurous you could add almond extract, lemon zest, or even a pinch of cinnamon for your own personal twist. Some people even like adding a touch of maple! I prefer to use real vanilla as opposed to imitation, which can add an artificial aftertaste to your finished cookies. 

Time to Decorate

Now that we have discussed the ingredients for the perfect cookie, let’s talk about ingredients for the perfect decorated results! 

Icing  

For icing, you have three options:

• Royal icing: This is perfect for intricate designs and for transporting. It dries hard and smooth, which makes cookies easy to stack and package as gifts. 
• Butter cream: This type of icing is soft and spreadable, which makes it easy for kids to use! But keep in mind that it won’t harden completely. 
• Glaze: This is the easiest way to ice your cookies! Perfect for simple, solid-colour cookies. It dries hard and shiny. 

Other than the egg whites in the royal icing, these types of frosting all have the same ingredient list and are easy to put together. (I suggest you do some research and choose a royal icing recipe that you like. Everyone does this a little bit differently.) It’s up to you what kind of cookie decorating experience you want! 

Don’t forget that if you don’t love the classic white icing, you can use gel food coloring to get whatever colors you want! I would recommend these over the liquid drop version, since there are more color options and they turn out a bit deeper and closer to the package description.

Toppings

Once you’ve chosen a sugar cookie icing, it’s time for the really fun part: the candy toppings! The sky is really the limit but here are some ideas to get you started:

• Classic sprinkles 
• Crushed peppermint
• Mini M&Ms in Christmas colours
• Chocolate drizzle
• Gumdrops or other miniature soft candies

You get the idea! Talk to your kids about what they would like to do and make a plan for beautiful, personalized cookies that only you and your family can create. 

The Best Sugar Cookie Recipe for Decorating 

Now that you’ve gathered your ingredients (at the right temperature!) and made a plan for your decorating style, get out your stand mixer and its bowl, your rolling pin, and your cooling rack. It’s time to bake! Here’s my easy sugar cookie recipe that I know you will enjoy:

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup softened butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions

1. Cream the butter and granulated sugar.
2. Add your baking powder and salt.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
4. Add the flour and do not overmix.
5. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
6. Roll the dough out to about 1/4″ thickness & cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.
7. Take the scraps and squish them together and re-roll them so you don’t waste any dough!
8. Put the cookies on a baking sheet (metal or silicone both work great) and bake for about 7 minutes at 350 degrees F until they are just slightly golden on the edges.
9. Cool completely & decorate your Christmas cookies as desired!

That last step is very, very important. If you do not wait until your cookies are completely cooled before you start icing them, the icing will melt and you will not get the effect you want! A little bit of patience is key. While you wait, you could always maximize your time and bake another one of my easy Christmas cookie recipes!  

If you don’t have time to decorate them right away, no problem! Once they are cooled, you can put them in an airtight container and stick them in the freezer, ready to take out and thaw when you have the time. Keep in mind that sugar cookies go stale quite quickly, so if you make a lot at once  you might want to freeze some anyway and take them out in small batches for decorating and eating (or gifting!)

Download my Free Printable Sugar Cookie Recipe Card

If you love gifting homemade treats, you’ll adore this printable sugar cookie recipe card! I designed it to pair perfectly with a simple baking-themed present: think tea towels, cookie cutters, wooden spoons, or a cute spatula set. It’s an easy, affordable gift for teachers, neighbours, co-workers, or anyone who deserves something homemade and heartfelt.

Right-click the image below to save your free printable recipe card to your computer:

Just print it on cardstock, tuck it into a gift bundle, and you’ve got the sweetest cozy gift ready for the holidays.

Packing your cookies for sharing

Once they are cooled and decorated, these cookies make a really excellent gift for neighbours, teachers, and friends, and they will be a hit at your potluck Christmas party too! I recommend boxing them up in pretty tins from the dollar store or a pretty Christmas-themed gift box. Use parchment paper between the layers of cookies if you are putting together a large gift.

And that’s it! The perfect sugar cookie recipe and all the information you need to make your decorating session a success.  I hope you enjoy making this recipe as much as my family does (and I hope you get a chance to try out a few more of our favourites too). If you have a different favourite Christmas cookie recipe that you love, please let me know in the comments below. I always like to try new cookie recipes, and I love it when we learn from each other! 

Happy baking and Merry Christmas!

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