Just like classic vanilla buttercream frosting you love on cakes and cupcakes, this 5-ingredient cookie decorating buttercream is deliciously creamy and sweet. It’s perfect for cookie decorating beginners, and soft-sets after a few hours. You can pipe designs onto cut-out cookies, like sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies, or simply spread it on and top with sprinkles! See video tutorial in the recipe for inspiration.
One reader, Maliaka, commented: “Sally’s buttercream is always a favorite and her sugar cookies are SO good! I wouldn’t have thought of putting them together… it works, though! I love that buttercream is easy, requires no unique ingredients, and opens up the possibility of piping with different tips! โ โ โ โ โ “
Another reader, Meredith, commented: “I love this icing! The flavor is rich and well-balanced, and it sets just enough to be able to stack the cookies without problem. The only issue is getting the icing onto the cookies before my kids eat them all! We made it with Sally’s sugar cookies and they are a family favorite! โ โ โ โ โ “
While royal icing is my first choice when it comes to decorating sugar cookies, I know it’s not everyone’s favorite cookie icing to work with. Which is why I developed this easy cookie icing, a wonderful glaze-like alternative. But sometimes you just don’t want to mess with either!
It’s good to have options.
If you want a creamy buttercream frosting, that holds its piped shape and can be tinted any color you wish, then this cookie decorating buttercream is for you. And it tastes SO delicious on top of a cookie!
This Cookie Decorating Buttercream:
- Is quick and easy to make
- Can be tinted any color with gel food coloring (here is my favorite brand)
- Is sweet and creamy and flavored with real vanilla
- Can be piped into designs with different piping tips or simply spread onto cookies
- Is wonderful on top of so many types/flavors of cookies
- Soft-sets after a few hours
The cookies you see here are my classic sugar cookies. They have an irresistible buttery vanilla flavor and soft, thick centers. Plus, they hold their shape when baking and have a flat surface that’s perfect for decorating.
But feel free to use this cookie decorating buttercream on another flavor of cut-out cookies, like:
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Brown Sugar Cut-Out Cookies
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- Raspberry Sugar Sookies
- Pecan Sugar Cookies
- Cream Cheese Cut-Out Cookies
Or simply spread it on top of another kind of cookie, like we do on these soft and cakey sugar cookies.
Grab These 5 Ingredients:
- Butter: You can’t make buttercream without butter! Though salted is fine, I recommend using unsalted butter so you can control the added salt. Whichever you use, make sure you are using proper room-temperature butter.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: Sweetens vanilla buttercream and adds stability and pipe-ability to the frosting.
- Heavy Cream: A little cream smooths out the frosting. Though whole milk or half-and-half are perfectly acceptable, use heavy cream for maximum richness. I use less in today’s buttercream than in my regular vanilla buttercream, to keep it thicker.
- Vanilla Extract: Because this is the main flavor in the frosting, I strongly recommend using high-quality pure vanilla extract (not imitation vanilla). You could also use homemade vanilla extract.
- Salt: Just a pinch, to balance the sweet.
How to Make It
American-style buttercream is quick and easy.
Make sure your butter is softened to room temperature before beginning. Use a hand or stand mixer to beat it until smooth and creamy. Beat in the remaining ingredients. At this point, you can add more confectioners’ sugar to thicken, a splash of heavy cream to thin out, or a bit more salt if desired. That’s it!
I have the full written-out, printable recipe below.
How to Rid Buttercream of Air Bubbles
Over-whipping buttercream creates air bubbles. The taste is no different, but the buttercream is no longer smooth and velvet-y. Here’s how to get rid of air bubbles in your frosting:
Turn off the mixer and grab a wooden or metal spoon or silicone spatula and begin stirring the buttercream by hand. Mash the frosting up against the sides of the bowl to “pop” the bubbles. Do this until most of the air bubbles deflate, about 1โ2 minutes. This trick requires a lot of arm muscle!
Tint the Frosting and Fill Piping Bags
You can keep the buttercream white or tint it with gel food coloring. To color it, divide it into small bowls. Add gel food coloring to each bowl and mix well. For lighter tints, I recommend using the tip of a toothpick to add color, rather than squeezing a whole drop into the bowl of frosting.
Grab a piping bag for each color of icing. Fit each with a coupler and piping tip. When I’m using multiple colors with the same piping tip, I always use couplers.
What are couplers? Couplers are 2-piece devices that attach to small piping tips, and keep them OUTSIDE of the piping bag. This makes it easy to swap piping tips among the different colored bags of icing.
Fill the piping bag: Spoon the buttercream into the piping bag, making sure to leave a few inches of space at the top of the bag. A tall cup makes this easier! Place the piping bag inside, with the tip near the bottom of the cup, and fold the end of the bag over the sides of the cup, then fill with frosting. You can see me doing this in the video below.
While not absolutely necessary, I use these clips to secure the end of the piping bag, so the frosting doesn’t leak out the end of the bag.
Piping Tips I Use to Decorate Cookies With Buttercream
This cookie decorating buttercream holds shape beautifully and works for intricate designs. To decorate the sugar cookies you see pictured today, team members Allison and Stephanie and I used piping tips from this exact Wilton 55-Piece Piping Tips Set.
- Pink & green frostings (on stockings & snowmen): Wilton Piping Tip 10 (round tip)
- Green frosting (on trees): Wilton Piping Tip 21 (open star tip)
- White frosting (on snowflakes & log cabins): Wilton Piping Tip 16 (open star tip)
- Red & green frostings (cable-knit mittens): Wilton Piping Tip 16 (open star tip)
- Brown frosting (on log cabins): Wilton Piping Tip 44 (basketweave tip, included in this set); note that you can also use chocolate buttercream for brown-colored frosting
- Pink, green, white, red, and brown frostings (smaller round piping on trees, snowmen, and log cabins): Wilton Piping Tip 8 (round tip, included in this set)
Again, you can get all of these tips in a handy Piping Tips Set, which also includes the piping tips I use to decorate cookies with royal icing.
You can pipe zig-zags, swirls, lines, or whatever your heart desires! See video tutorial below for inspiration. We used white balls from these sprinkles for tree “ornaments” and coarse sugar on the “snow.”
If you want to skip piping bags and tips, use a knife or icing spatula to frost the cookies.
It doesn’t fully crust, but it does “soft set,” which means it sets enough to be dry on top. You’ll still have to be a bit careful stacking the decorated cookies. To make a crusting buttercream, replace half of the butter (1/2 cup) with shortening.
Yes, absolutely! Reduce the vanilla extract to just 1/2 teaspoon, and then you can use another extract such as peppermint, coconut, lemon, maple, or almond. I would start with only 1/2 teaspoon of any of these, taste, and then beat in more if desired.
Depending how much frosting you put on each cookie, this buttercream is enough for at least 24 to 30 cookies.
Yes, you can use this buttercream to decorate a gingerbread house. See my gingerbread house recipe. The recipe below doesn’t crust as much as the buttercream recipe I include in the gingerbread house recipe, as that one contains shortening (which aids in crusting). Today’s buttercream is not ideal as a “glue” for the gingerbread house pieces. For that, you’ll need royal icing.
More Decorating Tutorials
Want to learn how to decorate cupcakes? Watch my how to use piping tips video to learn 5 basic but beautiful ways to pipe frosting onto cupcakes.
Want to give royal icing a try next? Here’s my how to decorate sugar cookies with royal icing video.
And these are my top recommended cookie decorating supplies.
Print
Cookie Decorating Buttercream
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 2.5 cups (at least 24-30 cookies)
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Mixing
- Cuisine: American
Description
Just like classic vanilla buttercream frosting you love on cakes and cupcakes, this 5-ingredient cookie decorating buttercream is deliciously creamy and sweet. It’s perfect for cookie decorating beginners, and soft-sets on the cookies after a few hours. You can pipe designs onto cut-out cookies, like sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies, or simply spread it on with a knife and top with sprinkles! See video tutorial in the recipe for inspiration.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 batch sugar cookies, baked & cooled completely
Buttercream
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups (480g) confectioners’ sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) heavy cream, half-and-half, or whole milk, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- optional: gel food coloring, for tinting
Instructions
- Have your cookies baked and cooled completely. You can use this recipe, or your favorite recipe for cookies.ย
- Make the buttercream: With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and salt. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to medium-high speed and beat for 2 full minutes. Taste. To thicken the buttercream, beat in more confectioners’ sugar. To thin out the buttercream, beat in more heavy cream. To help offset more sweetness, beat in an extra pinch of salt.
- Color the icing: If youโd like to tint the frosting, divide it into separate bowls for each color, or tint the entire batch one color. A little gel food coloring goes a long way, so use a toothpick to dot the gel into the icing. Stir it in, and then add more to deepen the color if desired.ย
- Use piping tips or knife/icing spatula: You can use aย knife or icing spatula to frost the cookies. Or, if using piping tips, fit a piping/pastry bag with a piping tip (and use a coupler if you plan to switch frosting colors and/or piping tips). Spoon the buttercream into the bag, making sure to leave a few inches of space at the top of the bag. Twist the end of the bag or use a clip to seal it shut. You can pipe zig-zags, swirls, lines, dots, or whatever your heart desires! See video tutorial below for some inspiration.
- Cover and store decorated cookies at room temperature for 1 day, or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Frosting “soft-sets” on the cookies after a few hours, meaning it will slightly dry on top.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then beat the frosting on medium speed for a few seconds so itโs creamy again. After thawing or refrigerating, beating in a splash of room temperature heavy cream or milk will help thin the frosting out again, if needed. You can freeze cookies frosted with this buttercream for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheldย orย Stand Mixer) | Silicone Spatula |ย Gel Food Coloringย |ย Disposableย orย Reusable Piping Bags | Couplers | Wilton 55-Piece Piping Tips Set | Bag Clips | Small Icing Spatula | White Sprinkles | Coarse Sugar Sprinkles
- Quantity: Depending how much frosting you put on each cookie, this buttercream is enough for at least 24 to 30 cookies.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: If your confectioners’ sugar is particularly lumpy, I recommend sifting it before measuring and using.
- Heavy Cream: You can use half-and-half or whole milk instead if needed. The lower the fat, the less creamy your buttercream will be. Whichever you use, make sure it’s at room temperature. Otherwise your frosting could separate or appear grainy.
- Does This Buttercream Crust? It doesn’t fully crust, but it does “soft set,” which means it sets enough to be dry on top. You’ll still have to be a bit careful stacking the decorated cookies. To make a crusting buttercream, replace half of the butter (1/2 cup/8 Tbsp/113g) with shortening.
- Can I Flavor the Buttercream with Other Extracts? Yes, absolutely! Reduce the vanilla extract to just 1/2 teaspoon, and then you can use another extract such as peppermint, coconut, lemon, maple, or almond. I would start with only 1/2 teaspoon of any of these, taste, and then beat in more if desired.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Can I use anything besides shortening to replace the butter? Also can I use this recipe as royal icing, bordering and filling like Sally showed in her video on royal icing, or is it too thick?
Hi Jane, you could replace some (not all) of the butter with shortening. Unfortunately there are no other substitutes for the butter here. It’s too thick to pipe like royal icing.
Also, will using skim milk instead of whole milk make a difference?
Can you please show which tips make which designs? Thanks
Hi Jane, the frosting may not be quite as creamy with skim milk. See post for all the details about piping tips and designs.
Can you make this frosting ahead of time (thinking day before)? If so, refrigerate?
Hi Jennifer, yes, you can make 1 day ahead of time and refrigerate. Beat in a splash of room temperature heavy cream or milk to help thin the frosting out again, if needed.
Could you spread instead of pipe this icing? I’d like to use with a 5 year old.
Hi Deb, yes, you definitely can! Have fun!
Hi Sally,
Will the buttercream work in a condiment squeeze bottle?
Hi Sara, this buttercream is too thick for a squeeze bottle. Piping bags and tips are best for this buttercream. This easy glaze icing works for squeeze bottle cookie decorating, though!
Does the frosting turn hard for my sugar cookies?
Hi Kim! It doesnโt fully crust, but it does โsoft set,โ which means it sets enough to be dry on top. Youโll still have to be a bit careful stacking the decorated cookies. To make a crusting buttercream, replace half of the butter (1/2 cup) with shortening.
Points off for specifying milliliters instead of grams for the cream: Sally, why do you do this for liquid measurements? Doing so makes no sense: a milliliter is a unit of volume, not weight, so specifying “2 Tablespoons (30ml) heavy cream” is just giving two volume measurements, one of which is impossible to measure accurately as 30 milliliters is not a measurement that is readily available in a spoon or a cup in the US, not sure about elsewhere. (Pyrex measuring cups do offer milliliter lines, but the common ones measure 50 milliliters as the smallest amount.) Please note that, unlike with water, 30 milliliters of heavy cream is not equal to 30 grams of heavy cream — 30 milliliters of heavy cream would weigh less than 30 grams, as it is lighter than water.
I like to use weight measurements because I can tare the bowl on a scale and add the ingredient right into the bowl. It is easy, accurate, and requires fewer utensils that have to be washed. Specifying liquids in milliliters rather than grams is an annoying obstacle to accurate, efficient baking.
P.S. Sally, I think I saw that you are collaborating with Bake from Scratch? Their recipes always specify grams for liquids, never milliliters.
Hi Sara, thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback. Youโre absolutely right that milliliters measure volume, not weight. In my recipes, the milliliter measurement is simply meant to mirror the volume measurement (tablespoons/cups) for readers who are accustomed to metric volume. It isnโt intended to replace or stand in for a weight measurement. I completely understand your preference for weighing liquids in grams; itโs extremely accurate and I also love the ease of taring a bowl and adding ingredients directly. It’s something we are going back and adding to all of our recipes. I always welcome feedback like this, and Iโm continually looking for ways to make my recipes as clear and helpful as possible for all bakers.
Can I store this buttercream at room temperature overnight? I need it for next day to decorate cookies with children at church.
Hi Sally, we recommend storing in the fridge if possible.
Hi Sally – do you have a video that shows how you did the piping on the knit gloves? Just adorbs!! Thx
Hi Krista! We don’t have a video of that, but what you do is pipe X’s overlapping as you move down with Wilton Piping Tip 16 (open star tip). Hope this helps!
Sally,
I need to make my gingerbread cookies, (your recipe), ahead of the day I serve them. I want to use this butter cream recipe but I was looking to see if after the frosting is piped on, if I can freeze them ahead of the party day?
Hi Phyllis, yes, you can freeze cookies with this frosting. Enjoy!
Looking for opinions of seasoned bakers. First, donโt judge me, I would use butter always and forever in anything I was baking to eat or sell. BUT I teach culinary arts to 160 high school students and budgets are what they are, so what are the repercussions/considerations for subbing butter flavored shortening (again, I would never do this in any other situation, I know what shortening is made of) in this sugar cookie recipe (and Sallyโs buttercream recipeโฆ and her gingerbread recipe, frankly) Sallyโs recipes get me through the holiday season every year! Are there adjustments to make to the flour/liquid ratio or special considerations for mixing or handling the dough? Freeze/refrigerate the shortening? A tired teacher thanks you for the help!
Hi Morgan! We wish we could be of more help here, but we don’t recommend swapping butter with shortening in our cookie recipes. The chemical makeup is different and will cause the cookies to spread more than intended. Using all shortening in frosting recipes will likely yield a very greasy frosting. If you do decide to do any experimenting, please do let us know how it goes!
How, with the piping bags and tips, the ยจscrew on thingยจ that helps the tip stay, how do you put that on?
Hi Abigail, if you search online for “how to use a coupler” you will find some helpful video tutorials and posts with photos that will walk you through it. Hope this helps!
Hi, Dear Sally! Thank you for this recipe and the sugar cookie recipe! I used both to make American Flag cookies for Veteranโs Day- I still have improvements to make on my piping, but the cookie and frosting were very well received! I just purchased your Baking 101 book and look forward to trying more of your recipes! Bonus Thank you for offering it as spiral bound!!!!
I just made the sugar cookie recipe and iced with butter cream icing! I did use organic coconut sugar 1:1 ratio. This recipe is delicious all by itself! The butter cream icing is also very good! We iced with knives not piping bags but will next time. So Good!
Any idea in how to make it Nutella? or peanut butter flavor?
Hi Valeria! You could pipe our Nutella frosting or peanut butter frosting recipes on cookies – yum!
I have a recipe that is similar and very old. One stick of butter is melted and cooled a bit. To cut the sweetness, a few tablespoons of hot, strong coffee is used. I always add a few tablespoons of hot milk. If the icing becomes too stiff while decorating the cookies, I simply add a teaspoon or two of hot milk.
Just found your site and although I’ve yet to make any of your cookies, I’m quite impressed by the professional way you have written your recipes. I look forward to making your sugar cookies.
Can I make the buttercream ahead of time and refrigerate?
Hi Tara, yes, you can make ahead and store in the refrigerator for just a few days. After refrigerating, beating in a splash of room temperature heavy cream or milk will help thin the frosting out again, if needed.
If we half the ingredients will it be okay?
I only want to ice 3-4 cookies, but canโt figure out what the measurements for that would be. Help, please!
Hi Molly, You should be able to halve all of the ingredients with no issues! Enjoy.
Does this work in squeeze bottles so kids can easily decorate, or would it be too thick? Thank you!
Hi Vivi, it’s a bit too thick to use with squeeze bottles. Piping bags and tips are best!
Thank you so much!
I would like to be able to stack these in cookie boxes for gifting. Replacing half of the butter with shortening sounds like an awful lot of shortening. If I replace a portion of the butter but not quite half, will they hold up to stacking?
Hi Stacey! We find that version to be the most sturdy, but you can try replacing less of the butter.
I followed the recipe but my frosting came out liquidy- I tried adding more confectioners sugar but it didn’t change anything. What could I have done wrong?
Hi Gaby, was the heavy cream/milk over measured by chance? Or was your butter a bit too warm? The frosting should be quite thick. Adding more confectioners’ sugar should help thicken it up, or it may be best to start over with a fresh batch.
This frosting is super delicious. I made Sallyโs Soft Cakey Sugar cookies and used this frosting to top them. My kids enjoyed decorating their cookies with this frosting and some sprinkles.
This was an easy, yummy recipe, but a little too sweet for my liking.
This was yummy, but a little too sweet for my liking. It was very easy to make.
This recipe worked really well! I definitely prefer buttercream over royal icing so this recipe was helpful for getting that cookie decorating consistency without the royal icing taste and texture. Also toddler approved because he literally was shoveling spoonful’s of it into his mouth. Can’t blame him haha.
This was a yummy, easy recipe, but itโs a little too sweet for my liking.
Perfect alternative to royal icing!
This was a very easy to work with frosting! I added a bit more cream because mine was too thick at first but afterward it decorated like a dream. I used it on top of the gingerbread cookies and I think I will add orange flavoring instead of vanilla next time.
Super easy and so much fun!