Easter Decorated Sugar Cookies are so cute
These Easter decorated sugar cookies are a great place to start practicing, or to perfect, your piping skills. You can make the cookies as simple or elaborate as you like. Once you’ve got the technique, adapt it to any holiday or occasion.
Disclosure: I was financially compensated to create the recipe for this post and I received a product sample for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.
I have included a good sugar cookie recipe in this post, but mostly I’m focusing on decorating Easter cookies today.
I’m really excited about this post because I got to use my decorating skills again. For 10 years I made and decorated custom cakes and spent many an hour with a piping bag in my hand in front of a multi-tier cake.
Since I mostly bake for the blog these days, it was fun to get into detailed piping work again. You can see some of my cake creations on this Facebook page.
Decorated sugar cookies are a great place to start practicing, or to perfect, your piping skills. You can make the cookies as simple or elaborate as you like for any occasion. I used an egg cookie cutter to make Easter decorated cookies.
Just for fun, check out the work of Marta Torres who makes some truly mind-blowing decorated cookies that are absolutely works of art.
Now back to my “not bad” cookies…
Scroll through the step by step photos the process for making Easter Sugar Cookies:
I made Easter egg cookies using a simple oval cookie cutter. Of course you can use the same recipe to make cookies for any occasion, using whichever cookie cutter you’d like. The exact number of cookies will vary based on the shape and size of the cookie cutter you use. You can also use this dough to make sandwich cookies or even to line a tart shell.
Whichever shape and design you’re making, the process for decorating is the same. Use a slightly thicker royal icing (the proportions in the recipe) for outlining the design.
You’ll need to thin out the icing (I added just a few drops of water) for “flooding” the cookie. I also used the thicker icing for piping the design details.
If you love these cookies as much as I do, please consider leaving a 5 star review.
Decorated Easter Egg Cookies
Ingredients
Sugar Cookie Dough
- 4 oz unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 5 oz confectioner sugar (1 ¼ cups)
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 large egg (room temperature)
- 7 ½ oz all-purpose flour (1 ½ cups, see note)
Royal Icing
- 3 oz pasteurized egg whites (⅓ cup)
- 16 oz confectioner sugar (4 cups)
Instructions
Make the Dough
- Cream 4 oz unsalted butter with 5 oz confectioner sugar, ¼ teaspoon table salt, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract and ½ teaspoon lemon extract on low speed until softened and well combined. Increase the speed to medium high and mix for 1 minute to slightly aerate (see note 1). Scrape the bowl and the beater. With the mixer running on medium-low, add 1 large egg and mix until incorporated. Add 7 ½ oz all-purpose flour all at once and mix just until combined.
- Dump the dough on to a floured surface and knead until all the flour is incorporated. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to several days.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Line 2 half sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to ⅛" thick. Cut the desired shapes and set the cookies onto the prepared pans.
- Re-roll and cut the scraps until all the dough is used up (See note 2). Bake until the edges are just beginning to brown and the dough is set. Cool on a wire rack before decorating.
Make the Royal Icing
- Combine 3 oz pasteurized egg whites and half of the sugar in a mixing bowl. Beat (not whisk) on low speed until there are no lumps of sugar. With the mixer running, add the remaining sugar and mix until combined. Scrape the bowl.
- Increase the speed to medium high and beat until the mixture is aerated and becomes whiter, 2 minutes (see note 3). Color as desired with paste color.
- Pipe outline on each cookie, let the outline set, then flood with thin icing to fill in the shape. Pipe decorative details.
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Notes
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The cookies are absolutely delicious but the frosting was a challenge. The end result was a delicious cookie that looked ridiculous. I definitely need to amp up my decorating skills. Also, the next time I will purchase the pasteurized egg whites instead of using my own. All in all this was a bit out of my league but it did stretch me.
Do you mean the making of the frosting, or the decorating part? That type of piping does take some practice.
Love these!!!
Im curious as to how to add the sugar in to the frosting if you use food color drops. Should i beat it in? Or can i just sprinkle some in and mix it ? Will that make the sugar all crystal like inside the mixed already icing?
Thank you!
These cookies are so cute! I always admire beautifully decorated cookies but don’t imagine I have enough patience to make these myself :D, plus I’d probably eat them all before I even start decorating…
The nice thing is that they can be as simple or fancy as you like. Thanks for reading, Trang.
Hi Eileen, those are the most beautiful, adorable, “oh, I don’t want to eat them” cookies I have ever seen! I am going to make them and then slab the icing on them. Amazing! You are an artist!
Thanks, Mary Ellen! They taste good no matter how they’re decorated. My favorite way to eat them is to skip the icing and sandwich them with raspberry preserves. Let them sit for a few hours to meld with the jam. Yum!
Gorgeous cookies Eileen, you are a great baker.
Awww, thanks Cheri. It’s just many years of experience.