Soft Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Buttercream

Soft Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Buttercream – pillowy, soft baked sugar cookies topped with vanilla buttercream frosting.

These cookies are just like the ones you would buy at the grocery store…but waaaay better. They are super soft and pillowy and are topped with my delicious vanilla buttercream. I love topping my rolled, cut-out sugar cookies with buttercream so there was no question about doing the same here! 

Speaking of rolling, these cookies do not require any. I wanted these to be super easy and quick so no rolling or chilling is required! 

What you will need to make Soft Sugar Cookies

The Staples

Unsalted Butter

Granulated Sugar

All Purpose Flour

1 Egg

Baking Powder

Salt

Powdered Sugar

Heavy Cream

Vanilla Extract

Items you might not have on hand

Sour Cream – In cookies? Yes! I use sour cream in all of my cupcakes and cakes and figured why not try it in cookies too! It gives these sugar cookies their amazingly soft texture. Be sure to use full fat sour cream.

Almond Extract – This gives that distinct sugar cookies taste. If you don’t want to use almond extract or need to avoid for the sake of allergies, all vanilla extract will work fine in this recipe!

Food Colouring – For these Sugar Cookies, I used Seelect Tea’s natural food colour in orange. I used 1 teaspoon for the yellow colour and 2 teaspoons to get the darker orange. The fun thing about these cookies is that just by changing the colour of the frosting, you can make them perfect for any occasion. I love the yellow and orange for fall! 

How to Make Soft Sugar Cookies

In the bowl of your handheld or stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until light and fluffy.

Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract. Beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl so that all is combined. 

Next, add the sour cream and mix. Don’t worry if the mixture looks curdled!

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until the dough is all combined. 

Using a large cookie scoop (like this one) or the equivalent of 3 tablespoons of dough, roll balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Lightly flatten the cookies with the palm of your hand or the bottom of a glass. The dough will be quite sticky so you might need to grease your hand/glass.

I like making large cookies just like a classic soft sugar cookie, but if you choose to make them smaller be sure to adjust the baking time. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees F. The cookies should be a very light golden brown around the edges. 

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

How to Make the Vanilla Buttercream

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat your butter until it is well dispersed throughout the bowl.

On low speed, add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Add vanilla and heavy cream. Mix on high speed for a few minutes until the buttercream is light and fluffy.

To remove any air bubbles from your buttercream, mix on low speed for a minute or so. You can also do this by hand with a spatula by beating the buttercream against the side of the bowl.

Lastly, add in any food colouring until the desired colour is achieved. Seelect Tea sent me a couple of their natural food colours to try and I love how the Orange colour mixed in with my buttercream. I divided the buttercream in half and added 1 teaspoon of food colour to one half to get the yellow colour and 2 teaspoons to the other half to get the bright orange.

Seelect Tea’s food colours are all natural and get their colour from fruits, vegetables and plants. There is no fruity or vegetable taste and you can achieve some really nice, bright colours with them!

Along with their food colours, they also have a huge variety of flavoured syrups as well as some gluten-free baking products. Seelect Tea gave me a code to share with you! For 10% off your next Seelect Tea order, you can use the code KELSEY10. Valid until November 14th, 2020. 

Assembly

I know the classic soft sugar cookies you see at the grocery store are often frosted a little more simply and topped with sprinkles, but I wanted to fancy them up a bit! I used a Wilton Cakes tip 2D to pipe rosettes on my sugar cookies. However, spreading some buttercream on with a knife or offset spatula totally works too.

If you like this recipe, be sure to check out some of my other cookie recipes!

Red Velvet Cookie Sandwiches

Birthday Cake Cookie Sandwiches

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

The natural food colours from Seelect Tea would also be a great addition to my Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes as they contain no animal products.

Soft Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Buttercream

Recipe by Kelsey LacombeCourse: DessertDifficulty: Easy

Servings

16

large cookies

Prep time

30

minutes

Bake time

10

minutes

Pillowy soft sugar cookies topped with the best Vanilla Buttercream.

Ingredients

• Soft Sugar Cookies

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1 egg

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

• 1/3 cup full fat sour cream

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• Vanilla Buttercream

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled

• 3 cups powdered sugar

• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1-2 teaspoons food colour

Directions

• Soft Sugar Cookies
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In the bowl of your handheld or stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until light and fluffy.
• Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract. Beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl so all is combined.
• Next, add the sour cream and mix. Don’t worry if the mixture looks curdled!
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until the dough is all combined.
• Using a large cookie scoop or the equivalent of 3 tablespoons of dough, roll balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Lightly flatten the cookies with the palm of your hand or the bottom of a glass.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookies are done when they are a very light golden brown around the edges.
• Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring cookies to wire rack to cool completely.
• Vanilla Buttercream
• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat your butter until it is well dispersed throughout the bowl.
• On low speed, add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
• Add vanilla extract, almond extract and heavy cream. Mix on high speed for a few minutes until the buttercream is light and fluffy.
• To remove any air bubbles from your buttercream, mix on low speed for a minute or so. You can also do this by hand with a spatula by beating the buttercream against the side of the bowl.
• Lastly, add in any food colouring until desired colour is achieved. I used Seelect Tea’s natural food colour in orange. I divided my buttercream in half and added 1 teaspoon of food colour to one half to get the yellow colour and 2 teaspoons to the other half to get the bright orange. For more info on Seelect Tea’s natural food colours and a discount code, read above in the post!
• Assembly
• Frost cookies with buttercream however you like! To make mine a little fancier, I used a Wilton Cakes 2D tip to pipe rosettes.

This post contains affiliate links. To learn more, please read my privacy policy.