4th of July Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Frosting
These festive cookies are the perfect treat for your next 4th of July party! You can’t beat soft sugar cookies made with simple ingredients and topped with homemade buttercream and patriotic sprinkles!
This is not only my favorite sugar cookie recipe but, quite possibly, my favorite overall cookie recipe! I received a great sugar cookie recipe from a friend several years ago, and I’ve made adjustments over the years to arrive at my own version, which you see here. Sugar cookies hold a special place in my heart because, without my annual Christmas cookie party, where I made all of the sugar cookies for many years, I wouldn’t have ended up starting Cedar Baking Company! Learn more about my story here.
Now, these wouldn’t be patriotic cookies or Fourth of July Cookies without some red, white, and blue sprinkles! You could also play around with red, white, and blue icing, but I kept it simple here and just used white buttercream frosting. For more red, white, and blue desserts, check out my 4th of July Confetti Cookies!
And when Memorial Day and Fourth of July have passed, easily convert these from patriotic sugar cookies to festive cookies for any other holiday or event! Just swap out the sprinkles for another color or the star cookie cutter for another shape!
Ingredients to Make 4th of July Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Frosting
- KAMUT® White Flour or other All-Purpose White Flour
- Baking Powder
- Fine Salt
- Unsalted Butter
- White Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Powdered Sugar
- Red, White, and Blue Sprinkles
Tools to Make 4th of July Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Frosting
- Baking Sheets
- Parchment Paper
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
- Medium Mixing Bowl
- Whisk or Dough Hook
- Stand Mixer fitted with the Paddle Attachment or Hand Mixer with a Large Bowl
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie Cutters
- Plastic Wrap
- Kitchen Scale
- Sieve or Fine Metal Mesh Strainer
- Piping Bag (optional)
- Piping Tip (optional)
All About Ingredients for 4th of July Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Frosting
Flour
I use KAMUT® White Flour for the vast majority of my recipes, and I love it because of its nutritional profile and taste, but I understand that it isn’t easy to find at your regular, local grocery store, so I write all of my recipes for all-purpose flour as well. Learn more about KAMUT® Brand Wheat here.
Butter
You’ll notice a lot of my cookie recipes call for cold butter, but it’s always worth mentioning that I only use cold butter when I’m using a high-powered bowl-lift stand mixer. I’ve almost broken my tilt-head mixer using cold butter, and I simply don’t think it would work with a hand mixer. I always write recipes with the option for room temperature, softened butter, so you don’t need any fancy equipment.
The reason why I love cold butter in cookies is that it can reduce or eliminate dough chill time and allow me to make cookies on a whim.
That being said, even if you use cold butter for the sugar cookie dough, you will still need to chill the dough, and you will still need softened butter for the buttercream frosting.
Sprinkles
These wouldn’t be the best 4th of July cookies if they weren’t red, white, and blue cookies, so you’ll need patriotic sprinkles for these cookies. You can find red, white, and blue sprinkle mixes in a lot of stores this time of year, or use separate jars of red, white, and blue. I even found some dye-free star-shaped sprinkles, but use whatever you like! The sprinkles and the fact that everyone’s will turn out a little bit different is what makes sugar cookies such fun treats!
Powdered Sugar
I highly recommend a kitchen scale for powdered sugar because, volume-wise, it measures so differently before and after being sifted. And sifting is vital, so you end up with smooth buttercream.
How to Make 4th of July Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Frosting
How to Make the Sugar Cookie Dough
Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside, then start with the dry ingredients. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
Cream together the butter and sugar until completely smooth. Add egg and mix until combined, then add vanilla extract and mix until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until the flour mixture is incorporated and a ball of dough starts to form and pull away from the sides of the bowl.
If you used room temperature butter or if you are making dough ahead of time, wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 45 minutes (or up to 3 days). Let it sit out until soft enough to roll out. If you used cold butter for the cookie dough, skip this step and move on to rolling out the dough.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Turn dough out onto a lightly-floured surface and roll out, evenly, until just under ¼” thick. Dip cookie cutters in flour and strategically place cookie cutters to use up as much of the dough as possible. Take the scraps, form into a new ball of dough, and roll out again. Repeat this process until you’ve used up as much of the dough as possible, and only a tiny bit of dough scraps remain. If you notice the dough warming up or losing some structure, place it back in the fridge for 15-20 minutes, then resume rolling out and cutting.
Place cut-out cookies at least an inch apart on each prepared cookie sheet and place the cookie sheet back into the fridge for 10 minutes before baking.
Bake cookies for 12-14 minutes or until the bottom edges are just starting to turn golden brown.
Transfer each baking sheet to a wire rack and let cookies cool completely. Letting cookies cool completely on the tray is one of my tips to achieve nice, chewy cookies.
How to Make the Buttercream Frosting
Weigh and sift powdered sugar and set aside. Place softened butter and approximately half of the weighed and sifted powdered sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a bowl if using a hand mixer. Mix until the powdered sugar is incorporated, and then add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
Add salt and vanilla and mix on low until incorporated, and then increase the mixer speed to medium-high and mix for 4-6 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Buttercream is ready when it reaches the desired consistency. Mixing for longer will result in a lighter, fluffier frosting, which will be easier to pipe.
Optional: Drop a piping tip into the bottom of a piping bag. Secure a piping tip at the end of a piping bag, then, using scissors, cut around the middle of the piping tip and pull off the plastic end. Hold the bag with your non-dominant hand or place the bag in a large drinking glass to fill with frosting. Twist the bag and use your top hand to squeeze the frosting and your bottom hand to steer where you’d like to pipe frosting.
You can also skip the piping bag and use an offset spatula to frost the cookies!
Tip: Add sprinkles right after you frost so they stick to the buttercream frosting before it sets.
4th of July Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
Sugar Cookie Dough:
- 1 ⅓ cup KAMUT® White Flour (or 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
Buttercream Frosting:
- ½ cup butter
- 7 oz powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla
Toppings:
- ½ cup red, white and blue sprinkles
Instructions
Sugar Cookie Dough:
- Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until completely smooth. Add egg and mix until combined, then add vanilla extract and mix until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until the flour mixture is incorporated and a ball of dough starts to form and pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- If you used room temperature butter or if you are making dough ahead of time, wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 45 minutes (or up to 3 days). Let it sit out until soft enough to roll out. *(see note)
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Turn dough out onto a lightly-floured surface and roll out, evenly, until just under ¼” thick.
- Dip cookie cutters in flour and strategically place cookie cutters to use up as much of the dough as possible. Take the scraps, form into a new ball of dough, and roll out again. Repeat this process until you’ve used up as much of the dough as possible, and only a tiny bit of dough scraps remain. If you notice the dough warming up or losing some structure, place it back in the fridge for 15-20 minutes, then resume rolling out and cutting.
- Place cut-out cookies at least an inch apart on each prepared cookie sheet and place the cookie sheet back into the fridge for 10 minutes before baking.
- Bake cookies for 12-14 minutes or until the bottom edges are just starting to turn golden brown.
- Transfer each baking sheet to a wire rack and let cookies cool completely.
Buttercream Frosting:
- Weigh and sift powdered sugar. Place softened butter and approximately half of the weighed and sifted powdered sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a bowl if using a hand mixer. Mix until the powdered sugar is incorporated, and then add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
- Add salt and vanilla and mix on low until incorporated, and then increase the mixer speed to medium-high and mix for 4-6 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Use an offset spatula or piping bag to frost cookies and add sprinkles right after frosting.
- Piping Bag: Drop a piping tip into the bottom of a piping bag. Secure a piping tip at the end of a piping bag, then, using scissors, cut around the middle of the piping tip and pull off the plastic end. Hold the bag with your non-dominant hand or place the bag in a large drinking glass to fill with frosting. Twist the bag and use your top hand to squeeze the frosting and your bottom hand to steer where you’d like to pipe frosting.
