These sugar cookie frosting recipes will turn even the most basic Christmas cookies into bakery-worthy treats for your goodie trays, holiday parties, and gifting.
This collection includes 12 easy Christmas cookie frosting recipes, from glossy cookie icing and classic buttercream to rich chocolate, cream cheese, maple, lemon, almond, warm cinnamon, classic royal icing and even rainbow-swirled frosting!
My favorite part of baking Christmas cookies is decorating them. Preferably with a Christmas movie playing in the background. For a long time, I used to buy my frosting. Once I started making it myself, I realized just how easy it is and how much better it tastes. But listen, I'm no professional, so the only sugar cookie frosting recipes I'm going to use have to be easy to make and easy to work with.
So I'm sharing my favorite frosting recipes, with some pictures of how I decorate my Christmas cookies, and a few of my blogger friends' recipes, too.
🔑Which Frosting is Best for Sugar Cookies?
Some frostings dry firm enough to stack, some are soft enough to pipe pretty swirls, and some are made for outlining and flooding. To make it easy to find the right one, look for these symbols in the recipes below:
- 💪 Stackable
- 🌀 Pipes swirls
- 🎨 Outline & flood
- ❄️ Keep refrigerated
12 Christmas Cookie Frosting Recipes
Buttercream Frosting for Cookies That Hardens
This fluffy buttercream frosting for cookies spreads and pipes easily, and it dries firm enough to stack without smudging. It’s my favorite for frosted cut out Christmas cookies that look like they came from a bakery.
💪 Stackable · 🌀 Pipes swirls
Cookie Icing That Hardens
I used to buy tubes of colored cookie icing until I realized how easy it is to make at home, and it tastes better too! This simple sugar cookie icing stirs together in minutes with powdered sugar, corn syrup, milk, and a little almond extract. It dries to a pretty, glossy finish that’s firm enough to stack, but it’s softer to bite than royal icing.
💪 Stackable · 🎨 Outline & flood
Chocolate Cookie Icing That Hardens
This rich chocolate cookie icing gets its deep flavor from cocoa powder and a shiny finish from a little corn syrup. It dries firm enough to stack but stays soft to bite. I pipe or spread it on my chocolate cut out cookies and add sprinkles before it sets, or swirl it with white icing for an easy design.
💪 Stackable · 🎨 Outline & flood
Lemon Cream Cheese Icing
I didn’t think I could love cream cheese frosting any more until I added lemon. Fresh lemon juice and zest make this lemon cream cheese frosting bright and tangy, and the tartness balances the sweetness. It’s soft and fluffy, and great on cookies and cupcakes.
🌀 Pipes swirls · ❄️ Keep refrigerated
Maple Icing
This cozy maple icing takes about 2 minutes to make with powdered sugar, real maple syrup, melted butter, and an optional pinch of cinnamon. Drizzle it over brown sugar cookies, gingerbread, or sugar cookies, and let it set for a few hours until firm.
💪 Stackable
Almond Buttercream Frosting
Almond buttercream frosting is fluffy, buttery, and not too sweet, with a light almond flavor (plus an optional pinch of cinnamon that’s soooo good). It’s easy to pipe into pretty swirls.
🌀 Pipes swirls
Cream Cheese Frosting for Cookies
Cream cheese frosting is my all-time favorite, and its tangy flavor is so good with red velvet, chocolate, and simple sugar cookies. This 5-ingredient recipe holds its shape for piping pretty swirls.
🌀 Pipes swirls · ❄️ Keep refrigerated
Gingerbread Cookie Frosting (2 Ingredients)
My go-to gingerbread cookie frosting is just powdered sugar and milk. It’s thick enough for outlining and details, and you can thin it with a few drops of milk for flooding. Let it dry for several hours, and it’s firm enough to stack.
💪 Stackable · 🎨 Outline & flood
Royal Icing Recipe
Royal icing is the classic choice for detailed cookie decorating! Made with just meringue powder, powdered sugar, and warm water, it’s perfect for intricate designs that turn your cookies into little works of art. Tint with your favorite gel food colors for the most vibrant hues.
💪 Stackable · 🎨 Outline & flood
Cinnamon Buttercream
This smooth, creamy cinnamon buttercream adds warm flavor to sugar cookies. It’s a cozy change from vanilla frosting and also works on cupcakes and small cakes.
🌀 Pipes swirls
How to Make Buttercream Rainbow Frosting
Rainbow buttercream swirls several colors together for a fun rainbow effect. Or switch it up and swirl red, green, and white for traditional Christmas colors or wintery pastel pink, light blue, and mint green. Pipe it onto cookies, sandwich cookies, or cupcakes, and follow the easy step-by-step directions.
🌀 Pipes swirls
How to Make Classic Rich Chocolate Fudge Frosting
Made with both chocolate chips and cocoa powder, this rich dark chocolate fudge frosting is silky smooth and not overly sweet, thanks to salted butter and a pinch of salt. Spread it on your favorite cookies for a fudgy finish.
Need a good cutout cookie recipe?
Get my classic sugar cookie recipe, plus flavors like chocolate, red velvet, chocolate chip, lemon, and brown sugar.
🎄Christmas Cookie Decorating Ideas
I'm sharing pictures of my Christmas cookies and how I decorated them, and here's a little secret: every one was my first try with that frosting. These recipes are made for average home bakers like me.
🧁Decorating Sugar Cookies with Buttercream
Rosettes. With a large open star tip, start at the center and pipe in a continuous circular motion.
Swipes. Hold tree-shaped cookie upside down. Starting with the trunk, use a large open star tip to pipe overlapping rows, creating layered branches.
Pulled dot. Pipe or drop a dot of frosting, and pull it with spoon or offset spatula.
Loops. With a small or large open star or round tip, pipe continuous loops, following the shape of the cookie.
Piped stars. With small open star tip, pipe many small stars tightly next to each other.
Border and fill. With a small round or open star tip, outline edge, then fill in with rows or swirls.
✨Decorating Sugar Cookies with Icing
Pipe and flood. Outline and fill with piping bag or ziptop bag with corner snipped off.
Freehand. Pipe simple lines, scallops, swirls, and dots onto the cookie.
Swirl. Frost cookie with one color. Pipe second color on top and swirl design with a toothpick.
Color block. Spread or pipe with sections of different colors of icing.
Drizzle. Use a fork or spoon to drizzle icing onto each cookie.
Sprinkles. Spread an even layer of icing on each cookie and add sprinkles and candies while the icing is still wet.
🖌️Sugar Cookie Frosting Tips
Getting the Right Consistency
- Too thick? Add milk or cream a tiny bit at a time.
- Too thin? Add powdered sugar, one tablespoon at a time.
- For icing: it's ready when it drizzles into thick ribbons that hold their shape for a few seconds before melting back in.
- For outlining, keep icing extra thick. For flooding, thin it with a few drops of milk.
- If icing crusts over in the bowl, just give it a stir.
Coloring and Decorating
- Use gel food coloring. It gives bold color without thinning the frosting.
- Want pure white? Use clear vanilla extract. Add a tiny drop of purple food coloring to buttercream that's slightly yellow from butter to whiten it. (Yes, purple).
- Add sprinkles while the frosting is still wet, so they stick. Jimmies bleed less than nonpareils.
- Make easy swirls in icing by dotting a second color onto wet icing and dragging a toothpick through it.
- No piping bag? Snip the corner off a zip-top bag. You can even pop a piping tip in it (it's the only way I do it).
- Let cookies dry uncovered in a single layer for several hours or overnight before stacking.
🎁Storage
- Cookies with icing or buttercream that hardens: once fully set, store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the fridge for up to 10 days.
- Cookies with cream cheese frosting: keep them in the fridge.
- Freezing frosted cookies: let the frosting set completely, then layer cookies between parchment paper in a freezer container for up to 3 months. Glossy icings may lose a little shine after thawing, but they still taste great.
- Leftover frosting: most keep in the fridge for a few days up to a week. Bring to room temperature and stir or rewhip before using.
❓FAQs
Royal icing is made with meringue powder or egg whites and dries harder, so it's best for intricate designs. Powdered sugar cookie icing is simpler, dries to a softer, glossy finish, and is still firm enough to stack.
Buttercream that hardens, cookie icing that hardens, chocolate icing, gingerbread icing, and royal icing all dry firm enough to stack.
Several hours, up to overnight, depending on the frosting and how thick you spread it.
Yes. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge. The frosting softens at room temperature, so serve them in a single layer.
Yes. Most frostings can be made a day or two ahead and stored covered in the fridge. Bring to room temperature and stir or rewhip before using. Add a drop of milk if they've thickened.
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