Are you looking for a last minute idea on how to make decorated cookies for Christmas in a jiff? With the help of my tutorial you can make delicious, festive Christmas Buttercream Cookies. These simple tree, snowflake, star and mitten cookie designs take only minutes to create and will surely brighten your holiday table.

Cookies decorated with buttercream on a pretty festive plate.

Updated post from 2013.

HOW TO MAKE CHRISTMAS BUTTERCREAM COOKIES

If are not a fan of royal icing and you prefer buttercream this recipe is for you. My crusting buttercream recipe is super easy to make. You can whip it up in a matter of minutes. It's favorite with kids and adults like. And a great bonus is this buttercream crusts so you can stack your pretty cookies or wrap them in a pretty bag for a gift giving. Anyway, I hope you'll have fun decorating Buttercream Christmas Cookies with my delicious buttercream recipe.

SUGAR COOKIES

To bake sugar cookies you can use any of these popular Cut Out Cookie Recipes :

  • Most Popular Sugar Cookies
  • Vegan Sugar Cookies
  • Gluten Free Sugar Cookies
  • Chocolate Sugar Cookies

CRUSTING BUTTERCREAM FOR COOKIE DECORATING

Beat butter, powdered sugar, salt, and 5 tablespoons milk. Beat until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Gradually thin frosting with milk or water to desired consistency. Icing crusts so be sure to keep it covered.

TIP : Are you looking for a vegan buttercream? Use Vegan Butter instead.

Buttercream being mixed in a bowl of stand mixer.

This is a crusting buttercream, be sure to cover it with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel when not in use.

Buttercream frosting in a stainless steel bowl.

COLOR FROSTING

Divide buttercream into bowls and color it with gel food colors.

Color little over ½ cup with green, blue and with red, leave some buttercream uncolored, (steps 1-4).

Fill 2 piping bags with about ¼ cup of red and ¼ cup of blue buttercream, (steps 5-8).

White bowls filled with colored buttercream.

TREE COOKIES

With a spoon or a small spatula spread green buttercream onto the tree cookies. Sprinkle with white nonpareils, (steps 1-4). To make textured buttercream use a fork or if you have a frosting comb you can utilize it, too. And if you have other festive sprinkles on hand use them to decorate tree cookies.

Tree cookie iced with green frosting and dusted with white sprinkles.

MITTEN COOKIES

Decorate mitten cookies with green and white buttercream. First spread green buttercream on the bottom of the mitten. Use a fork or icing comb to create texture in the icing. Then decorate buttercream with sprinkles, (steps 1-6). Now you can spread white buttercream on the top of the mitten, (steps 7-8).

Mitten cookie frosted with green and white buttercream.

Pipe red star snowflake onto the white buttercream.

Piping red snowflake on white frosting.

STAR COOKIES

Spread red buttercream onto a star cookie, texture frosting with a fork or an icing comb. Decorate edges with white nonpareils sprinkles.

Hand holding a star cookie iced with red icing, dipping the edges into white sprinkles.

SIMPLE SNOWFLAKE COOKIES

Decorate snowflake cookies with blue buttercream, (steps 1-5). Immediately dip or dust buttercream with sanding sugar for a frosty look, (steps 6-8).

Allow frosting to crust before layering cookies into an airtight container.

Snowflake cookie with piped blue buttercream designs and dipped in sanding sugar.

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TO MAKE CHRISTMAS BUTTERCREAM COOKIES YOU NEED

  • RECIPES
  • Sugar Cookie Recipe
  • Buttercream Recipe for Cookie Decorating
  • TOOLS
  • Find all the tools you need in my Amazon Shop
  • Cookie Cutters : Snowflake, Mitten, Tree, Star
  • Hand Held Mixer
  • Food Gel Colors : Sky Blue, Green, Red
  • Blue Sanding Sugar
  • White Nonpareils,
  • Snowflakes Sprinkles
  • Rainbow Nonpareils
  • Small Spatula
  • Icing Comb or a Fork – to create texture in buttercream

MORE CHRISTMAS RECIPES :

  • Christmas Morning Buns(yeast sweet bread)
  • Gingerbread Caramel Popcorn
  • Linzer Cookies
  • Christmas Stolen
  • Fresh Cranberry White Chocolate Drop Cookies (addictive)
  • Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

Did you make these Decorated Cookies? Tag @hanielas on instagram and hashtag it #hanielas

Cookies decorated with buttercream on a pretty festive plate.

Easy to make, delicious crusting buttercream, perfect for cookie decorating.

Makes about 2 cups of buttercream.

1 serving is about 3 tablespoons.

Course: Cake, Frosting

Cuisine: American

Keyword: butter frosting, buttercream cookies, crusting buttercream

Servings: 10 servings

CRUSTING BUTTERCREAM FOR COOKIES

  • 5 tbsp butter, melted, cooled
  • 3 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract (almond, lemon)
  • 5-7 tbsp milk or water

  1. CRUSTING BUTTERCREAM FOR COOKIES

  2. Beat butter (5tbsp, melted and cooled), powdered sugar ( 3cups and 1/2 cup), milk or water (5-7 tablespoons) until smooth. Beat in Vanilla extract I(1teaspoon). Store frosting in airtight container to prevent crusting. Frosting won't crust hard like royal icing, it crusts on the surface.

1. CAN I USE VEGAN BUTTER? Yes, absolutely.

2. CAN I USE OTHER FLAVORINGS? Absolutely. My favorite to use are Vanilla, Almond and Lemon.

3. HOW LONG DOES THE BUTTERCREAM KEEP? About a week, stored in the fridge.

4. CAN DECORATED COOKIES BE STACKED? Allow buttercream to crust and harden a bit, then you can stock them.

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?

Tag @hanielas on Instagram and hashtag it

#hanielas

Cookie decorated with buttercream frosting displayed on a pretty festive plate.

This post was originally published on December 21st, 2013. On November 7th, 2020 updated this post with new step by step pictures and written text.