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Easter sugar cookies are a must for any spring celebration—they’re sweet, cheerful, and just plain fun to make. These easy cut-out cookies are perfect for decorating with pastel icing and festive sprinkles (I always go a little overboard, and I’m not sorry about it!). Whether you’re baking with kids or just embracing your inner child, these cookies bring joy from start to finish. Trust me, they’re as tasty as they are adorable.
Everyone loves Easter sugar cookies with sprinkles. Even if you decide to cut out cookies during Lent, you’ll definitely want to tuck into these during Easter.
You might also like to make no bake bunny print cookies for Easter, or how about lemon filled cupcakes or lemon ricotta cookies?
Why You’ll Love It
They’re so cute: These gorgeous little cookies look adorable with their buttercream frosting and pretty pastel sprinkles on top.
Delicious flavors: Perfectly sweet with a hint of vanilla in both the cookies and the frosting, these are really tasty.
Perfect for Easter: These cookies will look lovely on your Easter table, perhaps paired with other Easter treats.
Sugar Cookies for Easter Ingredients
A complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Flour: The main ingredient in the cookies.
Baking powder: To achieve a light texture.
Granulated sugar: White sugar gives the cookies the right amount of sweetness.
Vanilla extract: Adds a subtle flavor to the cookies and also the icing on top.
Icing sugar: Also known as powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar, this ingredient makes the frosting sweet without graininess.
Milk: Use some in the cookie dough and some to thin the frosting.
How to Make Easter Sugar Cookies
For more detailed instructions with weights and measurements, jump to the printable recipe card.
Make the cookie dough: Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. I like to sift the flour first just to ensure any lumps are removed. Next cream the butter and then add in the sugar. Keep beating the mixture until it’s fluffy and light. Mix in the vanilla and egg yolk and then add in the flour mixture to get a soft dough.
Chill the dough: Chill the dough for at least half an hour. This will stop the cookies from spreading out too much in the oven during baking. You can give them an hour or so if you prefer.
Cut them out: Now you can roll the dough out and cut out cookies using a cookie cutter.
Bake the cookies: Arrange them on baking pans and cook them until lightly golden just at the edges.
Make the frosting: The icing is easy to prepare. You need to beat the butter then mix in the icing sugar. The easiest way to do this is using an electric mixer. Next go ahead and add in the vanilla and then a little milk at a time. You can add more milk if the icing is too thick or more icing sugar if it’s too thin.
Decorate them: Press the frosted cookies into the sprinkles to coat them heavily or sprinkle them over by hand for a lighter result. You could also decorate them with mini eggs or another kind of candy instead of using sprinkles if you want.
Substitutions and Variations
Sprinkles: These decorated Easter cookies look great with frosting and sprinkles. Choose some Easter-themed sprinkles, perhaps pastel ones. You can even get sprinkles with Easter shapes in there, such as these Easter sprinkles with bunnies.
Gluten-free version: Substitute gluten-free flour for the wheat flour and check the ingredients in your sprinkles.
Vanilla extract: Switch the vanilla extract for another flavor extract.
Milk: You can use any type of dairy or nondairy milk.
Serving Suggestions
With a drink: Enjoy these cookies with anything from an iced gingbread latte to a cottontail margarita.
For dessert: After an Easter meal of pizzagaina with smashed potato salad, enjoy a couple of these cute cookies.
As a gift: They also make a great gift, perhaps paired with an Easter bunny tissue box basket.
How to Store Sugar Cookies
Store: It’s best not to store the decorated sugar cookies in the refrigerator. If you do, they are likely to dry out. Instead keep them in an airtight container or Ziploc bag at room temperature. Stored that way, these homemade Easter treats should be fine for a few days.
Freeze: Freeze them in one layer on a baking sheet, then transfer them into a Ziploc freezer bag once frozen. They’ll be fine for a couple of months.
Thaw: Defrost them in the refrigerator overnight or on the counter for a couple of hours.
Top Tips
Don’t skip the chill: If you don’t refrigerate the dough, you’ll find your Easter cookies spread during baking.
Frost when cooled: You can make the icing ahead if you want but don’t frost the Easter sugar cookies until they’re completely cool. If you try to, the frosting will melt and run and the cookies won’t be as pretty.
Use fun cookie cutters: I like to use Easter themed cookie cutters, like butterflies, bunnies and carrots!
Easter Sprinkle Cookies FAQs
Since these are Easter sugar cookies you might like to go with the Easter theme. Consider an egg-shaped cookie cutter or a simply bunny-shaped one. Stars, flowers, crosses, and lambs are more cookie cutter ideas to choose from. Else you could simply cut them into circles, since the decorative sprinkles will make them Easter-ish.
Using vanilla to flavor the Easter sugar cookies works well and everyone loves vanilla. However, if you want to experiment with different flavors that’s also fine. Swap the vanilla extract for almond extract or orange extract if you like. You can do this both for the cookies and also for the icing. Or you could use one flavor for the cookies and another for the icing, as you prefer.
Easter Buttercream Cookies Recipe
Easter Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- Pastry Bag Optional
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 Teaspoon salt
- 1/2 Cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 Cup granulated sugar
- 3 Tablespoons milk
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Frosting:
- 1/2 Cup unsalted butter
- 2 Cups icing sugar
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- sprinkles, to decorate (optional)
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough:
- In a small mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
- With an electric mixer, cream butter. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
- Add dry mixture and milk alternately, starting and ending with dry.
- You should have a dough that is soft but not sticky. Place in fridge for 30 to 60 minutes.
Bake the Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place parchment paper on, or grease, a cookie sheet.
- Remove dough from fridge and rollout to 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Use chosen cookie cutters to cut out shapes.
- Place shapes on baking pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned on edges.
- Allow cookies to cool completely before icing.
Decorate the Cookies:
- For icing, beat butter with an electric mixer. Add icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla. Add milk, a tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached.
- Spread on cookies, or pipe icing on with a piping bag. Feel free to decorate with sprinkles too.
Notes
Frost when cooled: You can make the icing ahead if you want but don’t frost the Easter sugar cookies until they’re completely cool. If you try to, the frosting will melt and run and the cookies won’t be as pretty.
Use fun cookie cutters: I like to use Easter themed cookie cutters, like butterflies, bunnies and carrots!
Nutrition
Cookies with buttercream and sprinkles make a really nice treat for Easter. You will find these Easter sugar cookies a breeze to make and it’s fun to choose how you’re going to decorate them. So, if you’re planning what to bake for Easter, make sure you have all the ingredients for these charming Easter sugar cookies!
Other Recipes to Try
Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
So easy and fun to decorate! My family loved these cookies!
So cute! I love sugar cookies of all kinds