Christmas Cookie Frosting
I’ve been perfecting my Christmas Sugar Cookies (cutouts) for 20+ years. This is the BEST Christmas Cookie Frosting recipe I use to top them!
Most people have strong opinions about politics, religion, global warming, etc.
I mean these are important things, so I get it, but I have opinions about cookies- especially cut-out cookies and the frosting that tops them.
- The cookie needs to be sturdy enough to hold a generous amount of frosting.
- Soft cut-out cookies only, please!
- Keep the sprinkles to a minimum… I’m trying to enjoy the frosting, not break a tooth.
- Finally, the frosting needs not to be sticky. I have children running around my house with cookies in their hands. I don’t need the frosting sticking to them and whatever they touch (and they touch EVERYTHING).
What Makes This the BEST Christmas Cookie Frosting?
This is a no-fuss frosting recipe.
Omit the almond extract if you don’t have any on hand.
Try other extracts such as peppermint, lemon, or rum. I have even seen cake batter extract in some craft and specialty stores!
You can add more or less heavy cream (or milk) to make the consistency that you need. If I’m spreading the Christmas Cookie Frosting with a knife, I use more cream. If I’m piping the frosting, I tend to make it stiffer and use less cream.
For a special twist sometimes I even use liquid vanilla coffee creamer.
If you make your frosting too runny you can add more powdered sugar to thicken it up.
Are you looking for a stiff frosting that dries completely hard?
Try my Small Batch Royal Icing recipe. I use it for cookies as well as for building and decorating gingerbread houses.
I’ve been perfecting my BEST Sugar Cookies Ever and this BEST Christmas Cookie Frosting for over 20 years.
These are the most popular recipes on my website and the most requested recipes from family and friends. You don’t want to pass this up!
Q and A about Christmas Cookie Frosting:
Can I use this Christmas Cookie Frosting on Valentine’s Day cookies? Halloween? etc.
- Yes! Use I use this frosting recipe for nearly every cookie I make all year long.
- You can use it to frost cakes as well!
Ewww shortening is DISGUSTING! How could you?!
- I’m sorry to ruin your life. There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that you can use whatever frosting recipe you want! The bad news is that you have to follow this recipe to get the stated results.
- Shortening (Crisco is what I generally use) makes this a “crisping” frosting. It will hold its shape days after being piped onto cookies. It won’t melt or wilt and isn’t sticky like store-bought frosting tends to be. I can also stack cookies for freezing and/or transporting after the frosting crisps up (at least 2-4 hours).
- More good news- there are organic all vegetable shortenings available out there in Internet land. I linked to one at the bottom of this post.
I’m still disgusted about using shortening. I’m going to use butter. Can I use butter…?
- You can use 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening with similar results… but please don’t email me saying that the frosting didn’t crisp up and it didn’t hold its shape very well.
- If you want to use all butter, well then you are making American Buttercream. It’s delicious and I frost my cakes with it.
Everyone I know has a nut allergy. Can I omit the almond extract?
- You’re in good company; my son has a peanut allergy. My heart is happy that you want to accommodate all of the special dietary needs in your family and circle of friends. Bless you!!
- I personally use IMITATION almond extract. According to FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education):
Avoid natural extracts, such as pure almond extract. Imitation or artificially flavored extracts generally are safe.
- Always best to check with the person you are serving the cookies to, and of course let their doctor or allergist have the final word. If you are uncomfortable, you can omit the almond extract and use all vanilla extract.
How long and how can I store this Christmas Cookie Frosting?
- Leftover frosting should be transferred to an airtight container and stored in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use. It can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week and frozen for several months. Use leftover frosting just as you would freshly whipped frosting once it is warmed up and ready to spread. Bring it back to room temperature or to just slightly chilled.
Do I need to refrigerate frosted cookies?
- As I’ve always understood it the small amount of milk is stabilized by a large amount of sugar and considered safe at room temperature for two to three days. But of course, do what feels safe for your family. We eat these within 2-3 days.
Those are really bright colors! What food coloring do you use?
- I never use liquid food coloring (typical food coloring that you can find in the grocery store).
- I prefer to use food coloring gel such as Americolor or Wilton.
- You can find food coloring gel online (I link to it at the bottom of this post), at Hobby Lobby, JoAnne’s, Michaels, or even some Wal-Marts in the crafting/cake decorating section.
- I prefer gels because you only need a few drops to get a vibrant rainbow of colors.
Christmas Cookie Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 Cup shortening, such as Crisco (*see notes)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract, *nut allergies see notes
- 8 cups powdered sugar, about a 2 lb bag
- 1/2 Cup heavy cream , or whole milk (more or less added to desired consistency)
- Food coloring, if desired
Instructions
- In the bowl of your mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl for use with your handheld electric mixer, place shortening and extracts. BEAT until creamy (at least 1 minute).
- ADD powdered sugar 1 cup at a time.
- ADD cream 2-3 Tablespoons at a time, alternating with the powdered sugar.
- MIX until creamy. Use more or less cream (or whole milk) to reach desired consistency. (I like for it to be smooth enough to pipe through a piping bag, but still a bit more firm than typical store-bought frosting.)
- ADD a 2-3 drops of gel food coloring if desired.
Notes
- You can omit the almond extract. Replace with vanilla.
- You can omit vanilla and almond extract and use 1 teaspoon peppermint extract.
- Whole milk or heavy cream will be okay in this recipe.
- Use more or less cream to reach our desired consistency. For spreading with a knife you may want more cream, for piping in bags you may want a firmer frosting so you can use less cream.
- If you omit the shortening and decide to use all butter that is okay but the frosting will not crisp up and you will not be able to stack the cookies.
Nutrition
Don’t forget to grab my Best Sugar Cookie Recipe while you’re here! Made and loved by millions every year!
201 Comments on “Christmas Cookie Frosting”
Just made these! super yummy and happy I didn’t have to chill first. The frosting came out delicious as well. A little sweet on its own but on the cookie perfect match! Thank you for sharing your recipe.
This worked so beautifully! I made your sugar cookie recipe and this frosting, and I’m so impressed. Both came out so well, especially with your instructions and tips.
I am confused. the promo for the cookie says to chill the batter, but in the video you say that you definitely chill it overnight or at least 4 hours. Can you clarify this please?
In New Zealand the only readily available shortening is called kremelta. It is a solid waxy form. I don’t use it much, only for chocolate rice bubble crispy cakes. I usually have to melt it. How do you just start beating it in your recipe? Do we melt it first? I am keen to try as the royal icing on my gingerbread cookies was very hard and tasteless with the slight risk of salmonella from the eggs. I’m very keen to try your recipe.
This is very close to the recipe we use. Since Crisco took out the trans fat from it it doesn’t crisp up as soon. We add a little more powdered sugar.
I just want to give a heads up to all those baking for people with peanut allergies. There are warning labels on Wilton products telling consumers that they are made in a facility that processes peanuts and other nuts. At least in Canada anyway. Make sure you check your labels.
Can I use Crisco butter flavor shortning?
Looks so yummy! By chance know how many cookies you can frost with this exact recipe?
We have always used brushes to decorate our Christmas cookies. Do you think I could thin it out enough with the milk and still have icing crispy enough to stack? Thank you.
How much frosting does this recipe make? How could I make just 1/3 of this amount?
Just finished making the cookies and frosting. So amazing, so easy. I can’t get over perfect this recipe is.
Hello, thanks for the recipe! How much frosting does this make?
I was wondering if frosted cookies can be frozen? I need to bake earlier then I plan to deliver the cookies.
Hello! Love this recipe!! Question I’m making this for a class of 20 4 year olds to decorate cookies with; can I make it the night before? Any suggestions??
Yes you can make them ahead. Seal in an airtight container after having cooled completely. Thanks! Have fun!
To the refrigeration question, I made these last year. I did not refrigerate the cookies once decorated. Refrigerating the frosting just helps keep it fresh. (in my opinion) Love both, the cookie and frosting recipe! very easy to work with!
Hi Katrina, I made your cookies and frosting and thank you. What a great easy recipe and fun for me and my son! Question. I made the frosting this morning and the cookies have been setting all day but the icing is not set yet. I wonder if leaving them overnight will help them totally setup? I didn’t deviate from the recipe. Thanks!
This frosting is awesome!
I just made a batch of our favorite cut-out cookies and a batch of this frosting. Oh . My . Gracious! This IS the BEST Christmas Cookie frosting ♡ !
Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. You have improved our holiday season! !
This is our fourth year running using this frosting and your cookie for our annual cookie decorating party. Both recipes are MUCH loved. Last year we made 18 dozen cookies and could have used more for all our guests. The compliments roll in like crazy!
Hey! I see one person has used fairlife milk… has anyone used an almond, cashew, or rice milk instead? :/ I have about 8 dairy free family members and need to have these be dairy free. These sound amazing and I really really really want to try them. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. I usually use earth balance butter as a substitute and have never noticed a difference in any recipe.
Hi Katrina,
I am making this in Germany and I have made double the recipe, I am not sure how to make sure its the right texture to crisp up? I have left a bit of it out and it has been almost 24 hours and only the edges are truly crisp. Did I not add enough sugar or maybe the milk was low fat so it changed the texture?
Thanks in advance!!
Yes the frosting crisps just enough to stack the cookies. It will not harden. That would be royal frosting that completely dries hard.
Can you use the Crisco butter flavored shortening?
I’m assuming from all I’ve read that frosted cookies do not need to be refrigerated even though leftover frosting is refrigerated. Is this correct?
I’m sorry if I missed this in the reading, but how much frosting does this make? I don’t plan to make many cookies, so I don’t want to over-do it.
I love love love your sugar cookies. I made them yesterday and iced them today, however I can’t seem to get my icing to set?! I really wanted to stack them and post them to a friend. Adventurous I know!! But please any tips would be great. P.S I live in the U.K. So it’s freezing out side at the moment but heating on inside. Should I get them cooler?! Thanks Becky.
No, you can’t flood with this frosting. It is much too thick and fluffy. You’ll need a royal icing. The icing needs to be thin enough to “flood.”
Can you use this icing to flood cookies?
Can you use butter flavored crisco?
This frosting tasted great, but it did not stick to the cookies. It was really odd. I added a little extra cream to each color, which helped, but it was still difficult. Is this normal?
I made your sugar cookies and icing this week for Christmas and they were perfect!
How did you get that gorgeous red frosting? Even with gel it can be tough. I have had good luck mixing liquid red with cocoa into a paste and using that as I would normal Wilton gels, but it isn’t nearly so brilliant. Thanks!
I made the frosting today and it taste good and pipes well however I did notice the color kinda separate. Any recommendations?
Crisco ?.. Just because you don’t care about your own health, or the health of you kids, don’t push your unhealthy food habits on the public ! Shameful 🙁
Made the cookies yesterday – made frosting this morning. Spread the frosting on the cookies and dusted with crunched up candy canes. The hardest part of all of this was getting the wrappers off the candy canes! Husband was home by 10:30 this morning – and snitched a cookie while I was cleaning up my mess. And then he went back for a few more. His reasoning…”These are the best cookies ever!” He’s right – they are the best cookies ever. The frosting tastes just as good if not better than those high dollar individually wrapped cookies that you see for sale on a certain TV show.
Using Crisco…not a problem for me…I used the butter flavored, because that’s what I use to make chocolate chip cookies, so had it in the pantry.
Thank you Katrina…for recipes that make it fun to bake/decorate cut out sugar cookies!
I’m so happy that I found both your recipe for sugar cookies AND this great frosting!! You have an excellent blog & I’m going to start following you. Wishing you and your a very Merry Christmas. ; o ) (I discovered you on PINTEREST.)
Just made this frosting and decided after making it as written, to tweak it a little for my tastes. The consistency was fabulous for piping! I did end up adding just a bit more cream to thin it but I am in a dryer climate so that might be why. After tasting the recipe as written I felt like it was a little sweet for my taste so I added a good sprinkling of salt and then about 1/2 tsp of butter flavoring. I was really missing the butter flavor with just the shortening and the butter flavoring helped with that. It is very good! Thanks for sharing a great recipe. I will definitely use it again!
Can you use the frosting to outline? The cookies turned out great! Can’t wait to frost them. Thank you and Merry Christmas!
Will their be any change in the consitency if I use liquid food coloring over the gel food coloring you prefer?
Hi!I don’t know if I missed this detail but about how much frosting will this make or how many cookies can it frost?
So if the frosting needs to be refrigerated then I assume I need to refrigerate the cookies after frosting. Won’t this make the cookies soggy?
You only refrigerate or freeze the EXTRA frosting as you would after you open the store bought stuff. Cookies don’t have to be refrigerated. If you’re making them earlier then the holiday season you can freeze frosting cookies to retain freshness
Might be a little TOO thick…just blew the motor on my mixer 😠
I laughed at the Crisco comments. One of our friends makes the BEST brownies with Maple frosting and her secret? Yep, crisco. Everyone raves about them and she just chuckles. I think they are a mix of butter and crisco, but it does make it better.
Hi Katrina, When I click on the Best Sugar Cookie link I am getting a McAfee-Website Safety warning. I clicked and saved several of your other recipes with no problem. I don’t know why it’s giving me the warning on this recipe. Can you email me the recipe? I would like to make it Thursday so I can give them as a gift on Friday. Thank you!
A few questions: Does this work for “flooding” like royal icing? I dislike royal icing and trying to find something that would have a similar effect. (I guess i could also spread it.) Also i noticed your piping thick on the cookie, do thinner lines work like writing names on cookies? Does the shortening make it “greasy”?
Our son is lactose intolerant is there a substitute for the cream or milk that can be used? We usually cook with almond milk but didn’t know how this would turn out.
Yes definitely!!! I used Fairlife Milk in this recipe and it came out awesome! Our whole family had to swap over to lactose free milk when 1 became lactose intolerant. This recipe is one of the best I’ve found, so glad she shared it!! Use the dark blue bottle of Fairlife, the light blue label is super low fat or fat free and it made the icing come out a lil too thin
Can I use butter flavored crisco and get the same crispness?
I was wondering the same thing.
Hi Katrina,
I’m looking forward to trying your sugar cookie & frosting recipes, but…..
I have always used Crisco shortening, but a couple of years ago, I made a pie crust with it & it wasn’t very good. I checked the label, & now Crisco is made with soybean oil. Is that what you use in your frosting?
Thanks,
Sharon
Hi! Can kids eat these cookies right after frosting them or will it make a big mess? You said it takes 24 hours to let the frosting set, should they be out in the open or in a covered container for this part?
You can eat immediately! I would only suggest setting them out to crisp up if you plan on stacking them.
Does this work ok if you plan to frost with a knife instead of bags. My kids like to use knives verse a bag while they decorate. Thanks for the yummy recipe, cant wait to try them this year.
Yes! Spreads easily. You may want to add a bit more milk or cream up to 3/4 cup instead of 1/2 cup. You can tell while you’re mixing it if it’s your desired consistency. Happy baking!
Thank you for this magical recipe! I have always used butter in my frosting, and now I know why it didn’t get “crispy” like I wanted!
(Your q and a cracked me up. Food bloggers have got to be some of the most patient people on the planet, I swear. You rock.)
How long can the frosting be stored?
Great question! I added it to the post but will leave it here too: Leftover frosting should be transferred to an airtight container and stored in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use. It can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week and frozen for several months. Use leftover frosting just as you would freshly whipped frosting once it is warmed up and ready to spread. Bring it back to room temperature or to just slightly chilled.