How to Decorate Basketball Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

March Madness has started so it is time to learn how to decorate some delicious basketball cookies with buttercream frosting. These basketball cookies are so easy and do not require a bunch of tools. They are the perfect dessert to serve friends and family watching the games with you.

Of course, these are a great snack for kid’s basketball teams, too.

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Part 1: Gathering the Supplies for Decorating Basketball Cookies

To decorate basketball cookies with buttercream frosting, you will want to gather:

• 2 Icing bags
• One Wilton #4 tip and #12 tip – buy these at a bake supply store or purchase this kit I use for almost every tutorial
• Circle cookie cutter
• Gel food dye for buttercream frosting in orange and black
• Palette knife or 9″ offset spatula
• Orange nonpareils 
• Ingredients for a crusting buttercream, find my crusting buttercream icing recipe here
• Ingredients for sugar cookie dough, find my no spread sugar cookies recipe here

Part 2: Baking the Cookies and Setting up Your Icing Bags

1. Roll, cut out, and bake your sugar cookies according to the recipe. You will be able to make about 18 sugar cookies with the recipe above and a medium sized circle cookie cutter.
2. Make your buttercream icing and separate it into two bowls:
   • One bowl will only contain about a third a cup of frosting, color that black.
   • The rest of the frosting will be dyed orange.
   • ***Remember, your colors will develop over time so just get to a medium-dark shade of each color.
3. Set up your icing bags as follows:
   • Place the black icing into a bag with the tip #4 in it and the orange frosting into a bag with the tip #12 in it.

Part 3: Decorating Basketball Cookies

Watch the video above to see how easy it is to decorate basketball cookies. Then check out the photo tutorial below when it is time to decorate.

1. Use the tip #12 attached to the orange icing bag and pipe out a circle of frosting around the edge of the cookie. A pro tip is to hold the tip close to the cookie so the top is more flat rather than logs of frosting. Then, fill in the circle.
2. Smooth the orange frosting with the palette knife or offset angled spatula. It doesn’t need to be perfect.
3. Pour some orange nonpareils onto a plate that is large enough to fit the cookie. Flip the cookie upside down onto the plate and cover the frosting with orange nonpareils. Use the palette knife or flat spatula to smooth the edges of the circle, pushing the nonpareils so that the outside edge is still a clean line.
4. Use the black frosting with tip #4 to draw the lines of the basketball. Check out the photo series here to see how to do this if basketballs are intimidating to you. No judgement because it was to me!

 

How fun are these basketball cookies? If you need to individually package these or bring them to the team game, check out my tips here.

I’d love to know in the comments below, what’s your favorite sport to watch or play? I love playing and watching volleyball but basketball is pretty fun, too.

Save the Tutorial for These Basketball Sugar Cookies

Make sure to save this decorated basketball cookie tutorial! Use the image below to pin it to your party or March Madness board on Pinterest. Alternatively, use any of the social share icons on the top of the page to share it to your favorite social media site.