Easy Cupcake Decorated Cookies for The Perfect Valentine’s Day Desserts

Why go the traditional route and make cupcakes for one of your Valentine’s Day desserts when you can make these cupcake decorated cookies instead?

These buttercream cookies are simple to make and much less messier to eat. Perfect for a first date if I do say so myself!

I saved this tutorial for last in my Valentine’s Day buttercream cookies series this year because they are just so easy to decorate. You only need a few supplies, which makes them great for a last minute dessert as well. Order the cookie cutter on Amazon Prime and you’re good to go!

Follow along for a beginner-friendly, step-by-step tutorial for these cupcake decorated cookies! Plus, learn some tips on how to decorate sugar cookies with sprinkles!

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Part 1: Gathering your Supplies for your Cupcake Decorated Cookies

To create these cute cupcake decorated cookies, you will want to gather:

• 2 Icing bags
• One Wilton tip #3 (make these buttercream cookies even easier by using a tip #5 instead!) and one Wilton tip #12
• Cupcake cookie cutter – You can get the exact one that I used here: Ann Clark Cookie Cutters 5 Piece Birthday
• Some fun Valentine’s Day sprinkles – I used this one with the cute little hearts: Heart Sprinkles
• Red gel food dye
• 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
• Optional: pointed knife to fix any errors

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

1. Roll, cut out, and bake your cupcake sugar cookies according to your cookie dough recipe.
2. Make your buttercream icing and separate it into two bowls. You will be using more white (undyed) frosting than the red frosting, so adjust accordingly. I know it doesn’t look that way, but the frosting part on these cupcake decorated cookies is thicker than the red cupcake liner. Color the smaller bowl of frosting red using your Wilton gel color. To achieve a nice, deep red, mix in just enough to get to a medium red. Then, place a piece of plastic wrap over the frosting and allow it to sit on the counter for a few hours to deepen. If you don’t have the time to do this, then just add more gel color. The color will still deepen as it sets.
3. Set up your icing bags as follows: Place the tip #12 into an icing bag and put your white frosting in it. Place the tip #3 into another icing bag and place the red frosting in it. If you don’t know how to do this, just hop over to my Getting Started: Learn How to Decorate Buttercream Cookies page.

Part 3: The Fun Part! Frosting Your Cupcake Decorated Cookies

Check out the video tutorial below to see how these buttercream cookies are truly one of those desserts that are easy to make for Valentine’s Day! Then, check out the step-by-step photo series for all of the details.

1. Your first step will be to outline and fill in the shape of the cupcake liner with the red frosting. Fill the liner in using vertical lines so that it mimics the little lines in cupcake liners.
2. The next step is to use the white buttercream frosting and pipe out the cupcake frosting. Work your way from bottom to top, just like you would if you were frosting an actual cupcake with a piping bag.
3. Next, place your sprinkles onto the white frosting. A tip for how to decorate sugar cookies with sprinkles is to use a spoon if you want to be super hygienic. Totally do this for the first date route! You will see that I accidentally dropped some sprinkles onto the liner. Another tip for how to decorate cookies with sprinkles: use a pointed knife! The knife allows you to move the sprinkles out of the way or pick them up entirely.
4. The last step is for that finishing touch. Re-outline the sides and bottom of the cupcake liner with the red frosting. Then, draw vertical lines to create even more dimension in the liners. Again, just like a real cupcake!

I told you these decorated cupcake cookies would be easy! These are definitely beginner-friendly, as you can see I made a few mistakes in the video above and easily fixed them. Truly one of those Valentine’s Day desserts that are easy to make.

How to Store & Transport Your Cupcake Decorated Cookies

I often get asked how to store buttercream sugar cookies or even how to package buttercream sugar cookies. Allow the cookies to crust overnight on the counter. In the morning, carefully touch a corner of one to see if the frosting has hardened at all. Remember, a great benefit of buttercream sugar cookies is that the frosting has a soft bite. Only the outside hardens so just be gentle. Once they have crusted over, you are safe to move and transport them.

To store buttercream sugar cookies, place them in multiple shallow Tupperware containers so you only have one layer of cookies. Something like this set is perfect for storing buttercream sugar cookies.

To present these cupcake decorated cookies for guests, arrange them on a cute tray. You can stack them once they are crusted. Of course, when stacking these cookies, allow them to be stacked in a pretty way! You don’t want to fully cover any of the cookies with another cookie. You want to show these ones off!

If you are traveling with these buttercream cookies, use the air tight Tupperware containers until you get to the party destination.

Another question I get asked often is if buttercream sugar cookies can be decorated ahead of time. The answer is, yes, you just want to make sure you are freezing decorated sugar cookies if you make them too far in advance. Go ahead and store these in the freezer for up to a week (you could probably get away with two weeks) in an airtight container.

I don’t like to stack the cookies in the freezer, in case the frosting sticks together. However, I’ve done it before, and, as long as you wait until the cookies come to room temp, you can unstick them. But it’s best to be safe than sorry.

Save The Tutorial for These Easy Cupcake Decorated Cookies for Later

To save the tutorial for these buttercream cookies for later, simply click on any of the social share icons on the top or side of this page. Alternatively, hover over the image below to pin the image to your Pinterest page!