Paris Decorated Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

These Paris decorated cookies are a delightful tribute to the elegance of the City of Lights. Soft, buttery, and topped with creamy vanilla buttercream, each cookie is a little piece of edible art.

The set features charming designs that embody a feminine Parisian flair, including delicate rosettes, the iconic Eiffel Tower, a whimsical bicycle, and classic bows.

With a chic pink, black, and white color scheme, these cookies are perfect for any occasion that calls for a touch of Parisian charm and sweetness!

I have been experimenting with artificial dye free food coloring so I used that for these cookies. I think they turned out beautiful. You can read about what natural dyes I have been experimenting with here!

Follow along for the full step-by-step photo series and video cookie decorating tutorials PLUS the recipes! Let’s get started!

This post may contain affiliate links to Amazon and Etsy, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see my full disclosure for further information.*

Part 1: Gathering the Supplies for the Paris Decorated Cookies

To decorate these Parisian sugar cookies, you will want to gather:

• 5 Icing bags
• One Wilton 1 tip, one PME 1.5 tip, one Wilton 5 tip, one Wilton 18 tip, and one Wilton 150 tip
• 4 Couplers
• Plaque cookie cutter, bow cookie cutter, and birthday number cookie cutter
• Pink and black gel food dye (I used natural dyes for the pink shades and black cocoa powder for the black)
• Projector and projector stand – here are mine plus a review/tutorial for how to use
• Palette knife (I use this one for these cookies!)
• Paris themed clip-art (I got mine here)
• Ingredients for a crusting buttercream & sugar cookie dough – found below in recipe card

AKASO WT50 Mini Projector with WiFi and Bluetooth, 1080P DLP Portable Movie Projector Home and Outdoor, Built-in Battery & Android System, Cookie Projector for iPhone and Phone

Check Price

ARKON Mounts - Remarkable Creator Cookie Decorator Mount | Overhead Phone Mount & Pico Projector Mount | Overhead Tripod Mount for Video Recording, Vlogging, Cooking, Crafting, Drawing

Check Price

Anthony's Organic Black Cocoa Powder, 1 lb, Unsweetened, Dutch Processed, Gluten Free, Non GMO

Check Price

Wilton Piping Tip Set for Cake & Cupcake Decorating, 55-Piece with Carrying Case

Check Price

Liquitex Professional Freestyle Small Painting Knife, No. 1

Check Price

PME - ST1.5 Seamless Stainless Steel SupaTube Writer #1.5 Decorating Tip, Standard, Silver

Check Price

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

Use the recipe card below for the sugar cookie and buttercream frosting recipes.

Decorated Paris Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

These sugar cookies are buttery and soft as they are topped with a vanilla buttercream frosting.

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Buttercream Sugar Cookies

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Decorating Time: 3 hours hours

Total Time: 3 hours hours 40 minutes minutes

Servings: 18 cookies, depending on the size of the cookie cutter

Author: Leah Buehler

Equipment

• Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
• Rubber Spatula
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Medium Sized Mixing Bowl
• Lined aluminum cookie sheet parchment paper or silicone lined baking sheet
• Rolling Pin
• Cookie cutters and tools see part 1 on this post for the specific tools needed
• Gel food dye I used TruColor natural food dyes

Ingredients

Buttercream Frosting

• ½ cup room temperature unsalted butter 4 ounces
• ½ cup room temperature salted butter 4 ounces
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1-3 tbsp. whole milk

Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup cold salted butter cubed
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 cups all purpose flour measured with the scoop & level method
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1.5 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

• Remove all of the butter from the refrigerator. You will make the sugar cookies first but the butter for the frosting needs to come to room temperature before mixing.

Sugar Cookies

• Preheat the oven to 350℉ and prepare an aluminum cookie sheet by placing either parchment paper or a silicone baking mat on it.
• In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the flour and baking powder and mix together. Set this aside.
• Cube a cup of salted butter and then, in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the cubed butter with the granulated sugar. Mix until creamed together well.
• To the stand mixer, add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
• Slowly add in the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl to the stand mixer.
• Roll the dough out to 3/8" thick and use the cookie cutters to cut out the cookies. Place the cookies onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes or until the tops of the cookies no longer look wet. When baking the cookies, only bake 6-8 cookies at a time to leave proper space between each cookie to cook without spreading. Overcrowding the cookie sheet will cause spread.

Buttercream Frosting

• In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add the room temperature salted and unsalted butter and mix on high until light and fluffy.
• Mix in the powdered sugar little by little. Add in the vanilla extract and milk about halfway through adding the sugar to help the frosting come together. Start with one tablespoon of milk and work up to three if needed, depending on the consistency you want. I like to aim for a peanut butter consistency or thinner.
• Follow the directions in Part 2 for the specific way you will divide the buttercream and set up the icing bags.

How to Decorate the Paris Sugar Cookies

• Please refer to Part 3 of this blog post for all of the cookie decorating tutorials.

Notes

These buttercream sugar cookies are room stable for a few days on the counter. Otherwise, store in the freezer in an airtight container until ready to use, or for up to three months. You can also freeze the undecorated cookies and buttercream frosting three months in advance to decorating.

 

Make your buttercream icing according to the recipe and separate it into four bowls:

• • • scoop 1/3 cup of buttercream into a bowl and dye this frosting black (again, I blended black cocoa powder into mine for dye free)
    • divide the remaining frosting up into three equal-ish amounts and dye them pink, dark pink, and white (or undyed)

To set up the piping bags:

• Place couplers into each icing bag and then add the frosting. You do not need to add the tips yet.

Part 3: Decorating the Paris Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

Check out the video tutorial showing the overall process for decorating these Parisian sugar cookies then follow the step-by-step photo series tutorial below.

How to Decorate the Rosette Birthday Number Cookies with Buttercream

1. Attach the Wilton tip #18 to the light pink buttercream. Pipe a swirl of frosting to create a rosette. Repeat in various places along the number cookie.
2. Remove/rinse/dry the tip #18 from the light pink frosting and attach it to the dark pink frosting to create rosettes in the dark pink. If some spots are too small to fit a rosette, simply pipe a star there.

How to Decorate the Ribbon Bow Cookies with Buttercream

1. Attach the Wilton tip #5 to the white buttercream. Outline and fill in the bow cookie cookie shape and then smooth it with the palette knife.
   
   
2. Attach the tip #150 to the dark pink buttercream and pipe the bow. For detailed step-by-step on how to pipe the bow shape, check out my in depth tutorial here or watch the video above.

How to Decorate the Striped Bow Cookies with Buttercream

1. Attach the Wilton #5 tip to the white buttercream and outline and fill in the bow cookie shape. Then use the palette knife to smooth it. 
2. Attach the PME 1.5 tip to the black buttercream. Pipe the stripes onto the bow. Here are the step-by-step photos for how I achieved this look:

How to Decorate the Bicycle Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

1. Attach the Wilton tip #5 to the white buttercream and outline and fill in the plaque cookie cutters. Then, use the palette knife to smooth the buttercream.
2. If using a projector, set it up so that the bicycle image is on the cookie in your preferred location. Then, use the Wilton tip #1 to trace the image. Depending on the size of the image, you may need to skip some details as the piping tip is bigger than the tracing lines.
3. Attach the tip #18 to the dark pink bag and pipe swirls for the rosettes.
4. Remove/rinse/dry the tip #18 from the dark pink and attach it to the light pink icing. Pipe more rosettes to fill in the space below the bicycle. Then, use the PME 1.5 tip to pipe flower “petals” on the basket of the bicycle and falling from the basket.

How to Decorate the Eiffel Tower Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

1. Attach the Wilton #5 tip to the light pink frosting. Outline and fill in with the frosting and then smooth with the palette knife.
2. Set up the projector with the Eiffel Tower image and use the Wilton tip #1 on the black icing to trace the image.
3. Attach the tip #18 to the dark pink icing and pipe swirls to create rosettes at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower.
4. Use the black icing with the tip #1 to pipe polka dots on the background of the cookie.

How cute are these? I think the artificial dye free frosting turned out really well for these Paris decorated cookies!

Save the Tutorial for These Paris Decorated Cookies

Use the image below to pin this tutorial for buttercream Paris sugar cookies to your cookie party 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.