red white and blue cookies with buttercream

Fun & Easy Red, White, and Blue Cookies

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The 4th of July is approaching quickly so we definitely need to have some fun red, white, and blue cookies to share. These patriotic sugar cookies are also perfect for Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day. Check out the video below to see how to create the red and white stripes on the flag with just one piping bag. 4th of July cookies

P.S. I recently made the list of the Top 35 Cookie Blogs! So fun!

*This post may contain affiliate links, 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 your Supplies for your Red White and Blue Cookies

To create these patriotic sugar cookies, you will want to gather:

  • 4 Icing bags
  • 2 Wilton #5 tips
  • Star and heart cookie cutters – I used the middle sized star and heart cutters in this essential set by Wilton 
  • Red, white, and blue buttercream frosting* – see notes and recipe below
  • Delicious sugar cookie dough – find my recipe below
how to decorate dinosaur cookies with buttercream frosting

Easy No Chill No Spread Sugar Cookie Dough

These classic vanilla cut out sugar cookies are so easy! There is no need to put these into the refrigerator before baking - simply mix, roll, cut out, and bake all at once!
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: No Chill No Spread Sugar Cookie Dough
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 24 cookies depending on the size of your cookie
Author: Leah Buehler

Equipment

  • Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
  • Measuring Bowls & Spoons

Ingredients

  • 1 cup cold salted butter cut into cubes
  • 1 cup granulated white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1.5 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a large bowl, mix your flour and baking powder together. When measuring the flour, make sure to scoop up the flour with a spoon and add it to your measuring cup, one spoonful at a time. This helps obtain the correct amount of flour without needing to weigh it. Once you have a cup, level it out by running a knife across the top of the measuring cup. Then, add it to the large mixing bowl and repeat for the remaining flour. Set the mixture of flour and baking powder aside for a minute.
  • In your electric mixer, combine the sugar and butter using the paddle attachment until they are creamed together.
  • Add in your egg and vanilla extract and mix to combine.
  • Slowly add in one cup (or whatever your mixer can handle) at a time of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. The mixture should be slightly sticky but still form a nice ball.
  • On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about a 1/4 of an inch thick & cut out your cookies. A great tip is to flour your rolling pin and any cookie cutters you may be using. Transfer the cut out cookies to a baking sheet lined with a  silicone mat using a large flat spatula.
  • Bake for about 10 minutes and let cool on the baking sheet. The dough will be done when the center of the dough doesn’t look wet and the edges are golden.

Notes

Place in an air tight container in the freezer if you aren't decorating these cookies within 24 hours. Allow the cookies to come back to room temperature before frosting. Find my crusting buttercream recipe here: Crusting Buttercream Icing for Sugar Cookies and my tips for getting started with decorating buttercream sugar cookies here: How to Decorate Buttercream Sugar Cookies for Beginners 

 

crusting buttercream icing for sugar cookies

All American Crusting Buttercream Frosting Recipe

I recommend using a crusting buttercream when decorating buttercream sugar cookies. This allows the buttercream to form an outside crust, giving them a bit more protection from getting accidentally squished. This is essential if you plan to transport these cookies from your house to another location or if you want to stack or seal them.
5 from 14 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Crusting All American Buttercream Icing
Prep Time: 1 hour
Mixing Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Author: Leah Buehler

Equipment

  • Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
  • Measuring Spoons & Bowls

Ingredients

  • 1 cup room temperature unsalted butter
  • 1 cup vegetable shortening such as Crisco
  • 2 lbs. plus 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp. clear vanilla extract I use artificial
  • 2-4 tbsp. give or take room temperature whole milk

Instructions

  • In your electric mixer, use the paddle attachment to mix the butter and vegetable shortening together. 
  • Slowly mix in the powdered sugar, only adding as much as your electric mixer can handle at a time.
  • Mix in the vanilla extract and 2 tbsp. of milk. If the mixture is too stiff, add more milk. I prefer a consistency of smooth peanut butter for cookies that have a lot of line work and a slightly stiffer consistency for piping flowers.

Notes

This recipe will store nicely in the fridge for a few weeks in an airtight container. You can also leave your decorated cookies at room temperature for several days, as the frosting will be shelf-stable due to the mixture of sugar and fat.

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

  1. Roll, cut out, and bake your sugar cookies according to your cookie dough recipe.
  2. Make your buttercream icing and separate it into three bowls. Mix your red, white, and blue frosting together. Check out my tip just below on how to make white buttercream frosting if you want a vibrant, true white buttercream.
  3. Set up your icing bags as follows: Place the blue frosting into an icing bag with a tip #5 it. Then, place the red frosting and the white frosting each into their own bags without tips. Cut a whole at the bottom of each of the red and white frosting bags. Prepare an icing bag with a tip #5 in it. Squeeze white frosting up one side of the bag and red frosting up the other side. Check out my video below for a visual. 

How to Make White Buttercream Frosting

Since buttercream frosting is usually made with butter, this results in a slightly yellow-toned buttercream. The white powdered sugar helps add in white but we can make white buttercream even more white if we desire. If you are familiar with the color wheel, the opposite color to yellow is purple. Therefore, all we need to do to make white buttercream is to add just a dot of violet gel food coloring. 

Make sure to add a very small amount of violet color at a time. It is more difficult to try to get white if you’ve gone too violet. I just stick a toothpick into the violet get food dye and add that tiny bit into the buttercream. 

For more tips on how to make white buttercream, check out my more in depth post here: How to Make White Buttercream Frosting

how to make white buttercream frosting with butter
White buttercream on the left and undyed buttercream on the right

For more tips & tricks, make sure to subscribe so you can get your free download!

Part 3: How to Decorate the Patriotic Cookies

Red, White, and Blue Buttercream Heart Cookie

Make sure to check out the full tutorial in the video, including how to set up the piping bags. Then, reference the step-by-step instructions below.

  1. The first step for creating our American flag cookies is to outline and fill in the blue area of the flag onto our heart cookie. 
  2. Next, use the red and white bag of frosting to outline the edge of the heart cookie. I chose to hold my icing bag so that the red frosting was on the top and the white on the bottom (thus not visible for most of the cookie outline) but you can hold it however you’d like.
  3. Lastly, fill in the red and white stripes onto the cookie. To do this, hold the icing bag so that you can see both the red and white frosting from the top. In other words, the red frosting is on the right and the white is on the left, or vice versa. Start out by piping one fill line moving toward the left, then move back to the right once you are ready to create the next line. Make sure to keep your piping bag in the same position the whole time to get the red and white stripe pattern. 

buttercream American flag cookies

Blue Star Cookies

These blue buttercream star cookies are so easy and come together in just two steps.

  1. Outline the edge of the blue star with your blue frosting. Remember that this bag has the tip #5 in it. blue star cookie
  2. Fill in the star with the same blue icing. A tip for filling in odd shapes is to fill in as much as you can with the straight left-to-right and then right-to-left pattern as usual. Then, go back in and fill in the leftover “holes” by squeezing out a small line or a dot to complete the cookie. blue star cookie blue star cookie

That’s it! These patriotic cookies are so easy and fun to share with friends and family. Make them as a gift for a Veteran or bring them to a 4th of July party for dessert.

patriotic sugar cookies

Packaging Buttercream Sugar Cookies

These Fourth of July sugar cookies are the perfect dessert to share with friends and family. If you need to package and transport your cookies, check out my post, My 3 Easy Tips for How to Package Buttercream Sugar Cookies.

Don’t forget to grab your 4th of July party supplies!

I found some great red, white, and blue party supplies on Amazon! Here are a few things I found but certainly there are tons more once you start browsing! 

 

 

Save The Tutorial for These Patriotic Cookies for Later

To save the tutorial for these buttercream sugar 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! As always, thank you for learning how to decorate sugar cookies with me. Have a Happy 4th of July! red white and blue cookies

 

 

 

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6 Comments

  1. Jimmy Clare says:

    I want some cookies right now please

    1. Leah Buehler says:

      There’s never a bad time for cookies!

  2. I did not know that tip about using violet to make buttercream more white. I definitely have to try that out! Your cookies are stunning!

    1. Leah Buehler says:

      Thank you so much and I am glad I could pass on some knowledge!

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