State Fair Carnival Decorated Cookies with Buttercream

The fair is coming to my town soon so of course I needed to make some carnival decorated cookies!

It’s crazy to think I’ve been decorating buttercream sugar cookies for four summers now and I’m just now doing a carnival cookie set. These are more “state fair cookies” than circus cookies.

This buttercream cookie set includes a tutorial for each of these designs:

• cotton candy buttercream sugar cookie,
• corn dog buttercream sugar cookie,
• Ferris wheel buttercream sugar cookie,
• shaved ice buttercream sugar cookie,
• carnival swings buttercream sugar cookie,
• and soft pretzel buttercream sugar cookie 

There’s a lot to go over so let’s get started!

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Part 1: Gathering the Supplies for the Carnival Decorated Cookies

To decorate these carnival/state fair cookies, you will want to gather:

• 6 Icing bags
• Four Wilton #4 tips, Two #12 tips, and a #44 tip
• One PME 1.5 tip
• 2 Couplers
• Circle cookie cutter, snow globe cookie cutter, square cookie cutter, Easter egg cookie cutter, cotton candy cookie cutter, and corn dog cookie cutter *I hand cut my corn dog cookie cutter and used a bundle of grapes cookie cutter for the cotton candy 
• Pink, yellow, violet, brown, and black gel food dye
• Palette knife (I use this one for these cookies!)
• Clear sanding sugar
• Ingredients for a crusting buttercream & sugar cookie dough – found below in recipe card
• Plate
• Projector and projector stand *optional, you can also freehand, which is what I did for this set

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

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

State Fair Carnival Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

These sugar cookies are buttery and soft as they are topped with a vanilla buttercream frosting. Show them off as a party decoration and enjoy them as a fancy treat for feeling like you're at the carnival!

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
• Parchment paper
• Plate
• Gel food dye
• Sanding sugar

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 State Fair 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 six bowls:

• • • one bowl only needs about 1/4 cup of frosting – dye this frosting black
    • the remaining five bowls can be divided equally – leave one undyed/white, dye one yellow, one purple, one pink, and one light brown

To set up the piping bags:

• place the PME 1.5 tip into an icing bag and add the black buttercream
• place a tip #4 into two icing bags – place the yellow in one bag and purple in the other
• place a tip #12 into one icing bag and put the tan buttercream into it
• place couplers into two icing bags – put the pink in one bag and the white in the other

Part 3: Decorating the Carnival Decorated Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

Check out the video tutorial showing the overall process for decorating the buttercream state fair cookies then follow the step-by-step photo series tutorial below.

How to Decorate the Cotton Candy Cookies with Buttercream

1. Attach the Wilton tip #4 to the white buttercream and draw a line for the cotton candy stick.
2. Attach the Wilton tip #12 to the pink buttercream and pipe the cotton candy. Start at the bottom and swirl up as you pipe.

How to Decorate the Corn Dog Cookies with Buttercream

1. Attach the Wilton tip #44 to the white buttercream and pipe a line for the corn dog stick.
2. Attach the Wilton tip #12 to the tan buttercream and outline and fill in the corn dog shape.
3. Use the palette knife to smooth the tan buttercream.
4. Attach the Wilton tip #2 to the yellow buttercream to pipe a squiggle line for the mustard.

How to Decorate the Ferris Wheel Cookies with Buttercream

1. Attach the tip #4 to the purple buttercream and pipe out an abstract shape at the top of the cookie. Repeat with the pink and yellow buttercream.
2. Using the palette knife, smooth the frosting out. You can (and should) move some of the frosting into the other colors as you smooth it out. To get a really smooth appearance, use my freezer method I explain in my Christmas cookies class.
3. Using the black buttercream with the PME 1.5 tip, place a dot in the center of the cookie. Then, draw two angled lines out toward the bottom of the cookie.
4. Continue to create the support beams for the Ferris wheel cookies with the black frosting.
5. Draw two circles for the Ferris wheel, making sure to leave room on each side of the larger circle for the chairs. Draw the spokes and then color in part of the support beams.
6. Draw the basic shape of the Ferris wheel seats onto the outer circle. Pay attention to the position of the seats, as the one at the top should be hanging below the outer circle.
7. Lastly, color in the bottom part of the seats for the final touch.

How to Decorate the Shaved Ice Cookies with Buttercream

1. Attach the tip #4 to the purple buttercream and pipe out one section of the shaved ice. Then, repeat for the yellow and pink buttercream frosting.
2. Pour some clear sanding sugar onto a plate. Flip the cookie upside down onto the sanding sugar sprinkles and press the cookie into the plate gently. You may need to press a few times to cover all the buttercream.
3. If needed, use the palette knife to maneuver the frosting into a straight line. Then, use the white buttercream with tip #4 to outline and fill in the snow cone cup.
4. Outline the edge of the cup once more to complete the cookie.

How to Decorate the Carnival Swings Cookies with Buttercream

1. Use the white buttercream with tip #4 to outline and fill in the square cookies. Then, smooth the frosting with the palette knife. 
2. Attach a tip #4 to the purple buttercream and draw the basic outline shape of the carnival swings.
3. Attach a tip #4 to the white buttercream to pipe the rest of the tent and some lines onto the middle support.
4. Attach a tip #4 to the yellow buttercream to pipe dots onto the bottom of the tent and the bottom support to represent lights.
5. Using the black buttercream with the PME 1.5 tip, pipe six horizontal lines on the bottom of the tent. Then, pipe six angled lines in between the tent and the bottom support.
6. To create the swings, use the black buttercream to start at the center of the top lines and pipe to the outer edges of the bottom lines. Then, use the tip #4 on the pink buttercream to pipe small lines for the seats.
7. Lastly, use the black buttercream to outline everything except for the yellow lights.

How to Decorate the Hot Pretzel Cookies with Buttercream

1. Use the white buttercream with tip #4 to outline and fill in the circle cookies. Then, smooth the buttercream with the palette knife.
2. Attach the tip #12 to the tan buttercream and pipe the beginning of the pretzel. Start at the top, then draw counterclockwise.
3. Complete the pretzel by piping the twist.
4. Use some of the sanding sugar sprinkles to place “salt” onto the pretzel.

Save the Tutorial for These Carnival Decorated Cookies

Use the image below to pin this tutorial for buttercream state fair cookies to your birthday 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.