Easy Valentine Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles
16 - 16Shares
Nothing beats a delicious buttercream frosted sugar cookie with sprinkles on Valentine’s Day. These Valentine sugar cookies with sprinkles will spark joy and heartwarming feelings this holiday.
What’s even better about these sugar cookies is that they are easy to bake, frost, and decorate. Everyone can help decorate cookies for some fun family time.
I’ve included how to make a fancier ruffle cookie with sprinkles and an easier, beginner friendly option.
With lots of fun sprinkle mixes to choose from and plenty of Valentine’s Day colors, your creative options are almost endless.
Let’s get to baking and decorating!
*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.*
Skip to
How to Make Valentine Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles
I find the best order is to make & bake the cookies, then work on the frosting while the cookies are cooling. The frosting needs room temperature butter for the best texture. That being said, you will bring out all the butter at first, using the salted butter for the cookies and the unsalted will be set aside to come to room temperature.
To make these cute Valentine sugar cookies with sprinkles, you will need:
- one heart cookie cutter – or a few if you want various sizes
- gel food dye in your desired heart shade(s) – I’m using Wilton Rose and Wilton No-Taste Red
- an amazing sugar cookie dough recipe, see below
- a delicious vanilla buttercream frosting recipe, see below
- measuring cups & spoons, a mixing bowl, plastic wrap, rolling pin, and lined cookie sheet
- pretty Valentine’s Day sprinkle mix and/or sanding sugar
- optional – Wilton size 32 decorating tip, icing bag, and/or palette knife
To make deliciously soft no-chill cut out sugar cookies, you’ll need:
- flour
- baking powder
- an egg
- vanilla extract
- salted butter
- granulated sugar
To make your kids’ new favorite buttercream frosting, you’ll need:
- unsalted butter
- powdered sugar
- vanilla extract
- milk
- gel food dye of choice
The Sugar Cookie Recipe
First, mix the dry ingredients. Grab a medium sized mixing bowl and add in three cups of flour. Remember, when measuring flour, do the spoon & scrape method.
What’s the spoon & scrape method? Simply use a spoon to spoon flour into your measuring cup. Once you have a mound at the top, take a knife and scrape it over the top of the measuring cup.
Alternatively, use a kitchen scale and measure out 384 grams of flour.
Next, add two teaspoons of baking powder into the mixing bowl.
Stir the dry ingredients together and then set this bowl aside.
Grab your stand mixer and attach the paddle attachment.
In the stand mixer, add in one cup (or two sticks) of cold, cubed, salted butter. Cubing the butter just helps it to stay in the bowl and cream into the sugar.
To the butter, add in one cup of granulated white sugar. Cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed.
Next, mix in one egg and one tablespoon of vanilla extract. Slowly spoon in some of the flour and baking powder mixture and mix until it’s all been added.
The dough will pull away from the sides when it is ready. If it is too sticky, add in a tablespoon of flour. It’s better to go with more than less flour here.
Place the cookies onto a lined cookie sheet. Don’t overcrowd the cookie sheet, you can do multiple batches if necessary or use multiple cookie trays.
Bake for 7-10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or until the middle of the cookie doesn’t look wet. Sometimes it forms a bit of a bump on the top of the cookie which also means they are done.
Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for at least 5 minutes if doing multiple rounds before moving them with a spatula to a piece of parchment paper.
The Buttercream Frosting Recipe
In your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, whip the room temperature unsalted butter for several minutes, until fluffy. The longer you whip the butter here, the lighter your butter will be in color.
I have some hints on achieving whiter buttercream if you want to go with a nice white frosting as your sprinkle background.
If you aren’t going with a white buttercream, it’s still nice to get to a light buttercream so that the colors you choose to dye it with will be more accurate without a yellow undertone to combat.
Next, add in two cups of powdered sugar. Cover the stand mixer with a paper towel and mix on LOW speed until combined. Add in two more cups of powdered sugar, a tablespoon of vanilla extract, and a tablespoon of whole milk.
Cover the stand mixer with a towel again and mix on low until well combined. You may need to use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides.
If the frosting is too thick to work with, add in up to two more tablespoons of milk. I prefer my buttercream frosting to be the consistency of smooth peanut butter.
If using multiple shades of buttercream frosting, separate the frosting into smaller bowls and dye the frosting accordingly. If only using one shade of buttercream you can mix the gel food dye into the buttercream in the stand mixer. Remember to still only mix on low.
Mixing anything faster than low speed will introduce air bubbles into your frosting.
Frosting the Valentine Cookies an Adding the Sprinkles
You can go simple with these cookies or you can jazz them up with a star piping tip. To make the red hearts shown, place the buttercream frosting into an icing bag with a tip #32 decorating tip.
Pipe vertical lines in rows onto the heart cookies using the star tip. You will want to start with the opening of the tip directly on the cookie, pull up as you squeeze the icing bag, and then move down. If you think of it as piping a small hill, you’ve got it.
To decorate the pink hearts shown, simply use a palette knife or butter knife and frost the cookie. Simple is still super cute, and, not to mention, delicious.
When it comes to adding sprinkles, you can either:
- dump the sprinkles into a plate and dip the frosted cookies into the plate
- pour sprinkles onto the cookies
The sprinkles are definitely the easiest part. I love to mix sprinkles from different mixes together, too. There are so many fun options so be creative, invite your kids, or make it a date.
You can leave these cookies out on the counter, as the buttercream frosting is stable at room temperature due to the high sugar content. I like to store mine in air tight containers for up to a week, if they last that long. For tips on storing buttercream sugar cookies, check out my post on how to package buttercream sugar cookies.
If you prefer, you can freeze the Valentine sugar cookies with sprinkles in an air tight container for up to three months.
I’d love to know in the comments below, do you prefer a cookie with or without sprinkles?
Cut Out Valentine Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- Rubber Spatula
- Medium Sized Mixing Bowl
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Lined cookie sheet line with a silicone mat or parchment paper
- Rolling Pin
- Heart cookie cutter
- Disposable icing bag, decorating tip, and palette knife optional
Ingredients
Heart Sugar Cookies
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 cup cold salted butter cubed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
- 1-3 tbsp. whole milk
- gel food dye
- Valentine's Day sprinkles
Instructions
- While you will make the cookies first, you will want to set the unsalted butter out so that it comes to room temperature. The unsalted butter will be used when preparing the buttercream.
Heart Sugar Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, add in the flour and baking powder. Stir the ingredients to combine them.
- In the stand mixer, cream the salted butter and sugar together until all of the butter lumps are gone.
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until just combined.
- Slowly add the flour and baking powder mixture into the wet ingredients until the dough forms a ball. If the ball is very sticky, add another tablespoon of flour.
- Roll the dough onto a floured surface or piece of parchment paper and use the heart cookie cutter to cut out the cookies.
- Place the cut out cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with a silicone mat. Do not overcrowd the pan. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the center of the cookies do not appear wet.
- Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a piece of parchment paper. Repeat the cookie baking process for all remaining cookies.
Frosting the Valentine Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles
- Add the room temperature unsalted butter to the stand mixer and mix with the paddle attachment until lighter in color.
- Add the powdered sugar to the mixer, along with the vanilla extract and one tablespoon of milk.
- Place a clean towel over the stand mixer and mix on low speed until the sugar is incorporated. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides if needed.
- If the frosting is thicker than a creamy peanut butter consistency, add in 1-2 more tablespoons of milk.
- If using multiple shades of buttercream frosting, divide the frosting up and dye the buttercream accordingly. If only using one color, add the gel food dye to the mixing bowl and mix on low speed or use a spatula to mix in the color.
- Frost the cookies and place the sprinkles onto the cookies. Either use a palette knife or butter knife to spread frosting onto the cookie or use icing bags and decorating tips.
Notes
Save the Recipe for Valentine Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles for Later
Use the image below to pin this lovely sugar cookie recipe to your Valentine or holiday 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.
