Red Velvet Sugar Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Red Velvet Sugar Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting are soft sugar cookies with added cocoa powder and red food coloring, frosted in cream cheese buttercream.
Servings: 36 cookies
Calories: 312kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks / 226 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ¼ cups (250 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (94 g) confectioners' sugar
- ¾ cup (168 g) vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 5 ¼ cups (656 g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (29.5 g) cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- red gel food coloring** (4-10 drops)
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 block (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
- ½ cup (1 stick / 113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups (500 g) confectioners' sugar
Instructions
Sugar Cookie
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine butter, granulated sugar, and confectioners' sugar. Mix on medium speed until just combined.
- Drizzle in oil and add eggs. Mix well.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, and salt.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Allow the mixer to combine until the dough pulls away from the sides of the mixer bowl.
- Gently stir in food coloring until well mixed and a dark red color is achieved.
- Using a 2-tablespoon scoop, drop the golf-ball size portions of dough onto a lined baking sheet.
- Roll each cookie dough ball until it is smooth and round.
- Using the bottom of a wet kitchen glass that has been pressed into granulated sugar, press down on each cookie dough ball until the center of the cookie is pressed flatter than the edges. Repeat this on all cookies.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes, or until the center no longer appears wet. Allow the cookies to cool as you make the frosting.
- NOTE: It is important to NOT over-bake the cookies. Be sure to check your cookies at 7 minutes. Every oven is different and over-baking can result in a tough, crumbly, tasteless cookie. Let your first batch be a test batch so you can ensure the remaining cookies are perfect and soft!
Cream Cheese Frosting*
- Place room-temperature cream cheese, butter, and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer and blend for 1-2 minutes on medium speed until fully incorporated. (You can also use a hand-held mixer.)
- Add confectioners' sugar, one cup at a time, until the frosting is light and creamy. Spread or pipe the frosting over the cooled cookies. (I used 2-3 tablespoons of frosting per cookie.)
Video
Notes
*Depending on how much frosting you use for each cookie, you may have some left over.
**If you are using liquid red food coloring you will use 1-2 ounces depending on how deep you want the red.
Nutrition
Calories: 312kcal