Butter Icing for Sugar Cookies

Name: Butter Icing for Sugar Cookies
Yield: 1 cup
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups confectioners' sugar; 3 tablespoons butter, softened; 1 tablespoon vanilla extract; 1 tablespoon milk; 3 drops red food coloring; 1 (2.25 ounce) jar red decorator sugar

Rating: 4.4 stars

295 Ratings
235 Reviews
36 Photos

Here's a terrific recipe for icing sugar cookies, no raw egg whites. For any recipes that require egg whites, you can purchase dried, powdered egg whites at cake-decorating supply stores that can be substituted in most recipes calling for the regular raw egg whites, then you can still lick the bowl!

By Cali

Gallery

Recipe Summary

Servings:

Yield:

1 cup

Nutrition Info

Ingredients

Original recipe yields 8 servings

The ingredient list now reflects the servings specified

1 ½ cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk
3 drops red food coloring
1 (2.25 ounce) jar red decorator sugar

Directions

Step 1

Combine confectioners' sugar butter, vanilla and milk, beating until creamy. Thin with a few more drops of milk (if necessary) to reach desired spreading consistency. Stir in optional food coloring. Spread frosting over cooled cookies and decorate with colored sugar, if desired.

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Nutrition Facts

Per Serving:

162 calories; protein 0.1g; carbohydrates 30.6g; fat 4.4g; cholesterol 11.6mg; sodium 31.9mg. Full Nutrition

Reviews (235)

Most helpful positive review

LisaMarie

12/07/2005

I've used this recipe a few times now. And I love it. I just want to leave a note about the vanilla. It seems that when using real vanilla extract 1 teaspoon is plenty and when using imitation vanilla the tablespoon is more appropriate. Thanks to everyone else who rated this first or I might not have figured out what was wrong. Read More

Helpful

(409)

Most helpful critical review

Angie-One Love

09/30/2003

This recipe is good yet I made some adjustments to make it better. Instead of butter I used cream cheese the icing seemed to hold together better and I used almond flavoring in place of vanilla. After my slight adjustments I can then make this icing thick enough for cinnamon rolls or thin enough to 'paint' my christmas cookies. Thanks for the submission. Read More

Helpful

(387)

295 Ratings

5 star values: 194
4 star values: 59
3 star values: 22
2 star values: 6
1 star values: 14

Reviews: Most Helpful

Most Helpful Most Positive Least Positive Newest

LisaMarie

12/07/2005

Helpful

(409)

Angie-One Love

09/30/2003

Helpful

(387)

Laura

03/22/2008

This was a wonderfully simple icing recipe. Instead of using the full tablespoon of vanilla I used just 1 tsp of almond flavoring and it turned out great especially when paired with the cream cheese sugar cookies recipe from this site. Add a few drops of different colors spoon into a ziploc baggie and I was good to go. After about 2-3 hours the icing hardened enough to stack the cookies. Read More

Helpful

(252)

37cookies

08/31/2004

I usually read the reviews first and boy do I wish I had this time! I was in a hurry so used 1 TBSP of Pure Vanilla Extract... Oh My Gosh! I added Cherry Flavoring to try to hide the vanilla taste as well as more margarine and powder sugar. Definitely NOT 1 TBSP of Vanilla! It was alright besides the strong strong vanilla taste. Seems to set o.k. Pretty glaze w/red food coloring. Read More

Helpful

(73)

ernesta

07/22/2007

the flavor is good but it didn't harden like i wish it would. the icing smeared after i placed the cookies in their bags... Read More

Helpful

(70)

ERIN CARO

12/09/2003

This recipe was fast and turned out very creamy. However it calls for WAY too much vanilla. Half the amount is a better guess. Read More

Helpful

(50)

Tonysgdbg

12/17/2010

Great recipe! I doubled the batch, only used 2 tsps of Vanilla (total) and subbed half-n-half for the milk (it makes the frosting stiffer). also in a double batch, I only used 2 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar. Frosting dried with in an hour, looks great, tastes even better! Read More

Helpful

(45)

CLH201

11/05/2003

The whole tablespoon of vanilla was too much-and without the foodcoloring it makes brown icing. I would lessen the vanilla to a tsp. not a whole tablespoon. Read More

Helpful

(39)

Samantha Stobbe

12/09/2003

This is an easy and yummy recipe for frosting. It is a little too heavy on the vanilla so I cut it back. Read More

Helpful

(34)

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All Reviews

the flavor is good but it didn't harden like i wish it would. the icing smeared after i placed the cookies in their bags...

This recipe was fast and turned out very creamy. However it calls for WAY too much vanilla. Half the amount is a better guess.

The whole tablespoon of vanilla was too much-and without the foodcoloring it makes brown icing. I would lessen the vanilla to a tsp. not a whole tablespoon.