These easy Easter Egg Sugar Cookies are the perfect Easter dessert recipe for Spring. The sugar cookies are fool-proof and the 3-ingredient cookie icing perfectly sets to make decorating and serving a cinch. Grab your sprinkles and let’s get decorating.
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Easter Egg Sugar Cookie Recipe
Decorating and serving these iced Easter Egg Sugar Cookies is still one of my kids’ favorite traditions at Easter time, along with Carrot Cake Cupcakes, Dying Easter Eggs with Onion Peels, and these cute Deviled Egg Chicks.
We’ve made these for sugar cookies for years, and they are a hit! The recipe is beginner and kid-friendly. It’s similar to my Christmas Sugar Cookies recipe that already has hundreds of 5-star reviews. They hold their shape beautifully when baked and you don’t have to refrigerate the dough so it’s faster!
The Easter sugar cookie icing is easy too—requires just 3 ingredients and can be dyed to get those beautiful pastel colors for the season. During the spring season, you can find the prettiest pastel sprinkles at the store.
Ingredients for Easter Cookies
The ingredients are simple, but here are some key tips:
- Butter – Softened and at room temperature.
- Egg – Room-temperature eggs give a better texture to the cookies
- Sugar – granulated sugar helps give that chewy, airy, and browned texture
- Vanilla extract– use store-bought or homemade Vanilla Extract, or you can swap with any flavored extract.
- Dry ingredients – all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Be sure to measure correctly!
Easy Sugar Cookie Icing Ingredients
- Powdered sugar – also called confectioners sugar, add or remove a tablespoon of this to make the icing thicker or thinner.
- Milk – higher fat milk will make the icing creamier, but any milk will work, even dairy-free alternatives. You can also use lemon or orange juice for a flavored icing.
- Vanilla extract – swap this with any other extract to make different flavors
How to Make Easter Sugar Cookies
My Easter sugar cookies are so simple and tasty. Just be sure the cookies are completely cooled before icing the Easter egg sugar cookies.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F with the racks in the top and bottom third of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Dry ingredients – mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Wet ingredients – Use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar for 3 minutes then beat in the egg and vanilla for another minute.
- Mix batter – Add the flour in 3 parts to the butter mixture, mixing to incorporate. Add a tablespoon of flour until the dough seems ready to roll
- Roll out the dough – divide it into two portions. You can refrigerate for up to an hour, or roll the dough out immediately on a generously floured surface. Make sure your dough isn’t sticking to the counter.
- Cut and bake – Use an Egg-Shaped Cookie Cutter to cut out shapes, and place them on the lined baking sheet (a bench scraper makes moving cutouts easy). Bake for 10-11 minutes until the edges just begin to brown. Cool for 5 minutes on the sheet and then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.
How to Make Icing for Sugar Cookies
- Mix – stir the 3 icing ingredients until smooth. Add more powdered sugar for a thicker consistency or more milk to thin it out. Transfer white icing into a Pastry Bags, squeeze bottle, or zip-top bag, and snip off the corner, or see step 2 to color the icing.
- Add Color – separate the white icing into small bowls, and stir in a small bit of gel food coloring with a toothpick. You just need a tiny bit for pastel colors. If using liquid coloring and the icing gets too thin, add a Tbsp of powdered sugar.
- Glaze – line the outside of the cookie with icing and then fill or flood the inside. Add sprinkles right away before the icing sets.
- Store – the iced cookies can take about 24 hours at room temperature to fully set before storing. Once set, cover and store at room temperature for up to a week.
How to Decorate Sugar Cookies for Easter
If I’m piping designs, I give the icing a few minutes to form a crust, and then go back over the set base layer with more icing to make a design —try polka dots, crisscross lines for a thatched look, or wavy lines.
Make-Ahead and Storage Tips
My Easter egg sugar cookies are easy to share since the icing makes a nice crust and stores at room temperature after fully set.
- Storing Iced Cookies: Once the icing is set, cookies are best at room temperature for 3-4 days.
- Freezing: Freeze the icing, plain cookies, or decorated cookies by placing them in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw on the counter.
Celebrate the Spring holiday season with these beautiful Easter Egg Sugar Cookies. They are a delicious tradition in our home and so much fun to serve—and eat.
Easter Egg Sugar Cookies
This recipe is based on our popular Christmas Sugar cookies but makes a slightly smaller batch and I’m sharing my easiest 3-ingredient icing that sets beautifully on the cookies and is perfect for glazing cookies and decorating. Gather up your favorite Easter cookie cutters and pastel-colored sprinkles and have an Easter cookie decorating party!
Ingredients
Servings: 25 cookies
Ingredients for Easter Sugar Cookies
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, (3/4 cup = 12 Tbsp) softened at room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder, use aluminum free
- 1/4 tsp salt
Icing Ingredients
- 3 cups powdered sugar, or added to desired consistency
- 3-4 Tbsp milk, or added to desired consistency
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Gel food coloring, optional to color the icing
- Sprinkles, optional to decorate cookies
Instructions
How to Make the Sugar Cookies
- Preheat – set the oven to 350˚F with a rack in the upper and lower third of the oven if baking 2 sheets at a time, otherwise put a rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Dry ingredients – In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
- Wet ingredients – Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, 3 minutes. To the mixture add the egg and vanilla and beat for another 1 minute to combine.
- Mix the batter – Reduce the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture in 3 parts, mixing until fully incorporated. If the dough seems too sticky to roll, add 1 Tbsp flour at a time.
- Roll out the dough – Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. You can wrap and refrigerate the dough for 30-60 minutes or proceed with rolling the dough. On a generously floured surface, roll out the dough. Dust the dough with flour if the rolling pin is sticking. Roll the dough to 1/4” thick. Periodically scoot the dough around to check that the dough is not sticking to your work surface. If it is, dust with more flour and proceed.
- Cut and bake – Cut cookies out with an egg-shaped cookie cutter (mine was 2.5 x 3.75 x 1 inches) or your favorite Easter cookie cutter. Gather your scraps and re-roll to make more cookies. Carefully transfer the cookies to a parchment-lined baking sheet – I find it helps to use a food scraper to get under and lift the cookies from the surface without squishing them. Bake at 350˚F for 10-11 minutes or until the eggs are just beginning to turn golden. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely before decorating with icing.
How to Make the Icing and Decorate Cookies
- Mix – In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the icing ingredients until smooth. To thicken the icing, add more powdered sugar and you can thin it out by adding more milk. Transfer to a piping bag or a zip-top bag and snip off the corner to create a hole for creating patterns on your sugar cookies. You can also use a squeeze bottle if you have one.
- Add color – To add color to your glaze, put some of the white icing into a small bowl and add a tiny dot of gel food coloring. To get the soft pastel colors, you can even just use some food coloring on the tip of a toothpick. A little goes a long way! If the colored icing gets too thin, you can add more powdered sugar.
- Decorate – Trace the cookies with icing then fill in as desired. If using sprinkles, add them right away while the icing is still wet so they cling to the icing.
Notes
To Store Cookies: Allow the icing to fully dry out at room temperature for about 24 hours before covering and storing it in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-5 days or freeze for longer storage.
Nutrition Per Serving
173kcal Calories29g Carbs2g Protein6g Fat
Nutrition Facts
Easter Egg Sugar Cookies
Amount per Serving
Calories
173
% Daily Value*
Fat
6
g
9
%
Saturated Fat
4
g
25
%
Trans Fat
0.2
g
Polyunsaturated Fat
0.3
g
Monounsaturated Fat
2
g
Cholesterol
21
mg
7
%
Sodium
28
mg
1
%
Potassium
36
mg
1
%
Carbohydrates
29
g
10
%
Fiber
0.3
g
1
%
Sugar
20
g
22
%
Protein
2
g
4
%
Vitamin A
183
IU
4
%
Calcium
14
mg
1
%
Iron
1
mg
6
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Filed Under
More Easter Dessert Recipes
- Carrot Cake
- Angel Wing Cookies
- Cream Puffs
- Lemon Cheesecake
- Chocolate Lasagna
- Fruit Tart Recipe
- Berry Tiramisu
- Mini Pavlova
- Zeppole
Natasha,
I have to say this was truly the easiest sugar cookie dough I’ve worked with. I am not always the most talented at this, and they came out wonderfully. Not to mention they are delicious.
Thank you for this recipe. I will make sure to keep it for future sugar cookies.
Can the dough be refrigerated overnight (or longer) before rolling and baking the cookies?
HI Maria, that will work fine, but here are a few tips for success: divide the dough into 2 flat disks, about 1/2-inch thick for easier rolling later. Wrap rightly in plastic wrap to prevent drying out and rest the dough for 15 minutes at room temperature before rolling to make it easier to work with.
Delicious sugar cookies!!! I put the icing in the refrigerator for a bit to firm up for decorating.
Hi Harley! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe.
Looks yummy and fun to do! Do you have a low or o sugar recipes? I’m prediabetic so I can’t have sugar cookies and traditional recipes. I bought your cookbook (signed copy) and use it often!
Hello! I don’t have those at the moment but feel free to check my other cookie recipes here and check the comments at the bottom if others have tried the recipe with low or no sugar.
You can use the exact recipe, but substitute allulose for the sugar if you’re diabetic. Allulose does not raise your blood sugar, but the carbs from the flour will still have an effect.