Donut Sugar Cookie Decorating Tutorial

How much do you love perfectly decorated cookies?

Cookie decorating is so much fun especially when you start with an easy tutorial like this. There’s no need to overcomplicate it when you can make something that’s so cute, fun and colorful! This Decorated Donut Cookie is beginner friendly and perfect for anyone regardless of your amount of experience.

So let’s make it!

Ingredients & Supplies to Make Decorated Donut Sugar Cookies

Of course with any decorated cookie – expect a lot of supplies. You will always need shaped cookie cutters and you will always need to make royal icing in several colors.

For supplies you will need your donut shaped cookie cutter (like this one), 1-2 icing bottles or piping bags, a round cookie decorating tip, and your normal cookie making basics like a rolling pin, measuring cups and bowls.

To make your cookies you will need butter, white sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, flour, baking soda, and salt. And to make your royal icing you will need powdered sugar, meringue powder, water, pink food coloring, and long pastel jimmies like these.

How to Make Cut Out Sugar Cookies

If you want to skip ahead and just get to decorating, you can use a refrigerated pre-made sugar cookie dough. Just roll it out, punch in with the cookie cutters, and bake it as the directions say. They are still delicious and can make the whole experience more fun.

But for those of you that want the perfect cookie that is also perfectly decorated, this recipe is one of my favorites.

I’ll give you a similar recipe down in the recipe card. But if you want more detail, the recipe linked here is a good one.

The trick that helps rolled cookies to keep their shape is to chill the dough before you roll it, cut out the shape and then bake it. Ideally, you want to work through these steps quickly, so the dough is still cool when it’s placed in the oven.

Cold dough doesn’t rise as much, so it’s a great way for your cookies to keep their shape and not become warbly weird versions of their original shape. But this also means you need to make your dough early to give it enough time to chill.

Why Do We Use Royal Icing for Cookie Decorating?

Royal icing is just like regular icing with meringue powder or egg whites added. It helps the icing to stay stiff and hold its shape. It can help you sculpt and build layers of icing.

Meringue powder is more ideal than using egg whites for a few different reasons. First of all, it’s more shelf stable and can help prolong the life of the cookie. It’s considered safer to eat. And meringue powder mimics meringue not just egg whites.

Lucky for us, we’re only making 1 color of icing – pink! Every brand of food dye can be slightly different so don’t be surprised if you need to add more or less color than what the recipe calls for. If you want to make a second color, you could make chocolate frosted donut cookies and use a deep brown food color in the icing.

First Flood the Cookie

The first step with any cookie decorating is to flood the cookie. That’s when you create an outline around the outer edge of the cookie. And in this case, make a 2nd flood along the inside hole of the donut shape.

We get to make a wavy line that doesn’t need to be perfect! There’s a lot of opportunity to learn. Once you flood the cookie, let the frosting dry for just a minute or so.

Then Fill the Cookie

Then fill the cookie by spreading icing in between the lines you created. Work quickly so you can add the sprinkles!

Add the Sprinkles While the Icing is Still Soft

You always want to add sprinkles while the icing is still soft. Otherwise, if you are using chunky sprinkles, you could add a tiny dab of frosting to the individual sprinkles to attach them. But even these sprinkles aren’t big enough for that!

Shake and spread an even amount across the entire cookie. The let the icing finish setting.

How to Serve Decorated Sugar Cookies

Decorated cookies have to be shown off! They are just so cute. These would be a great addition to a birthday party or a shower. You could add them to a tiered platter or just a cutting board.

You could package them individually and use these stickers to add a fun donut theme to the packaging.

Decorated cookies are always delicious with coffee – because they are so perfect for dipping. For kids, hot chocolate would be perfect!

How to Store Decorated Sugar Cookies

Decorated Sugar Cookies store so well! Leave them at room temperature in an air tight container. You can layer them with wax paper if necessary. The fridge is okay too but don’t be surprised if they dry out a little faster that way.

Feeling inspired to make your own Decorated Donut Sugar Cookies? Tell us how they turn out in the comments. And check out these other tutorials below if you are looking for some easy, dreamy desserts.

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