The Best Frosted Heart Sugar Cookies
These Frosted Heart Sugar Cookies are soft and delicious and topped with a scrumptious yet simple strawberry buttercream frosting. They’re perfect for Valentine’s Day!
Table of Contents
I just love these heart cookies. Anytime you can start a recipe with my favorite Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies you know it is going to be fabulous! Using cream cheese in the cookie dough gives them a wonderful flavor and soft texture that lasts for days, making them way better than classic sugar cookies.
Some may prefer using a Glaće Icing but buttercream frosting is where it is at! It is easier to work with and tastes amazing.
Adding strawberry jam to the buttercream gives it the prettiest shade of light pink and a delicious strawberry flavor. If you prefer a deeper shade you can always add a drop or two of red food coloring. I use this strawberry buttercream in these Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cookie Cups too!
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Tips & tricks to achieve the most delicious cookies of your life!
What Goes into this Recipe
Sugar Cookies
- Butter: Softened butter provides richness and flavor to the cookies.
- Cream Cheese: Full fat cream cheese needs to be used in this sugar cookie recipe. A lower fat version will not give you the taste and texture desired.
- Baking Powder: Used instead of baking powder to create a bit of a denser cookie that will not rise much. Allowing them to hold their shape.
Strawberry Buttercream
- Butter: Room temperature and softened butter is important to getting a smooth and creamy buttercream.
- Strawberry Jam: A good quality strawberry jam works great to give this buttercream a wonderful flavor and light pink color.
- Powdered Sugar: The perfect base for sweet buttercream frosting.
See recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations
- Try a different jam in the buttercream to change up the flavor of these Valentine’s Day Cookies.. Raspberry jam would be great on these cookies!
- If you want a smooth frosting for the top of the cookies, use a royal icing or Glacè icing.
- Add other flavors to those delicious valentine sugar cookies. Almond extract, lemon juice and zest, or a touch of cinnamon are perfect ways to kick them up a notch.
- Don’t be afraid to make other shapes! You’ll fall in love with this recipe for Valentine’s Day, but use a different shaped cookie cutter to make this same recipe fit a different occasion.
How to make Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies
- Make the Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Dough in a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer.
- Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours.
- After the dough is chilled remove one section and use a rolling pin to roll it out onto a lightly floured surface.
- Use a cookie cutter to cut the heart-shaped sugar cookies. Place onto a baking sheet covered with a silicone mat {or sheets of parchment paper}. Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes in a 375 degree oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet.
How to make Strawberry Buttercream and Frost Sugar Cookies
- Make the strawberry buttercream using strawberry jam.
- Add the buttercream to a zipper bag {or piping bag} and cut a small triangle from one of the corners. Using a consistent pressure pipe an outline around the edge of each of the sugar cookie hearts.
- Using the same zipper bag of frosting go back and use a zigzag pattern to fill in the center of the baked cutout cookies with strawberry buttercream. There will be a few areas of the cookie without frosting but it doesn’t have to be perfect.
- Working one cookie at a time, go back and add festive sprinkles to the perimeter of the cookies.
Expert Tips
- Make sure the butter and cream cheese are softened. Using ingredients that are cold will not allow the ingredients to mix together well.
- Don’t skip the dough chill. Chilling the dough will allow you to roll and cut the dough much easier.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before frosting. If you try to frost the heart shaped cookies while they are warm the buttercream will melt.
- Add a drop of pink food coloring to the frosting to get a deep pink color. The strawberry jam will color the frosting a light shade of pink but for a deep shade add food color.
- Use a different flavor of jam for the buttercream. If you prefer raspberry or cherry jam add it to the buttercream instead. You can also use totally different jam to get fun cookies with different colors- they don’t have to be pink! You can also add a bit of red food coloring to get a red icing.
Storage and Freezing
Store: Store these heart-shaped cookies in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.
Freeze: Sugar cookies freeze well for up to 3 months as long as they are stored well in an airtight container.
For best results, freeze them without frosting, but they can be frozen either way.
Recipe FAQs
If you do not have a heart shaped cookie cutter then make a stencil from paper and use it as a template. Place cutouts on the dough and cut it in a heart shape with a small knife around the stencil.
There is some wonderful gluten free flour on the market. King Arthur has a brand that measures at a 1:1 ratio. I have not personally tested this recipe with it but it should work fine.
Any kind of frosting that you like can be used on this cookie. This Glaće Icing is fabulous for flooding the cookies and this Marshmallow buttercream would be another good option of piping.
Do you love Valentine’s Day cookies? Try these recipes…
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The Best Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
- 1 cup butter or margarine {softened}
- 8 oz. cream cheese {softened}
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 ¼ cups all purpose flour
Strawberry Buttercream
- ¾ cup butter {softened}
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup strawberry jam {I used seedless}
Sprinkles
Instructions
Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
- In a mixing bowl beat butter or margarine and cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla extract and baking powder. Beat in flour gradually, until completely combined. Divide dough in half, wrap each half in saran wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours {and up to 3 days} or until easy to handle.
- On a lightly floured surface roll dough to about 1/4" thickness. Using a cookie cutter of choice, cut shapes out and place on a silicone mat {or parchment} lined baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 9-10 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly browned. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Strawberry Buttercream
- Combine the butter and powdered sugar in a medium bowl with a hand held mixer. The two ingredients will not totally combine but the butter will break down into smaller pieces. Once that happens add the strawberry jam and continue to mix. It will take 30 seconds to a minute for the mixture to come together into a spreadable buttercream. Add enough milk or cream to make the buttercream piping consistency. Add the mixture to a piping bag or Ziploc bag.
- Take each heart shaped sugar cookie and pipe the outline. Then go back and using a zigzag motion, fill in the middle of each cookie. Add a few sprinkles to each cookie and let them sit at room temperature until the butter cream is set up. Cookies are awesome at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- These heart shaped sugar cookies also freeze well unfrosted for 3 months.
Notes
- Use full fat cream cheese.
- Make sure the butter and cream cheese are softened.
- Don’t skip chilling the cookie dough. Chilling the dough will allow you to roll and cut the dough much easier.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before frosting. If you try to frost the heart shaped cookies while they are warm the buttercream will melt.
- Add a drop of pink food coloring to the frosting to get a deep pink color.
- Use a different flavor of jam for the buttercream. If you prefer raspberry or cherry jam add it to the buttercream instead.
