Frosted Sugar Cookies

By Eric Kim

Updated February 12, 2025

  • Yossy Arefi for The New York Times (Photography and Styling)
Media 1 of 2
Total Time
55 minutes
Rating
5(3,142)
Comments
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In 1994, Lofthouse Cookies hit American grocery store shelves like a frosted meteorite. If you grew up in the suburbs, then you may have had one: soft, cakey, melt-in-your-mouth. Unlike their clamshell counterparts, which contain margarine, these homemade versions are made with butter and cream cheese, both of which add wonderful flavor that margarine alone does not. Be sure to freeze your dough for the full 15 to 20 minutes: Not only does this chill the fat, helping the cookies maintain their shape in the oven later, but it also allows the flour to hydrate and the flavors to concentrate. A relic of childhood shored into the present, these cookies are not unlike the tops of vanilla cupcakes, devoid at last of their dry, frosting-less bottoms. Freeze-dried raspberries lend a welcome tartness to the buttercream, not to mention a plush, candy-pink hue. (Watch Eric Kim make his Frosted Sugar Cookies here.)

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Ingredients

Yield:About 15 cookies

FOR THE COOKIES

  • ½ cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature

  • 3 ounces/85 grams cream cheese, at room temperature

  • 1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar

  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt

  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature

  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

  • 2 ¼ cups/285 grams cake flour

  • 2 teaspoons baking powder

  • Sprinkles, for garnish

FOR THE FROSTING

  • 1 cup/30 grams freeze-dried raspberries, finely ground in a food processor or spice grinder

  • 1 cup/225 grams unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature

  • 2 cups/245 grams confectioners’ sugar

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • Pinch of kosher salt

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving

46 grams carbs; 79 milligrams cholesterol; 384 calories; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 13 grams saturated fat; 21 grams fat; 150 milligrams sodium; 3 grams protein; 31 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the cookies: In a large bowl, using a spoon, cream the butter, cream cheese, sugar and salt until smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, and whisk to incorporate some air and to dissolve the sugar crystals, about 1 minute. Stir in the flour and baking powder until just incorporated.

  2. Step 2

    Heat oven to 350 degrees and line two rimmed sheet pans with parchment paper. Using two spoons or a cookie scooper, plop out 2-tablespoon/50-gram rounds spaced a couple of inches apart. (You should get about 7 to 8 cookies per sheet pan.) Place the sheet pans in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky and easier to handle.

  3. Step 3

    While the dough chills, make the frosting: In a fine-mesh sieve set over a medium bowl, sift the ground raspberries, using a spoon to help pass them through, until most of the ruby-red powder is in the bowl and most of the seeds are left behind in the sieve. (Discard the seeds.)

  4. Step 4

    To the bowl, add the 1 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt and, with an electric hand mixer, mix on low speed until the butter absorbs the sugar. Then, turn the speed up to high and beat until the frosting doubles in size, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure all the ingredients are incorporated. Transfer the frosting to a small container, cover tightly, and set aside. (You should have about 2 cups of frosting.)

  5. Step 5

    Remove the sheet pans from the freezer. Roll the chilled dough into even balls and flatten them slightly with your fingers so they’re about 2 inches wide and 1 inch high. Bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes, rotating the pans and switching racks halfway through, or until they no longer look wet on top, are still light in color and spring back to the touch. They will puff up and crack slightly. Let cool completely on the sheet pan. (They will continue to cook as they sit.)

  6. Step 6

    Using a butter knife or offset spatula, frost each cooled cookie with the raspberry frosting and adorn with the sprinkles.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
3,142 user ratings
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Comments

HilNYC

Freezer trick that seems to work for small spaces: make the dough and put in a thick line of plastic wrap. Roll into a tube and freeze. Cut the dough into even cylinders and bake. Much easier than making the cookies and freezing on cookie sheets in our small NYC apartment freezer.

James

Trader Joe's sells freeze dried raspberries.

rasberry sub?

Dying to make these today and can't find freeze dried raspberries. Any substitution thoughts?

hope

these cookies are incredible!! I made them and my roomate said they were the best cookies she’s ever had. I got the freeze dried strawberries from Trader Joe’s, and didn’t have a sieve to get rid of the seeds, so I just crushed everything up together and it was still incredible. cookies were so chewy and thick. amazing !!

Sarah

3 sticks of butta

Raspberries

Step 4 should include adding the raspberry powder.

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