It’s not often that I do iced cookies. Generally, I don’t have the patience for them, but the one time of year I will go crazy with them is Christmas.
I love a well iced cookie, but I as I mentioned, patience for whipping up royal icing, coloring it and then waiting for each color layer to dry isn’t something I’m too wiling to do. Especially, not when I’m knee-deep in deadlines, tired from sleepless nights with an infant and everything else life demands.
But this year, with the little guy old enough to ice, I’m rotating decorated sugar cookies into our holiday baking routine. To keep iced sugar cookies kid-friendly and doable for a 7-year-old, I started with Betty Crocker’s Sugar Cookie mix and used my poured buttercream method with Betty Crocker’s Rich and Creamy frosting to cover the cookie. From there I kept the design simple by using only one color and accenting the tree with a string of lights dotted by confetti sprinkles for the colored bulbs.
And look-ie there, I’m so happy with the way these turned out. Now that the test run is done, I can’t wait for next weekend when I’ll be making these with my little guy and my niece – while their’s may not be as precise, I have no doubt they will look great and they will have so much fun making these.
Here are a few tips for working with poured buttercream (Betty Crocker’s Rich and Creamy Frosting):
- Make sure the consistency is pourable and resembles thick melted chocolate.
- To achieve the correct consistency use a 2:1 ratio when heating the frosting—that’s two scoops of frosting heated in a bowl with ten second bursts in the microwave, then add one scoop of unheated frosting to the bowl. Mix to combine. If it’s too thin add more unheated frosting. If it’s too thick, heat more frosting and add it to the mixture.
- Make sure the pourable buttercream frosting is well mixed or it will be streaky once dried.
- For best results work in small batches.
That’s it, you are good to go. Yay to kid friendly holiday baking! For more kid-friendly baking ideas check out the links below and grab some inspiration here:
- Betty Crocker Kid’s Cookie Corner Hub

Decorated Christmas Tree Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 package of Betty Crocker's Sugar Cookies
- 2 cans of Betty Crocker's Vanilla Rich and Creamy Frosting
- 4 tablespoons confetti sprinkles
Instructions
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Line bakesheets with parchment paper.
1. Mix sugar cookies according to packaged instructions. Roll out dough and using your preferred Christmas cookie cutter, stamp out cookies. Transfer cookies to parchment lined bakesheet. Bake according to package. Transfer baked cookies to wire rack and cool completely.
2. In a bowl, heat 1/2 cup of frosting in microwave with 10-second bursts. Add 1/4 cup of unheated frosting to heated mixture and stir to combine. Make sure it is well combined or the frosting will be streaky once dried. **See notes for more tips.
3. Place one cookie on a wire rack with a bowl underneath (to catch excess and reuse), pour heated buttercream on top. Continue to pour and cover all cookies. To pipe the string of lights, follow step two, but add two additional spoons of unheated frosting to the heated mixture for a thicker consistency needed for the piping. Place piping mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a round #3 tip. Pipe a sqiggly line across the cookie and dot with confetti sprinkles. Set aside to dry completely.
Notes
Make sure the consistency is pourable and resembles thick pouring chocolate.
- 1 Make sure the consistency is pourable and resembles thick pouring chocolate.
- 2 To achieve the correct consistency use a 2:1 ratio when heating the frosting—that's two scoops of frosting heated in a bowl with ten second bursts in the microwave, then add one scoop of unheated frosting to the bowl. Mix to combine. If it's too thin add more unheated frosting. If it's two thick, heat more frosting and add it to the mixture.
- 3 Make sure the pourable buttercream frosting is well mixed or it will be streaky once dried.
- 4 For best results work in small batches.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Betty Crocker . The opinions and text are all mine. Thank you for supporting the companies that continue to make Bakers Royale possible.
These Christmas trees are so pretty!
So pretty, I’d love to decorate a holiday dessert bar with those trees!
These are beautiful! Your cookie decorating skills are perfect!
Naomi, these cookies are gorgeous! so festive!
So pretty. I love the whimsical strings of lights!
Love these cute Xmas trees..
There aren’t words for how much I love these!
these are awfully cute Naomi! love how easy these are!
these are so cute!! I love them!
These are seriously pretty cookies!!!
These sugar cookies look amazing! Love the icing and decoration!
These are so elegant and festive looking – plus, they seem so easy to make!
Lovely take on a classic. These beauties perfectly match the freshly fallen snow we have. 🙂
These are such pretty Christmas cookes & yay to making our lives easier with this frosting!!
These are absolutely gorgeous! Perfectly decorated and just so fun! The perfect thing for this time of year 🙂
Gorgeous little decorated Christmas Tree Cookies!!
These are so pretty, Naomi! I’m with you. Christmas is just about the only time of year where I will ice cookies. Pinned!