Starbucks Red Cup Cookies
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A fun Christmas Sugar Cookie recipe for Starbucks fans, these Starbucks Red Cup Cookies are deceptively easy to make and super cute to serve or gift throughout the holiday season.
Starbucks Christmas Cookie Recipe
Whether you’re a red cup aficionado yourself, or (like me) simply a parent of a teenager that is obsessed with all things Starbucks, these easy sugar cookies are a fun Christmas cookie that will help your drive-thru budget stretch just a little bit further.
While these Starbucks Red Cup sugar cookies look just as good as anything you might get from the bakery case, they are incredibly easy to make at home – even if you don’t have previous sugar cookie decorating experience.
Follow our tips below, and use pre-made sugar cookie dough, for the best results in making these cookies for yourself.
(You can use our homemade sugar cookie dough recipe here, however, the real star of this recipe is the cute decoration so while I find my homemade sugar cookie recipe worlds better than pre-made dough, if you are pressed for time, opt to spend your time on the sugar cookie decorating.)
Additional decorating tips:
- Polka Dots: before the flooded area dries, add dots of different colored icing.
- Zig zag design: before the flooded area dries, add stripes of different colored icing and then drag a toothpick through the stripes.
- Sprinkles: before the flooded area dries, add sprinkles.
- Plaid pattern: allow the flooded icing to dry. Add stripes of icing to the cookie, creating a plaid pattern.
- Candy: glue to the cookie with a drop of icing.
- Edible marker: before using on the icing, allow the icing to completely harden for at least four hours.
How to store decorated sugar cookies: The decorated sugar cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks, although I would recommend consuming or gifting within the first week.
How to freeze sugar cookies: The unbaked dough can be frozen for up to a month. Some people may say that the cookie dough can be frozen for up to three months, but you will see a quality loss around the 2 month mark.
Baked cookies can be stored for a month.
Starbucks Sugar Cookies Ingredients
Cookie Ingredients:
Royal Icing Ingredients:
- Powdered confectioner’s sugar
- Meringue powder
- Room temperature water
- Gel Food Coloring <– this set of food coloring has lasted me forever and I love that it creates highly saturated colors with just a drop
Scroll down to the printable recipe card for full measurements.
Tip: feel free to use our homemade sugar cookie dough recipe found here in place of the pre-made cookie dough called for in this recipe.
Kitchen Tools You May Find Helpful
- Electric mixer <– this is a great hand mixer if you don’t want to make the investment into a stand mixer
- Mixing bowls
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Rolling Pin
- Baking sheet
- Wire rack
- Cookie Cutters
- Icing bottles
- Icing tips
- Toothpick
How to Make Starbucks Red Cup Cookies
Combine dough and flour. Roll to ¼” thickness. Cut out cookie shapes. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes or until the edges start to brown.
In a stand mixer combine sugar and meringue powder. Add 8 tablespoons of water, using the whisk attachment, beat for 1 minute on low. Continue to add water one tablespoon at a time until the icing slowly drizzles from the whisk when lifted.
Once prepared – if the icing is too hard, add more water one drop at a time. Too runny, add more icing sugar one teaspoon at a time.
Separate the icing into small mixing bowls and add desired food coloring. Mix well. Scoop the icing into piping bags or icing bottles.
Decorating instructions:
Line around the edge of the design with icing and fill the middle. Use a toothpick to poke bubbles or direct icing into holes. Allow each design area to dry before moving on.
The icing should completely dry, at room temperature for at least four hours, before adding piping details to the top.
Pin this Easy Starbucks Red Cup Sugar Cookie recipe for a fun treat without the pricetag:
Grab your free printable recipe card for our Starbucks Red Cup Sugar Cookies recipe:
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Starbucks Red Cup Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie Ingredients:
- 1 package Pillsbury refrigerated sugar cookie dough
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
Royal Icing Ingredients:
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons meringue powder
- 8-12 tablespoons room temperature water
- Gel Food Coloring
Instructions
- Combine dough and flour. Roll to ¼” thickness. Cut out cookie shapes. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes or until the edges start to brown.
- In a stand mixer combine sugar and meringue powder. Add 8 tablespoons of water, using the whisk attachment, beat for 1 minute on low. Continue to add water one tablespoon at a time until the icing slowly drizzles from the whisk when lifted.
- Once prepared - if the icing is too hard, add more water one drop at a time. Too runny, add more icing sugar one teaspoon at a time.
- Separate the icing into small mixing bowls and add desired food coloring. Mix well. Scoop the icing into piping bags or icing bottles.
Decorating instructions:
- Line around the edge of the design with icing and fill the middle. Use a toothpick to poke bubbles or direct icing into holes. Allow each design area to dry before moving on.
- The icing should completely dry, at room temperature for at least four hours, before adding piping details to the top.
Notes
Feel free to use our homemade sugar cookie dough recipe found here in place of the pre-made cookie dough called for in this recipe.
Recommended Products
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
20Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 103Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 6mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 0gSugar: 23gProtein: 0g
Sugar, Spice and Glitter uses an auto-generate nutrition calculator. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate unless analyzed in a scientific lab, so these should be considered more of a guideline than medical information.
I hope your family loves these easy Starbucks Red Cup Sugar Cookies as much as mine does!
For more scrumptious cookies, check out our full cookie recipe collection here:
For more decadent desserts, check out our full dessert recipe collection here:
