Santa face sugar cookies are the cutest treats you’ve ever seen. With snow-white beards and bright red hats, they make any party much more fun.
I just dare you to nibble on one of these darling Santa face cookies. They are almost too cute to eat! Made from a simple raindrop shaped cookie cutter, it’s the perfect canvas for Santa’s smiling face.
I used a basic sugar cookie dough for these Santa face cookies, a raindrop cutter, and a small circle cutter to make the shapes for his face and 3 dimensional mustache! Don’t you just love how his little stache sits on top?
If you don’t already have raindrop and circle shaped cookie cutters, you’ll want to get them to be prepped and ready to bake. These are some of my favorite circle cutters. And this raindrop cutter set has the perfect size.
Get the kids involved and let them decorate Santa’s face. You could use sprinkles or sanding sugar on the beard and mustache! Or even on the hat and trim.
Santa face cookies have a twinkle in the eyes and a sweet bite!
There are so many things that make these Santa face cookies special. The little blue eyes and pink nose give Santa’s face a little sweet personality. The up-turned mustache helps Santa smile, and they are perfect for packing up in cellophane bags for party favors or gifts. Because the royal icing sets, it won’t smear or rub off once the cookies are dry.
These will also be the hit of the cookie swap! Just tell me if you don’t win, or get the most compliments and gushes ever!
Santa Face Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 recipe Royal Icing
- Gel paste food coloring
Instructions
Make the cookies:
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl; set aside. In mixer bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, 3 min. Beat in yolks and vanilla. Add flour mixture and combine. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, chill 2 hours.
- Heat oven to 350°F.
- Roll dough to ¼ inch thick on a floured surface. Cut using a 2-by-3½-inch raindrop cutter to cut 18 cookies. Use a 1½-inch round cutter to cut 18 cookies. Place drops and circles on separate baking sheets. Cut each circle in half and separate. (Dough scraps can be re-rolled up to 2 times.)
- Bake cookies until just golden, about 15 min for drops, about 10 min for cut circles. Cool completely.
Decorate the cookies:
- Color ⅔ cup royal icing red and ¼ cup each pink and blue and place in pastry bags with tips. Fill another pastry bag with 1¼ cup white icing.
- Ice tops of drop cookies with red icing and bottoms and all half-circles with white icing. Allow icing to set, about 30 min.
- Adhere half circles to drop cookies with icing to form a mustache. Pipe hat trim and tip with white icing. Pipe eyes and nose with blue and pink icing.
- Allow icing to set completely, at least 3 hrs.
Nutrition
Tasty cookie recipes!
For more holiday recipes that are great to give and share try:
About Tara Teaspoon
I’ve been in the food publishing business for over 20 years, creating recipes & food-styling for magazines, books, television & advertising. Order my new cookbook & stick around for amazing things to eat.
Recipe and Food Styling Tara Teaspoon. Recipe also developed by Vanessa Seder. Photographs Antonis Achilleos. Prop Stylist Gerri Williams. Originally published in LHJ 12/08
Mary Bench says
I’ve never seen anything this CUTE!!!!
Brittany Smart says
The cutest Santa cookies I’ve ever seen!