These vegan frosted sugar cookies are so soft and puffy! They are similar to ‘lofthouse cookies’ and topped with a gorgeous pink buttercream frosting. They are super easy to make, with no chilling, rolling pins or cookie cutters required!
These vegan frosted sugar cookies are very similar to lofthouse cookies. They are super soft and pillowy.
Our neighbor said they’re kind of a mix between a cake and a cookie. And yes, that’s exactly right.
It is so soft and fluffy that it’s almost like cake, but there is just enough of a cookie texture in there too to be a perfect mix between the two. And topped with a fluffy buttercream frosting, pink of course, and sprinkles, it makes a beautiful holiday cookie.
We do also have a more classic recipe for vegan sugar cookies where you roll out the dough and cut out the cookies. So these soft frosted vegan sugar cookies are a bit different. Firstly, you don’t need to roll out the dough and cut out the cookies, we just break off pieces of the dough and roll it into balls.
Secondly, the frosting is a soft buttercream that is easily spreadable, whereas our other sugar cookies use a simple decorating frosting.
Of course if you love these gorgeous holiday cookies, then you’ll also love our vegan butter cookies, vegan snowball cookies and vegan gingerbread cookies.
Ingredients You’ll Need For The Cookies:
Ingredient Notes
- Vegan yogurt – should be plain vegan yogurt. You can also use vegan sour cream.
- Soy milk – can be replaced with a different non-dairy milk.
- Baking powder and baking soda – are both used in this recipe to create the super soft, puffy texture.
Ingredients You’ll Need For The Frosting:
Frosting Ingredient Notes
- Soy milk – can be switched for any non-dairy milk.
- Pink food coloring – we used liquid pink food coloring, but gel would also work great. If you’re using a gel just use a drop or two until you get to the right color. You can of course use whatever color you like or omit it completely.
- Sprinkles – are for decorating the tops of the cookies.
How To Make Vegan Frosted Sugar Cookies
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Add vegan butter and white granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together until smooth.
- Add plain vegan yogurt, soy milk and vanilla extract and mix in.
- In a separate bowl add all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix together.
- Add the dry ingredients in with the wet and mix in with a spoon.
- Break off pieces of the dough and roll them into balls and place them evenly onto parchment lined baking sheets (we used two baking sheets).
- Flatten the balls gently with your fingers. If your fingers stick to the dough, wet them with cold water.
- Place into the oven and bake at 375°F for 8-10 minutes until pale on top but lightly golden brown on the bottoms.
- If they puff up while baking, use the base of a glass to flatten them gently as soon as they come out of the oven warm and soft.
- Prepare the buttercream frosting by adding the vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, soy milk and food coloring to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth.
- When the cookies are completely cooled, generously spread on the frosting and top with sprinkles.
- Serve the cookies and enjoy!
Baker’s Tips
Flatten the dough with your fingers. This recipe doesn’t work well for rolling out the dough and cutting out cookies with cookie cutters as the dough is too wet. If you want to use cookie cutters then please try our classic vegan sugar cookies instead. You can frost those cookies with this buttercream frosting if you like.
If the dough sticks to your fingers when you’re trying to flatten them, then wet your fingers with cold water first before pressing down on the cookies to flatten.
Gluten free. If you need to make these cookies gluten free then I recommend trying a gluten free all purpose flour blend. We like Bob’s Red Mill brand.
Storing and Freezing
Keep your cookies stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days or for up to a week in the fridge.
They can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes
- Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Biscotti
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Frosted Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (113g)
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- ⅓ cup Plain Vegan Yogurt (80g) or Vegan Sour Cream
- ¼ cup Soy Milk (60ml) or other non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 3 cups All Purpose Flour (375g)
- ¾ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
Buttercream Frosting:
- ⅓ cup Vegan Butter (75g)
- 2 cups Powdered Sugar (240g)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tablespoon Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
- ⅛ teaspoon Liquid Pink Food Coloring Optional
Decorating:
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Add vegan butter and white granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together until smooth.
- Add plain vegan yogurt, soy milk and vanilla extract and mix in.
- In a separate bowl add all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix together.
- Add the dry ingredients in with the wet and mix in with a spoon.
- Break off pieces of the dough and roll them into balls and place them evenly onto the parchment lined baking sheets.
- Flatten the balls gently with your fingers. If your fingers stick to the dough, wet them with cold water.
- Place into the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until pale on top but lightly golden brown on the bottoms.
- If they puff up while baking, use the base of a glass to flatten them gently as soon as they come out of the oven warm and soft.
- Prepare your buttercream frosting by adding the vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, soy milk and food coloring to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth.
- When the cookies are completely cooled, generously spread on the frosting and top with sprinkles.
Notes
- Pink food coloring – we used liquid pink food coloring, but gel would also work great. If you’re using a gel just use a drop or two . You can of course use whatever color you like, or omit it entirely.
- Gluten free. If you need to make these cookies gluten free then I recommend trying a gluten free all purpose flour blend.
- Storing: Keep your cookies stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days or for up to a week in the fridge.
- Freezing: They can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Lily says
These cookies were so delicious! I used Bob’s Red Mill GF 1 to 1 flour and it worked wonderfully! The only adjustment needed was to bake them for an additional 2 minutes. I made them for a get-together and everyone was so surprised when I told them that it was GF/Vegan! I will definitely be making these again! Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome Lily, thanks so much for the great review!
Emily says
These cookies are sooo good!!! People seem to either love or hate lofthouse cookies but I love them and I’m so glad I can finally eat a vegan version of them. I think I made my cookies a bit too thick though. Next time I’ll flatten them more because I had to keep them in the oven for nearly 14 minutes. They came out a bit crispy because of that. BUT I put them in a glass container on my counter overnight and they softened to the perfect texture!
Alison Andrews says
So happy they turned out great Emily! Thanks so much for sharing and the awesome review!
Kristina says
Hi Alison,
These look amazing and I’d love to make them. Can I swap the vegan yogurt with Greek yogurt? It just agrees with me more. Thanks!
Alison Andrews says
Oh yes definitely! Any yogurt will do great! It should just be plain (no flavorings) but Greek yogurt will definitely work.