Pumpkin cookie decorating is the perfect fall baking activity. Plus, these soft pumpkin sugar cookies, made with a simple cut out cookie recipe and topped with homemade buttercream, are as fun to make as they are to eat. Whether you're prepping for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or just craving a festive fall treat, these cookies are an easy way to impress without the fuss.
Themed treats are especially fun around the holidays. My mom loves when I show up with a dessert to match the season or time of year!
And you don't need to make something complicated or difficult for it to be fun and impressive for others!
These decorated pumpkin sugar cookies are a perfect example of how you can elevate your baking game and make great Halloween cookies or even Thanksgiving cookies with ease.
For homemade sugar cookies to match a different time of year, see:
- 🎄 My tutorial for wreath cookie decorating or Christmas tree sugar cookies are so fun at Christmastime.
- 🐇 Easter bunny sugar cookies - My version is pink and white, but you can totally play around with the colors!
- 🍫 My sugar cookies with chocolate chips are a fun alternative base cookie recipe. I've made heart-shaped cookies at Valentine's Day with it, but you could adapt this for any season.
If you're searching for more seasonal cookies and treats, be sure to take a look at all my fall recipes!
Jump to:
- 📋 Ingredients for Pumpkin Cookies
- 💡 No-Chill Dough for these Cut-Out Cookies
- 📖 Instructions for Baking these Sugar Cookies
- Best Results: Baking in Grams
- 🎃 Buttercream and Pumpkin Cookie Decorating Instructions
- 🥄 Alternative Way to Decorate these Fall Cookies
- 🎉 Fun Serving Suggestions
- Storage and Freezer Instructions
- Tips for Chewy Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
- More Fall Treats
- Easy Pumpkin Sugar Cookie Decorating with Buttercream
📋 Ingredients for Pumpkin Cookies
The recipe card contains all the steps and ingredients for pumpkin cookie decorating, but below are a few key items that bring flavor.
- Pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste – Don’t worry about buying expensive vanilla extract; the kind available in local grocery stores is works perfectly for this recipe.
- Pumpkin spice – Though it doesn't contain actual pumpkin, this spice blend adds warm fall flavors. If you're out, you can easily mix cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice to still create the perfect fall cookie.
- Brown sugar - While many sugar cookie recipes use granulated sugar, this one uses a touch of brown sugar, too. This ingredient gives a chewy, soft texture to these cookies.
- Buttercream frosting - Skip the meringue powder and royal icing and use a buttercream similar to my almond frosting recipe. This gives the cookies a soft texture. You’ll need food coloring to create the vibrant pumpkin look (Wilton or Chef Master are great options).
💡 No-Chill Dough for these Cut-Out Cookies
Some recipes call for wrapping your sugar cookie dough in plastic wrap and letting it rest before baking for best results.
But you don’t need to chill the dough for these cookies, saving you time without sacrificing flavor or texture!
📖 Instructions for Baking these Sugar Cookies
Preheat your oven to 350°F and dive into the steps here.
Step 1. Cream the butter and sugars: To make this pumpkin spice sugar cookie recipe, cream unsalted butter, vanilla extract, spice (cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, your choice!), and sugars together in your mixing bowl for 3 minutes.
Step 2. Mix in dry ingredients: Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure ingredients are all mixing together. Then add salt, baking powder, eggs, and flour. Mix for about 2 minutes on medium speed. Dough will initially look crumbly but pull together.
Step 3. Prepare for rolling: Spread silicon baking mats onto your kitchen counter and flour them.
Step 4. Roll dough: Divide dough into halves or thirds for easier rolling.
Step 5. Form cookie dough: Evenly flatten the large dough balls with your rolling pin.
Step 6. Cut out the shapes: Once the dough is flattened to about ¼ inch thick, press the pumpkin cookie cutter into it.
Step 7. Transfer to baking sheets: Use a spatula to lift and transfer your cut-out sugar cookies onto ungreased aluminum baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between each cookie. Alternatively, space them out on silicon mats and slide those onto the sheets.
Step 8. Bake cookies: Bake for 10-14 minutes (longer for larger cookies, shorter for smaller ones). Let the cookies cool on the sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack.
Repeat with remaining dough: Continue to repeat the steps above for the remaining dough until all homemade pumpkin sugar cookies are in the oven.
Best Results: Baking in Grams
If you’re not already, use a kitchen scale for accuracy in baking.
While I include cups and grams in my recipe cards, weighing your ingredients and writing or following a recipe using a standard metric like grams ensures consistency.
I highly recommend investing $30 or less in a kitchen scale.
🎃 Buttercream and Pumpkin Cookie Decorating Instructions
Step 1. Make the buttercream: In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or with an electric mixer, beat unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, heavy cream (or milk), lemon juice (optional), and salt for about 3 minutes.
Step 2. Adjust the flavor: Taste the frosting and add more lemon juice if it's too sweet.
Step 3. Smooth the frosting: Use a spatula to smooth the buttercream, stirring from the middle to the edges for 3-4 minutes to eliminate any air bubbles.
Step 4. Color the frosting: Divide the buttercream, setting aside about 10% in a small bowl. Dye this portion green for stems. Color the remaining frosting as desired (e.g., orange and white for pumpkins).
Step 5. Prepare each piping bag: Once the cookies are cooled, fill piping bags with your colored buttercream. Use a small open round or open star tip for the orange frosting (I used tips 32 and 12). For the green buttercream, use a small open tip (like tip 8).
Step 6. Frost the cookies: Pipe semi-circular lines from the top of each cookie, following its natural curve to create the classic pumpkin shape. Fill in the entire surface with frosting.
Step 7. Add the stem: Use the green buttercream to pipe a small stem on each cookie.
Step 8. Decorate the rest: Repeat the process for the remaining cookies, switching between tips and buttercream colors to create different textures and designs.
🥄 Alternative Way to Decorate these Fall Cookies
If you prefer a more rustic look, try this spoon technique for pumpkin cookie decorating (similar to how I decorate cake with a spoon):
- Pipe dollops of frosting onto the cookie.
- Drag each dollop with the back of a spoon or offset spatula to create the pumpkin’s natural lines.
- Clean the spoon between sections to avoid messy frosting.
This process was a little cleaner and easier with the small offset spatula, but a spoon works, too.
🖤 For a spookier vibe, try decorating these pumpkin-shaped cookies with my black cocoa buttercream.
🎉 Fun Serving Suggestions
Fall party - These cookies would be so cute on a spread with other fall treats. If you also love hosting (🙋🏻♀️), these would be fun alongside mini pumpkin muffins or mascarpone cookies with pumpkin.
Halloween party - If you're bringing friends or family together for a spookier event, my black velvet cupcake recipe or this black cocoa cake would be fun pairings with these pumpkin sugar cookies!
Thanksgiving celebrations - Everyone knows Thanksgiving is the holiday to bring out all your favorite cozy treats. Serve these cookies alongside my dirty chai spice cake to give guests variety on your dessert table.
Storage and Freezer Instructions
Room temperature - These pumpkin spice cookies will stay fresh at room temperature (around 70°F ) for 3-4 days.
Freezing - These cookies also freeze well, frosted or unfrosted.
- Frosted cookies - If you've already frosted them, give the buttercream time to form a crust, which it will do if the room is not too hot or humid (room temperature or slightly cooler is great). After buttercream has formed a crust, place cookies in a single layer in an airtight container. Add wax or parchment paper between each layer of cookies so no frosting gets caught on other cookies or frosting but paper instead.
- Unfrosted cookies - They will remain fresh after about 3 months in the freezer. To enjoy, let come to room temperature before decorating with buttercream and serving.
- Buttercream - The buttercream will also stay fresh for about three months, stored in an airtight container. Thaw and rewhip before inserting into piping bags to decorate.
Tips for Chewy Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Below are some general tips to keep in mind when baking these adorable pumpkin sugar cookies and any recipe, really:
- Periodically check the freshness of your leavening agents. Mix a pinch of baking powder with hot water to see if it reacts. For baking soda, you can mix a pinch of it with a few drops of something acidic, like vinegar or lemon juice. If your leavening agents have no reaction (i.e. you see no fizzing or bubbling), it means they also won't help your ingredients rise during the baking process.
- Before diving into this pumpkin cookie recipe, clear your workspace and set out all your ingredients in front of you. This will make it less likely that you'll forget to leave something important out of your mixing bowl!
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More Fall Treats
Easy Pumpkin Sugar Cookie Decorating with Buttercream
Make adorable pumpkin sugar cookies with this easy cookie recipe and delicious homemade buttercream. These spiced cookies are perfect for Halloween and fall!
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Decorating Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 90 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Sugar Cookie Dough
- 3 cups (380 grams) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 12 T butter (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ⅔ cup (150 grams) white sugar
- ½ cup (90 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ tsp pumpkin or apple pie spice or your favorite fall spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc)
- 1 ¼ teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cold, large eggs, straight from the fridge
Buttercream
- 6 cups (750 grams) powdered sugar
- 1 ½ sticks (170 grams) of unsalted butter, room temperature
- ⅓ cup (80 grams) heavy cream
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- Lemon juice to cut sweetness
- Food gels (orange and green) to dye your frosting
Instructions
Sugar Cookie Dough
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cream butter, vanilla extract, spice (cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, your choice!) and sugars together in your mixing bowl for 3 minutes.
- Stop the mixer and add salt, baking powder, as well as your eggs and flour. Mix for about 2 minutes on medium speed. Dough will initially look crumbly but pull together.
- Roll the dough into a ball on a clean, flat, floured surface. I like dividing half at a time and rolling it out to about ¼ inch before pressing the cookie cutters into the dough.
- Use a spatula to lift and transfer dough onto ungreased aluminum baking sheets, with about 2 inches between each of them. Bake for 10-14 minutes (longer time for larger cookies, shorter for small ones). Transfer them to cooling racks after they’ve sat on the baking sheets 5 or so minutes outside of the oven and are firm enough to handle.
Buttercream Frosting
- With an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, heavy cream, lemon juice (if using), and salt. Beat for about 3 minutes.
- Taste test and then add another splash of lemon juice if too sweet.
- Once happy with flavor, drag the spatula from the middle of your bowl to its edges, watching as the tears and bubbles in your buttercream disappear. Spend 3-4 minutes doing these motions to achieve nice, smooth frosting.
- Divide buttercream, placing about 10% of it in a small bowl and use food gel to dye it green for the pumpkin's stem. Take remaining frosting and dye it into however many colors you'd like for your pumpkin spice sugar cookies. I wanted a mix of orange and white pumpkins so dyed half of my leftover buttercream orange.
Cookie Assembly
- Load buttercream into piping bags, fitted with a small open round or open star tip. I used tip 32 and for variety switched to 12 halfway through decorating with my orange and white frostings.
- Place green buttercream into a small piping bag fitted with a small open tip to create the stem. I used tip 8.
- Create semi-circular lines from the top of the pumpkin, following along the curve of its shape and connecting the top to the bottom. Continue filling in frosting until cookie is covered.
- Add a small pumpkin stem and/or vines with green buttercream.
- Repeat steps for every cookie, switching between piping tips and orange and white buttercream for different colors and texture.
Notes
- This recipe yields approximately 24 cookies if each of them is roughly 3 inches. However, you can definitely get more cookies out of this recipe if you're using smaller cookie cutters.
🥄 Alternative Decorating Idea:
For a more rustic look, try this spoon technique for pumpkin cookie decorating.
- Pipe dollops of frosting onto the cookie.
- Drag each dollop with the back of a spoon or offset spatula to create the pumpkin’s natural lines.
- Clean the spoon between sections to avoid messy frosting.
This process was a little cleaner and easier with the small offset spatula, but a spoon works, too.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 338 kcal
- Sugar: 40.85 grams
- Sodium: 102.6 mg
- Fat: 12.49 grams
- Saturated Fat: 7.95 grams
- Unsaturated Fat: 4.54 grams
- Carbohydrates: 52.38 grams
- Fiber: 0.48 grams
- Protein: 2.17 grams
- Cholesterol: 55.5 mg
Amy Price
Ok, so I just whipped up these pumpkin sugar cookies from your website , and wow, they turned out great 🙂 The no chill dough made things quick, and the mix of brown sugar and pumpkin spice gave the cookies cozy fall/ winter flavors. Easy to follow instructions. Give them a shot!
Susan Gravatt
Great to read this - thanks for making them and leaving a review!!