Soft Cakey Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies (2024)

Topped with a strawberry buttercream and festive sprinkles, these Valentine’s Day sugar cookies are soft and cakey like the Lofthouse style cookies you find in grocery stores. A great cookie for a themed party or to give to loved ones, they can also be doctored up for any time of the year or other holidays.

If you don’t know the name Lofthouse cookie, they’re the cookies you usually see near the checkout lanes in a lot of grocery stores, especially around the holidays. They look like a thick cookie usually with a light pink frosting and sprinkles on top. This recipe takes inspiration from those but isn’t intended as a copycat version.

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What Makes These Sugar Cookies Soft and Cakey?

The real secret to making a soft and cakey sugar cookie as opposed to a denser and chewy sugar cookie is the addition of sour cream and a mix of baking soda and powder.

Sour cream gives the cookie a nice tang, while also providing extra moisture to keep them from drying out as they cook. Be sure to use a full-fat sour cream and not a fat free version. The baking soda will react with the acid in sour cream, both helping to neutralize the taste of one another, as well as activate the leavening power of baking soda. This isn’t enough of a rise alone though, so baking powder gives the cookie the extra oomph it needs in the oven.

Ingredients for Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies

You’ll want to start preparing ahead of time to make these cookies, as all the cold ingredients should be at room temperature. The heavy cream for the icing, however, can be left cold.

For the sugar cookie you will need:

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All-Purpose Flour – I’ve seen these made with cake flour as well, but most people will have all-purpose flour on hand already

Baking Powder and Soda – As mentioned before, the soda works well with the sour cream, but you’ll want the extra punch from baking powder in the oven for a good rise.

Salt

Corn Starch – Just a little bit added to the flour helps reduce gluten formation and adds to a tender crumb. Omit if using cake flour though

Unsalted Butter – Bring to room temperature before baking. If you only have salted butter, leave out the salt in the recipe

Sugar – Use white, granulated sugar. Because these are frosted, I toned down a little on the sweetness in the cookie itself

Eggs – Also bring to room temperature before using

Sour Cream – The extra ingredient that keeps the cookie moist and tender. Be sure to use the full-fat kind and bring it to room temperature also

Vanilla and Almond Extract – The combination gives a great flavor, but feel free to replace the almond with more vanilla if you’re not a fan

For the strawberry buttercream:

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Butter – Bring to room temperature before using

Confectioner’s Sugar – Confectioner or Powdered, depending on the brand and what they call it

Freeze-Dried Strawberries – The magic ingredient for a strawberry buttercream. These add a ton of color and flavor in a small amount but be sure to get “freeze-dried” and not “frozen”.

Heavy Cream – Heavy cream/heavy whipping cream is preferred, but any milk will work. The higher the milk fat, the creamier the buttercream will taste though

Vanilla Extract

Salt

How to Make Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies

Start with cookie ingredients first, as you’ll want to chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour before cooking.

Mix the dry ingredients together (other than the sugar) in a bowl and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, mix in the extracts, then the eggs, and then the sour cream.

Add the dry ingredients and mix on low in 2-3 batches until the dough just comes together.

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Chill the cookie dough, covered, in the fridge for at least an hour, and up to 2 days.

Preheat the oven to 375°F / 190°C and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.

Remove from fridge and let stand at room temperature for a bit if too difficult to scoop. Scoop dough at about 1.5 tablespoon portions and roll into a ball. Place on baking sheet a few inches apart and press down center with thumb.

Cook for 8-10 minutes (mine usually took 9). Remove from oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

While the cookies are baking, you can make the buttercream.

First you will need to grind up the free-dried strawberries. Pulse them in a food processor until they look like a powder. If you don’t have a food processor, you can also use a spice grinder/coffee grinder, but you’ll need to do it in a few batches.

Cream the butter and half the sugar together, then add the rest of the dry ingredients and continue mixing.

Add the vanilla and heavy cream and mix on high until fluffy and a spreadable consistency.

Spread the frosting onto the cooled cookies and add sprinkles if desired.

Shaping the Sugar Cookies

I tried to make this an easy cookie, so I avoided using cookie cutters. The dough is fairly sticky, so trying to roll it out and cutting rounds is a hassle. I still wanted a nice, round shape that wasn’t domed with tapering and flat edges though. After several recipe changes and test bakes, I came up with a good solution. I tried simply scooping and dropping, scooping and rolling into a ball, and scooping, rolling and then flattening to a ½ inch thickness. The winning idea, however, took a page from burger making.

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When making burgers, putting a thumb indentation in the middle keeps them from puffing up too much in the center. I tried that with the cookie, and it worked perfectly for the shape I was looking for. The baking powder is going to make the cookie rise in the oven, so the center will puff back up, but the high walls around the thumbprint will melt and spread because of the butter. This method made sure the cookie remained a decent thickness throughout and limited the spreading.

I do recommend coating your hands with flour. I found it easiest to scoop all the dough balls onto the baking sheet, then coating my hands in flour and rolling each ball and placing them back onto the sheet and adding a thumb indent. Return the dough to the refrigerator between baking batches as well so that it doesn’t get too warm.

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Storing the Cookies

The cookies will stay fresh covered at room temperature for 2-3 days, or up to a week in the refrigerator.

You can freeze them for up to 2-3 months as well. If already frosted, I would freeze them on a tray, then move to a sealed freezer bag after the frosting hardens.

📋 Recipe

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