These Santa hat drop cookies are soft, thick sugar cookies topped with bright red buttercream and fluffy white frosting to look just like Santa's hat.
Santa hat drop cookies are an easy way to turn a soft sugar cookie into an adorable Christmas dessert. Each thick, bakery-style cookie is topped with a tall dollop of bright red buttercream, then finished with white frosting around the trim and tip to create Santa's classic hat.
They're a fun and festive Christmas cookie for parties, cookie exchanges, and holiday baking.
Ingredients
- Butter
- Cream Cheese
- White Granulated Sugar
- Egg Yolk
- Pure Vanilla Extract
- All-Purpose Flour
- Cornstarch
- Baking Soda
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Shortening
- Powdered Sugar
- Heavy Whipping Cream
- Pink Icing Gel
- Red Icing Gel
How to Make Santa Hat Drop Cookies
Santa Hat Drop Cookies
- In a stand mixer, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add to the wet ingredients in the mixer until combined.
- Using a 1.5-tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop mounds of cookie dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour. This prevents spreading while they bake.
- Preheat the oven to 400℉. Bake the cookies in the oven for 11-12 minutes, until the tops are set and the centers are slightly undercooked.
Bright Red Buttercream Frosting
- Add butter and shortening to a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Whip for 3-4 minutes, until it begins to get light in color, almost white. Add vanilla and powdered sugar. Separate ½ cup of frosting and set aside for your white frosting.
- Add pink icing gel to the frosting in the mixing bowl. This leans it towards the bright red color needed in the end without having to overdo the red icing gel. Once it’s mixed in, add red icing gel. It should be a dull red color now.
- Melt the frosting in the microwave in 15-second intervals, stirring after each, until it begins to run. Stir and chill the frosting in the fridge to firm it up again for about 15 minutes. Whip the frosting until fluffy again for about 2-3 minutes. If it is still dull, reheat the frosting and repeat the steps to get it bright red again.
- Be careful not to break the frosting. If you notice it separating, mix in a splash of heavy whipping cream.
Decorating
- Fit an icing bag with a round tip, like Wilton’s 2A tip, and fill it with the red frosting. Pipe a round dollop of frosting onto the top of each cookie. Pull straight up to form a Santa hat shape.
- Using a separate icing bag fitted with a small open star tip, like #363, and filled with white frosting, pipe a border around the base of each hat and add a small dollop to the pointed top.
Tips for Making Santa Hat Drop Cookies
Chill the cookie dough. Refrigerating the scooped dough for 1 hour helps the cookies hold their rounded shape instead of spreading too much in the oven.
Don’t overbake the cookies. Remove them when the tops are set, but the centers still look slightly underdone. They will continue to bake as they cool and stay soft in the center.
Decorate completely cooled cookies. Even slightly warm cookies can soften the buttercream and make the Santa hats lose their shape.
Reserve the white frosting before adding food coloring. Set aside the ½ cup needed for the Santa hat trim before you begin coloring the remaining buttercream red.
Use gel food coloring. Gel coloring gives the frosting a much deeper color without adding excess liquid that can thin the buttercream. Avoid liquid food colors.
Start with pink before adding red. Tinting the frosting pink first helps create a brighter true-red frosting while using less red icing gel. Using a lot of red can have a bitter flavor if you don’t use no-taste red icing gel and will also thin your frosting.
Heat the frosting gradually. Microwave the red buttercream for only 15 seconds at a time and stir well between intervals. You only want it warm enough to loosen and deepen the color, not completely melted.
Watch for separated buttercream. Heating the frosting too much can cause it to break. If it begins looking greasy or separated, whip in a small splash of heavy whipping cream until it comes back together.
Let the frosting firm up before piping. After heating the red frosting, refrigerate it until it returns to a pipeable consistency, then whip it again until light and fluffy. It will continue to get a brighter red as it sits. Some even make their bright red frosting the day before to let the color deepen.
Pipe the hat straight upward. Hold the piping bag vertically over the cookie, pipe a generous round mound, and pull the tip upward to create the pointed Santa hat shape. You want a teardrop shape.
Recommended Recipes
- 32 Bakery-Style Frosted Drop Cookies
- Grinch Drop Cookies
- Christmas Ornament Cupcakes
- Christmas Tree Cinnamon Rolls
- Christmas Tree Drop Cookies
- Christmas Tree Cupcakes
- Holiday Sugar Cookie Shots
Santa Hat Drop Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
Santa Hat Drop Cookies
- ¼ cup Butter room temperature
- 3 tablespoons Cream Cheese room temperature
- ½ cup White Granulated Sugar
- 1 Large Egg Yolk
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 ¼ cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 tablespoon Cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ⅛ teaspoon Salt
Bright Red Buttercream Frosting
- 6 tablespoons Butter room temperature
- 4 tablespoons Shortening
- 2 ¾ cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- Heavy Whipping Cream
- Pink Icing Gel
- Red Icing Gel
Instructions
Santa Hat Drop Cookies
- In a stand mixer, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add to the wet ingredients in the mixer until combined.
- Using a 1.5-tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop mounds of cookie dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour. This prevents spreading while they bake.
- Preheat the oven to 400℉. Bake the cookies in the oven for 11-12 minutes, until the tops are set and the centers are slightly undercooked.
Bright Red Buttercream Frosting (Trust the process.)
- Add butter and shortening to a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Whip for 3-4 minutes, until it begins to get light in color, almost white. Add vanilla and powdered sugar. Separate ½ cup of frosting and set aside for your white frosting.
- Add pink icing gel to the frosting in the mixing bowl. This leans it towards the bright red color needed in the end without overdoing the red icing gel. Once it's mixed in, add red icing gel. It should be a dull red color now.
- Melt the frosting in the microwave in 15-second intervals, stirring after each, until it begins to run. Stir and chill the frosting in the fridge for about 15 minutes to firm it up again. Whip the frosting until fluffy again for about 2-3 minutes. If it is still dull, reheat the frosting and repeat the steps to get it bright red again.
Decorating
- Fit an icing bag with a round tip, like Wilton's 2A tip, and fill it with the red frosting. Pipe a round dollop of frosting onto the top of each cookie. Pull straight up to form a Santa hat shape.
- Using a separate icing bag fitted with a small open star tip, like #363, and filled with white frosting, pipe a border around the base of each hat and add a small dollop to the pointed top.
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