Cute Ice Cream Cone Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
If you are planning an ice cream themed celebration, you will be here for these fun ice cream cone cookies! These cookies start with a sprinkle cookie base and are layered with mini ice cream cones and colorful homemade frosting. They are almost too cute to eat!
Ingredients
There are a lot of ingredients to pull off these cute ice cream cone cookies. Luckily, many of the ingredients are basic pantry staples.
For the Sugar Cookies
- Butter – softened
- White sugar
- Vanilla
- Egg
- All purpose flour
- Baking Powder
- Colored Sprinkles (Jimmies)
FOR THE FROSTING:
- Butter – softened
- Cream Cheese – softened
- Vanilla
- Heavy Cream
- Powdered Sugar
- Neon Aqua Food Coloring Gel
- Bright Pink Food Coloring Gel
- Bright Purple Food Coloring Gel
- 18 Mini Ice Cream Cones (the pointy waffle cone or sugar cone style)
- More Colored Sprinkles for the tops of the Cookies/Cones
Making the Sugar Cookie Base for Ice Cream Cone Cookies
To start, in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, using the whisk attachment, add the butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg. Mix until light and fluffy. Add the sprinkles to the butter mixture.
In a separate medium mixing bowl, add the flour and baking powder, and stir well.
Next, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture – adding the flour a little at a time until all is incorporated and blended.
At this point, remove the whisk attachment, and use the paddle. Continue to blend the cookie dough until it’s completely blended and a smooth ball starts to form. Scrape down the mixing bowl as needed.
Next, line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, and roll the cookie dough into small balls, about 1 inch balls, and place the balls on the parchment paper.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, or just until the cookies start to turn a light golden brown around the edges. About half way through baking the cookies, check the oven, and the cookies may have started to crack a little.
Take a flat bottom glass and dip it in sugar before lightly applying to each cookie – smash the cookies very gently, making them a little flatter so they spread out a little more. This will give the cookies the crinkle look. Return the pan to the oven to finish the baking time.
When the cookies are done, remove from the oven to a wire rack to cool completely. While cookies are cooling, make the frosting.
Making Cream Cheese Frosting for Ice Cream Cone Cookies
In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened butter, and cream cheese, and blend to combine. Add the vanilla and heavy cream and mix. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time, blending after each addition until the frosting is smooth and fluffy. Divide the frosting in half. Leave one half of the frosting in the mixing bowl, and this half will remain white.
Divide the other half of the frosting into three equal bowls:
In one bowl, add a few drops of the neon aqua food coloring gel, and stir to blend. If the frosting is too thin, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar, and stir well to blend.
In the second bowl, add the bright pink food coloring gel. Stir well to blend, adding more powdered sugar if needed.
In the last bowl, add the bright purple food coloring gel. Stir well to blend, and add more powdered sugar as needed to thicken.
Decorating the Cookies to Look Like Ice Cream Cones
By far, the most involved step of these ice cream cone cookies is the decorating. Follow the steps closely!
Frost the cooled cookies with the white frosting, using a metal spatula. Do this by smoothing the frosting along the top of the cookies, stopping just short of the edges. Cut the mini ice cream cones in half, and place half of an ice cream cone, cut side down, on top of the frosting on the cookies.
Using plastic wrap (Glad wrap) tear off a piece about 12 inches wide, and place all three colors of the frosting length-wise in the middle of the plastic wrap. It will look like three long ribbons of frosting. Then, roll the plastic wrap around the frosting, making sure to keep it long, or length-wise like a long ribbon.
Snip the end off of the plastic wrap, on one end only of the ribbon and place it in a pastry bag with the large star tip. Pipe the frosting onto the cookies, just above the ice cream cone, using a swirl, and bring it up to a point.
Sprinkle the colored sprinkles on top of the frosting. The end result should like like sprinkles on a swirled soft serve ice cream cone. Allow the frosting to set or firm up a bit – about 30 minutes.
We told you they were almost too cute to eat! These cookies make an adorable addition to our ice cream float party!
Tips and Suggestions
- You can make the “ice cream” colors any colors you want. You could do certain colors to match a certain color scheme if you wanted. Also, if working with the three separate colors overwhelms you, you could always just use one color of frosting. Just make sure you pipe frosting swirls, using the star tip, and add the sprinkles!
- This is not a recipe to be hurried. Take your time and have fun!
- Keep the cookies refrigerated since they have cream cheese icing. (The powdered sugar should helps stabilize the dairy, but many choose to refrigerate cream cheese frostings just in case.)
- We prefer to use the pointy mini cones as opposed to the ones with flat bottoms. They just look better in the final presentation of the cookies.
- We recommend you try to buy your mini cones locally rather than ordering online. Even some of the online shops that sell mini cones mention that they can’t guarantee how many cones will survive the shipping process since cones are so fragile.
- You MIGHT be able to get two ice cream cones from one, if you cut them carefully. But, as we already mentioned, those little cones are fragile. So be sure to have more than you need and don’t rely on just splitting each cone into two as that may or may not work out.
Ice Cream Cone Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
For Sugar Cookie Base
- 16 tbsp Unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup White sugar
- 1 tbsp Vanilla
- 1 Egg
- 3 cups All purpose flour
- 1 tbsp Baking powder
- Sprinkles colorful (Jimmies)
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 tbsp Unsalted butter softened
- 8 oz Cream cheese softened
- ½ tsp Vanilla
- 2 tbsp Heavy cream
- 32 oz Powdered sugar
- 12 Ice cream cones mini sized; sugar cones or wafer cones
- Pink food coloring neon
- Purple food coloring neon
- Teal food coloring neon
- Sprinkles colorful (Jimmies)
Instructions
Make the Sugar Cookie Base
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, using the whisk attachment, add the butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg. Mix until light and fluffy.
- Add the sprinkles to the butter mixture.
- In a separate medium mixing bowl, add the flour and baking powder, and stir well.
- Next, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture – adding the flour a little at a time until all is incorporated and blended.
- Remove the whisk attachment, and use the paddle. Continue to blend the cookie dough until it's completely blended and a smooth ball starts to form. Scrape down the mixing bowl as needed.
- Next, line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, and roll the cookie dough into small balls, about 1 inch balls, and place the balls on the parchment paper.
- Bake at 350℉ for about 15 minutes, or just until the cookies start to turn a light golden brown around the edges. About half way through baking the cookies, check the cookies. When you see they have cracked a little, remove the trays.
- Take a flat bottom glass and dip it in white sugar before lightly applying to each cookie – smash the cookies very gently, making them a little flatter so they spread out a little more. This will give the cookies the crinkle look. Return the pans to the oven to finish the baking time.
- When the cookies are done, remove from the oven to a wire rack to cool completely. While cookies are cooling, make the frosting.
Make Cream Cheese Frosting
- In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened butter, and cream cheese, and blend to combine. Add the vanilla and heavy cream and mix. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time, blending after each addition until the frosting is smooth and fluffy.
- Divide the frosting in half. Leave one half of the frosting in the mixing bowl, and this half will remain white. Divide the other half of the frosting into three equal bowls. To one bowl, add a few drops of neon teal food coloring. To the second bowl, add a few drops of neon pink. To the last bowl, add a few drops of purple food coloring. (Add more powdered sugar if frosting seems too thin after blending.)
Decorate the Cookies
- Frost the cooled cookies with the white frosting, using a metal spatula. Do this by smoothing the frosting along the top of the cookies, stopping just short of the edges. Cut the mini ice cream cones in half, and place half of an ice cream cone, cut side down, on top of the frosting on the cookies.
- Using plastic wrap (Glad wrap) tear off a piece about 12 inches wide, and place all three colors of the frosting length-wise in the middle of the plastic wrap. It will look like three long ribbons of frosting. Then, roll the plastic wrap around the frosting, making sure to keep it long, or length-wise like a long ribbon.
- Snip the end off of the plastic wrap, on one end only of the ribbon and place it in a pastry bag with the large star tip. Pipe the frosting onto the cookies, just above the ice cream cone, using a swirl, and bring it up to a point.
- Sprinkle the colored sprinkles on top of the frosting. The end result should like like sprinkles on a swirled soft serve ice cream cone. Allow the frosting to set or firm up a bit before serving or eating – at least 30 minutes.