Everyone’s favorite Lofthouse soft sugar cookies, in an easy recipe that you can make at home!
These delicious, super soft, cake-like, melt-in-your-mouth Lofthouse cookies are topped with a smooth vanilla buttercream, and taste just like you remember.

Super soft and fluffy Lofthouse cookies are an iconic treat. That pretty pink buttercream frosting just makes my mouth water and brings up memories of childhood birthday parties and special after school snacks.
Some people might say that they dislike cakey cookies, but I bet they can’t say no to a cakey cookie as good as this one is!
If you are a soft cookie fan, be sure to try my Frosted Circus Animal Cookies, Condensed Milk Cookies, and my perfect Soft Snickerdoodles.
If you’d rather try a sugar cookie recipe that’s chewy with a bit of a crispy edge, try my Birthday Cake Cookies instead!
If you’re sticking with me to make these homemade Lofthouse cookies, great! Let’s do it!
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
Wondering why you should make this recipe for Lofthouse cookies when they’re so easy to find at any grocery store?
That’s easy! It’s because homemade cookies are always better than store-bought. Not only are these copycat Lofthouse sugar cookies made with lots of love (by you!), but they’re also made with all-natural ingredients.
In contrast, the ingredients list on a package of cookies from the store is long. Too long really for there to be any goodness there.
Other than this, it’s also less expensive to make cookies from scratch than it is to buy them.
Finally, you can easily customize these sugar cookies to fit any theme, holiday, or occasion, just by changing up the frosting color and sprinkles on top!
Key Ingredients

Complete list of ingredients with quantities and instructions is located in the recipe card below
- Cake Flour: Almost every cookie recipe on this site calls for regular all-purpose flour, but not this one! To make fluffy, cakey cookies, choose cake flour, which has a lower protein content than AP flour, which allows things made with it to be lighter and airier.
- Shortening: Rather than making these with just butter, we’ll use a combination of butter and vegetable shortening. The butter adds flavor while the shortening keeps the cookies cake-like in texture.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda: In my tests of this recipe, using both of these leaveners gives the best and right amount of rise to the sugar cookies.
- Sour Cream: Because this is a cake-like cookie, I’m treating the cookie dough much like I do cake batter! I love adding sour cream to cakes to make them rich and moist.
- Vanilla and Almond Extract: Leave out the almond if you want these cookies to be nut-free, but the combination of both gives these the best bakery-style flavor.
- For the Frosting: The pink buttercream for Lofthouse cookies is simple, and made from unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and salt. Pink gel food coloring will give you the perfect hue, and you’ll want to have some colorful sprinkles too!
How To Make Lofthouse Cookies

- Mix the Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside
- Mix the Wet Ingredients: In a separate bowl, beat the butter, shortening, and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then add the egg, sour cream, vanilla extract, and almond extracts and beat again.
- Combine: Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 2-3 smaller additions; mixing well after each.

- Chill the Dough: Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours.
- Roll and Cut: When you’re ready, preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Then, place the cookie dough on a floured surface and roll it out to a thickness of ½ inch. Cut using a 3-inch circular cookie cutter.
- Bake: Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet, leaving one inch between each cookie. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until puffed up and no longer glossy on top. Allow the cookies to cool completely before frosting.

- To make the frosting for Lofthouse Cookies, Beat the butter until light and fluffy, then add the powdered sugar and beat again until smooth. Next, stir in the vanilla and salt. Add the food coloring if desired and mix well. Frost each cookie with the frosting and add your favorite sprinkles.
Top Tips
- Don’t roll the dough out too thin. You want the unbaked cookies to be ½” thick so that they bake up perfectly soft. Any thinner and they may end up too crispy.
- Avoid overbaking. With most cookies, you pull them from the oven when you start to see browning around the edges, but not this one. Avoid any browning at all. The cookies are ready when they are just set on top and no longer look wet and shiny.
- Let them cool completely. Very carefully transfer the baked cookies to a cooling rack, and let them cool all the way down before adding the frosting. If they aren’t cooled completely, your frosting will melt!
- Be generous with the frosting! It’s obviously the best part.

How to Store Soft Sugar Cookies
Once you’ve frosted these cookies, store them in a single layer in an airtight container in the fridge. They will stay fresh for up to 5 days.
You can also freeze frosted Lofthouse cookies for up to 3 months. Simply allow them to thaw at room temperature before enjoying.
Other Delicious Cookies You Should Try
- Cookies and Cream Cookies
- Brookie Cookies
- Iced Oatmeal Cookies
- Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
- Red Velvet Cut Outs
- Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies

Recipe FAQs
You can use other cookie cutters with this recipe, but keep in mind that these cookies puff up quite a bit, so any details in your cookie cutter shapes will be lost. I suggest sticking to circles with this recipe, and trying my Ultimate Sugar Cookie Recipe if you’re looking to make other shapes.
I’ve found that making this recipe with some shortening allows the cookies to stay softer longer after they’ve cooled. You can make this recipe with all butter instead, but the texture won’t be quite right.
The main flavor in Lofthouse cookies is vanilla, and most of that flavor comes from the vanilla buttercream frosting. I add a little bit of almond extract to my recipe to make them extra special too.
You’re going to go nuts for this copycat Lofthouse Cookies recipe, and you can feel great about making them for your family because they’re made entirely from scratch! Don’t forget to Pin the recipe for later too.
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