These bright and colorful Watermelon Cookies are the ultimate summer cookies!
Soft, green sugar cookies are topped with fluffy watermelon-flavored buttercream, and mini chocolate chips give them the perfect look.
Not only are these easy watermelon cookies colored and decorated to look like watermelon, but they are also delicious, with an easy watermelon-flavored buttercream frosting!
This fun cookie recipe is absolutely perfect for all of your summer celebrations, from memorial day to labor day and everything in between.
They’d also be adorable at a watermelon-themed birthday party. I saw someone had a first birthday for their little one with the theme of “One in a Melon”, with all sorts of melon desserts and snacks. How adorable!
You should also check out our other fun summer cookie recipes! There are Cake Mix Strawberry Lemonade Cookies for weekend barbecues, Shark Cookies for the beach, Red, White, and Blue Pinwheel Cookies for the patriotic holidays and S’Mores Cookies for camping.
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Fun and Simple Cookie Decorating – When making cutouts and decorating them with detailed royal icing isn’t your thing, these easy-to-decorate cookies are exactly what you need! All it takes is a single piping tip and some chocolate chip watermelon seeds to make these cookies look amazing.
- Soft, Delicious Sugar Cookies – This scratch-made sugar cookie recipe is so simple, yet so perfect.
- Fruity Watermelon Flavor – A packet of watermelon kool aid gives buttercream cookie frosting a pink color and the best watermelon flavor.
Key Ingredients in Watermelon Cookies
Complete list of ingredients with quantities and instructions is located in the recipe card below
- Dry Ingredients: All-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Wet Ingredients: Softened butter, granulated sugar, 1 egg, vanilla extract, and a bit of heavy cream or whole milk.
- Watermelon Buttercream Frosting: The secret ingredient in this tasty, fruity frosting is a packet of unsweetened watermelon Kool-Aid! Aside from that, you’ll need unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and cream or milk.
- Mini Chocolate Chips – These represent the black seeds in a slice of watermelon, and are key to giving your cookies the best watermelon vibes!
How To Make Watermelon Cookies
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt with a whisk, then set it aside.
- Mix Wet Ingredients: In another large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Then add the egg, and mix again until combined. Lastly, add the vanilla extract and heavy cream and mix again.
- Finish the Dough: Add the dry ingredient mixture gradually, mixing well between each addition. Then add green food coloring, and mix until the cookie dough is a uniform color.
- Chill: Use a cookie scoop to drop 1 1/2 tablespoon portions of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. They can be close together at this point, but don’t let them touch. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours, or up to overnight.
- Bake: Line two sheet trays with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C. Remove the cookie dough from the fridge, and roll each portion into a smooth ball before placing them on the baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes until set and puffed.
- Make Frosting and Decorate: Start by creaming butter in a large bowl. Slowly add the powdered sugar and Kool-Aid Powder and beat until smooth. Add the salt, vanilla extract, and heavy cream, and continue blending to get a smooth frosting. If needed, add a bit of red food coloring to get a deeper color. Add the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large closed star tip. Swirl rosettes onto each cookie, then top with mini chocolate chips to look like watermelon seeds.
Top Tips
- Buy the right kind of Kool-Aid: Look for the drink mix in a small packet, not a large jar. The packet is unsweetened, and that’s exactly what we need to make watermelon frosting!
- Chilling is important: To keep your sugar cookies thick and chewy, you definitely want to chill the cookies before baking them. If you skip this step, the cookies will turn out flat.
- Avoid overcooking: The green-tinted cookie dough will turn yellow if the cookies are baked for too long. Pull these from the oven once they’ve puffed up and let them cool on the tray to set.
- Use Gel Food Coloring: To get these bright, vivid colors, you want to use food coloring that has a lot of pigment and won’t add moisture. This set of food coloring from Wilton has all of the colors you need!
- The frosting will be light pink after you add the Kool-Aid. If you want a darker watermelon color, add a few drops of red food coloring as well.
- Swirl the frosting from the inside to the outside to create the pretty rosettes that you see in the photos here.
- Be sure to add the chocolate chips before the buttercream sets up. If you wait too long, they won’t stick.
Cookie Storing Tips
Store watermelon cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
For longer storage, freeze the cookies, unfrosted, for up to 3 months. Thaw and frost when needed.
Other Easy Desserts You Should Try This Summer
- Lemon Cake Mix Cookies
- Rhubarb Cookies
- S’Mores Cookie Bars
- Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies
- Mint Oreo Ice Cream
- Pineapple Dream Dessert
- Popcorn Cookies
- BBQ Grill Cookies
FAQs
If you can’t find Kool-Aid packets, you can leave out the flavoring, and simply tint the frosting pink. You can also use watermelon flavor extract to impart the same flavor to your cookies.
While you can freeze these cookies, I suggest that you do so before frosting them. The frosting won’t hold up as well to freezing and thawing. Make fresh watermelon buttercream to add to the cookies once you’ve removed them from the freezer.
You can just as easily spread the frosting over the cookies with a butter knife or a small spatula, they’ll still be amazing!
Don’t forget to Pin this recipe! You’re going to want to remember where you found this easy recipe for Watermelon Cookies. It’s so fun for summer gatherings and parties!
Watermelon Cookies
Equipment
- Star Tip
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- gel food coloring green
For the frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup heavy cream or whole milk, or half and half
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 ounces watermelon Kool-Aid drink mix from a packet, unsweetened
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- gel food coloring red
Instructions
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt with a whisk, then set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add softened butter and granulated sugar. Cream them together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add in the egg, and mix until combined. Then add in the vanilla and heavy cream or milk, mixing until everything is well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients gradually, mixing well between each addition. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl when needed.
- Add green food coloring, a few drops at a time, and mix until you reach your desired shade of watermelon green.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop 1 ½ tablespoon portions of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. They can be close together, but not touching. Cover the tray with plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours, and up to overnight.
- Line two sheet trays with a Silpat or parchment paper and preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C. Remove the cookie dough from the fridge.
- Roll each cookie ball between your palms to form a smooth ball place them on prepared cookie sheets about 2 inches apart to allow for spreading.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes until set and puffed (but not yellow). Let the cookies cool on the tray for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- To make the frosting: Start by creaming butter in a large bowl. Slowly add the powdered sugar and Kool-Aid Powder and beat until smooth. Add the salt, vanilla extract, and heavy cream, and continue blending to get a smooth frosting. If needed, add a bit of red food coloring to get a deeper color.
- Add the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large closed star tip. Swirl rosettes onto each cookie, then top with mini chocolate chips to look like watermelon seeds.
Notes
- Buy the right kind of Kool-Aid: Look for the drink mix in a small packet, not a large jar.
- Chilling is important: To keep your sugar cookies thick and chewy, you definitely want to chill the cookies before baking them. If you skip this step, the cookies will turn out flat.
- Avoid overcooking: The green-tinted cookie dough will turn yellow if the cookies are baked for too long. Pull these from the oven once they’ve puffed up and let them cool on the tray to set.
- Use Gel Food Coloring: To get these bright, vivid colors, you want to use food coloring that has a lot of pigment and won’t add moisture.
- The frosting will be light pink after you add the Kool-Aid. If you want a darker watermelon color, add a few drops of red food coloring as well.
- Swirl the frosting from the inside to the outside to create the pretty rosettes that you see in the photos here.
- Be sure to add the chocolate chips before the buttercream sets up. If you wait too long, they won’t stick.
- To Store: Keep frosted cookies in a single layer in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week.
Nutrition
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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Comments & Reviews
pat white says
Such a great recipe! thank you!