These watermelon sugar cookies are made from a buttery sugar cookie dough and are topped with pink, white, and green royal icing. Mini chocolate chips masquerade as the watermelon seeds, but sprinkles could work too! The cookies don’t taste like watermelon (though extract is optional!), but they sure are cute and festive for a picnic, barbecue, or summer party.
The thought of decorating sugar cookies used to have me running for the hills. Slowly but surely though, I’ve been inching my way into the awesome cookie decorator’s club. That’s not really a thing, but I’ve honestly never been particularly talented in this arena. Once I started practicing, improvement quickly came. Since then, I’ve shown you how to decorate Easter cookies, chocolate sugar cookies, snowman sugar cookies, fireworks cookies, and Valentine’s Day cookies.
Like a lot of beginners, I prefer to stick with easier decorations like today’s fun watermelon cookies. With only 1 piping tip and 3 colors, you can create watermelon slice sugar cookies at home too. Even if you’re not in the awesome cookie decorator’s club yet. (But after 1 batch, you will be!!)
Watermelon Sugar Cookies: What Works & What Doesn’t
Decorating Tools
Standard tools like a rolling pin and baking sheets are important for this recipe, but here are a few of the more specific decorating tools needed:
- Americolor Soft Get Paste Color Kit. In our experience, this is the BEST coloring for royal icing. The gel color is rich and vivid. You only need a drop or two for the icing. I use and recommend leaf green and fuchsia.
- Round Icing Tip #5. You can use this tip for both colors.
- Piping Bags. You can use either disposable or reusable.
- 3-inch round cookie cutter. I love this circle cookie cutter set which includes the size needed for this recipe.
For even more recommendations you can see this full list of my favorite cookie decorating supplies.
How to Decorate Watermelon Sugar Cookies
Decorating cut-out sugar cookies is a time investment, but it’s so much fun. I recommend leaving an afternoon to roll, bake, and decorate these sweet treats. I want you to feel confident before you begin, so here’s a quick summary of the decoration required..
Celebrate Summer with These Dessert Recipes:
- Fruit Pizza
- Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
- Mini Margarita Cheesecakes
- Peach Cobbler
- Creamy Lemon Pie
And for even more inspiration, be sure to visit my list of 25+ 4th of July desserts.
Watermelon Sugar Cookies Recipe
Ingredients You’ll Need
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, and watermelon extract (if using) and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. If the dough seems too soft, you can add 1 Tablespoon more flour until it is a better consistency for rolling.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Roll each portion out onto a piece of parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat (I prefer the nonstick silicone mat) to about 1/4″ thickness. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly ¼-inch thick.
- Stack the pieces, with parchment paper between the two, onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days. If chilling for more than a couple hours, cover the top dough piece with a single piece of parchment paper.
- Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Remove one of the dough pieces from the refrigerator and using a 3-inch circle cookie cutter, cut into circles. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with 2nd dough piece. Cut each circle in half to form slices.
- Arrange cookies on a baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-11 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Make sure you rotate the baking sheet halfway through bake time. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
- Prepare the royal icing or easy glaze icing. Spoon 1/2 of the icing into a separate bowl. Tint it pink using a couple drops of gel food coloring. Tint half of the remaining icing green using a couple drops of gel food coloring. Leave remaining icing white. Add green icing to a piping bag fitted with round icing tip #5. Line green icing around the round bottom of each cookie. Place baking sheet in the refrigerator to set the icing for 15 minutes. Add white icing to a piping bag fitted with the same round icing tip. Line white icing right above green icing. Place baking sheet in the refrigerator to set the icing for 15 minutes. Add pink icing to a piping bag fitted with the same round icing tip. Pipe pink icing onto the rest of the watermelon slice. Top with mini chocolate chips as “seeds.”
- Icing completely dries in about 2 hours at room temperature. Decorated or plain cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
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