Lofthouse Cookies (Copycat Recipe)

The best Lofthouse cookies copycat recipe, built by reading the ingredient label on a real grocery store box. Super soft, cakey, pale sugar cookies smothered in sweet pink buttercream and rainbow sprinkles. No sour cream here. The secret is powdered sugar, cake flour, cream of tartar, and a butter-plus-margarine combo. If you love a soft sugar cookie, you're going to love these even more than my marbled Valentines Day sugar cookies.

Years ago, a reader asked if I had a Lofthouse recipe. I laughed, because there are about a million copycats on Pinterest. She agreed, but said none of them tasted like the grocery store original. Challenge accepted. I bought a box, took a bite, and worked from there. If you've had my vanilla cake, this is its cookie cousin: soft enough to feel weightless, sturdy enough to hold a thick swoop of buttercream.

What Makes This Lofthouse Cookie Recipe Different

Most copycat recipes start from a sugar cookie the author already likes and tweak it. I went the other way. I started with the Lofthouse box, read the label, and worked backward from what the factory uses. That led to three changes:

Powdered sugar, not granulated. This is what gives you the melt-in-your-mouth, snack-cake texture.

Butter plus margarine, not all butter. The box uses margarine, and you can taste it. All butter makes a regular sugar cookie.

Cream of tartar. It adds the faint tang you remember and keeps the cookies from spreading.

I also tested sour cream, since so many copycats swear by it. The dough felt moister, but the baked cookie came out drier, so it's out.

After six rounds of testing, I'm 90% happy with this version. The one thing I couldn't match is the layered look inside the store-bought cookie. Cutting cold butter into the flour with a food processor recreates it, but in a blind taste test the layered and creamed cookies tasted identical. It's extra work for looks only, so I stuck with creaming.

Lofthouse Cookie Ingredients

Most of this is pantry baking, plus two specialty items: cake flour and a tub of margarine. I always recommend weighing your ingredients with a digital kitchen scale for the most accurate results. Measuring flour by cups can make this dough too dry or too sticky.

• Powdered sugar. It dissolves into the butter with no grit, which is what makes the texture so soft.
• Unsalted butter. Take it out an hour ahead. Cold butter won't cream properly and leaves the dough streaky.
• Margarine. Yes, really. No margarine? See the FAQs for a butter-plus-shortening swap.
• 1 large egg, at room temperature. A cold egg makes the butter seize.
• Cake flour. The closest thing you can buy to the flour Lofthouse uses. All-purpose makes a denser, chewier cookie. No cake flour? Use my cake flour substitute.
• Cornstarch. It has no gluten, so it softens the crumb and helps the cookie hold moisture.
• Cream of tartar. Adds the Lofthouse tang and keeps the cookies from spreading. It's the same ingredient that gives my snickerdoodle cookies their signature flavor.
• Baking soda + baking powder. You need both. Together they give lift without a soda aftertaste.
• Clear vanilla. Keeps the dough pale. Brown vanilla works; the cookie will just be slightly darker.
• Almond extract. The closest home match to the "artificial flavor" on the label. Use exactly ¼ teaspoon, or the cookie starts to taste like marzipan.
• Salt, in both the cookie and the frosting, so they don't taste flat.
• Whole milk. Thins the frosting enough to pipe. Heavy cream makes it richer.
• Americolor Electric Pink gel coloring. The classic pink without thinning the frosting. For other colors, see the cheat sheet below.
• Rainbow sprinkles. Technically optional, but they're not Lofthouse cookies without them.

The Lofthouse Frosting Mystery (Why It Crusts AND Stays Soft)

Store-bought Lofthouse frosting has a thin crust on top, just enough for the cookies to stack without smudging, but it's completely soft underneath. Most homemade buttercreams either crust hard or stay sticky. Here's how Lofthouse does both:

• The crust. As the surface dries, the sugar on top recrystallizes into a thin shell. Leave piped frosting uncovered for 30 to 60 minutes and it forms on its own.
• The soft inside. Air can't reach the interior, so it stays silky.
• The factory trick. The commercial frosting includes a little corn syrup, which can't crystallize, so the crust stays delicate instead of hard and sandy.

The recipe as written gets you 90% there. For a cleaner, more bakery-style crust, add 1 tablespoon of light corn syrup to the buttercream after the powdered sugar. Totally optional.

Common Lofthouse Cookie Problems To Avoid

• Frosting won't hold its shape. Too much milk, or liquid food coloring instead of gel. Add powdered sugar ¼ cup at a time until it pipes again.
• Cookies spread too much. The dough was too warm, or you skipped the cream of tartar. Chill the full 2 hours, and in a hot kitchen, freeze the shaped cookies for 15 minutes before baking.
• Cookies are dry and crumbly. You used all-purpose flour, or overbaked. The bottoms should be almost as pale as the tops.
• Cookies came out browned and chewy. All butter, granulated sugar, or too long in the oven. Any one of these turns it back into a regular sugar cookie. (If you actually want crisp edges for decorating, use my cut out sugar cookie recipe instead.)
• Dough is too sticky to scoop. Your butter was too warm, or the flour was under-measured. Chill another 30 minutes. Still sticky? Fold in 1 tablespoon of cake flour.
• Frosting crusted into a hard shell. Too much air whipped in, so it dried fast. Once the surface is just set, cover the cookies loosely with plastic wrap. The corn syrup tip above helps too.

Make This Lofthouse Cookie Recipe Your Own

• Cherry almond. Bump the almond extract to ½ teaspoon and tint the frosting cherry red.
• Lemon. Swap the almond extract for lemon extract, add 1 teaspoon of lemon zest to the dough, and tint the frosting pale yellow. For a crisper lemon cookie, try my lemon shortbread cookies.
• Confetti. Fold ¼ cup of rainbow sprinkles into the dough before chilling, like my funfetti cookies.
• Brown butter. Brown only the butter (4 oz) before creaming. Keep the margarine as is.
• Cream cheese frosting. Beat 4 oz of softened cream cheese into the butter before adding the powdered sugar, or use my crusting cream cheese frosting.
• Royal icing dip. Once the cookies are completely cool, dip the tops in thinned royal icing and let them set on a rack for 6 to 8 hours. Soft cookie, shiny decorated top, perfect for events.

Lofthouse Cookie Color Match Cheat Sheet

The classic is pastel pink, but these cookies work for every holiday, shower, and gender reveal. Here are the Americolor combinations I use for the frosting.

Make-Ahead, Storage, And The Bake-Sale Plan

• Cookie dough. Fridge for 3 days, or freeze wrapped in plastic and foil for 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then let it sit 15 minutes before scooping.
• Scooped dough balls. Flash-freeze on a sheet pan for 1 hour, then bag and freeze for 2 months. Bake from frozen, adding 2 to 3 minutes.
• Baked, unfrosted cookies. Airtight at room temperature for 5 days, or frozen with parchment between layers for 3 months. Thaw in the container so they don't get soggy.
• Buttercream. Room temperature for 2 days, fridge for 5 days, freezer for 2 months. Re-whip for 1 minute before using.
• Frosted cookies. Single layer, airtight: 3 days at room temperature or 5 days in the fridge (let them sit out 30 minutes before serving). To freeze, flash-freeze on a sheet pan, then store up to 1 month. To stack, let the frosting set uncovered for an hour first and layer with parchment.

Bake-sale plan: make the dough up to 3 days ahead, bake the next day, and frost the day before your event so the frosting has time to set before you stack and transport. Giving them as gifts? My cookie boxing tutorial shows how to pack them so they arrive looking perfect.

Final Thoughts

Nobody seeks out Lofthouse cookies because they're the best cookie ever baked. We want them because they taste like a grocery store birthday party, a 7th-grade locker decoration, an Easter basket from a relative who didn't know what to send. That texture is the texture of a memory.

This version gives you the memory without the store-bought aftertaste. Soft, cakey, lightly almond, just sweet enough, and they photograph beautifully in any color. My one last lesson: be patient with the chill time, and pull them while they're still pale.

Lofthouse Cookie FAQs

More Cookie Recipes To Try