Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars

These ultra-soft sugar cookie bars are inspired by the classic Lofthouse cookies we all know and love. The pillowy and tender sugar cookie bars are topped with a layer of homemade buttercream frosting and sprinkles. Customize them for any season or occasion!

Why You’ll Love These Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars

You know Lofthouse Sugar Cookies? They’re the sugar cookies at the grocery store that are sold with every single imaginable color of frosting on them depending on the time of year. This recipe takes those infamous and nostalgic cookies and turns them into sugar cookie bars. The end result is a tender and melty sugar cookie bar that I will warn you is highly addicting and delicious.

Here’s the scoop:

• Super soft and melt-in-your-mouth cookie bars. The addition of cream cheese in the dough makes the cookies so moist and tender. They have the flavor you know and love in sugar cookies in bar form!
• Sweet vanilla buttercream frosting with just a hint of salt is the perfect pairing for the soft sugar cookies.
• The dough is quick to make and bake — no chilling required.
• You can customize the frosting color and sprinkles to any season or occasion. Ex. Pink for Valentine’s Day, green/red for Christmas, or any shade of pastel for Easter.
• If you really think about it, this could either be one very large sugar cookie baked in a 9×13 pan, or many frosted sugar cookie bars. Great to snack on by yourself or bring to a potluck and share with a crowd.

Last thing I’ll mention before getting into it is that if you find yourself loving these super soft frosted sugar cookie bars, I would also recommend checking out these frosted sour cream cookies. Similar vibe, but round lol.

Ingredient Notes

Ingredients for Cookie Dough

• Unsalted Butter, Softened: You should be able to press your finger into the butter and leave an indent. If not, it is too cold.
• Plain Cream Cheese: Use full-fat cream cheese from a block (not a tub). You will need one standard 8oz block of cream cheese. Cream cheese is the secret ingredient that keeps these frosted sugar cookie bars moist.
• All-Purpose Flour and Cake Flour: Cake flour helps give these cookie bars their super soft and tender texture. Combining it with all-purpose flour ensures cookies that are both melty and have structure.
• One Egg, at Room Temperature: Soak the egg in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes before baking. A cold egg won’t combine properly into the dough.
• Granulated Sugar and Powdered Sugar: For sweetness. As powdered sugar is finely ground and includes cornstarch to prevent clumping, it absorbs moisture, resulting in a more tender cookie.
• Pure Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean Paste: Use a pure vanilla extract instead of imitation vanilla flavor for the best results.
• Kosher Salt: Balances the sweetness
• Baking Powder and Baking Soda: Leavening agents.

Ingredients for Buttercream Frosting

• Unsalted Butter, Softened: Ensure butter is soft for the best consistency.
• Powdered Sugar
• Heavy Whipping Cream: Helps make the buttercream light and fluffy while smoothing out the texture.
• Kosher Salt: A pinch of salt balances out the sweet buttercream.
• Vanilla Extract: Similar note to the cookie dough ingredients, using a pure vanilla extract will yield the best flavor.
• Optional Food Coloring: Pick any color and follow your heart or the season.

In terms of equipment, you will also need a 9×13 inch rectangular baking pan. My favorite is from USA Pan.

Baking Tips

Sugar cookie bars are great for a crowd, so follow these tips to ensure a crowd-pleasing dessert!

1. Measure flour correctly: Measure flour by weight instead of volume. Flour is an ingredient that is easy to over- or under-measure depending on how you scoop and pack it. If you do not have a food scale, the most important thing to remember is to not tightly pack flour into your measuring cup.
   • Also a heads up that one cup of cake flour weighs less than one cup of all-purpose flour.
2. Ingredient temperatures matter: Each ingredient listed in this recipe should be at room temperature. This is especially important for the butter, cream cheese, and egg. Cold ingredients do not mix together well, which impacts the cookie dough’s texture. For example, if you use cold cream cheese straight from the refrigerator, it will be clumpy instead of blending smoothly into the butter and egg.
3. Bake until bars are just done: The last thing any of us want is a dried out sugar cookie bar. Bake the cookie dough in the pan until it is just done. It should start to turn a bit golden along the edges, but the middle may still look moist.
4. Cool completely before frosting: Make sure that the sugar cookie bars are completely cool before frosting them, otherwise the buttercream will melt.

FAQs

• Do I have to use cake flour?
  • For the best results, do not substitute ingredients. However, if you do not have cake flour you can use all-purpose flour and replace 2 tbsp of flour with an equal amount of corn starch. It’s not perfect, but works in a pinch.
• Can I use store bought frosting?
  • I LOVE store bought frosting. Save yourself some time and go for it. Vanilla pairs best with the sugar cookies but I imagine cream cheese would also be good.
• How should I store leftover cookie bars?
  • Store leftover frosted cookie bars in an airtight container or tightly wrapped. They will be good for 2-4 days at room temperature or up to one week in the refrigerator. If stored in the fridge they may dry out and the frosting will get firm.
• Can I use a different sized pan?
  • Instead of a 9×13 pan, you can use two 8×8 pans or two 9″ round cake pans. Overall, aim for ~117 square inches of surface area. You can also make half the recipe and use one 8×8 pan.
• What are your favorite sprinkles for topping these cookie bars?
  • I believe I used a Wilton Spring sprinkle mix for the ones pictured here. I love Wilton as well as Supernatural Sprinkles and Sprinklefetti.

Pin and Save for Later

Are you interested in making this recipe but not ready to bake yet? Not to worry! You can hover over (or tap on mobile/tablet) any image in this post to save it to Pinterest. You can also directly pin the recipe card down below. The recipe will be waiting for you when you need it. 🙂

Happy baking my friends and as always, hope you love your frosted Lofthouse-inspired sugar cookie bars!