These frosted tea cakes are so simple to whip together in a stand mixer and such fun cookies to decorate together as family! You’ll be amazed at how tasty these soft cookies are, topped with a sweet cream cheese icing. Make a batch to eat and a batch to share with friends! 

I love the traditions around this time of year. I love the anticipation and expectancy that comes with tradition. There’s comfort in doing the same things every year, hanging the same stockings, listening to the same favorite holiday albums, and baking the same cookies for family and friends.

Every year there will be the shaking of presents, the aimless drives through neighborhoods to look at the lights and the gaudy inflated holiday characters.

But there are also the traditions you swear you will not carry on from your childhood. How frustrating it used to be to wake up on Christmas morning and have to wait hours until the grown-ups had finished blowing out their hair and prepping their faces for the barrage of gift-opening photographs.

To be fair, as an adult now, I do my share of face-prepping too. But I have not yet forgotten the eager impatience to get the festivities started and so I try to temper my desire to not look like the ghost of Christmas past with the very real childhood urgency of the morning.

Frosted Tea Cakes

One Christmas tradition I am very happy continue with my kids is making these frosted tea cakes.

As a child we did this every year without fail. And only at Christmastime. Rows upon rows of cookies lined the counter as they cooled, while my brothers and I set up stations at the kitchen table for icing and sprinkling.

Admittedly, we often wanted to quit because after icing the fiftieth cookie, we were on the third time through listening to Charlie Brown Christmas and the fun had long worn off. But we were not allowed to quit. The cookies needed to be ready to be gifted to family and neighbors.

My kids are finally at the ages where they can ice cookies on their own. Not perfectly, but they’ll get better with practice.

{If you are looking for a good natural food coloring option, this is what we use. The colors are bright and pretty!}

Frosted Tea Cakes

• Author: Lisa @ This Pilgrim Life
• Category: cookie

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Description

These frosted tea cakes are so simple to whip together in a stand mixer and such fun cookies to decorate together as family! You’ll be amazed at how tasty these soft cookies are, topped with a sweet cream cheese icing. Make a batch to eat and a batch to share with friends! 

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

Cookies

• 1 C butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 C all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Icing

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 C powdered sugar

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Instructions

1. Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer on medium speed for two to three minutes until well-incorporated and light. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add the vanilla. With the mixer on low, add the baking soda and salt. Slowly add the flour. Mix until all the dry ingredients are incorporated and no streaks of flour remain.

2. Cover mixing bowl and refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350°.

3. Roll a rounded tablespoon of dough into a ball and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Flatten slightly.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 12 minutes until the bottoms of the cookies begin to darken. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Repeat rolling, flattening, and baking the remaining dough.

5. Make the icing: In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the cream cheese on medium speed. Turn the speed down to low and slowly add the powdered sugar. (Taste the icing and adjust the amount of powdered sugar based on desired sweetness).  Once the powdered sugar is added, return the speed to medium and blend until the icing is smooth and creamy. If you want colored icing, divide the icing into bowls and add food coloring.

6. Once the cookies are cooled, ice the cookies. If you want sprinkles, add the sprinkles right away while the icing is wet. The icing will harden after a few hours.

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More holiday family favorite sweets to enjoy ::