Inside: These vibrant rainbow cookies are sure to brighten any occasion!
Rainbow Cookies with Frosting Clouds
There’s something about rainbows that just bring out the fun!
We love these rainbow cookies because they are super bright and festive, perfect for St. Patrick’s Day or rainbow themed birthday parties.
The best part? They’re surprisingly easy to make— you only need one batch of cookie dough!
Trust me, the kids will love to create the brightly colored cookie dough and roll out the different layers. And of course they’ll love to eat them!
–Stacey
Rainbow Cookies Ingredients & Supplies
- 3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 sticks butter, cold & cut into chunks
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- White icing
- Rainbow Gel food coloring set
- Silicone baking mat
- Frosting piping bag
A free printable copy of this recipe is available at the bottom of the post. Watch our quick recipe video here and then don’t forget to scroll down for your printable recipe!
How to make Rainbow Cookies with Frosting Clouds
Sift together the flour and baking powder into a small bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together for 1 minute. Add egg and vanilla. Add half of dry ingredients, stir completely, then add second half.
Separate dough into 5 equal portions, with an indentation or small “bowl” in the middle of each ball of dough.
Add 1-2 drops of gel food coloring to each ball of dough, in the middle of the indentation you created. Only use one color of gel per dough mound: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
Knead each ball of dough separately, working in the food coloring until you have five brightly colored balls of dough.
Roll purple dough out into a 1 inch thick log, about6″ long. Set aside.
Roll out the blue dough so that it is the same length as the purple log of dough, but flatten the blue dough so that it is only about 1/4″ thick. Place the purple dough log in the middle of the blue dough, rolling up the sides of the blue sheet of dough so that it surrounds the purple dough to form one larger log.
Repeat what you just did with the blue dough with each additional color, until you have one log of dough. Make sure that all of the colors are firmly pressed together with no gaps.
Wrap in plastic and refrigerate 1 hour to overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line two cookie trays with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside.
Remove cookie dough log from fridge and slice into 1/2 inch cookies – then slice again through the middle.
Place onto prepared baking sheet 1 inch apart.
Bake 8-10 minutes, the cookies will appear matte in appearance (not shiny). Allow to cool before frosting.
Use a plastic piping bag to draw “clouds” on each end of your rainbow cookies with white icing. Allow to set completely before serving.
Grab a free printable copy of our Easy Rainbow Cookies recipe:
Yield: 42 cookies
There's something about rainbows that bring out the fun! These vibrant rainbow cookies are sure to brighten any occasion, from St. Patrick's Day to birthday parties. They're surprisingly easy to make - you only need one batch of dough!
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Additional Time10 minutes
Total Time50 minutes
Ingredients
- 3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 sticks butter, cold & cut into chunks
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- White icing
- Rainbow Gel food coloring set
- Silicone baking mat
- Frosting piping bag
Instructions
- Sift together the flour and baking powder into a small bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together for 1 minute. Add egg and vanilla. Add half of dry ingredients, stir completely, then add second half.
- Separate dough into 5 equal portions, with an indentation or small "bowl" in the middle of each ball of dough.
- Add 1-2 drops of gel food coloring to each ball of dough, in the middle of the indentation you created. Only use one color of gel per dough mound: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
- Knead each ball of dough separately, working in the food coloring until you have five brightly colored balls of dough.
- Roll purple dough out into a 1 inch thick log, about6" long. Set aside.
- Roll out the blue dough so that it is the same length as the purple log of dough, but flatten the blue dough so that it is only about 1/4" thick. Place the purple dough log in the middle of the blue dough, rolling up the sides of the blue sheet of dough so that it surrounds the purple dough to form one larger log.
- Repeat what you just did with the blue dough with each additional color, until you have one log of dough. Make sure that all of the colors are firmly pressed together with no gaps.
- Wrap in plastic and refrigerate 1 hour to overnight.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line two cookie trays with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside.
- Remove cookie dough log from fridge and slice into 1/2 inch cookies - then slice again through the middle.
- Place onto prepared baking sheet 1 inch apart.
- Bake 8-10 minutes, the cookies will appear matte in appearance (not shiny). Allow to cool before frosting.
- Use a plastic piping bag to draw "clouds" on each end of your rainbow cookies with white icing. Allow to set completely before serving.
Be sure to pin these rainbow cookies on Pinterest:
More of our favorite rainbow recipes:
Air Fryer Rainbow Donuts
Rainbow Shopkins Cake
