Rainbow Sugar Cookies for St. Patrick’s Day

Make your own Rainbow Sugar Cookies for your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations! I’ll show you why you don’t need a rainbow cookie cutter to make these sugar cookies! You can use traditional rainbow colors for the frosting, or update them with green ombre frosting and St. Patrick’s Day sprinkles!

Rainbow Sugar Cookies

I always try to make treat for my kids on St. Patrick’s Day. I made Shamrock Cookies with my Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe, and I made these rainbow cookies with the same recipe!

I really want to try to make Rainbow Slice and Bake cookies, but I had some left over frosting from the shamrock cookies that I needed to use. I also had some St. Patrick’s Day sprinkles in my baking supplies. I decided to switch up my plan a little bit and make these Easy Rainbow Sugar Cookies!

Easy Rainbow Cookies for St. Patrick’s Day

I made green ombre rainbows, but you can definitely make rainbow cookies with traditional bright colors. They would be perfect for a rainbow or unicorn birthday party. The technique is the same! There are a few advantages to making the green cookies, though:

• They are perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, and would be great as part of a Leprechaun trap!
• You don’t need a rainbow cookie cutter. I will show you how below!
• Only one color of food coloring is necessary.

What You Need to Make Rainbow Sugar Cookies

Here are the basic supplies you need to make these St. Patrick’s Day rainbow cookies!

• Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe
• Frosting Recipe
• Round Cookie Cutters or round objects like drinking glasses, lids, icing tips, etc.
• Medium Round Icing Tip
• Sharp Knife or Bench Scraper
• Plastic Piping Bags
• Icing Tip Couplers (I prefer the Wilton brand because I know they will fit my icing tips perfectly).
• Leaf Green Gel Paste Food Coloring
• St. Patrick’s Day Sprinkles

How to Make Rainbow Cookies without a Cookie Cutter

I actually do have a rainbow cookie cutter, but I didn’t want to go look for it. I also thought it would be fun to show y’all how to make rainbow cookies with just basic round cookie cutters, icing tips, or whatever you have in your kitchen!

Preheat your oven to 325 deg F.

Follow your cut out cookie dough recipe to make, chill, and roll out the cookie dough to 1/4″ thick. First, cut the larger circles out of the cookie dough. I used a lid for my circle shape that was about 4″ in diameter. Re-roll scraps and continue until all of the dough has been used.

Using the small round cutter, or the larger end of an icing tip, cut the inner arch of the rainbow out of the cookie shapes.

Cut large circles in half using a sharp knife or bench scraper. A bench scraper is better because a knife may drag the edge of the dough and create a rough edge.

The size of the circle cutters you use to make the rainbows does not matter. Just keep the small circle proportional to the large circle so that you preserve the rainbow shape.

Place the rainbows on a cookie sheet 1-2″ apart and place in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to cool.

Then bake for 8-10 minutes or until the tops of the cookies no longer look shiny (depending on the thickness of your cookie). You do not have to wait for the edges to be brown until you want harder cookies. Allow to cool completely.

How to Decorate Rainbow Cookies for St. Patrick’s Day

Once your rainbow sugar cookies have cooled, it’s time to decorate! Separate the icing into 3 bowls to make the following colors:

• White (no food coloring)
• Pale green
• Dark green

Fill 3 piping bags with the separate colors of icing. Make sure that you use icing couplers so that you can move between icing bags with the same round tip.

Start with the white icing and pipe the innermost arch of the rainbow. I created dimension by piping my icing in vertical lines (in a wiggle pattern).

Work on one cookie at a time to pipe the white icing and then sprinkle on St. Patrick’s Day sprinkles. You want to make sure you apply the sprinkles while the icing is fresh on the cookie. If the icing surface has time to dry, the sprinkles will not stick.

Note: if you waited too long and your sprinkles will not stick, VERY LIGHTLY mist the white icing with water and then apply the sprinkles.

Move your icing tip to the light green icing bag. You will use the light green colored icing for the middle arch. Repeat the same design but do not add sprinkles.

Lastly, move the icing tip and use the dark green icing to pipe the outside arch of the rainbow.

How to Store Rainbow Sugar Cookies

Allow icing to dry on the cookies while they are on the cookie sheets. Store in an airtight container in a single layer to preserve icing dimension.

You can also freeze these cookies in a single layer (and then stack between parchment paper if necessary). Allow to come to room temperature before eating.

Don’t forget to pin these cookies to your favorite St. Patrick’s Day board on Pinterest!