• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Work with Me
  • Contact
  • Homemade Cookie Cakes

Design Eat Repeat

Food Crafting, Free Printables, Recipes, Paper Crafting, Graphic Design and more!

Display Search Bar
  • All Recipes
  • Cookies & Bars
  • Cakes & Cupcakes
  • Breads & Muffins
  • Copycat Recipes

Frosted Orange Sugar Cookies

Share
Comments 0
Updated:May 12, 2023
This Post May Contain Affiliate Links. This won’t change your price but will share some commission.
Jump to RecipeRate this Recipe
frosted orange sugar cookies pin

These soft, thick, and chewy orange sugar cookies are easy to make (no mixer required!), infused with a refreshing, light orange flavor, and topped with a decadent orange cream cheese frosting!

orange sugar cookies with orange zest on top
Pin this Recipe for Later!

Why I Love These Orange Sugar Cookies

  1. Soft & thick: these are a orange spinoff from my thick lemon sugar cookies, which is one of my all-time favorite chilled cookie recipes!
  2. Quick to make: these orange cookies use melted butter so no need to soften it beforehand!
  3. Bright & citrusy: these cookies use fresh orange zest in the dough & fresh orange juice in the cream cheese frosting, which adds the perfect orange flavor without being overpowering!

Ingredient Notes

This is just an overview, jump down to the full recipe card for the recipe amounts and condensed recipe instructions to make these moist orange cookies.

  • Orange Extract: adding a little bit of orange extract to the dough & frosting helps give the cookies a prominent orange flavor. You can find this in the baking aisle of most grocery stores. If you can’t find it, you can make this recipe with just the fresh zest & juice but it will result in a more subtle orange flavor.
  • Orange: 1 large orange will be enough for both the zest & juice in the frosting. If you want to be safe, I’d grab two from the store so that you have enough to sprinkle extra zest on top.
  • Butter: I use unsalted butter in my recipes but if you use salted, just omit the added salt. Do not use margarine, as it doesn’t work well for cookie doughs that use melted butter.
frosted orange sugar cookie ingredients

How to Make Orange Frosted Cookies:

This is just an overview, jump down to the full recipe card for the recipe amounts and condensed recipe instructions.

Step 1: Make Dough

  1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a small glass bowl, microwave unsalted butter (¾ cups, i.e. 1 ½ sticks) until melted. Pour into large mixing bowl. Add in granulated sugar (½ cup) and powdered sugar (½ cup) and mix for 10 seconds.
  3. Add 1 egg + 1 yolk, vanilla extract (2 teaspoons), orange extract (¼ teaspoon), and orange zest (1 tablespoon), then mix until combined.
  4. Add baking powder (1 ½ teaspoons), baking soda (½ teaspoon) and salt (¼ teaspoon). Mix until combined.
  5. Half cup at a time, add all-purpose flour (2 ½ cups) and mix until flour is just incorporated. Do not overmix.
bowl of raw orange sugar cookie dough with cookie scoop

Step 2: Scoop & Bake

  1. Immediately after mixing, scoop dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls. Lightly flatten each ball before placing on cookie sheet. (Because this has melted butter, do not let the dough sit out before rolling into balls & baking, or your dough will become dry and crumbly.)
  2. Bake at 350℉ for 8-10 minutes. They may look slightly underdone, but they will finish baking on the hot cookie sheet after you take it out of the oven. Of course, because ovens bake differently, use your best judgement to keep them in a minute longer if they look severely underbaked.

Tip: After removing from oven, allow the cookies to cool on the hot baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them from cookie sheet. This will help them finish baking.

orange sugar cookie dough balls slightly flattened on cookie sheet
baked orange sugar cookies on cookie sheet

Step 3: Make Frosting

  1. In a large bowl, beat the softened unsalted butter (¼ cup) and cream cheese (4–ounces) on medium speed using a hand or stand mixer (with paddle attachment) for 1-2 minutes (until light and creamy).
  2. Keeping the mixer on medium speed, slowly add in vanilla extract (1 teaspoon), orange extract (¼ teaspoon), fresh orange juice (1 tablespoon), and powdered sugar (1 ¼ cups). Once incorporated, turn mixer to high speed and beat for 2 minutes.
bottle of kroger orange extract
bowl of orange cream cheese frosting for cookies

Step 4: Decorate

Once the cookies are fully cooled, spread or pipe frosting on cooled cookies and top with extra orange zest, if desired!

frosted orange sugar cookies on wire cooling rack

Tips & Variations

  • Add food coloring! If you want to make these even more iconically orange, you can add a drop of orange food coloring to the dough and/or frosting. If you don’t have orange food coloring, simply use a drop of red & yellow.
  • Try them chilled! I’ve been obsessed with chilled sugar cookies long before the days of Crumbl. These orange cookies are so good chilled, as the dough gets perfectly dense and even more chewy.
  • Level up with good vanilla! While I usually use imitation vanilla for my recipes, you can make turn these into the ultimate vanilla orange sugar cookies by using a high quality vanilla (Rodelle’s Madagascar Vanilla is my fave!).

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can I make the frosting without cream cheese?

While I love the flavor the cream cheese adds, you can also use the buttercream from my soft frosted sugar cookies and substitute out the almond extract for orange extract. Or you can also make a simple sugar cookie icing (swap out the almond extract for about 1/4 teaspoon orange extract, to taste) to make orange iced cookies.

Why did my cookies spread or not spread?

If your cookies didn’t spread as much as mine, press them down more when you bake them. Puffy cookies can also be the result of letting the dough sit too long before baking because it causes the melted butter in the dough to firm up too much. Puffy cookies can also be the culprit of your cookie sheet or your oven being too hot. For more consistent cookies, I highly recommend investing in a light-colored metal baking pan and an internal oven thermometer.

If your cookies spread more than mine, you may have under-measured the flour or used a brand of butter that contained more oil. I personally use Costco unsalted butter; I find that some grocery stores brands like Kroger spread a lot and result in a greasy cookie.

Can I leave out the orange extract?

You can but it won’t pack as much orange flavor! Using only the zest and juice will result in a more subtle flavor.

frosted orange sugar cookies on wire cooling rack

Storage & Freezing

  • Storage: store in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days; these are so good chilled!
  • Freezing: freeze no longer than 1-2 months for optimal freshness. If freezing these frosted, freeze on a cookie sheet in a single layer before stacking and storing.

Did you make this recipe? If so, will you do me a huge favor and leave a review and rating letting me know how you liked this recipe? This helps my small business thrive so I can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.

Frosted Orange Sugar Cookies

These soft, thick, and chewy orange sugar cookies are easy to make (no mixer required!), infused with a refreshing, light orange flavor, and topped with a decadent orange cream cheese frosting!

Author: Melissa Rose
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Course: Dessert
Category: Cookie
Keyword: frosted orange cookies, orange sugar cookies
Servings: 12 Large Cookies
orange sugar cookies with orange zest on top
Print this Recipe
5 from 1 vote
Did you make this recipe?
Leave us a review

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup unsalted butter (i.e. 1 ½ sticks) you will be melting this
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 egg yolk (you will be using 1 whole egg + 1 extra egg yolk)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon orange extract
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest (1 large orange will be enough for both the zest & juice in the frosting)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

  • ¼ cup unsalted butter (i.e. ½ stick) room temperature
  • 4 ounces cream cheese chilled (ie. straight from the fridge)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon orange extract
  • 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
  • 2 ¼ cups powdered sugar

Topping

  • extra zest for topping, if desired

Before you begin! If you make this, will you do me a huge favor and leave a review and rating letting me know how you liked this recipe? This helps my small business thrive so I can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. In a small glass bowl, microwave unsalted butter (¾ cups, i.e. 1 ½ sticks) until melted. Pour into large mixing bowl. Add in granulated sugar (½ cup) and powdered sugar (½ cup) and mix for 10 seconds.

  3. Add 1 egg + 1 yolk, vanilla extract (2 teaspoons), orange extract (¼ teaspoon), and orange zest (1 tablespoon), then mix until combined.

  4. Add baking powder (1 ½ teaspoons), baking soda (½ teaspoon) and salt (¼ teaspoon) and mix until combined.

  5. Half cup at a time, add all-purpose flour (2 ½ cups) and mix until flour is just incorporated. Do not overmix.

  6. Immediately after mixing, scoop dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls. Lightly flatten each ball before placing on cookie sheet. (Because this has melted butter, do not let the dough sit out before rolling into balls & baking, or your dough will become dry and crumbly.)

  7. Bake at 350℉ for 8-10 minutes. (The magic number in my oven is 9 minutes) They may look underdone, but they will finish baking on the hot cookie sheet after you take it out of the oven. (

    (Of course, because ovens bake differently use your best judgement to keep them in a minute longer if they look severely underbaked.)

  8. After removing from oven, allow the cookies to cool on the hot baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them from cookie sheet. Allow cookies to fully cool before frosting.

To make frosting:

  1. In a large bowl, beat the softened unsalted butter (¼ cup) and cream cheese (4-ounces) on medium speed using a hand or stand mixer (with paddle attachment) for 1-2 minutes (until light and creamy).

  2. Keeping the mixer on medium speed, slowly add in vanilla extract (1 teaspoon), orange extract (¼ teaspoon), fresh orange juice (1 tablespoon), and powdered sugar (1 ¼ cups). Once incorporated, turn mixer to high speed and beat for 2 minutes.

  3. Spread or pipe frosting on cooled cookies and top with extra orange zest, if desired!

Last Step! Please leave a review and rating letting me know how you liked this recipe! This helps my small business thrive so I can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.

Recipe Notes

  • Storage: store in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days; these are so good chilled!

  • Freezing: freeze no longer than 1-2 months for optimal freshness. If freezing these frosted, freeze on a cookie sheet in a single layer before stacking and storing.

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.

Nutrition

Calories: 417kcal
Fat: 20g
Saturated fat: 12g
Trans fat: 1g
Polyunsaturated fat: 1g
Monounsaturated fat: 5g
Cholesterol: 80mg
Sodium: 133mg
Potassium: 108mg
Carbohydrates: 57g
Fiber: 1g
Sugar: 36g
Protein: 4g
Vitamin A: 646%
Vitamin C: 1%
Calcium: 45%
Iron: 1%

Did you make this?
Tag me on Instagram @designeatrepeat or leave a comment below to let me know how it turned out! I love seeing what you’ve made.
  • Frosted Chocolate Oreo Cookies
  • square of no bake lemon cheesecake on plate with whipped cream and strawberry on top
    No Bake Lemon Cheesecake Bars
  • gooey orange cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting
    1-Hour Orange Cinnamon Rolls
  • Soft & Thick Lemon Sugar Cookies
  • coconut sugar cookies on a wire rack
    Frosted Coconut Sugar Cookies
  • Sugar Cookie Icing Without Corn Syrup (4 Recipes)
square of no bake lemon cheesecake on plate with whipped cream and strawberry on top
Previous Post
No Bake Lemon Cheesecake Bars
bakery style chocolate chip cookies
Next Post
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Welcome

I’m Melissa - a Graphic Designer & Paper Crafter creating easy-to-assemble printables, party DIY's, and food crafts for family fun.
Read More...

Freebies Delivered

Free Baking e-club

Trending Now

Fudgy Cosmic Brownie Cookies

Fudgy Cosmic Brownie Cookies

Copycat Starbucks Lemon Loaf

Copycat Starbucks Lemon Loaf

7 Easy Decorated Cookies for Easter

7 Easy Decorated Cookies for Easter

Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars

Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars

The Ultimate Moist Banana Bread

The Ultimate Moist Banana Bread

30 Minute Homemade Soft Pretzels

30 Minute Homemade Soft Pretzels

Favorites

Chewy M&M Cookie Cake

Chewy M&M Cookie Cake

The Ultimate Moist Banana Bread

The Ultimate Moist Banana Bread

Quick 1 Hour Cinnamon Rolls

Quick 1 Hour Cinnamon Rolls

Homemade Cookie Cake Recipe

Homemade Cookie Cake Recipe

Copycat Panera Chocolate Chip Cookies

Copycat Panera Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Best White Wedding Cupcakes

The Best White Wedding Cupcakes

Trending Recipes

The Ultimate Moist Banana Bread

The Ultimate Moist Banana Bread

Quick 1 Hour Cinnamon Rolls

Quick 1 Hour Cinnamon Rolls

Homemade Cookie Cake Recipe

Homemade Cookie Cake Recipe

Homemade Cheese Crackers

Homemade Cheese Crackers

Free Monthly Baking Challenge
Join Now!
Back to Top

Footer

Melissa is a graphic designer & craft stylist living in the Midwest, specializing in easy food and paper crafts for holidays, parties, and everyday.
Read More
  • Contact
  • Image Usage Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms
  • Contact
  • About
  • Free Printables
  • Work with Me
Copyright © 2023 Design Eat Repeat Site Credits Designed by Me Developed by Once Coupled