Easy 4th of July Sugar Cookies Design Ideas
These easy 4th of July sugar cookies are so easy to make with red, white, and blue royal icing and basic sugar cookie cutters. Show your love for the USA with stars and stripes and hearts!
The Fourth of July is the perfect example of just how amazing a sugar cookie platter can be when you stick to a very tight 3-color royal icing palette!
Even when using only red, white, and blue icing, you can make dozens and dozens of absolutely adorable sugar cookie platters on a wide variety of themes.
From the obvious stars and stripes, to solid color hearts, to platters of adorable popsicles and bikinis, you're going to be blown away by all that you can do with these simple techniques.
Getting Started
Once you've planned out the cookie designs you want to make, it is time to get in the kitchen and get your supplies ready.
You will need:
- Baked Sugar Cookies: This is my very favorite easy sugar cookie recipe, especially if you're baking with kids.
- Easy Cookie Cutters: A big mistake new bakers often make is choosing a cookie cutter that is too detailed and tricky to work with. I strongly recommend these easy cookie cutters.
- A Big Batch of Royal Icing: You can get my detailed royal icing recipe here, but if you don't want to use royal icing, you could make several of these cookie designs with one of these frosting alternatives.
- Handy Decorating Tips: Royal icing is actually a lot easier than most people think. If you're curious, these easy royal icing design tips will help get you started.
Easy Design Ideas
Once you're ready to get decorating your sugar cookies, you could start with one of these super-easy royal icing designs for the Fourth of July.
Red, white, and blue polka dots, an easy chevron design, or even sparkle fireworks are all easy to make using the same design technique.
Chevron Sugar Cookies
To make a chevron pattern for the 4th of July, simply outline your cookies (any shape!) with a piped line of royal icing.
Flood the cookie with the same color for your base.
Then while the base is STILL WET, pipe an alternative color stripe across the cookie. It will settle right into the wet icing.
Use a toothpick or skewer to pull the icing through in an up and down pattern to make an alternating chevron design.
Let the cookie dry completely before moving.
Fireworks Technique
Using the same concept, you could also make these easy fireworks cookies.
Start by piping the border and flooding the cookie with your base.
Instead of stripes, drop one color of polka dots of wet icing into the wet base. Use a toothpick or skewer to pull the frosting into a firework shape.
Then layer a second color polka dot over the first dot and use a toothpick or skewer to pull the second color into an offset pattern to mimic the sparkle.
Looking for more adorable sugar cookies for July 4th? Don't miss this full list of easy designs even beginner bakers could make:
4th of July Sugar Cookies Design Inspiration
These easy sugar cookie designs for the Fourth of July will bring the sparkle and boom to your dessert table!
Using the colors of the day, a pretty platter of red, white, and blue sugar cookies is so easy to make shine.
I love the monochromatic star cookie with red, white, and blue sprinkles just on the top tips. Use a sprinkle mix with a bit of sparkle for an extra touch.
The fireworks cookie is easy to do with a white base and solid red and blue flares. Just wait till the base has completely dried before layering on the second colors.
Credit: @thirdmoonbakery
I love the mix of hearts and stars for this easy cookie platter.
You can use the same polka dot wet-on-wet technique I mentioned above to make the polka dots and the speckle look.
Credit: @theflowercookieco
Popsicles and bomb pop sugar cookie designs are super popular for the 4th of July.
I loved the retro look to these easy striped popsicles with a pale pink base instead of white. It makes it easy to make the watermelon slice cookies on the platter, too.
Credit: @colonyhousecookies
This STUNNING red, white, and blue cookie bunting would be shockingly easy to recreate. Use the same pie-piece shaped cookie cutter, line up the cookies, and simply ice the same width for each color on each cookie.
Let them dry completely and assemble the platter in a circular wreath.
Credit: @conjuringconfections
Cookie platters with the same object repeated with multiple designs is an awesome way to show off your creativity.
This adorable row of popsicles all use the same red, white, and blue color palette but the designs are simple tweaks that make each cookie a little different and special.
I LOVE that drizzle technique with the melting sprinkles!
Credit: @beckysbakeryhondo
How sweet would a red, white, and blue polka dot bikini be for a cookie platter??
You could do a mix of polka dots, solids, and stripes to make a fashion plate all your own.
Credit: @thecookiemomsterbakes
Spell out your love for the USA in a cookie letter message.
Using the same color palette, look how they made cute wet-on-wet designs for a bunting, stars, popsicles, and ice cream cone!
Credit: @cookiesbydebbie
Want to include the stars and the stripes?
I love that this platter uses all the same heart cutter shape and simply mixes the red and blue bases with stars and stripes.
Credit: @courtscustomcookies
Festive Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies are such a fun and festive treat to make for holidays all year long. Here are some of my favorites that use just 2 colors of icing to create:
