These Lofthouse-Style Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars are a deliciously soft copycat version that's made into cookie bars! This version and style solves the great debate on whether these cookies are the best or not! SPOILER: They are!
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking dish with parchment paper and grease it.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Whisk together the ingredients.
In a large bowl, cream together the unsalted butter and sugar together until light and fluffy with a handheld mixer. Add an egg and then the sour cream and continue to mix together the wet ingredients. Last, mix in the vanilla and almond extracts. Pour the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients and gently combine with a spatula.
Dump out the cookie dough into the baking dish. Use your hands to spread it evenly to all the edges. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until the edges have pulled away from the edges, the cookie has lightly browned, and the middle fully sets and springs back when poked. Allow the cookie to cool on a cooling rack before frosting it.
For the Buttercream Frosting
In a bowl, use a hand mixer to cream together the unsalted butter, sugar, vanilla extract, heavy cream, and cream cheese until the frosting is soft and fluffy. Add a drop or two of pink food coloring and fold it in until the color is even.
Two ways to frost the cookie bars - Transfer the buttercream frosting into a decorating bag with a star tip. Pipe rosettes on to the cookie bars. Alternatively, dump the frosting on the cookie bar and use an offset spatula to evenly spread a layer of the frosting.
Decorate with sprinkles. Cut into 8 equal-sized pieces and serve.
Notes
Substitute the sour cream with plain full fat Greek yogurt.