Sugar Cookie Royal Icing Recipe
Beautifully decorated cut-out cookies for every celebration and holiday are totally attainable at home with this easy sugar cookie royal icing recipe and a few instructions, tips & tricks to give you the confidence you need to try this technique yourself!
In the past, I shared some of my very favorite sugar cookie recipes (Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites, Cut-Out Sugar Cookies and Frosted Swig Sugar Cookies) but I simply cannot just give you a cookie recipe without sharing an easy royal icing recipe to go on the cookies, now can I? Be sure not to miss any of my cookie recipes! They are my favorite thing to bake because they’re EASY.
Sugar cookies are the cookie I would choose anytime over any other kind. Think back to being a child when you use to make cookies over the holidays with your mom or Grandmother. What was your favorite part about the baking process? Besides devouring them, mine was most definitely decorating them!
This royal icing recipe is great and so much more doable than I previously thought! Don’t be intimidated by making royal icing. If I can do it, you can do it! The notion that you need to be an artist to create a beautiful sugar cookie decorated with royal icing is simply not true. I have not one artistic bone in my body.
I used this royal icing recipe for my Minnie Mouse Sugar Cookies and they turned out beautifully. This royal icing recipe would also work great for making gingerbread houses at Christmas time!
In case you’re wondering, the biggest difference between royal icing and a just regular frosting like buttercream is in the texture. Buttercream frosting is creamy, easily spreadable, and soft. Royal icing hardens to an edible candy-like shell. Royal icing dries out completely and makes sugar cookies look absolutely perfect – almost fake sometimes!
Decorating instructions:
Line around the edge of the cookie with icing and fill in the middle. Use a toothpick to poke bubbles or direct icing into holes. Allow each area you frost to dry before moving on. The icing should completely dry, at room temperature for AT LEAST four hours, before adding piping details to the top.
For Polka Dots: before the flooded area dries, add dots of different colored icing.
For Hearts: before the flooded area dries, add dots of different colored icing, drag a toothpick through each dot, creating a heart.
For Zig zag design: before the flooded area dries, add stripes of different colored icing and then drag a toothpick through the stripes.
Sprinkles: before the flooded area completely dries, add sprinkles.
Candy: “glue” to the cookie with a drop of icing.
If using edible marker: before using on the icing, allow the icing to completely harden for at least four hours.
Tip: Getting just the right consistency is very possible. Too much water could cause your icing to run everywhere. Thickness is important when decorating sugar cookies with royal icing. You are striving for the thicker consistency of toothpaste or really soft cream cheese
My family has been enjoying this royal icing recipe for years, and I am so excited to finally share it with all of you! Decorating cookies with royal icing is just so fun and creative for big kids, little kids, and adults too!
Sugar Cookie Royal Icing Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 package refrigerated sugar cookie dough such as Pillsbury
- Gel food coloring
Royal Icing Recipe:
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 TBSP meringue powder
- 8-12 TBSP room temperature water
- Gel food coloring
Instructions
- Combine dough and flour. Roll to ¼” thickness. Cut out ½” x 3” rectangles.
- Bake at 350 on a baking sheet for 8 minutes or until the edges start to brown.
Royal Icing Recipe:
- In a stand mixer (or hand mixer is fine) combine sugar and meringue powder. Add 8 tablespoons of water, using the whisk attachment on your mixer, beat for 1 minute on low.
- Continue to add water one tablespoon at a time until the icing is a good consistency.
- Once it is all mixed, add more water if icing is too hard, a little at a time. If it's too runny, add more powdered sugar.
- Separate the icing into small mixing bowls and add the food coloring until you reach desired color. Mix well. Scoop the icing into piping bags or plastic icing bottles (read notes below for instruction).
Notes
Such a terrific icing! And takes so well to color. Nice, easy recipe, too. Thanks!