Best Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe + Video (2024)

FAQs

What keeps royal icing soft? ›

The glycerin is the not-so-secret ingredient that keeps the icing from being rock hard. You can find it in the baking section at craft stores or online. The purpose of the white food coloring is to make the icing a pleasant bright white instead of off white.

Royal icing creates clean lines and takes on color to create a vibrant look. It also works for detailed piping and decorating, when you want to make a gingerbread house or small designs.

When more corn syrup or glucose was added (either twice as much, 2X, or three times as much, 3X), the icing became markedly softer. All icings set harder under a fan than when they were air-dried, though the glycerin-icing was still very soft in all cases (1X to 3X).

I'd experienced this issue when I thinned my icing with too much water for flooding. The good news on that front is that if you noticed that you'd done it before you start icing a cookie, you can stir in some sifted powdered sugar (or some reserved piping consistency icing if you want some) and recover.

Too much water can make your icing running and it will flow right off the cookie. The way to make the icing a little stiffer is to add more powdered sugar back into it. You are going to need quite a bit of powdered sugar to change the icing consistency so be generous with it so you don't over mix the icing.

Frosting is the thickest of these confections and is ideal for spreading or piping on cakes, cupcakes and cookies. Icing is a little thinner than frosting and is often poured or piped over coffee cakes, pound cakes, doughnuts and cookies—and it usually hardens when it dries.

Cookie icing can be used in the same way that royal icing can; however, it doesn't dry as hard as royal icing does. It's great for flooding cookies or piping designs into wet icing. To thin the consistency of cookie icing, just pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds.

Like royal icing, cookie icing can be used to decorate your roll-out sugar and gingerbread cookies; however, unlike royal icing, cookie icing does not dry hard. Cookies decorated with cookie icing will set smooth, but the icing will remain soft and can be damaged if cookies are stacked or packaged.

Undermix, and your royal icing looks translucent and is structurally weak. Overwhip, and you're giving too much volume to the egg proteins via air, causing the structure to weaken in a different way. Overmixed icing usually looks porous when dry, and sometimes will not even fully dry and be soft/brittle.

How do you frost sugar cookies without a piping bag? ›

The Basic Dip

Hold a sugar cookie by the sides, then dip the top of the cookie in the royal icing. Lift the cookie from the icing and gently shake away the excess. That's it! (You could use a spatula or knife to spread the icing out, but it's really not necessary.)

Popular substitutes for corn syrup include maple syrup, honey, and molasses, among others. You may need to adjust the amount with some substitutes. Corn syrup is a common ingredient used to make everything from candies and caramel to frosting, baked goods, jams, and jellies.

If storing your royal icing right out of the mixing bowl, Maddie recommends transferring the icing into a glass container for storage. However, you can also store your royal icing right in the piping bags! Simply tape the tip of each bag closed to prevent your icing from leaking or drying while being stored.

Adjusting your basic royal icing recipe into a 15-second consistency is easy. If your icing is runny and blends back together in under 15 seconds, add more sifted powdered sugar, mix and test. If it's too thick and takes more than 15 seconds to blend back together, add a little water.

Take a muslin cloth and put a spoon of rice in it. Tie it and put it inside your container. The rice will absorb all the moisture around and prevent your sugar from clumping.