Sugar Cookie Decorating 101

This is a tutorial for how I apply icing to sugar cookies.  If you have any questions along the way please feel free to leave a comment or email me!

To make my special version of royal icing, these are the ingredients I use.  (click the link for full recipe)

1 cup powder sugar (confectioners sugar)

1 tablespoon milk

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1 drop lemon juice (can be fresh)

This will outline and fill approximately one dozen cookies in one color.

(In the tutorial below, I will be making the recipe twice, or enough for two dozen)

And here are the supplies.  You can find most of these at your grocery store, however the coupler set and disposable pastry bags can be found at Michaels and Walmart.

Place one cup of powder sugar in sifter.  Try not to skip this step!  Lumps in icing are hard to fix.

Add one tablespoon milk, one tablespoon corn syrup, and one drop lemon juice.

Mix everything together.  This looks pretty dry still, so I am going to add a little more milk, about a teaspoon at a time.

Much better.  Still pretty think but perfect for outlining.

Now remember these guys?  You want to take the large piece in the coupler set and insert it into the bag.  Really get it as far into the tip of the bag as you can without stretching the bag.

Place bag into a tall glass.

Pour icing into bag.  When it is filled about half way just give your bag a twist, then put a rubber band on it so no icing can spill out the end.

Now put this bowl in the sink and rinse it out!  Dried icing is a PAIN to clean up. :)

Next we are going to cut off the tip of the bag.  Just cut straight across.

Place your decorating tip on bag, then place the ring of the coupler set on top of the decorating tip.  Tightly screw it on and you are all set!

 

Before you start icing your cookie, just get a piece of wax paper or use a cookie sheet and practice using your icing bag.  Practice making lines... dots... learning the texture and consistency of your icing and how it looks. 

Then just start at any corner, apply light pressure to the bag, and begin slowly moving your tip down the side of your cookie.

(sorry about the poor quality of these shots... it was REALLY hard to take a picture while icing!)

Its ok to have a little slack in your line... let the icing flow a bit!

Just make your way around the cookie.  If you make a wobbly line or have a 'break' in the line just wipe off the cookies and start over.  Easy!

Next you are going to want to 'spill' or 'flood' your cookie.  So I made another batch of icing, the same way as before, only this time I added more milk to get a runnier consistency.

Once combined, run your spoon along the bottom of the bowl.  You will want to be able to see the bottom of the bowl for at least a few seconds.  If ten seconds pass and you can still see the bottom of the bowl you will need to add a little more milk.

Now grab another bag.  Since I am just using this icing to flood the cookies, I am not going to use a coupler or decorating tip. 

Just fill up the bag, twist it, and wrap a rubber band around the top.  Then cut off the tip.

When I flood I generally run a ribbon of icing around the edges then fill in the center a bit.  If you flood your cookie completely, as in, have no dry space, there will be too much icing and it will overflow.

Now we will go back in and smooth everything out.

Just grab a toothpick and start moving the icing into the corners.  Make sure you cover all the dry cookie!

There will most likely be bubbles.  Its a good idea to get rid of them if you can!

Just use your toothpick as a spear an pop them. There!  All gone.

And here is the 'finished' cookie.  I have finished in quotations, because now is when I normally start decorating! 

Hope that answers any questions you may have about icing... if you do have more though, feel free to check out these tutorials by some VERY talented ladies!

Bridget at Bake at 350

Marion at Sweetopia

These ladies are genius at what they do! (and therefore have much better tutorials!)

Comments

[Amys blah, blah, blogging]

You have more patience than I! That is a lot of work but they sure are beautiful!

[Kate]

thank you so much for sharing your recipe & techniques :)

[Charlotte Marsden]

You have a lovely site, just discovered it today.

Will this icing recipe set hard like royal icing? Are you able to stack the cookies without them getting damaged?

[Lindsay]

I wanted to make these flowers to put on my rainbow cake but I don't have meriengue powder. So is that the only way to make real royal icing??

[Vanessa]

Thank you SO MUCH! Your decorating skills are the best as far as I know. Hope to see more of your products in the future!

[ElizaBeth]

You may never, ever take this recipe down. no matter how many times I use it I always read though it here first- just thought you should know how I feel ;)

[Jana]

Ahhh....I am such a happy person today...I found this tutorial. It is awesome. But I am also such a preggo person...and I can't remember...if I am decorating a cake top, do I use this same recipe for royal icing and same steps for designing/filling in?!? I've done a couple of cakes in the past year, so you'd think I'd remember.
Also, do you know of a site that can help me mix my Wilton gel colors to get certain things (like the burgundy in my hubby's business logo??)
Blessings, Amanda!!

[Joanne]

I would like to know which is better for icing sugar cookies? Royal. Glaze, or color flow. What is the difference?

[Vanessa]

Hey, just wondering, how long would the royal icing take to harden?

[Jessica]

Oh my goodness! This was so easy to make! Last time I attempted royal icing it called for egg whites...lets just say it didn't turn out great. But this turned out amazing! Thank you for sharing it and I will for sure be making it again and telling my friends about it!

[Jessica]

I just posted some pictures if some cookies I decorated. You really will laugh at them because they look like a 3 year old decorated them. But I had fun and the icing was FAB! I included a link to your blog! http://firsttime9months.blogspot.com/2010/12/5k-and-some-cookies.html Thanks for the recipe. I love it!

[Julie]

Amanada - Do you use the same icing to do your writing (like on the Facebook cookies) or do you use a food-safe writing pen? Your penmanship is amazing either way. Julie

[Jenny]

I have a question: I don't like lemon and was wondering if I could use vanilla instead of lemon juice for this recipe?

[Kristen]

Oh my gosh, I wish I would have found your blog ages ago!!! Super helpful tutorial; I cannot wait to try to ice cookies again!

[Katiecreating.blogspot.com]

Hi Amanda,
I found your blog from Bridget over at Bat at 350, and I literally have been going through every post... I read a few, minimze the screen, go to work, come home, read some more, make dinner... you get the idea.

You are so talented and I am getting so many ideas. I have what is a really simple question... Do you let your icing outline dry before you flood it? Reading though Bridgets tutorial about how to ice cookies, she mentions she lets it dry for about 30 minutes. Since your icing is different, I wasn't sure if it was the same or not.

Thank you for all your step-by step instructions. I have just started decorating cookies, and have been doing a few cakes over the last year, and I am so excited to do more. Thanks!
Katie

PS... I hope you get this, since this is a post from over a year ago!