If you need a cookie decorating alternative to traditional royal icing, this easy cookie icing is a great choice. It’s like a very thick opaque glaze and comes together with a fork, whisk, and mixing bowl. This cookie icing takes about 24 hours to completely dry and you can’t pipe intricate detail as you could with royal icing, but if you want EASY cookie icing, this is it! All of the pictured cookies in this post use this icing.
Yes, you can create gourmet-looking decorated cookies without royal icing!
Skip All the Fuss & Use This Easy Cookie Icing
If you’re looking for professional icing with a picture-perfect finish and the ability for lovely piped detail, use royal icing. I love this royal icing and use it often for decorating sugar cookies, but it can be finicky. You need a very precise consistency in order for the royal icing to pipe, set, and dry appropriately—it definitely requires practice and patience. Before I began working with royal icing, however, I used today’s easy cookie icing. It’s still one of my favorite ways to decorate sugar cookies because it’s low maintenance, but still delivers pretty (and delicious) results. Plus, it’s great for making ahead and manageable for kids and beginners.
You Will Love This Cookie Icing:
- Easy to make with a fork, whisk, and bowl
- No special equipment
- 5 basic ingredients
- Can use squeeze bottle or piping tips to decorate
- Manageable for young bakers and/or beginners
- Doesn’t dry into hard cement texture
- After it dries, you can stack, freeze, and transport cookies
You can use this icing on cookie cutter cookies such as these sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, and chocolate sugar cookies. You could even use it on shortbread cookies or drizzled on spritz cookies. I even used it on some of these pictured Halloween cookies and these Christmas sugar cookies.
5 Simple Ingredients
For the icing, you need confectioners’ sugar, water, vanilla extract (replace with water to keep the icing stark white, or use clear vanilla extract), a touch of corn syrup, and a little salt. The icing dries firm with a very slight crisp, so you can easily stack your decorated sugar cookies and travel with them.
- Why corn syrup? You only need 2 teaspoons. Corn syrup gives the icing sticking power and creates a beautiful sheen on the dried icing. I don’t recommend skipping it, but you can if absolutely needed.
The Right Consistency
The ratio of confectioners’ sugar to water keeps the icing thick. If you drizzle a little icing off the whisk into the bowl, the ribbon of icing will hold for a few seconds before melting back into the icing. That’s when you know it’s the right consistency.
Use a Squeeze Bottle or Piping Bags/Tips
Here’s what I recommend for piping tips:
- Disposable Piping Bags or Reusable Piping Bags
- Use Wilton piping tip #4 for outlining and flooding the cookies with icing. This is the same tip I usually use for royal icing, too. (And great for piping spider webs on Halloween cupcakes!)
- Couplers: Couplers are needed if you’re switching around your piping tips and icing colors. For example, if you only have one piping tip #4 but want to use this tip for multiple colors of icing. A coupler makes it easy to switch tips between bags of icing.
- Optional: Bag clips, bag ties, or rubber bands to keep piping bags closed.
Or instead, use a squeeze bottle!
- To make decorating a breeze, use a squeeze bottle. They’re less intimidating than piping tips and very easy for young bakers to use.
Or… just dip your cooled cookies into the icing. No tools needed.
Tinting the Icing Different Colors
You can keep the icing white or tint it your desired color. Use gel food coloring because liquid food coloring can change the consistency. I like the brand AmeriColor; you can find their gel colors in the baking aisle of craft stores or give it a quick search online. I use and recommend (affiliate links) this set of 6 colors or this set of 12 colors.
- As Icing Dries, It Darkens: As icing sits in a piping bag/squeeze bottle before using AND as it dries on a cookie, the color darkens. This is the case with most colors, particularly red and black. When I make black icing, it’s usually blue-ish gray in the bowl and piping bag and then as it dries, it darkens into a black shade. Don’t go overboard on food coloring because the color will deepen as the icing dries.
- Can I Use Natural Food Coloring For Cookie Icing? Yes, absolutely! I’ve used the brand Supernatural and they have a line of natural powdered food coloring that’s available in a few colors. You need to dissolve the coloring in a little water before using, so make sure that you very slightly reduce the amount of water needed in the icing recipe. (Note: If you ever need to thicken the icing back up after adding the coloring, you can whisk in a little more confectioners’ sugar.)
This Cookie Icing Requires Planning Ahead
The icing needs at least 24 hours to dry, but you can certainly eat them prior to the icing drying. This is much longer than royal icing, which usually dries in 2 hours.
PS: If you want to decorate cookies with buttercream frosting instead, use this vanilla buttercream. Feel free to keep it on the thicker side by reducing 1 Tablespoon of milk/cream.
Looking for more holiday baking inspiration? Here are 75+ Christmas cookies with all my best success guides & tips.
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Easy Cookie Icing
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: about 1.5 cups icing
- Category: Baking
- Method: Whisking
- Cuisine: American
Description
If you need a cookie decorating alternative to traditional royal icing, this sugar cookie icing is a great choice. It’s like a very thick glaze. This icing takes awhile to dry, about 24 hours, and you can’t pipe detail very well, but if you want simple decoration and a simple icing, this is it!
Ingredients
- 3 cups (360g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (omit and replace with water for stark white icing)
- 2 teaspoons light corn syrup*
- 4.5–5 Tablespoons (67-75ml) room temperature water
- pinch salt*
Instructions
- Using a fork, stir the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, corn syrup, and 4.5 Tablespoons (67ml) of water together in a medium bowl. It will be very thick and almost impossible to stir. Switch to a whisk and whisk in 1/2 Tablespoon (8ml) of water. If you lift the whisk and let the icing drizzle back into the bowl, the ribbon of icing will hold shape for a few seconds before melting back into the icing. That is when you know it’s the right consistency and is ready to use. If it’s too thick (sometimes it is), whisk in another 1/2 Tablespoon (8ml) of water or a little more until you reach the consistency.
- If desired, stir in gel food coloring. You can pour some icing into different bowls if using multiple colors. When tinting icing, only use 1-2 drops at first, stir it in, then add more as needed to reach your desired color. Remember, color darkens as icing dries.
- Decorate: Spoon icing into squeeze bottles or piping bags fitted with Wilton Piping Tip #4. Decorate your cookies as desired. I usually outline cookies with icing first, then fill in the middle. If adding sprinkles on top of the icing, add them right after applying icing on your cookie.
- Let icing dry/set: Feel free to enjoy cookies before icing completely dries. Icing dries in 24 hours. No need to cover the decorated cookies as you wait for the icing to set. If it’s helpful, decorate the cookies directly on a baking sheet so you can stick the entire baking sheet in the refrigerator to help slightly speed up the icing setting. Once the icing has dried, these cookies are great for gifting or for sending.
- The shelf life of your decorated cookies depends on the cookie recipe you are using. If using my sugar cookies, cover and store decorated cookies for up to 5 days at room temperature or up to 10 days in the refrigerator.
- Making Ahead & Storing Icing: If not decorating right away, cover the icing tightly and keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. You can store in piping bags (with clips or rubber bands to seal ends), in squeeze bottles, or covered in bowl or container. Bring to room temperature before using. If icing has thickened up, add a few drops of water and mix in to thin out. Depending how you stored the icing (squeeze bottle/piping bag/container or bowl) shake squeeze bottle to mix/massage piping bag to mix/whisk in bowl or container to mix.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: I do not recommend making and freezing this icing before using to decorate your cookies. It’s not as smooth and easy to use after thawing. However, decorated sugar cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Wait for the icing to set completely before layering between sheets of parchment paper in a freezer-friendly container. To thaw, thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
- Corn Syrup: Corn syrup gives the icing sticking power and creates a beautiful sheen on the dried icing. I don’t recommend skipping it, but you can if absolutely needed.
- Salt: I know salt isn’t a typical ingredient in cookie icing, but it helps offset its sweetness. You just need a small pinch.
- Yield: This amount of icing is enough for icing 2 dozen cookies. You’ll have plenty if you want to divide it and tint the batch multiple colors, too. Icing can easily be halved by halving all of the ingredients. (Still add a tiny pinch of salt.)
- Decorating Supplies (affiliate links): You can use squeeze bottles or piping bags/tips to pipe this icing. If using piping bags/tips, you need Disposable Piping Bags or Reusable Piping Bags, Piping Tips such as Wilton Piping Tip #4 (my favorite), Couplers if you’re switching tips/icing colors, and something to seal the end of the bag such as bag clips, bag ties, or rubber bands.
- Cookies & Sprinkles in Photos (affiliate links): Pictured cookies are sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies made with Christmas cookie cutters (the exact set is no longer available, but here is a set with similar shapes) and the ball ornament from this set. Sprinkles used on pictured decorated cookies are plain white sprinkles, these white balls on the Christmas trees, Wilton Pearlized Silver Sugar Food Decorative, this white sparkling sugar, and red balls from a sprinkle mix like this on reindeer.
Keywords: easy cookie icing
I am making cookies that look like hats. Should the top of the hat be stacked as soon as the icing is applied to the brim of the hat?
This recipe is too runny. I only added three tablespoons of water and that was still too thin.
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This recipe was horrible! It didn’t ever dry like it was supposed to, it was too runny, I followed everything perfectly on the recipe. It also tasted horrible. This was a very bad recipe/experience. Next time I’ll just buy store bought.
★
Made this tonight after the eagles game, colored my t-shirt cookies green. Will finish the decoration tomorrow. Your recipes always work out,thank you.
★★★★★
In my state it doesn’t look like I can use royal icing and sell them in and out of state, so I am wondering if I can use this glaze icing and get a detail, outline and piping consistency, like royal icing? I really like decorating cookies and hope I can use this icing and be successful.
Hi Linda! You can definitely make slightly different consistencies with this icing, but we find that you can’t get quite as much detail out of it. Let us know how it goes if you try it!
Can I add lemon juice or extract to make this a lemon flavor? I would replace some of the water for the lemon juice. Will it change consistency or have any issues with the color or anything else when dry?
Hi Leigh, you could replace some of the water with lemon juice or add a splash of lemon extract — whichever you prefer. The color should not change too much (and you could still add gel food colorings if you wish). Enjoy!
I am a loyal reader and I’ve tried so many recipes. Thank you. I do have a question about the gel color flavoring. I used it in the powdered sugar frosting and it went on great but then I froze them and they discolored. Any suggestions as to how to avoid that?
Hi Nancy, that can happen sometimes with this icing. We find it doesn’t happen as much if we replace some of the water with milk. If you try them again and want to freeze the iced cookies, you can replace half of the water in the icing with milk and that should help a bit with any blotchy or discolored cookies when thawed. Thank you for making and trusting our recipes!
I love this recipe along with the sugar cookie recipe. I’ve made these for 3 years now, but each time my icing discolors after it dries (light/white blotches) Any ideas what I am doing wrong?
★★★★★
Hi Jay, I haven’t experienced that and I’ve stored cookies for a couple weeks before. What type of food coloring are you using? I usually use gel. If you try the recipe again, using milk instead of water could help. (Or half of each.)
This icing worked so well to make beautiful cookies and tasted so good. We used SBA’s amazing Soft Cream Cheese Cookies for our cut out cookies. Those have almond extract so I added a tad of almond extract in addition to the vanilla. Because of the runny consistency, this was quite messy for little hands until we tied the top of the piping bags with rubber bands. Might try squeeze bottles next time. I did have to add 1/2-1cup more confectioners sugar to get it the right consistency. We will definitely be using this icing recipe again.
★★★★★
Hey, this icing has a weird consistency, almost like little balls. It did not have the smooth constituency. Kind of like glue. What did I do wrong?!
Hi Sarah! Is it quite thick? How did you measure the powdered sugar? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post. You can add more water to thin it out – make sure to use a whisk to help get any clumps out.
Dose honey taste good together instead of corn syrup?
Hi Yoda, you can use honey in place of the corn syrup here.
Does the photo with the white icing have food coloring to make it so white? I ask because whenever I make this recipe the icing is translucent.
Hello! No, there isn’t white coloring in the white icing. I wonder if another brand of confectioners’ sugar may work better for you!
Hi!! Can I use maple syrup instead corn syrup?
Hi Kristina, you can simply leave it out or even try honey in its place.
So easy to make and delicious on gingerbread!! Yuuum. Followed the recipe exactly. Did some dipping and some piping….. my first try so they’re not perfect but they taste amazing. Thank you!!
★★★★★
With three cups of confectioners sugar and 4.5 Tablespoons water, my initial mix was WAY too runny. I added almost another 2 cups of sugar to get a piping consistency, but nobody else seems to have had this problem. I wondered if 4.5 teaspoons to 3 cups sugar would have worked, or the 5 cups sugar to the 4.5 tablespoons.
I, too, dislike the taste of royal icing made with meringue powder, as well as the flat finish, so if I can make it pipeable with this I’ll be much happier.
I had the exact same problem!
Do you know if this icing can be used by dipping the cookies onto the icing rather than piping it on? I’ve seen it done with royal icing.
Hi Nancy, absolutely! You can dip cookies into the easy icing.
Say someone happened to be very tired and forgot to put the icing in the refrigerator overnight – is it still ok to use the next day? It was in tightly closed canning jars.
Hi Kbuck, Icing is fine at room temperature for up to 3 days. After that, it’s best to refrigerate it.
Hi there, can I substitute the corn syrup for anything else?
It’s hard to find in the Netherlands
Xx
Hi Tamara, you can simply leave it out or even try honey in its place.
I have been making sugar cookies for many years and have tried various royal icing recipes. This recipe works out the best for me. I am not a fan of the taste of royal icing made with the meringue powder. This recipe has great flavor and super easy to make and use. I put a small fan on the table where I dry my cookies and use the fan to help dry the icing. The fan helps to give the icing a nice shine. My cookies usually take 48 hours to completely set up.
★★★★★
Can this icing be kept in the bottle and used another day?
Yes! See step 6 for details.
hi, I find it hard to buy corn syrup in my city. Can I substitute it with something like honey or anyrhing else? Or can I just skip it without leaving any major differences ?Thanks
Hi Carin, you may leave it out if you aren’t concerned about shiny, glossy icing. Or you could try honey in it’s place. Let us know what you try!
You can buy clear vanilla!
Good Morning i truly enjoy useing your recipes for the simple reason is they are super easy and very fun.
Thank you so much . Please send me more if available.
★★★★★
Can I use golden syrup instead of corn syrup?
Absolutely!
Hi. I usually make this type of frosting but use 1/2 and 1/2 instead of water. Is there any reason that you use water instead of dairy?
Susan
Hi Susan! We like the way the glaze sets up with just water. Let us know if you give it a try!
Is this the Icing that gets hard after drying? Could you use any other flavors other than vanilla? Very new is this.
Thank you,
Howard
Hi Howard, this icing will set enough to stack the cookies after letting it dry for 24 hours. It doesn’t dry as fast or set as hard as royal icing, but it’s easier to make and work with (perfect for cookie decorating beginners). You can flavor it with another extract in place of vanilla if you’d prefer. Hope you enjoy!
I use almond extract