Here is my classic easy royal icing made with meringue powder. It’s easy to work with, sets quickly, and won’t break your teeth when it dries. It has the most delicious taste and texture and makes decorating sugar cookies FUN and SIMPLE. Use this traditional royal icing recipe for both flooding and outlining your sugar cookies!
This is the only traditional royal icing I use. It’s my favorite because it’s easy to work with, sets quickly, and doesn’t require raw egg whites. And best of all, it doesn’t have a hard cement-like texture. It won’t break your teeth like other royal icings!
This recipe is such a fan favorite, that it deserved a spot in print! You’ll also find this recipe in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Meringue Powder in Royal Icing
There are many ways to prepare royal icing and my favorite method is with meringue powder. Meringue powder takes the place of raw egg whites, which is found in traditional royal icing recipes. Both create a very sturdy and stable icing that hardens quickly on top of cookies. Meringue powder, while containing eggs, eliminates the need for raw fresh eggs, but still provides the EXACT same consistency. You can find meringue powder in some baking aisles, most craft stores with a baking section, and online. I just buy it on Amazon in the 8 ounce container. Super inexpensive and it lasts me awhile.
This royal icing is just 3 ingredients: confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder, and water. The trickiest part is landing on the perfect consistency, but I have a helpful video for you below. Sometimes I need more water, sometimes I need less water. But the wonderful thing is that you can manipulate the icing to get the proper consistency by adding more water or more confectioners’ sugar. It’s awesome.
Use This Royal Icing for Flooding and Piping
I use this one royal icing for both piping/outlining and flooding, like you see here on these Valentine’s Day cookies. The icing is thick enough to outline and thin enough to flood, which makes it super convenient.
Decorating Cookies
Here is the sugar cookies recipe you need. Soft centers, crisp edges, easy to decorate. You can also use this royal icing on chocolate sugar cookies, brown sugar cut-out cookies, lemon shortbread cookies, gingerbread cookies, or as the glue for a gingerbread house. It’s perfect for making these adorable Easter cookies, fireworks cookies, watermelon sugar cookies, and Halloween cookies. And it can even be used to top homemade mille-feuille.
If you’re a decorating beginner, here’s my How to Decorate Sugar Cookies page and video showing 4 simple, yet beautiful decorating techniques.
For a full list of tools I use, see my top recommended cookie decorating supplies. The following is a good list to get started:
- Couplers – needed if you’re using the same icing color, but need to switch tips. Or if you have multiple colors of icing and only 1 tip, and need to move the tip to the other bags of icing.
- Disposable Piping Bags or Reusable Piping Bags – I prefer the 16 inch size for decorating.
- Gel Food Coloring – get the whole set. I love these colors for royal icing, cake batter, frosting, etc. They’re high pigmented so you don’t need as much coloring.
- Piping Tips – see below. Or use a squeeze bottle for less detailed designs, or these icing bottles from Michaels.
- Toothpick – I use a toothpick to help spread out the icing. You could also just use the piping tip, too.
And some piping tips. I always use Wilton piping tip #4 for outlining and flooding the cookie with icing. This is a wonderful basic piping tip to have in your collection. For any detail, I use a thinner round tip like Wilton piping tip #1 (super thin) and Wilton piping tip #2 (thin). For larger round tips that are easier to work with, I suggest Wilton piping tip #3, Wilton piping tip #4, or Wilton piping tip #5. The piping tip #s reflect their sizes. #1 being the thinnest and #5 being the largest of this particular bunch.
Just starting out with piping details? I suggest #1 (smallest), #3 (medium), and #5 (largest of the bunch). You can create anything basic with these three.
Royal Icing Consistency
After mixing the 3 icing ingredients together, lift the whisk attachment up. If the icing that drips off melts back into the bowl of icing within 5-10 seconds, you’re golden. If it’s too thick, add more water. If it’s super thin and watery, just keep beating it OR beat in more confectioners’ sugar.
Can I Freeze Royal Icing?
Yes, royal icing can be frozen. Many royal icing recipes, including this one, yield a lot of icing. Any leftover royal icing can be frozen for up to 2 months. Place leftover royal icing into zipped-top freezer bags. If you have more than 1 color, each color should have its own bag. Before sealing, squeeze as much air out of the bag as possible. Freeze on a flat shelf surface in your freezer. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before using again.
Sugar cookies decorated with royal icing 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.
How Can I Make Royal Icing Ahead of Time?
You can prepare this royal icing 2-3 days ahead of time. I recommend transferring it to a smaller bowl or container and tightly sealing for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to use it, let it come to room temperature, then mix it up with a whisk a few times as it may have separated. Whisking in a few drops of water is helpful if it thickened.
Royal Icing Alternative
If you’d rather skip royal icing and try something easier, here’s my easy cookie icing. This opaque “glaze” style icing doesn’t set/dry as quickly as royal icing and it’s not ideal for piping sharp detail. That being said, sometimes it’s just the more convenient option! It will dry in about 24 hours, where the royal icing recipe below dries in about 1-2 hours. Or you can use cookie decorating buttercream, which can be a great alternative for icing that stays soft.
Print
My Favorite Royal Icing
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 3 cups
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Description
Here is my classic easy royal icing made with meringue powder. It’s easy to work with, sets quickly, and won’t break your teeth when it dries. It has the most delicious taste and texture and makes decorating sugar cookies fun and simple. Use this traditional royal icing recipe for both flooding and outlining your sugar cookies. This recipe is also in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
- 4 cups (480g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted, plus more as needed
- 3 Tablespoons meringue powder (not plain egg white powder)
- 9 Tablespoons room-temperature water, plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or 1/2 teaspoon of your favorite flavored extract, such as lemon, coconut, or peppermint (optional)
- optional for decorating: gel food coloring (I love this food coloring kit)
Instructions
- Watch the video tutorial so you get an idea of what the final consistency should be.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, mix the confectioners’ sugar and meringue powder.
- Add the water and a flavoring (if using), and whip on high speed for 1.5–2 minutes. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5–10 seconds. If it’s too thick, whip in more water, 1 Tablespoon at a time. I usually need 10 Tablespoons, but on particularly dry days, I use up to 12–14 Tablespoons. Keep in mind that the longer you whip the royal icing, the thicker it becomes. If your royal icing is too thin, just keep whipping it to introduce more air, or you can add more sifted confectioners’ sugar.
- If you’d like to tint the icing, divide it into separate bowls for each color, or tint the entire batch one color. A little gel food coloring goes a long way, so use a toothpick to dot the gel into the icing. Stir it in and then add more to deepen the color if desired. Keep in mind that the more you stir, the thicker the icing becomes. If needed, stir in a few drops of water to maintain the target consistency.
- When applied to cookies or confections in a thin layer, icing completely dries in about 2 hours at room temperature. If the icing consistency is too thin and runny, it will take longer to dry. If the icing is applied very thickly, it will also take longer to dry. If you’re layering royal icing onto cookies for specific designs and need it to set quickly, place cookies in the refrigerator to help speed up the setting. See blog post above for make-ahead and freezing instructions.
Notes
- When you’re not working directly with the royal icing (for example, you are decorating cookies but you still have some icing left in the bowl that you intend to use next), place a damp paper towel directly on the surface of the royal icing. This prevents it from hardening.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer) | Meringue Powder | Americolor Soft Gel Paste Color Kit | Disposable or Reusable Piping Bags | Couplers | Wilton Tip #1 | Wilton Tip #2 | Wilton Tip #3 | Wilton Tip #4 | Wilton Tip #5 | Squeeze Bottle or Icing Bottle
Here is my recipe for sugar cookies.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Can I double the recipe? I am making these heart shaped cookies for a large Bridle Shower. 70 of them.
Hi Sherry, we would recommend making two batches to avoid over-whipping the icing. Happy baking!
Turned out wonderful!
Best royal icing recipe I’ve used. It holds well for edges and fills nicely. Once dry the cookies stacked without sticking for delivery to friends and family.
We used this recipe and your sugar cookie recipe for the first time. Both turned out great. This was out first experience with royal icing and are excited to make it again! Thanks for more great recipes!
I’m not sure why, but mine is literally like marshmallow cream should i add more water? Keep mixing it? Or add more powdered sugar?
Hi Angie, is it too thick? Then you’ll want to add a bit more water to help thin it out to your liking. If it’s too thin, you can add more powdered sugar.
I used this cookie recipe and Sally’s royal icing with meringue powder to make Christmas cookies with my grandchildren. They were easy to make and squeeze bottles made decorating a breeze. They were also delicious, which I don’t expect from sugar cookies. I made them a little thick so that the kids wouldn’t break them while handling, so had to cook them about 21 minutes.
Sally is my go-to site for baking anything. Thank you!
Never tried making or using royal icing before..this is pretty wonderful and super easy to pipe!
I love this recipe! Consistency is always perfect and it’s so easy to make. I did add 2 tsps of vanilla because I am not too crazy about the taste. I don’t think it made it any better. It has a soapy taste… is it just me???
So excited by how cute these turned out. I left them on the counter overnight to dry and harden. How long are the sugar cookies with this royal icing safe to eat if kept at room temp? If kept in fridge? TIA!
Plain or decorated cookies stay soft for about 5 days when covered tightly at room temperature. For longer storage, cover and refrigerate for up to 10 days. Enjoy!
Hi, I’m planning on making this recipe for a cookie decorating party and I am wondering how/if you could store this a couple days ahead of time? Thanks!
Hi Amy! You can find those instructions and much more in this post on hosting a cookie decorating day. Enjoy!
Hi, can I add lemon juice instead of the water?
Hi Roxanne, that would be a lot of lemon juice. You can try replacing some or half of the water with it.
How long can painted royal icing be stored? it keeps for the same time if it is thawed and then refrozen for uses.
Thanks!
This recipe is excellent! Super easy to make and the icing hardened up nicely with a smooth finish. This is my new go-to royal icing recipe for decorating cookies.
Do you need to add white gel food coloring to get the white icing shown in your photo?
Hi Michele, if you make the recipe as is, it will already be white. We add gel food coloring to tint the icing other colors, so could try adding white gel food coloring if you’d like!
Do you know approximately how many cups of frosting this recipe makes? I’m hoping to use it to decorate gingerbread cookies. I will be decorating like you have them in your recipe. Since I am making 10 batches of gingerbread cookies, I’m not sure how much frosting I will need. Any guess is a great start. Thanks for sharing these recipes!
This recipe yield about 3 cups. Enjoy!
In order to get the consistency where the icing would fall back into itself I had to add more water. This resulted in it being way too soft and it’s not getting hard after several hours in a cold area. Will this ever get hard or are my cookies just going to remain a soft mess? When I try this again do you recommended sticking to the measurements rather than trying to adjust until the icing falls back into itself?
Hi Janell, the thicker the icing, the longer it will take to fully dry and harden. You can certainly adjust the water in the recipe in order to get your desired texture, just keep in mind that different consistencies will take different amounts of time to fully harden. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
My daughter has a severe egg allergy. Any tips to make an egg free version of royal icing? Thanks!
Hi Cynthia, meringue powder is a key ingredient in this royal icing recipe, but we’d recommend trying our easy cookie icing instead. Still great for decorating cookies but no eggs in the icing. Hope you enjoy it!
About how many cookies will this recipe frost?
Hi Brandi, that would depend on the size of your cookies and how heavily you ice them – this recipe yields about 3 cups which is quite a bit!
I know someone asked about fresh egg whites, but would it be possible to use egg white powder instead of meringue powder? It’s hard to find meringue powder where I live!
Hi Elizabeth, Egg white powder and meringue powder are not the same. Egg white powder can replace egg whites. Meringue powder replaces the ingredients in meringue. The two are different and shouldn’t be used interchangeably in this royal icing recipe. Some recipes use fresh egg whites but that would require a different recipe. We don’t have one, but luckily there are many options if you’re going that route!
Hi, I was wondering if this icing would be suitable to hold together a small gingerbread house. Would you suggest I whisk it for longer to make it a thicker consistency?
Hi Tiff, It’s what we use to construct our gingerbread house!
Hi Sally, if I can’t get meringue powder before I need the cookies to be ready because I’m going to have to order it, how would I go about using the fresh eggs version?
Hi Amanda, this recipe was written specifically for meringue powder, and using fresh egg whites would require a different recipe. Luckily there are many options if you’re going that route! Or if desired, try this easy glaze icing which does not require meringue powder or egg whites.
Hi! Am I able to use a handheld mixer because I don’t have a stand mixer?
Absolutely!
If you add vanilla, do you use less water? I’ve mastered both your sugar and chocolate sugar cookies recipes, but I cannot for the life of me master your royal icing! I wanted to add the vanilla to give it a bit more flavor, but am worried it’ll mess the icing up even more if I don’t do it right.
Hi Katie! The measurements will be just about the same, but you could try decreasing the water by the teaspoon of vanilla, adding the teaspoon of vanilla, then adding more water if needed to thin it out. Let us know if we can help troubleshoot other aspects of the recipe at all!
Also, if I were to add another flavor, such as marshmallow or maple, do I still add vanilla?
I made this recipe today usng pure maple syrup instead of water to make a maple flaver icing for gingerbread cookies. It was amazing! I dipped the cookies but maybe next time I will do a back and forth drizzle.
Hi Sally – If I am not going to be using all the Royal Icing and will freeze it should I mix in some
Sunny Side Up Bakery”s Glycerin into the icing before I freeze it ?
Will it help keep it fresh or am I wasting my time.
Hi Kate, we don’t add anything to the icing to freeze it. Check out the section Can I Freeze Royal Icing? in the middle of the post to see how we freeze ours.
Does the royal icing dry hard enough to write on it with an edible marker?
Oh gosh; I only wish I had your experience, Sally! My meringue powder must have been too old, and I only needed 1/8 of the quantity (1/2 c. powdered sugar, etc.). I have made 1/4 of the quantity of this recipe before without a hitch. This time however, although my frosting had the proper 5-10 second melt consistency in the mixing bowl, the texture fizzled to goo once I started piping it from a bag. And it just got gooier the more I piped it. My poor gingerbread cookies look pretty sad and my poor mother now thinks I’ve got an early case of holiday bah humbugs. Hopefully, I’ll recover before we have to start our holiday baking in earnest. Thanks for all your recipes! They truly are the best, even if yours truly cannot make them work, all of the time.
I’ve followed this recipe exactly and the icing will not fully dry/set, now 20 hours since I decorated the cookies. I must have applied it thicker than is intended but it’s not very thick at all to inflate the wait time so much. It is frustrating!
The best thing about this recipe is the “quick” drying! I definitely need practice outlining and flooding, tho.
Question: I’m not bringing these to our ladies dinner until tomorrow night. How do I store them? My plan was little plastic bags, but I don’t want cookies to smear.
Thank you!
Hi Marie! Let them dry until completely hard (usually about 2 hours) and store in a sealed container (or baggie) at room temperature.
Hi.Sally ,I did make meringue icing for cookies,next day it was stil soft a little bit..why
Hi Pat, it could be that your icing was piped/spread on a bit thicker. The thicker the icing, the longer it will take to dry.
I am having a cookie decorating party and I wanted to make the process as easy ans clean as possible. I planned on making your fabulous sugar cookies and royal icing but can I put your royal icing recipe in squeeze bottles instead of piping bags?
Hi Monique, Yes, definitely! We do it all the time!
Is it better to use piping bags with assorted tip sizes – or – piping bags without tips and just snip off the end of each bag, depending on whether I am outlining or flooding?
Hi Betty, We always use Wilton piping tip #4 for outlining and flooding the cookie with icing.
Do you just thin the icing a bit more for flooding then and use the same tip?
Yes, that works!
I have yet to find a Sally’s recipe that I don’t love. Thank you for sharing your recipes and knowledge!! I’m no pastry chef, so this may be a silly question, but what difference does milk make in place of the water in this royal icing recipe? I’ve used both and honestly can’t tell much of a difference (but haven’t tasted side by side). I want to be sold on one way vs. the other!