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
Hello! I love your recipes! I was wondering before I attempted this icing, can I add flavoring? would adding vanilla or any other extract call for different measurements? does it mix well with the meringue powder? Ive never used meringue powder before.
Thank you, Abby! If you want to add additional flavor you can feel free to add any extracts such as vanilla, almond, etc. Just be sure it’t not an oil based flavor.
I did not like the taste of this icing at all. There is no flavoring. Did you forget too at the vanilla or almond flavoring? It tasted like pure powdered sugar. Worst total icing I have ever made. One start b/c the consistency was okay, but you can adjust that with any icing recipe.
Hi Elisa, royal icing doesn’t really have a distinct flavor. It’s a sweet topping for cookies and other confections. Feel free to add a little extract if you decide to try it again. I do find that brands of confectioners’ sugar range in flavor. I find Domino brand’s flavor more mellow– it’s what I usually use here.
This was the best. I added a little extra powdered sugar and a little vanilla. It’s good on the cookie and I can’t comment enough on how perfect the consistency was!!
I had other royal icing recipes fail on me. Sally’s recipe is reliable and tastes great. Her video is helpful. Highly recommend!
I baked these cookies for Easter and they are soft and had a really nice vanilla flavour. I highly recommend these!
I am over 70 and it took me 55 years to find
The perfect roll out sugar cookie! Best recipe ever!!!!!!!!! Easy. Tasty and recipe works!!
Thank you
I am using your sugar cookie/royal icing recipies to make gender reveal cookies for my family. I plan on completely covering both sides of the cookie to conceal the colored cookie under the icing. Do you think there is any reason why I shouldn’t cover the comlete sugar cookie in royal icing? I am also guessing I’d have to dip it, let it dry for two hours, then dip the second side, then dry again. Any advice?
Hi Jenn! Shouldn’t have an issue doing this– I’ve done it with my animal cracker cookies before with no problem. Dip one side, let dry, dip the other side.
I love this recipe. Very easy and yummy to make. I couldn’t get the kiddo to stop eating it. Plus i have leftovers for more cookies. I colored mine and had no problem with mixing a little color in to give it the pastel color i wanted for easter. Very tasty on sugar cookies.
This recipe is now my go to, also! So simple, perfect results! I’ve had success with all your recipes I’ve tried. Thanks so much!
I love the cookie recipe with the easy glaze. Everyone loves them… that is if I am able to leave some behind after making them. “smiles”
But I am having a problem with the Royal Icing recipe. You mention a couple of times to watch the video, but I can’t find it.
Once frosted, can these be stored at room temperature and if so, for how long? Thank you.
Hi Susan, If you are using my sugar cookies with this frosting then they stay fresh if tightly covered at room temperature for 5 day.
Hi there, thanks for the site and recipes!
I’ve got some freezedried strawberry powder coming in the post, do you think I could add it to this icing and still have it hold up and dry ok?
thanks in advance!
I use freeze dried fruit powder in buttercream frostings all the time, but I honestly haven’t tried it with royal icing. I can’t think of a reason it wouldn’t work but please let me know if you try!
Hi again,
Well I tried it with and without the freeze-dried strawberry powder and this is a great recipe both ways! 😀
I actually made this 3 times now and the first time I think I overwhipped it, the consistency started to go down the home-made marshmallow route but I pulled it back enough to use it.
I added 1 tsp of vanilla and almond extracts, and 1 tsp corn syrup as you suggested for a bit of shine and it tastes great… might be the corn syrup that contributed to the marshmallowy-ness when I overwhipped? I was more careful the next 2 times though and this icing is perfect!
Even with the corn syrup I wouldn´t mind it being a bit shinier but I would much rather have it taste lovely and not break your teeth than have it look varnished. I did think of painting the cookies after they´ve dried with corn syrup and seeing what happens, but I forgot about it til after the cookies where gone lol. It´s probably a crazy idea anyway, I don´t know anything about corn syrup and this is the first time I´ve ever actually used it but I´ll try a test cookie next time and see how it goes.
Anyhow, I didn´t actually weigh how much strawberry powder I used but it was enough to colour the icing a dusky rose. I outlined with plain white icing and did flowers, they were so pretty! And having the powder in the icing really brought out the strawberry flavour cos with the cookies by themselves you couldn´t really tell it was strawberry.
Thanks again for a great recipe, this is going to make my holiday cookies so much prettier and it´s a lot easier and more fun that frosting cookies in different colours and shapes in buttercream the way I usually do!
Thank you for this easy and delicious recipe, Sally! I ended up making mine a little too thick, so I did a border first and then added more water to the icing so I could flood them. What I loved about your recipe is that you could do both a once, so I just need t get the consistency down!
Great recipe! I need royal icing to pipe into daisies for a cake. Can I still use this recipe and just add more sugar to make it thicker?
Hi Charene! Yes, you can add more confectioners’ sugar to make a thicker royal icing 🙂
Great Icing , best recipe for royal icing . Used for valentine cookies and will it will be my go to decorating cookie icing .
First royal icing recipe that I have used and was the right consistency for flooding .
I made Valentine sugar cookies with this royal icing and they are delicious and beautiful! I cut the icing recipe in half and still had almost a full cup left over after outlining and flooding 40 2-inch cookies. So glad I can freeze it for later!
Love your site, Sally! Many thanks!
Hi, I used your royal icing recipe the first time I decorated cookies fir Christmas, your recipe was fantastic to work with! I have your site in my IPad notes and getting ready to make a small batch for cookies I made for grandson to bring to his daycare for Valentine’s Day, along with a heart shape cookies for daughter, I baked letters for their names of kids at daycare to put tiny hearts on. I do have icing bags but I find using the plastic squeeze bottles work great even the very small one I take the metal nozzle out and use bottle for fine lines. I have to experiment to make a smaller batch for the royal icing sugar and meringue power..1 cup icing and 1/2- 3/4 tbsp of meringue work? Or…… thanks for sharing ..
I’m so glad you enjoyed working with this royal icing, Frankie! You can definitely make a smaller batch, try one cup of sugar with one TBS of meringue powder.
Hi Sally! Can I make this royal icing a couple days in advance? Does it hold up well for a couple days? And how would I store it?
I would like to make the icing on Friday and want to decorate my cookies on Monday. Am I better off waiting till Monday to make the icing or making it Friday and freezing it?
Thanks!!
Hi Corrine! Here’s what I do when I want to prep the icing in advance. Store the icing in baggies (or the piping bags you’ll use), then cut off the tips when it’s time to decorate. Best to store in the refrigerator for those couple of days. It’s helpful to bring them to room temperature prior to using/decorating.
I find after I color the icing and it dries on the cookies, its super dull. No shine at all, almost faded looking. Would it help if I add corn syrup??
Hi Dana! Absolutely– a little corn syrup (1 teaspoon is plenty) adds a lovely shine to glazes, ganaches, and even royal icing.
Hi Sally! Can I use egg white powder instead of meringue powder, are they the same? Its really hard to find meringue powder in our area. Thank you in advance!
Hi Graciel, I’m happy to help. 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.
Hi Sally, what a fantastic recipe!
Just a question – in Australia we get icing sugar mixture (with added corn flour) and pure icing sugar. Do you think you could use either? Would it make a difference? Thanks so much!
Hi Lisa! I recommend plain/pure icing sugar.
I made this today and I felt like it turned out pretty well. I just have a couple questions to make sure I didn’t do anything wrong. My frosting is taking much longer than the estimated 2 hours. It’s slowly getting there but it’s been probably close to 12 hours now. Does that mean my frosting was too liquidy? Also, is it supposed to have a matte finish or more of a glossy finish? Mine are definitely matte.. is that correct? If not, what did I do wrong and how can I correct it?
Thanks! And thank you for all your wonderful recipes!
I meant it is taking much longer than the estimated two hours to set
Hi Jenny, It sounds like you may have just mixed it too long. When it’s mixed too long (or at too high of speed) it will incorporate too much air – this makes it fluffier which means it goes on thicker and takes longer to dry and also makes it dry with more of a matte finish. Next time just turn down the speed of your mixer and don’t mix quite as long and it should turn out well!
Can I substitute milk for water?
Sure! You could also substitute flavored extracts if desired. Enjoy!
Sally,
This recipe looks great, but is there ANY way I can reduce the amount of sugar without altering the consistency of the icing?
Hi Sophia, this icing is just about all sugar so reducing the amount would just reduce the quantity of icing. There are not other ingredients to substitute for it.
WOW WOW WOW…I used to hate making this stuff but I loved your recipe and your video! Thank you.
I really liked this royal icing recipe just because i didn’t have to mess around with it to get the perfect consistency. I just needed an icing that would flood well but not run off the sides. I use bottles and i was able to outline and flood without any problems. I added vanilla to the mixture and it tasted great. I made snowglobe cookies and frosted with this royal icing and they came out so well that i’m making another batch. People complaining about the frosting being tacky, royal icing can take 24 hrs to set so just plan ahead and give yourself plenty of time.
I don’t have a sifter to sift my powdered sugar. What should I do?
Thanks!
Hi Sharon! Pour the confectioners’ sugar into a bowl, fluff it up with a fork, then measure from that.
Can I add almond extract in place of some of the water?
Yes, you sure can! Enjoy!
I have to tell you how much I love this icing. I put it in squeeze bottles and decorate cookies with my three year old. It’s easy for him to squeeze out and, having no raw eggs, I’m not worried if he squeezes a little directly into his mouth. Also, it sets quickly enough for his little patience. Iced cookies were intimidating but I’ve also discovered how much I love doing more complex designs with this icing
Easy to make and tastes great. It’s the perfect consistency too. This is now my go to royal icing recipe every time.
The recipe tasted and looked great! It was however still soft after if “set” overnight. If I touched it there would be an indention or movement of the icing. Did I do something wrong when mixing or is this just how it is?
Thanks!
Hi Julie! If you piped the icing on rather thick, it won’t set as nicely. Nothing you did wrong with mixing!
I think the recipe is good but I’m wondering what I might have done wrong. I think I may have over whipped it bc it stayed tacky even overnight. The taste was amazing. Tasted like marshmallows but it didn’t set up. What do you think?