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, 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
Help. This is my first time make royal icing. I have a stand mixer. I added ingredients just as you said; however, I feel like I have added so much more water and mine is like a marshmallow fluff!! What should I do? Do I keep adding water?
Hi Michelle! It’s possible you are mixing it too fast/long. You could simply be whipping too much air into it. But there is nothing wrong with adding more water if you need to!
This is my go to royal icing recipe for cookie decorating, but with a recent batch of cookies things went wrong. I decorated the cookies including flooding the tops and left them to dry overnight… approximately 9 hours. I packaged them the following morning in cellophane bags and within a few hours the icing design began to bleed badly. Sally, is this just an error on my part for not letting them dry longer? How long should flooded cookies with this recipe dry?
Hi Rachel, cookies decorated with royal icing can take anywhere from 2+ hours to dry. If the flooding layer was particularly thick, it can take much longer for them to dry. The type/brand of food coloring could also cause more/less bleeding to happen between the colors. Hopefully this is helpful for next time!
Hi Sally. Am in the planning stage of making Christmas cookies and am anxious to try your sugar cookie and royal icing recipes. Quick question about about food coloring. How do you mix up the color black for, example, snowman’s hat and buttons? Thank you.
Hi Susan! For the black we use a black gel food coloring. Hope you enjoy both the cookies and the icing!
Hi Lexi. Thank you for your reply. I realized – belatedly – that there is actually black gel color. Sorry for that. It’s been a real experience icing cookies. I am pretty satisfied with my results but clearly need to practice this art! Thanks for the great instructions.
Hi Sally, i need to stack the cookies in a box – cookies will be individually wrapped in cellophane pouches – is royal icing okay to use and will it take just a few hours to set as I would be baking the cookies and dipping in royal icing and put festive sprinkles, then pack tomorrow morning to be picked up
Hi Marion, Royal icing is perfect to wrap and stack cookies. Just keep in mind that depending on the consistency and how thick you layer on the icing, it may take longer to fully dry. We sometimes wait up to 24 hours to wrap and stack them just to make sure the icing is fully set.
I have tried many times in the past to make royal icing, and failed every time. This recipe is perfection! It is almost marshmallow in appearance and is easy to work with. I did add a teaspoon of vanilla to mine for flavor.
Hi Sally
Is there anyway to decorate the cookie without it becoming soft?
Hi Kyle, we’ve never had issues with cookies becoming soft when decorating with this royal icing.
What is the ratio for using egg whites in place of the powder? A small, 4 oz tub of powder is $8 by me and $9 on amazon from the link provided. I would end up using half of it for one batch of icing. Much cheaper to buy the 79 cent dozen of eggs.
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.
Great recipe
Can you add corn syrup to this recipe?
Hi Jessica, Absolutely– a little corn syrup (1 teaspoon is plenty) adds a lovely shine to glazes, ganaches, and even royal icing.
Hi Sally, I am in Australia and trying to figure out of “confectioners sugar” refers to icing mixture or pure icing sugar.
Icing mixture uses a very small amount of corn flour in it, and usually isn’t used for royal icing as it doesn’t set very hard, but I’m not sure if this meringue powder version changes that.
Thank you
Hi Sally,
I can’t get meringue powder here where I am, what is your royal icing recipe made with fresh egg whites please?
Best wishes,
Neri 🙂
Hi Neri, 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.
I got my meringue powder through Amazon.
Hi! I’m really excited to try this recipe, I was just wondering, once I’m done decorating, and wait for 2 hours, if i put them in a bag, will they stay intact?
Hi Julia, as long as the icing is completely set, the cookies will stay in tact. Two hours is for a thin layer of icing, but note that it could take a bit longer depending on how heavily the cookies are iced. Hope this helps!
I actually had to add more water as it seemed to thick
How come this recipe requires refrigeration if there are no raw egg whites being used?
Can this last on the counter at room temp? If so, how long?
Hi Joyce! Royal icing will last for several days at room temperature (as long as you are using meringue powder like in this recipe) in an airtight container – we suggest refrigerating in the blog post just to be extra safe.
Can I use the squeeze bottle to apply this icing to sugar cookies? I saw you mentioned it in a different recipe that I was going to use so I bought one but now I’ve decided to try the Royal icing and it seems like it would be easy to use the squeeze bottle to decorate?
Hi Marea, you can use a squeeze bottle to apply this royal icing. Enjoy!
Hi Sally,
The recipe turned out great for this amateur. I had no trouble with consistency but the finished product on the cookies wasn’t smooth. Perhaps my flooding technique was at fault. Any suggestions?
Hi Ellen! If the icing is a bit too thick, it may not settle into a smooth finish – perhaps just a pinch more water will help for next time. Thank you so much for giving this recipe a try!
Can you use egg whites instead of meringue powder?
Hi Abby! We recommend the meringue powder here. Using fresh egg whites would require a different recipe. Luckily there are many options if you’re going that route!
This is a perfect starting ratio, and, as always, your video is easy to follow and shows what you need to see (i.e., icing consistency). The water:sugar amounts will often change from day to day! I have yet to find something on your site that wasn’t wonderful! (so many thanks for putting the weight/metric in all your recipes) Thank you for all the awesomeness you share and happy winter 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind feedback!
How does using ordinary liquid food colouring effect this recipe?
Hi Kendra, liquid food coloring may throw off the consistency of the icing. If you decide to use it, use/add it sparingly.
Can cocoa powder be added to make it chocolate / light brown? Would I add less sugar to offset it? (I’m making football cookies)
Hi Tamara, we haven’t tried it ourselves, but you can try swapping some of the powdered sugar for cocoa powder to make a chocolate icing. It may take a bit of trial and error, or take a look online for a chocolate version to find some inspiration / guidance. Or, you can use brown food coloring like we do with our football cookies!
Thank you! It’s just a large lidded glass jar that I filled with sprinkles. Lots of fun.
Hi Sally, do you know how long the left over royal icing keep?
And should I put it in the fridge right?
Thank you!!!!
Hi Angela! We recommend freezing leftover royal icing for later use – see blog post for details!
I don’t understand; did you try beating it longer? When I made it, I had to add extra water because I had beat it too long. The longer you beat it, the thicker it gets.
I use about 5 T of water for the outline icing and maybe 7 for flooding
Can I use Tarter powder instead of merengue powder?
Hi Judy, meringue powder is essential to this royal icing recipe.
First time trying royal icing and was skeptical (HUGE buttercream fan here!), but was pleasantly surprised how easy this recipe was to make and also tasted good!
One question…can leftover icing be saved to used the next day for additional decorating?
So glad you loved it! Yes, leftover icing can be stored in the fridge for up to three days in an air tight container.
Awesome! Super excited to continue using this recipe! Thank you!
How does this recipe work in high humidity places such as the coast and how often do you get bleeding? I’m battling with bleeding with the recipe I’m currently using.
Hi Sunnette, humidity can play a role in how royal icing sets, however readers from many different climates and areas of the world have had success with this recipe. What will help avoid a runny consistency is starting with the smallest amount of water listed, then adding more (if needed) to reach the proper consistency. Having the iced cookies set in the refrigerator will help too. Let us know if you decide to give it a try!
Cookie decorating has always been my nemesis! Until today when I tried this recipe and I am beyond thrilled with the results! I got the right consistency thanks to the helpful video and with a little practice, my cookies came out great! The icing hardened but it’s not brittle at all. I cannot wait to decorate all the cookies with this icing! I used tipless icing bags and they worked great! I will try the tips for more details next time.
Love your meringue powder recipe. Ummm, just check your heading….. Meringue Power in Royal Icing?
Question: I’m going to try the lining and flooding technique. I saw a YouTube video that used egg whites and said covering the bowl with a damp towel was a must (during decorating time and for storage). Does using meringue powder change that?
Hi Maura, we haven’t made royal icing with egg whites, but you can still use the damp towel method with this meringue powder recipe.