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decorated Christmas sugar cookies

My Favorite Royal Icing

4.6 from 147 reviews
  • Author: Sally
  • 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

  1. Watch the video tutorial so you get an idea of what the final consistency should be.
  2. In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, mix the confectioners’ sugar and meringue powder.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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

Find it online: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/royal-icing/