These simple sugar cookies with royal icing are the perfect sugary treat.
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Hi everybody, it’s Lauren! Today is a big day for me because I finally get to share my undying love for sugar cookies with you all! For those of you that don’t know, I have my own small custom sugar cookie business that I have been doing on the side for almost 3 years now. What started as a spontaneous adventure to try and earn a little bit of extra money quickly became a very hectic side hustle that has brought me so much joy and grey hair. (Running a small business is hard y’all.)
The thing about sugar cookies that I love the most is the decorating process. You can make them as simple or as complex as you want! Do you want to leave them plain and simple? Go for it! Do you want to make little cookie Mona Lisa’s? ALSO GO FOR IT.
But really. Go for it I’d love to see that.
The key here is royal icing. Royal icing gives you the hard shiny surface that you don’t get with buttercream, and allows you to do so much more creatively. It’s a little tricky to get right if you’re new to decorating with it, but it definitely gets easier with practice! (Trust me, I’ve been doing this for almost 3 years and I am still figuring it out). If you prefer buttercream you can check out our Sugar Cookies with Almond Buttercream here!
Consistency is key when decorating with royal icing. I mainly work with 2 consistencies, outline and flood. Outline icing consistency can be best compared to the consistency of toothpaste. It keeps its shape and is perfect for outlining your cookies before you flood them and adding in any cookie details. The second consistency is my flood icing. This one is a little bit trickier to get right. If it’s too thin it will slide off the cookie, but if it’s too thick then you won’t get the smooth finish that you want. The best way to tell if you have the right consistency is to add water a tiny bit at a time (like 1/2 tsp at a time tiny) and then swirl the icing around with a spoon. If your icing smooths out after about 8 seconds then you’re good to go. If it takes shorter/ longer add a little more water or powdered sugar until you get it to the consistency you want.
Getting my icing right was the most difficult part for me when I first started. There were countless times in the beginning of my cookie journey when I actually wanted to launch my mixer and all my supplies off of a cliff, never looking at another cookie ever again because I couldn’t quite get it right. But after a lot of practice and countless Youtube videos, I was finally able to get it. Moral of the story, practice is your best friend.
Once you have your consistencies down, you’re ready to decorate! Using your outline icing, pipe an outline around the area of your cookie that you want to fill with icing. Next, use your flood icing to fill in the area! The outline helps to prevent your flood icing from going over the edge of the cookie. For these pumpkins, I outlined 3 different sections and allowed them each to dry before I flooded the next so that I could get the separation of the different sections. If you want to add any other icing details to the top layer of your icing, just make sure the top layer is crusted over before you add more icing. If you want to speed up this process, you can put your cookies on a baking tray and put them in the oven for 10 minutes at the lowest heat setting (mine is 170C) and it will dry the icing a lot quicker.
I love sugar cookies because they are so easy to personalize for any occasion and they make great gifts! (Seriously, if you want to save money on Christmas gifts this year, just make some sugar cookies and get a fancy box to put them in. DONE-ZO).
Happy decorating! You can find my cookie Instagram here! Feel free to pop in and ask me any questions!
Here are some links to some of my favorite cookie baking/decorating tools!
1. Merengue Powder
2. Piping Bags
3. Gel Colors
4. Scribe (This helps to smooth out the icing after you flood your cookies)
Simple Iced Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1 c granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3 c all purpose flour
For the Royal Icing
- 3 tbsp merengue powder
- 3 c powdered sugar
- 1/4 c warm water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and powdered sugar.
- Add in the egg and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary.
- Slowly add in the flour and baking soda until fully combined. Once all the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl you'll know it's ready. You may have to add more flour depending on the consistency.
- Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes before rolling.
- Once chilled, roll your dough out about 1/4 inch thick and cut into desired shapes.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes. The cookies will look a little under-baked when you take them out, but I promise that's okay!
- Let them cool completely before removing from baking tray and icing.
For the Icing
- In the bowl of a stand mixer add your merengue powder and 2 tbs of warm water.
- Mix together on medium speed until slightly frothy.
- Slowly add in your powdered sugar until fully combined.
- Add in your remaining warm water 1 tablespoon at a time until you get the right icing consistency.
- Separate your icing into 2 bowls (1 for outline icing and 1 for flood icing)
- For outline icing, you want your icing to be the consistency of toothpaste (it will hold it's shape when you make a peak in the icing)
- For flood icing, you want it to be thick enough that it won't slide off the cookie, but thin enough that it will smooth out on the cookie. Slowly add water until you get the right consistency. (It should take about 8 seconds to completely smooth out in the bowl after you move it around with a spoon)
- Using your outline icing, pipe an outline around the area of your cookie that you want to fill with icing.
- Next, use your flood icing to fill in the area! The outline helps to prevent your flood icing from going over the edge of the cookie.
- If you want to make sure you're flood icing is nice and smooth, you can use a toothpick to swirl around the icing to make sure it is smooth and their are no air bubbles.
- If you want to add any other icing details to the top layer of your icing, just make sure the top layer is crusted over before you add more icing. If you want to speed up this process, you can put your cookies on a baking tray and put them in the oven for 10 minutes at the lowest heat setting (mine is 170C) and it will dry the icing a lot quicker.
Heidi Clark says
This is a fabulous tutorial!! I’ve always admired cute decorated cookies! You’ve given me the know-how to try my hand at it!!! Thank you, Lauren!!
[email protected] says
Thank you so much! Happy decorating! 🙂