Easy Cookie Icing

This cookie icing, or Royal Icing, is eggless, quick, and easy! It dries shiny and stiff so the cookies can be wrapped and even stacked after drying completely. Use it for your Christmas cookies and make all kinds of decorations! Try it with my Cut-Out Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies. 

The original recipe is a starting point. It makes thick icing that you want to use as an outline for your designs. Then from there you can thin it out to use for filling in the cookies. If you don't want to outline and fill, you can thin it out just a little bit to get a medium thickness that can be used as a filler that doesn't need an outline. Did I lose you there? Don't worry, it will all become clear as you keep reading. 

This shows the thicker icing below:

This is the thinner icing:

Start by making the outlines of your designs with the thick icing.

Use the thinner icing to fill. You don't need to go all the way to the edges because it comes out thick and can be moved around before it dries...

Use a toothpick to drag icing to the edges and corners to fill in gaps.

Happy baking my friends!

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Easy Sugar Cookie Icing

by Julia Hampton @ Sprinkled With Jules December-23-2015

This is the easiest icing to use for decorating cookies that dries shiny and stiff.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 T. water
• 2 T. corn syrup
• 1/8 tea. almond extract

Instructions

1. Sift powdered sugar and mix with water. Add corn syrup and combine. Icing should be thick. (Test thickness with a rubber spatula by stirring the icing, lifting the spatula up and letting the icing drip back into the bowl. The ribbons shouldn't melt back into itself, but stay as ribbons of icing). Add food coloring at this point.2. Transfer icing to a piping back with a round tip (I used Wilton #3) and make the outlines.3. To thin icing for filling in the cookies, add more water 1 T. at at a time (it should only take 1 or 2 T. more) until icing melts back into itself after a few seconds.4. Transfer thinned icing to a piping bag and fill in cookies leaving some room to spread it with a toothpick to the edges. Spread the icing with a toothpick to fill in any gaps.5. Let icing dry for a few hours before wrapping or stacking the cookies. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Details

Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: about 1 cup