Tuesday, November 11, 2025
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Straightforward Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe


I’ll present you how you can make the most effective icing for adorning sugar cookies! It is a easy sugar cookie icing that hardens to a clean, shiny end with out egg whites. It’s good for frosting, flooding, piping, and dipping sugar cookies!

Two cookies decorated with blue sugar cookie icing and sprinkles on a countertop, with a bowl of blue icing in the background.Straightforward Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe

This recipe is my fast, foolproof royal icing different, with out egg whites. It’s a simple sugar cookie icing for holidays and on a regular basis adorning that’s nice for newcomers. All you should make it’s powdered sugar, corn syrup, and milk. After that, you possibly can taste your frosting and colour it any means you’d like!

The Finest Icing for Adorning Cookies

  • No particular instruments. All you want is a whisk, a bowl, and easy substances.
  • Straightforward and dependable. Whether or not I’m adorning cookies for Christmas, birthdays, or holidays, that is the best no-fail icing recipe ever. It’s prepared in minutes.
  • The proper end. This icing dries right down to a clean, shiny end that’s nice for stacking cookies, but additionally not rock onerous whenever you chunk into it. And the most effective half? This frosting really tastes good!
Sugar cookie icing ingredients with text labels overlaying each ingredient.Sugar cookie icing ingredients with text labels overlaying each ingredient.

You’ll Want These Substances

Beneath are some fast notes. Scroll to the recipe card under the publish for the complete, printable measurements and recipe directions. 

  • Powdered Sugar – Additionally known as confectioner’s sugar or icing sugar, for the bottom of the icing. 
  • Milk – To get the suitable consistency. This may be entire milk or any sort you’d like. In the event you’d favor a dairy-free sugar cookie icing, or in the event you plan to retailer the frosted cookies at room temperature, swap milk for water.
  • Corn Syrup – Corn syrup provides shine and provides the icing a softer chunk. I like to recommend mild corn syrup.
  • Vanilla Extract – Non-compulsory, for taste. In the event you favor a vivid white frosting, omit the vanilla extract, as it can add a slight tint. You might additionally use clear vanilla extract.
  • Meals Coloring – Additionally elective, for adorning. 

Methods to Make Sugar Cookie Icing

Making this icing from scratch takes a matter of minutes and three easy steps.

  1. Begin with powdered sugar. Whisk the powdered sugar or sift it via a fine-mesh sieve to interrupt up any lumps. This makes the icing silky clean.
  2. Add the opposite substances. Subsequent, add the milk, corn syrup, and vanilla, and whisk till you may have a clean icing. 
  3. Ending touches. Alter the consistency after which divide and colour the icing as wanted. Your cookie icing is able to use instantly, or you possibly can retailer it hermetic. See under for extra particulars.
Close up of a whisk drizzling sugar cookie icing into a bowl, showing the smooth consistency.Close up of a whisk drizzling sugar cookie icing into a bowl, showing the smooth consistency.

Adapting the Icing Consistency

Relying on what you’re utilizing it for, you possibly can simply adapt the consistency to make it thinner for flooding (outlining the cookies after which masking them with icing) or thicker for piping.

  • For flooding. Made as written within the recipe, this icing is ideal for flooding cookies for a clean end. To skinny it out additional, add extra milk. If the icing turns into too skinny, merely add a little bit extra powdered sugar.
  • For piping. In the event you’d wish to pipe this icing, lower the quantity of milk so the consistency is thicker.

Methods to Shade Sugar Cookie Icing

Whether or not you’re coloring icing for Christmas cookies, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, or making pastel sugar cookie icing for Easter cookies, gel meals coloring will provide you with the brightest, most vibrant colours. You should buy gel colours from manufacturers like AmeriColor and Wilton from the baking aisle, craft shops, or on-line.

  • To paint the icing, add a drop or two at a time, and blend it properly earlier than including extra. In contrast to water-based meals coloring (usually present in grocery shops), a little bit gel dye goes a good distance.

Cookie Adorning Suggestions and Tips

Use this straightforward sugar cookie icing to embellish any of your favourite cookie recipes, from basic cut-out cookies to tender sugar cookies and chocolate sugar cookies. Listed here are some useful ideas to bear in mind when adorning your cookies with icing:

  • To flood the cookies, pipe an overview across the outdoors edge or the realm of the cookie you’d wish to flood. Then, fill the define utilizing a small open spherical piping tip. Evenly faucet the cookie to clean out the icing.
  • To pipe the cookies, be sure to make use of barely thicker icing. Fill a piping bag or zip-top bag with icing, and snip off the nook or match it with a small open spherical tip. In the event you want follow, strive piping the icing on a chunk of parchment paper first.
  • Dip the cookies. In the event you’re searching for a sooner possibility, dipping the tops of the cookies into the icing is a fast and simple technique to coat the cookies with colour multi functional go. 
  • Don’t wait too lengthy so as to add sprinkles. Add any sprinkles whereas the icing continues to be moist, so that they adhere to the cookies. 
  • Permit the icing to set earlier than storing. Permit the cookies to take a seat at room temperature to harden earlier than you retailer them. See the Methods to Retailer part under.
Close up of a sugar cookie topped with blue sugar cookie icing with a second unfrosted cookie in the background.Close up of a sugar cookie topped with blue sugar cookie icing with a second unfrosted cookie in the background.

Continuously Requested Questions

How lengthy does sugar cookie icing take to dry?

Relying on the humidity in your kitchen, sugar cookie icing can take wherever from 2-3 hours or longer to harden at room temperature. In the event you plan on stacking your cookies, I’d recommend letting them dry in a single day.

How do I repair icing that received’t set?

In case your icing doesn’t dry, it might be that there wasn’t sufficient powdered sugar added. Strive refrigerating the adorned cookies or putting them in entrance of a fan to assist the icing set.

What’s the distinction between royal icing and sugar cookie icing?

Royal icing is constructed from crushed egg whites, powdered sugar, and lemon juice, and dries to a tough, crunchy texture. This cookie icing doesn’t use eggs, and it’s additionally softer because of the corn syrup within the recipe.

Will different flavors work on this recipe?

Sure! Strive icing taste variations utilizing orange, lemon, almond, or peppermint extract. It’s also possible to add spices to the icing, like cinnamon or nutmeg, for a festive model.

Overhead view of sugar cookies decorated with blue cookie icing and sprinkles on a countertop, next to a bowl of blue icing and a jar of sprinkles.Overhead view of sugar cookies decorated with blue cookie icing and sprinkles on a countertop, next to a bowl of blue icing and a jar of sprinkles.

Methods to Retailer

  • Retailer adorned cookies. Permit the icing to set earlier than you retailer your adorned sugar cookies. Maintain the cookies coated within the fridge and serve them at room temperature.
  • Retailer leftover sugar cookie icing. Retailer any leftover icing in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 2 weeks.
  • Freeze. You possibly can freeze this cookie icing and any adorned cookies for as much as 2 months. Let the cookies and icing thaw within the fridge. Chances are you’ll want to combine the cookie icing once more earlier than you utilize it.


Print

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Description

This fast and easy sugar cookie icing hardens to a clean, shiny end with out egg whites. It’s good for adorning Christmas cookies and for on a regular basis baking.


  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon milk
  • 1 tablespoon mild corn syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract *see observe
  • Meals coloring


  1. Add the powdered sugar to a medium bowl and whisk to interrupt up any lumps.
  2. Add within the milk, corn syrup, and vanilla. Whisk till clean.
  3. Add in meals coloring if desired.
  4. Unfold icing onto the cookies, or dip the tops of the cookies into the icing.
  5. High with sprinkles if desired whereas the icing continues to be moist. Permit the icing to set earlier than storing.


Notes

  • * In case you are attempting to attain a vivid white frosting, skip including the vanilla extract, as it can tint it barely, or use a transparent vanilla extract.
  • You possibly can add roughly milk to attain the consistency you need. In the event you add an excessive amount of milk and your icing turns into too skinny, simply add a bit extra powdered sugar. This icing could be very forgiving.

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