This is my first tutorial on tips and tricks for decorating cookies with royal icing. I have to say first off, that I’ve learned many great tips from various sources on the internet, from books and from cookie decorating classes. If you’re interested in other sources here are the main ones I’ve learned from:
1. Internet:
http://cakecentral.com - Find forums to chat with others about cake decorating etc., photo galleries for inspiration, tutorials and more on this gold mine of a cake decorating (& more!) site.
http://www.cakejournal.com/ - A lovely site with beautiful work by the author, Louise. She’s so great you might want to just leave here and check out her tutorial on decorating cookies! Why am I even writing this?! =)
http://chiccookiekits.blogspot.com/ - Meaghan’s got a great site dedicated to all kinds of cookie decorating. In addition to publishing her own book, Cookie Sensations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZBXVveAEPE – Cat Cora from Iron Chef, shows how to decorate cookies on youtube.com. Hers is good for the beginner. There are lots of other video tutorials on youtube as well!
There are so many other great sites out there; have fun surfing!
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2. Books:
Peggy Porschen’s books
Cookie Craft
Toba Garrett’s Creative Cookies
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Classes:
Bonnie Gordon’s School of Cake Design (www.bonniegordoncakes.com) - Super if you live in the Toronto area! I enjoyed the cookie decorating class offered there and learned some helpful tips. There are many other great-looking decorating classes I’d like to try in the Toronto area, but haven’t taken the classes yet, so I can’t comment on them at this point in time.
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Okay, here we go!
Decorating cookies is often called ‘flooding’ because you can essentially create a dam, wall or outline of icing on the edge of your cookie, and then ’flood’ or ‘fill in’ that ‘dam’ with icing. There are those who like to decorate without using a dam by just applying the icing, but I find that I’m able to add more icing onto the cookie when the dam holds it in, therefore making the cookie surface look more thick and rich.
One of the most important components of decorating cookies is the royal icing itself. I have two favorite recipes; Antonia74′s (from cakecentral.com), and Peggy Porschen’s recipe from any of her books
Royal Icing Recipe
Ingredients:
6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
5 Tablespoons Meringue Powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar
*** Note; if your meringue powder has no vanilla flavour (vanillin powder) in it, add a teaspoon of clear vanilla to this recipe.
Directions:
In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds.
Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.
Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer.
Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.
Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying.
Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.
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Besides your cookies and the ingredients for the royal icing recipe, you’ll need your tools:
Cookie Decorating Tools:
1) piping bags
3) piping tips
4) couplers
5) coupler covers – these aren’t necessary; you can just rest your tips in a damp cloth
4) glasses – to stand your icing bags in
5) clean cloths – a few damp and dry ones nearby
6) toothpicks
Icing Tips and Tricks:
One of the most important things I’ve learned about cookie decorating is that if your icing isn’t at the right consistency or thickness, the experience can be very frustrating.
So, once you have made the icing, it ususally needs to be thinned a bit to create the best consistency for decorating. This means that it needs to be fluid enough so that it will flow just enough that it settles into your cookie dam, but not too much so that it runs over.
You may realize that that the icing was thinner before you whipped it for 10 minutes according to the recipe, but it does make a difference in the texture that you mix it that long. Do mix it for 10 minutes and then thin it out if you need to.
Add just drops of water at a time to make the icing runnier. If you add too much water at a time it’s more difficult to thicken it with icing sugar than it is to add water to it.
The trick I use to make sure my icing is at the right consistency, is called the “10 second rule“. Drag a butter knife through the surface of your royal icing and count to 10. If the icing surface becomes smooth in anywhere between 5-10 seconds, then your icing is ready to use. If it takes longer than approximately 10 seconds, the icing is too thick. Slowly add more water. If your icing surface smoothes over in less than 5-10 seconds, it is too runny. Mix your icing longer or slowly add more sifted icing sugar to thicken it.
I learned a slightly different ’10 second rule’, through Sarah Bell at Bonnie Gordon School of Cake Decorating… she likes to dip a spoon into the icing, lift it and let ribbons of icing drop back into the bowl, and count how many seconds it takes to make that surface flat again. (5-10 seconds).
Some people use a thicker consistency icing to outline their cookie shape and then a runnier one to fill it in. I have come to prefer using the same icing to outline and flood because it saves me time. (I don’t have to prepare two icings for each color, prepare two piping bags for each color etc.). That being said, the icing then can’t be too runny, because the outlines will not form properly.
Some decorators like to flood their cookies with a very runny icing, so if you are one of them, prepare two icing consistencies, one thicker, one runnier. The thicker icing should not be so thick that it is dry and curls when you try to pipe it. It should just hold it’s shape when you pipe it onto the cookie.
Coloring Icing:
Once you’ve managed to reach the desired icing consistency, add food paste coloring of your choice. I use a toothpick to slowly add color bit by bit. Because deep, dark colors such as red or black usually require a lot more food paste coloring, I’ll use the end of a butter knife to scoop out those colors if they’re in a tiny container. I should also add that I have come to prefer the Americolor brand for black especially. Americolor uses squeeze bottles which makes adding the color much easier, and it seems to bleed less into other colors.
Another tip when it comes to adding color to your icing; the colors usually deepen with time, so I try to color my icings 24 hours in advance to see if I’m happy with them.
Also, stirring your icing to add color will incorporate air into it, so if you leave the icing sitting for a while the air bubbles rise to the surface, where you can pop them by gently stirring just a little before you add the icing to the piping bags.
One more tip to help avoid air bubbles in your piping bag; massage the royal icing a bit before you twist the top end of the piping bag closed. Press the icing in the bag upwards, starting from the tip and working your way up, pushing out the air bubbles as you go. Then push it back down towards the piping tip.
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Filling Piping Bags:
I have disposable and non-disposable piping bags for decorating. Either are fine, however, I tend to lean towards disposable because I can quickly see what color each bag has in it. Important when timing is key! That being said, you could color-code each with a matching elastic if you don’t like using disposable bags. I’ve also tried using squeeze bottles with my students at school, and they’re also great for being able to see the colors easily, they aren’t very messy, and the icing can be kept in them as they’re airtight with the wee little lids. Trying not to lose them with teenage students is a problem though! Sorry guys it’s true! 
For me, the bottles are really only good for filling in, or flooding, so I tend not to bother with them for the most part.
Cut off the ends of your disposable piping bags, insert the coupler, tip and close it off. I generally use a number 2 or 3 piping tip to outline my cookies and a number 2 – 5 to flood them. The larger the cookie, the larger the piping tip. There are some great tips for small details, such as 00 or even 000, however they clog very easily! I like to use tip #1-#1.5 for smaller details.
Get as many glasses as I have colors out, add a clean, damp cloth to the bottom of each, and set one empty piping bag into each as well, with the opening of the piping bag folded over the rim of the glass. Fill the piping bag with your royal icing. I find it easier to fill the bags with icing when I have two hands free.
Twist the openings of the piping bags closed, and tightly secure them with elastic bands. Work over your icing bowl so that the icing dripping out of the tips doesn’t go all over your work surface. Rest your finished decorating bags back in the glasses until you’re ready to use them.
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Outlining Cookies/Piping Techniques:
Practice piping on your work surface so that your hand gets some practice before you begin the cookies. I usually find I need a few minutes to play around before my piping improves. I decorate my least favourite cookies, or my extra cookies first; that way if I make a mistake it won’t matter as much!
Outline the cookies first, and wait at least 15 minutes before you flood the inside of the ‘dam’. If the outline is a dark color such as brown or black, I wait 24 hours before flooding the cookie. It lessens the chance that the colors will seep into each other. If you live in a humid climate, air conditioning or a dehumidifier will help prevent color seepage as well.
I should also mention, that if you don’t like the look of the outline on the cookie, outline your cookie and fill it in right away. The icing needs to be at medium consistency for this… not too runny or it will just flow everywhere, and not too thick or it won’t settle smoothly.
To outline the cookies, hold the bag at a 45 degree angle and position the tip at a corner of the cookie. Put enough pressure on the bag so that the icing comes out and start moving towards the direction you’d like your icing to flow at the same time. About a centimeter after you’ve begun your outline, start lifting the piping bag away from the cookie, so that the icing just falls onto the cookie. Start coming back closer to the cookie when approaching another corner. If the cookie is more intricate, or has more corners, you may not be able to just let the icing fall as there won’t really be room to. Also start to apply less pressure as you approach the corners. While decorating, every once in a while I twist and tighten the top part of the bag to create pressure so that the icing flows well.
Flooding/Filling In Cookies:
When your cookies are ready to flood use a #3 – #5 sized piping tip. The larger the cookie the larger the tip. Start at one area and quickly zig zag back and forth until you’ve covered your cookie. Don’t worry if you haven’t filled in every little spot; speed is more important at this point. If there are a few spots that haven’t quite filled in once you’ve basically covered the whole cookie, use your piping bag, a toothpick or a paintbrush (used only for food), to push the icing around and fill in the gaps.
If you would like to add more icing colors to your cookie so that they ”meld’ into the base color, you need to add it right away. The base layer starts to dry quickly so you need to add your next colors as fast as possible. For example, I added these two black lines and one colorful line and then drag a toothpick through them.
The ‘eye’ of the butterfly is then made by layering a few colored dots on top of each other, with the white or light color second last and black last. Dots are easy to make; position your piping bag straight above the area you’d like to pipe and gently apply enough pressure so that just a dot comes out of the tip. Stop the pressure on the bag and lift it away. Take your next color and keep layering, making sure that your dots get smaller each time.
Fill in each wing or every two wings at a time.
Packaging and Storing Cookies:
Let the cookies dry for 24 hours before you package them.
If you’d like to store them in tupperware instead of packaging them, stack them with the largest cookies on the bottom and the smallest, most delicate ones near the top, and insert parchment paper between each layer. Store in a cool, dry area. I try to make mine no more than one week in advance, and advise people to eat them as soon as possible! They should be eaten within one month for sure. Some people claim they are fine even up to 3 months, however, I’m a firm believer in “the sooner, the better!”
I hope this tutorial has helped you! I welcome any questions or feedback… Have I forgotten to mention something? Do you need clarification on anything? Please ask or let me know!
If you like learning with video, you can also find me on YouTube, by clicking here.
Have fun creating!!
xo,
Marian
For some other butterfly cookie examples see this older post here.
Marian its me again! ja ja ja
Is icing sugar the same as confectioners sugar? Now I’m looking into making the royal icing for the sugar cookie recipe you have.
Thanks so much!
Hi @ Ana: It sure is! (the same thing). You can find a little glossary for you (at the bottom of the site, under Goodies, then Glossary). Here’s the link for you: http://sweetopia.net/glossary/
Your work is incredibly beautiful. I’m a perfectionist and have NOT perfected flooding although I’m getting there! I still have issues when outlining, flooding and then adding, say, criss-cross lines on top, the icing starts to flow over the cookie. Icing’s then too thin. Getting the balance of the icing has been a challenge. I appreciate your tutorials immensely. They’re very helpful and, again, your work is stunning. Thanks so much!!
Hi @ C: I’ll bet that happens in a humid climate. I’m sorry, I haven’t had the issue here. A quick search on googles shows that your local hardware store should have an ant spray. When you’re not baking, and not at home for a while, spray around your house and in the room you’re working in. Leave for at least a few hours and hopefully that will prevent ants from entering/staying in your home. You can get it professionally done as well. I hope that helps!
Thanks @ Hilary De Witt! A smaller piping tip for the lines should help. Other than that, yes, making the icing a bit thicker. Good luck finding your balance – I think it will be worth it! xo
Aw, @ Lindsay, I’m so, so happy that I could help in some way! Thank you for your lovely comment – I *really* appreciate it. xo
@ marian: I did it! I want to share the photos but I don’t know how to. Haha. I used your tutorial and it was very helpful. Thank you so much.
Hi Marian,
im new to decorating cookies and im having trouble with making royal icing. it seems like mine doesnt look as smooth as yours. it seems to have a “sandy” texture not like the one u have which look so milky smooth. what did i do wrong i wonder ? (i use egg whites for my royal icing)
Hi @ elsie: Do you sift your dry ingredients? Perhaps also making sure that your eggs are at room temperature when you use them. Other than that, maybe try the recipe I use. xo
Hello @ Ati! That’s wonderful! I would love to see them! Do you have a facebook account? If you do, you can post them on my facebook page. Other than that, I have a Sweet of the Month contest you could submit them too. Oh, and instagram! Are you on there? You could post your photos to instagram and tag me. (That just means you would type @sweetopia_ That’s my instagram user name).
Hope you like one of those!
I have become quite good at the flooding of the cookies and have no problem with icing consistency. Tomorrow I will attempt to ” meld” the colors. Any advice on how to prevent bleeding of colors? I am doing surfboards and would like to add hibiscus flowers.
HI @ Andrea B: These posts will help:
http://sweetopia.net/2009/10/how-to-prevent-your-icing-from-bleeding-7-tips/
http://sweetopia.net/2011/07/how-to-avoid-spots-on-icing/
Good luck!
@ marian:
thanks for the tip will definitely try again. hopefully it will turn out as beautiful as yours
Hi @ elsie: Is it too late?! Here is a post for you:
http://sweetopia.net/2009/10/how-to-prevent-your-icing-from-bleeding-7-tips/
Hi Marian,I just wanted to tell you that your work is amazing and how you share it with the world is truly beautiful and commendable
I have watched all your videos and I am a visual person too and I love all the videos. And then I attempted baking your sugar cookies and they turned out so crunchy and yummy! We almost finished eating it as is but then I tried decorating them with royal icing made of egg whites – what happened was the icing was sooo frothy and it was so frustrating to decorate the cookies and after the icing dried up the cookies were somewhat soggy (are they supposed to be so or are yours crispy even after decorating?) and even tasted slightly bitter (I used wilton colour gel: pink, purple and blue) where have I gone wrong – pls advise 
Thanking you in advance.
HI @ Faizura:
Thank you!
A few things… try the royal icing recipe in this post (it’s also here if you like images http://sweetopia.net/2012/01/royal-icing-recipe-free-illustrated-recipe/ ), and mix it only on low speed with a paddle attachment (using a stand mixer). You coooould use a hand mixer, but I find it adds more air.
Soggy – I never store mine in a container all together. The moisture trapped in the container seeps into the cookies. Also, if you live in a humid area and are keeping the cookies for a while, it’s best to individually wrap them, or keep them in a container WITH food safe dessicant.
Bitter – dark colours such as black, red, purple, and deep shades of anything else which need a lot of coloring gel, tend to taste bitter because of the gel itself. Pastel colours will avoid this orrr, make royal icing transfers like the bear I made in the post, “How to Color Royal Icing Black”. A transfer is easy to remove (and not eat).
Hope that helps! xo
wow – another reason why you are great! you are so dedicated in helping people and promptly too – Thank you so much and will keep all your suggestions in mind – I am new at this and hope I can turn to you for any doubts
HI @ Faizura: I try my best, thank you, but can’t always answer right away. One thing I also forgot to mention, if you live in a humid area, you might want to check out the posts I have on ‘drying royal icing’ and ‘spots on icing’. All the best!
Marian, I have sooo enjoyed your website and appreciate all the videos and advice. Its rare to find someone willing to share all their secrets they had to learn through trial and error. You certainly will be blessed!
My daughter and I are interested in doing dog cookies/treats. Any advice, resources or links in that area? I worry about using too much sugar.
J
Thanks, @ Janet! You know, there was one site someone emailed me from waaaaay back! Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name. I’m thinking googling a bit (if you haven’t already), to look for different recipes. Even if you do find many sweet recipes, you can probably pare down the recipe and cut out much of the sugar and replace with flour… and add bacon!
Hello! I’ve watched many of your tutorials and have found them quite helpful. I still need a lot of practice. Tonight I’m trying to see if I can make a giant basketball cookie… like the size of a small pizza. Do you have any suggestions for flood consistency? It will be such a large space to flood. Right now I have a lot of time before I need the basketball…and tonight is just a practice. I’m guessing the large surface will need a day of drying time before I pipe the basketball lines and message. Any advice on such a large cookie? THANKS for all the help I’ve already found on your site.
Hi @ Shannon: Fun! I do have a few ideas. I actually think it would be better to cover that cookie with fondant. When you have a really large area to flood, no matter how fast you are, the royal icing dries so fast that by the time you get to the end of flooding your cookie, the first part will already be set, and you’ll be able to see that all the icing doesn’t really ‘meld’ together.
Or, ice it with royal icing and cover it with orange or clear sanding sugar right afterwards, That way you won’t be able to see the different stages of drying, and the icing you began flooding *shouldn’t* be dry enough that the sanding sugar won’t stick to it. It’ll give the cookie a different texture, which might kind of simulate the look of that basketball texture too.
It’s great that you have time – I prefer experimenting too! That way I’m ready when I need to make it, and I know what can or can’t be done!
Good luck!
Marian,
Thanks so much! Great ideas! I really appreciate advice from a pro like you! I like the fondant idea. I did flood my practice cookie last night…and it is still a little damp in the middle. I may be able to texture the fondant too! Thanks for be so passionate about decorating that you care about helping others! Take care!
Shannon
Marian
Thank you very much for all the information, I think I’ll try very soon, I’m really bad drawing but I’ll practice before, my baby girl is turning one year in May so I want to do a lot of things like some nice cookies, I just have a question, how long does the royal icing last? I did already the fondant and I read is ok for some month, but no idea about this, I want to start doing this I’m falling in love with your job
Thanks so much for this my cookies turned out great with your help!! xxxx
Good idea to texture the fondant too @ Shannon! Good luck!
It’s a fun thing, for sure @ Jennifer! There’s a post in the tutorial section (under Icing Tutorials). I hope you have lots of fun decorating. xo
Yay! So glad, @ Sarah!
Any clues/recipes on how to make royal icing with less sugar? I make decorated dog treats and wouldl like to have an icing that does not have a lot of sugar. Thanks!
Also, how long does the royal icing last? If I make some and have some left over after decorating all my cookies, will it keep for a few weeks? Thanks!
Hi @ Michelle: The answer to your second question is in here: http://sweetopia.net/2011/01/how-do-you-store-royal-icing-and-how-long-can-you-keep-it/
And I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you can use besides sweet icing for your dog treats.. perhaps a hummus?
thanks so much for your “how to” info on the icing. I wanted to smooth look but was unable to get it until your tip! my future daughter-in-law wants me to make some bird shaped cookies for favors for her bridal shower. CAN’T WAIT! keep up the good work!
HEllo, i have a question about sugar dough storing. Can i make the dough and leave it frozen until i need it?
Thank you @ Theresa Gatlin! Would love to see your finished cookies if you’d like to share them on my facebook page. =)
Hello @ Ilana: Yes, you can store the dough until you need it (about 6 months in the freezer is okay).
All the best!
Marian, firstly, thank you for being a mentor to so many. Secondly, have you ever had a problem with clogging while you are icing? I follow the procedure with meringue powder, then when I’m icing, the tips get clogged and I need to poke out the white paste with a toothpick. Perhaps the water I add isn’t warm enough, or a humid climate might be contributing factors?
@ Cathy: Thank you SO much for helping out! I learned something new! I really appreciate it and know others will too.