I’ve had many questions regarding decorated cookies since I began 7-ish years ago, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite decorating tips I’ve learned over time. By no means am I an expert, but I hope you find my top 10 suggestions helpful.
There are so many ways of decorating cookies; you can cover them with fondant, rainbow sprinkles, delicious melted chocolate… I could go on, but one of my favorite ways is to flood a cookie with royal icing (flood icing). To basically cover the cookie with a smooth, glossy, sugary coating; piped in such a way that your icing becomes a design – instant sugar art! My tips today refer to decorating cookies with flood icing.
I’ve got an in-depth tutorial here, which goes over how to flood in detail.
How to Flood Cookies with Royal Icing – Top 10 Tips
1. Use a good icing recipe. See here for one of my two faves from cake central user Antonia74. Another favourite is from Peggy Porschen’s book Pretty Party Cakes, but won’t post it here due to copyright infringements.
2. One of the most important things I’ve learned about cookie decorating is that if your icing isn’t at the correct consistency or thickness, the experience can be very frustrating. The trick I use to make sure my icing is just right 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.
3. For tip sizes, my favorite tip is #2; it’s great for outlining and filling in. For larger cookies use tip #3 or #4 and for smaller cookies use tip #1.
4. Seal the top end of your piping bag closed with an elastic band for less mess.
5. Practice piping on your work surface or parchment paper before you begin your cookies, so that your hand gets the feel of it. I usually find I need a few minutes of playing around before my piping improves. Decorate your least favorite cookies or extra cookies first; that way if you make a mistake it won’t matter as much!
6. When you’re outlining the cookie, about a centimeter in begin lifting the piping bag away from the cookie, so that the icing just falls onto the surface. You’ll be able to control your piping easier that way.
7. If your hand is shaky, rest your arm on the edge of your work surface while decorating.
8. After you’ve finished applying the icing to the cookie, shake it gently to help settle the bumps if there are any.
9. If you notice any small air bubbles, pop them with a toothpick or pin right away. If you don’t, the air bubble usually pops on it’s own and leaves a hole in your icing. (See acorn which squirrel is holding in the image above).
10. Let your cookies dry for at least 24 hours before you package them. They won’t get stale as the icing acts as a sealant for freshness.
These are just a few of my favorite tips which would have helped alleviate some frustration had I known them when I first began decorating cookies. If you have any tips which you’d like to share you’re welcome to leave a comment below.
Happy cookie decorating!
xo,
Marian
p.s. In case you missed it, f you’d like a tutorial on how to make the owl cookies, you can find it here.
Susan says
You have quite the gift! I have a couple of questions since I am at the very beginning of learning to decorate cookies as an art….how do you get to transfer an image to a cookie so you can outline and flood it….and is it better to write lettering on a cookie with a prepared decorative writer in a bottle or with a piping bag and a tip…..thanks so much for your help!
Susan
marian says
@ Susan: This can be learned, but thank you!
I mainly use my KopyKake projector to tranfer an image to the cookie to flood it, and in the KopyKake tutorial below, I talk about other options as well:
https://sweetopia.net/2010/06/decorating-cookies-with-a-kopykake-projector/
I prefer piping bag and tip because I find it’s easier to control for me.
Have fun decorating and keep me updated with your progress Susan! (would love to see pics on my fb page if you’d like to share).
Nikki says
Hello Marian! I just came across your website and I am so inspired now. Thank you! I just started decorating and thought I was doing pretty good until I saw what you can do. I have a long way to go. I had a few questions about decorating, but found most the answers right here in the FAQ section 😉 Can you tell me how you store your royal icing and if you do, how long will it last? Do you just do this for fun or do you sell your cookies as well? They are absolutely stunning. I will continue looking through your website and maybe I will find more answers too! Thank you again!
Nikki from Switzerland!
marian says
Hi Nikki from Switzerland =) My mother was born there.. What a beautiful country! She taught me Swiss-German; do you live in the French, Italian, Romansch or German-speaking area?
For all your royal icing storage etc. questions, click here:
https://sweetopia.net/2011/01/how-do-you-store-royal-icing-and-how-long-can-you-keep-it/
I don’t sell my cookies and because I get many requests, I’ve set up a Cookie Decorator’s Directory, where people can order from other cookie decorators:
https://sweetopia.net/cookie-decorator-directory/
Have fun decorating!! =)
Nikki says
Thank you Marian for answering my questions so quickly! I appreciate it!
I live just outside of Lausanne, on Lake Geneva which is the the French speaking part. We’ve been here for almost 2 years now and love the beautiful country and its location in Europe. My French is coming slowly though! Good that you were taught Swiss-German from your mother, it is a difficult language! The thing here with baking is finding the neat ingredients and tools for cookie making. It’s not so easy. I have to hunt them down if they are even available or pick them up if I am back in the U.S.
I will continue to follow you and learn from you. Thank you for sharing your gift!
Nikki
Pam Hunter says
Hi Marian:
Just wanted to thank you for your great royal icing tips. I am not usually very good with royal icing, but using your tips helped me tremendously! (Not as amazing as yours … but I am getting better!)
I also blogged about your tips on my blog, http://www.thedesigncottage.blogspot.com.
Thank you so much for sharing your tips and for such a helpful and fun website and blog!
~Pam
marian says
@ Nikki: Thanks!
@ Pam Hunter: Thanks for sharing on your blog! I appreciate it. =)
Crystal says
Was inspired by your cookies to try decorating some with royal icing for the first time…once you are done and the icing is dry how do you store them and for how long? I didn’t know if I should put them in a tightly covered container, sealed bag? Also do they need to go in the fridge after that? I made them 3 days before our party and now not sure what to do?
marian says
Crystal, I like to put them in a cellophane bag tied with ribbon. As for how long they last… freshest is always best, but if you have them in a gift shop for example; maximum one month. (which is stretching it though… as always, freshest is best)
Patti says
I wanted to use your flooding method for decorating a gum paste disc. However, I could NOT for the life of me, make black! I tried everything I could think of. Wilton black? Turns purple. Mixing colors? Turns a funky greenish grey.
I hadn’t thought about it not working, so I didn’t buy any other brand since only Wilton is available by me and I was short on time. What would you suggest for next time?
marian says
Frustrating isn’t it Patti! I ran into the same problems until I began using Americolor black.
Felicia says
Dear Marian,
Thanks a lot for the tutorial it helped me so much..I was really frustrating decor the cookies with royal icing but after I read all your tutorial….now it’s really fun to play with royal icing!! awesome!! thanks again for your help 😀
holly says
When you let the cookies outline dry overnight do you cover the cookies or just leave them out on a tray? I just was concerned about keeping the freshness of them.
When I outline them can I just leave them out overnight? then flood and leave out overnight again? Will this affect their taste?
marian says
Hi Holly,
Yes, I leave them on the tray so the only place they’re exposed is the top half.
I find that leaving them out one night with only the outline is fine; they are still fresh. Once you fill the icing in, it acts as a sort of sealant, helping keep them fresh. (Note: I can only speak for my cookie recipe and the royal icing I use, although I imagine it’s the same with other recipes too).
holly says
Perfect, makes sense. So technically they are out one night exposed and another night covered in the royal icing. Then they should be dry and able to be pacakged the next day?
Joanne says
I made 50 white baby boy Christening outfit cookies and left them to dry overnight to be bagged and shipped out today. When I looked this morning there were faint yellowish areas in the RI. :”( What caused this? I know I’ve seen this problem mentioned by someone here but I can’t find it. I’ve done white dresses twice and didn’t have this problem.
The only different thing I did this time was freeze the baked cookies before decorating them. SO upset. :(((
marian says
@ Joanne: Oh you poor thing! I know how it feels when you’ve worked so hard on something and then a random ‘glitch’ happens! What we’ve figured out so far is that it seems to be the humidity in the air when decorating. The grease (fat), from the cookie seems to seep into the icing. I’ll be doing a post on it soon.
To help fix your issue, how about spraying it lightly with some PME pearl lustre spray? That might hide the faint yellowish areas. If you don’t have the spray, even a white lustre dust… take a paintbrush and lightly dust it on! Hope that helps!
Joanne says
@ marian:
Thanks Marian.:) If humidity is the problem, it may be I decorated them too soon after taking them out of the freezer and they were releasing moisture as they continued defrosting.
Joanne says
Same yellowing problem again..this time with wedding dresses and I didn’t freeze them. 🙁 Also, I worked in CAC, so I’m leaning toward thinking my problem isn’t humidity. Can using a thicker consistency icing help?…does the brand of confectioner’s sugar make a difference??
Is there a way to “seal” the cookie before icing? Also, do you think adding AmeriColor Bright White gel food coloring would cure the yellowing problem?
Arrgghhh!…at my wits end! lol
marian says
=( So frustrating!
Even though you’ve got central air, the humidity might still be high. Try a dehumidifier and see how much water is extracted from the air of the area you’re working in. Amazing!
It’s so humid where I live right now, that I’m working in a room with the AC and dehumidifier on.
I’m still leaning towards humidity as the culprit, but definitely, I always tint my white, white. See #9 here:
https://sweetopia.net/2010/12/10-keys-to-cookie-decorating-success-or-10-mistakes-to-avoid/
I’m not sure how thick your consistency already is, but that might help too.
I’ve never thought about that… ‘sealing the cookie before icing’… if the other things don’t work, I wonder if coating the cookie with a thin layer of corn syrup would do the trick. I’m not sure how the royal icing would ‘sit’ on it though. Corn syrup doesn’t 100% dry. Something to try!
Keep your chin up; it will work out!!
paige says
love the designs i totally agree with her
Joanne says
Armed with white coloring for next time! 🙂
Y’know, I was thinking…do you think a light wash of egg white would work to seal the cookie surface? Someone should invent a spray-on cookie sealant! I might just try the egg white. Not sure if it should go on before baking or near the end. Guess some cookies will have to be sacrificed for science. hehehe 😉
Marian says
Hi Joanne, what a great idea! (sealant and egg white!). Please do come back and let us know how it went. Xo
Joanne says
Just decorated some cookies last night with RI with white food coloring added. Was skeptical b/c it was pouring out and very humid…BUT!…I woke up this morning to perfectly white cookies with NO yellowing whatsoever!!! Doing the HAPPY dance!!! 😀
I’ve not yet tried the egg white or any other “sealing.” Hopefully the yellow spots are history! Thanks for all your help! 🙂
marian says
Yay!! So great to hear!!
Arisbe says
I’m just new to the whole cookie decorating and I’m wondering for how long can I leave my RI in a seal container and use it later on? How much time in advance should I make black and red RI?
Marian says
@ Arisbe: No worries, check out the tutorial section here:
https://sweetopia.net/category/tutorials/
for both of those answers. (there’s a post about how to store icing and how long to keep it
and
there’s a post on coloring icing black/red.
I wish you lots of fun decorating and btw i recommend checking out my youtube video on icing consistency as well.
xo,
Marian
Debbie says
On my finished product my icing was ‘spongy’ and I figured out why: I had been mixing my colors in too vigorously, and incorporated too many air bubbles. I also realized that I need to use a rubber spatula to mix the water into the RI and fold it in, as opposed to beating it in. Now . . . I’m trying to figure out how to get the solid icing that covers my cookie (b/f I put on the flowers etc.) to get nice and smooth, as opposed to a bit bumpy. I shook each cookie pretty vigorously to try to achieve this . . .
Bella says
Hey Marian,
I have just stumbled across this blog and these cookies look amazing! I’m a complete beginner when it comes to decorating or baking, but I really want to try out decorating some cookies.
Just a couple of questions, what type of cookies are they in the photo, is it shortbread? And do you have a recipe anywhere for the cookie dough mixture?
Also, I get now how to ‘flood’ the cookies, but for the green owl (2nd picture) how did you swirl the green and white icing on the owl’s breast? Sorry for so many questions I’m just fascinated and a bit of a perfectionist, so I don’t want these to go wrong!
Bella
Marian (Sweetopia) says
@ Debbie: Awesome! So glad it worked out =)
@ Bella: Thanks! It’s a sugar cookie; you can find them in the recipe section of the blog.
To see how to make the owl cookies, click here:
https://sweetopia.net/2011/07/how-to-make-decorated-owl-cookies/
Have fun decorating!
Karina says
Thank you very much for this post. I am trying to bake cookies for my wedding and decorate them with royal icing on my wedding theme but I have one problem and the most important one….
I don’t have a good recipe for the actual cookie. I LOVE the thick shape of the cookies you show here.
Could you please help me?
I would really appreciate it.
Thanks.
Marian (Sweetopia) says
@ Karina: Absolutely! My sugar cookie recipe is in the recipe section of the blog.
Karina says
Duh! haha I am so silly. I just saw it. Thank you so much. You have such a culinary talent!!.
Thanks again.
Jennifer says
Thank you so much for the wonderful tips! I do mostly cakes but I can use this to work with them as well! Thanks to you I am able to recreate scenes for my sons 1st grade class Halloween Cake!I hope to share a picture of the work, when it is done, with you. It is going splendidly so far!
Marian (Sweetopia) says
@ Jennifer: I’m so glad to hear it! I’d love to see pictures if you’d like to email me or share them on my Facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/Sweetopia?sk=wall
Aneesha says
How long can sugar cookies decorated with royal icing last..I’ll be packaging them in cello bags as soon as the icing hardens..
Don’t want to freeze em.But how long can i leave it out in its packaging?
Please help.
marian says
@ Aneesha: Freshest is always best of course, so I leave mine in there for up to two weeks. (The recipe I use does fine for that time period). I’ve seen stores with hand-made cookies have one-month expiry dates on them.