10 Keys to Improving Decorated Cookies {If you’re not already doing them}
These are just a few simple things which would have saved me some frustration had I known them when I first began decorating cookies. I still make some of these mistakes now and then, especially if I’m in a rush, which leads me to my first point…
1) Time – If possible, give yourself enough time to make your cookies so that you enjoy the experience more and fewer mistakes occur. Of course, that’s not always feasible, especially if running a business, but as much as possible, make sure you’re not rushed or pressured.
2) Mixing food paste or gel colors – Make sure the coloring is thoroughly mixed into the icing. When it’s not, you’ll often see a ‘streaking’ effect once the icing is applied (See image below). This can also happen if your icing is too runny or when the water separates from the icing sugar (More on that coming up).
3) Avoid over mixing royal icing – When making your royal icing, over mixing it can create a sponge-like texture when the icing dries. Too much air gets incorporated and when the icing is dry, it easily crumbles when touched.
In this case, over mixing means quite a while; the royal icing in this image had been mixed on low speed in my kitchen aide mixer for a good 20-30 minutes! {Or more? I had forgotten about it 😉 }.
4) Consistency of icing – The consistency of your icing is key for decorating success. Different consistencies can be useful for different purposes. For more detail, use a thicker icing, for a smoother finish, a runnier icing. For outlining and flooding the cookie right away, I use the 10 second rule.
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.
If you like visuals, here’s a video which shows the 10 second rule.
5) Runny royal icing – This ties in with icing consistency, but is worth mentioning on its own. If the icing is too runny it will flow too quickly out of the piping tip, making it difficult to control how you pipe, especially for outlining.
Runny icing is great for marbling, but even marbling isn’t as successful when the icing is too thin.
6) Make fresh piping bags each time – The water and icing sugar in your royal icing will separate over time. How long it takes to separate depends on how runny your icing is; mine usually takes at least 4 hours or more before it begins to separate.
It’s for this reason that you cannot leave your icing in the piping bags for a long periods, for example overnight, and continue decorating with the same bags. The water will pool in the piping bag and on your cookie when you go to apply it.
7) Planning your cookie design – Make sure you’re able to do a particular design before you say yes to it. Years ago I said yes to a friend who had asked for 100 motorcycle cookies. When I realized how detailed they would have to be to look good and when I realized I wasn’t capable of implementing the design (I didn’t have the KopyKake then and I’m really not good at drawing freehand), I had to go back to her and ask her to pick something else.
8) Bleeding – Whenever using intense color such as red or black, bleeding seems to happen more. The best way to prevent bleeding is to minimize the amount of humidity the cookies are exposed to (de-humidifier, air conditioning, air-tight storage once they`re dry). More on preventing bleeding here.
9) Tint your white icing white – Confused yet? When I first began decorating I would leave my royal icing I was using for white cookies, untinted. The difference is subtle, but to avoid an off-white look, actually color your royal icing white. The snowflake above is an example of untinted royal icing, and the snowman is an example of icing tinted white.
10) Practice! – Although these tips all contribute to decorating success, good old-fashioned practice always helps!
For more detail and cookie decorating tips please check out my Cookie Decorating Tutorial or my Top 10 Tips. If you have any tips which you’d like to share you’re welcome to leave a comment below.
Happy decorating!
xo,
Marian
Stephanie says
Wonderful tips with great examples! Nice work on this post!
Jenny says
Excellent tips – much appreciated as someone who is just starting out with her own business!
Barb says
I’ll take your cookie flubs any day! They still look BEE-U-TI-FUL! 🙂
Sarah says
I love all your tips. I have never decorated cookies like these, but I’ve always wanted to. I was hoping to do them for teacher gifts this Christmas, but I live in Australia and it’s going to be very humid around that time (we have water-based cooling in our house). I’m guessing that’s a bad thing for both sugar cookies, and royal icing.
teresa says
Fabulous TIPS!
Your iced cookies are beyond amazing!
I bow in AMAZEMENT!
xo
Anna {Sugarized} says
Thanks for the tips! Very helpful. =)
bridget {bake at 350} says
Marian! these are great!
Paula says
These are wonderful tips with wonderful examples. A great aid for new cookie decorators and a super refresher *course* for the rest 🙂
CakeStory says
Great tips! I’ve been trying your sugar cookie recipe and drawing your cut owls. I probably won’t be purchasing a KopyKake anytime soon but you’re such an inspiration. Practice is definitely the most important tip! 🙂
jenny says
Wow, thanks for the wonderful tips! They look incredible. I cant seem to commit the time to piping cookies but I should really give it a try.
Susan Kulungian says
Marian, this is a great post! Even after all these years I still have mishaps. Some of these tips I had forgotten about. Thanks for the reminder!
Kimmie says
Perfect tutorial as usual. And gorgeous cookies!
Jenn says
Great tips and beautiful cookies! I’ve recently decided to try decorating cookies, after seeing all the beautiful cookies on your website.
Patches says
Grat advice!!!! Thanks, Marian!!!
evsmom says
I love you! So nice of you to think about us mere mortals during this hectic decorating season! You are the bestest and I love everything you create.
SweetSugarBelle says
Wonderful! Sometimes I feel bad because you do all the question answering for me, but I am so glad ou are here for me to paoint people too! You are awesome!!!
maria says
great tutorial and beautiful cookies!
thank you for sharing all your tips and idees.
ML
Amanda says
Fantastic tips!! Great job!!
Alberta says
Very helpful tips on decorated cookies! Thanks a million! 😀 You’re very talented!
CJ says
Thanks for the pointers! Someday I am going to get brave enough to try decorating cookies the FANCY way.
I always wondered why they sold white coloring…now I know. Thank you.
Ravenous Rowie says
Wonderful tips! Thanks so much!
HeatherDiane says
This is so helpful! I’m going to be making sugar- and gingerbread-cookie cutouts in a couple of weeks here & these tips are great.
One question though – I use Wilton gels to tint my icings… but how do you actually tint icing to make it whiter like you mentioned in #9?
marian says
HeatherDiane, Wilton has a product which works well; Wilton White Liquid Color. Click on the link to see it. You can find it at Michaels or I’m sure your local cake decorating supply store will have it.
Lisa-Gorgeous Cakes says
It’s so generous of you to share these tips with everyone, thank you.
shelly (cookies and cups) says
great tips! everything you said here has proven spot on for me!
Lucy says
I am so glad I found your site. It’s brilliant and have loved all your posts. Your cookies are beautiful and you give great tips. Thank you for sharing your wisdom!!
Shari (aka: fruitloopgirl) says
Excellent tips.
With your permission, I would like to repost this on my blog. Of course, it will link back here and no changes would be made.
Thanks!
marian says
Thanks Shari, I’ve sent you an email.
Vania Georgieva says
Very usefully, Thank you!
Jennie @ Oh, Sweet Day! says
FABULOUS tips!!!! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Marlis says
I am so posting a blog post about this post of yours and linking to it. Everyone should read your blog with these awesome tips. Thank you!
sweetiepetitti says
You are so generous with your knowledge…#7 is the hardest to learn…my kids never played soccer, and until I said yes, I had no idea how labor intensive dozens of soccer balls could be! Happy Holidays and thanks for the great tips!
Ellen says
Great tips here, thank you!
Helene says
Thanks for the tips. You are such an inspiration. I have to start learning to decorate gorgeous cookies like yours.
HeatherDiane says
Thank you! I’m going to try this on my snowflake gingerbread cookies next weekend! 🙂
@ marian:
nikki says
Thanks for your invaluable tips and advice!
marian says
Thanks to each and every one of you for leaving me such lovely comments. I appreciate them all.
Pam says
Ive been following you for several weeks now and your work is awesome and so inspiring! Thanks for all the advise. I seem to have problems sometimes with my royal icing. Im using the recipe that you use and I think it works well. However after an hour or so of sitting in the squeeze bottle, the icing starts to separate and you can see a darker icing form at the bottom. I end up opening up the bottle and stirring the icing. It takes a lot of stirring to mix it up and get a homogeneous mixture again. But once its stirred, its perfect again. Its hard when your icing separates in the piping bags since you cant stir those. My question is, is this ok?? Have you had similar problems?? Is the royal icing just as good when you mix it up or am i just imagining this. Also, I have some icing thats about 2 1/2 weeks old in the fridge. I plan to ” mix it all up” and use it this weekend. Is that ok?? How long do you keep your icing before you toss it?? Thanks in advance!!
marian says
Hi Pam,
Yes, it’s not my favorite thing about decorating cookies – the fact that I have to fill fresh piping bags every session. Using the squeeze bottles makes it easier because you can stir it, however, I find the using the piping bags makes it easier to pipe finer details.
Once it’s stirred it’s again fine. I keep mine for about a week (that’s about as long as a project would go max anyways). The longer you keep it the more the icing sugar settles to the bottom and the better you need to stir it. If it’s not mixed well enough, little chunks of icing sugar can clog the piping opening. Hope that helps!
Courtney says
Thanks to this post I’m going to attempt to decorate some cookies for the holiday, thanks for sharing1! 🙂
Jeanne @ AJ's Moonlight Bakery says
Perfect timing on these tips! We’re inviting some kids over to decorate cookies tomorrow and I’m glad I read the tips about the royal icing. Thanks!!
Tracy says
I seriously think you need a vacation to Colorado….then have a COOKIE CLASS because I’m too chicken to try this stuff on my own Ãœ They are truly masterpieces! Every single one of them!
Via says
Hi Marian …
Yesterday I used antonia 74’s royal icing recipe to make my royal icing, and it worked well. Thx for the recipe by the way. But since I want to get the right r.i consistency like yours, I thought r.i from this recipe was too thick (is it?), so I added for about 20 tsp water or maybe more. And end up thinking that I made it too runny.
I already followed your 10 sec rule for the right r.i consistency, but I got confused about how to use the butter knife.
1. Do I have to dip it to r.i, lift it, then let the icing drops back to the bowl, start counting 5-10 sec, and if the icing surface in the bowl is flat again between counting i get the right consistency ? or
2. I have to drag it through the r.i surface just like you have mentioned on no. 4 here ? …
Cause yesterday i dipped it to r.i, and end up confused what did you mean by count 5-10 sec, and the icing surface in the bowl will flat again? Since my r.i kept dropping until 5 sec, stopped, then after 2 more sec it dropped again to the bowl about 3 sec, stopped, and after few seconds dropped again on and on until I stopped counting at 18 sec.
Really need your help =(…
Thanks in advance
marian says
@ Via:
I just dip my butter knife in about an inch, and drag it through the surface of the icing, then take it out and watch how long it takes for the surface to become flat again.
Check out my cookie decorating tutorial here as well:
https://sweetopia.net/2009/06/cookie-decorating-tutorial-general-tips-butterfly-cookies/
HOpe that helps!
Via says
Thanks for the answer Marian! it’s so helpful.
I have already read your tutorial that you suggested too. But I still confused about the r.i surface after i took the butter knife out. Is the surface that you meant here after you count till 10 sec really flat? or still have a little bit line looked?
Cause my r.i, until 10 sec, still have like a little bit line looked … is mine already at the right consistency?
Thanks again for helping me
marian says
@ Via:
I guess I need to do a video! =)
If you have a tiny bit of a line after the 10 seconds is over, that’s okay – It means that you might have to shake your cookie a bit more after you’ve applied the icing, to make the icing go smooth.
I hope that helps! I think I need to do a video. 😉
Via says
Yup I guess so Marian … =)
Thanks so much for answering my questions patiently! I’ll be waiting for the video.
Bimmer says
Hi Marian,
your website is so helpful!
Will like to ask you how do you keep your cookies crisp when working in large batches?
They have to be left to dry after flooding, so will the cookies turn soft?
How long do flooded cookies take to completely dry?
Many thanks in advance!
marian says
Bimmer,
You can do a few things to make your cookies crisper; use less butter and/or bake the cookies a bit longer.
Mine do not go soft.
I do live in a dry climate except for during July and August. If you live in a humid environment it’s best to work in a climate-controlled environment (a/c or in a room with a de-humidifier).
Smaller cookies don’t take as long as large ones to dry, but a really safe bet to let them dry is 12-24 hours. Keep one out which you’re using as a tester, and taste it or poke it with your finger to see how soft/hard the icing is. (to see when it’s dry).
Hope that helps!
Lesley F. says
Thank you so much for this excellent website. I’m just starting out in business and look forward to learning more ideas from you.
Andrea says
Hi Marion,
I have tried my first batch of cookies !
The problem is when the cookies were in the oven I could see air bubbles forming and consequently some cookies had bumps and were not totally flat.
Do you have any idea of what was wrong ?
I decorated them anyway and guests loved everything.
Thanks for keeping us inspired !
Best Regards from Switzerland
Andrea