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How to Pipe Royal Icing Lines

Hello, hello!

It was a crazy kind of weekend (in a good way), and I was so happy to meet some of you at Canada’s Baking & Sweets Show! Such fun meeting kindred cookie-decorating spirits, and as usual, I neglected to get photos – I am a little camera shy myself but I’d love photos of you to remember the weekend by, if you’d like to send them to me or tag me somewhere on the social media sphere.

In preparation for some cookie decorating demos, I played around with Halloween “themed” royal icing, and thought I’d share a piping royal icing lines recap below for you. Please click HERE for a detailed explanation of each tip.

Key Tips for Piping Royal Icing Lines:

  • Icing consistency is key
  • Use a #1 or #1.5 PME piping tip
  • Don’t overfill your piping bags
  • Let the icing fall onto your cookie
  • Practice on some cookies you don’t need, first (Yay for “mistake” snacks!)
  • Use an even amount of pressure on your piping bag, and if your hands are shaky, rest your wrists on the table
  • Avoid pulling the icing
  • Try not to pipe too fast, slow and steady wins the race (sorry, couldn’t help it)
  • Use a toothpick to correct mistakes or little blobs of icing at the beginning of each icing line (I don’t always do that though – depends on how picky I’m feeling 😉 )
  • Again, you can find a detailed explanation of all these tips HERE.

Video on How to Pipe Royal Icing Lines

I’ve got a video for you on how I pipe lines here (and below) as well.

Did you notice one of the edible pearls on the orange cookie fell off sometime during my demos this weekend? I didn’t notice until now – oops!

Piping lines is really such a fun and easy way to decorate with a few key tips, it’s a perfect way to use up some leftover geometric cookies, as they can easily be matched to any theme. Every time I play around with this technique new designs happen, and I’d have to say, it’s probably my second favorite way to decorate, next to marbling icing.

Hope you have fun with it too, and happy decorating!

xo,

Marian

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Comments

  1. Hello Marian!
    Love the cookies!
    Love the colourscheme! I’ll do some Halloween-Cookies and a two-tired-cake for a Halloween-Party this year and chose the same main colours for the cake. 🙂
    I’ll take your cookies for inspriration for my cookies!

    Thanks for another lovely post 🙂

    Reply

  5. It was so great seeing you this weekend! It was a real pleasure being able to watch you in action! You’ve inspired some cookie decorating in the very near future!

    Reply

    • It was great to see you as well, Julie! Hope you enjoy decorating, and if you have any questions, am happy to help!

  6. Marian my lines never come out even and straigh, no matter what I do. They’re usually wider in the beginning too, and get thinner as I move along for some reason. Thanks so much for the tips. I am going to keep working on this. Yours are just perfect!

    Reply

    • Hi Colleen,
      Mine come out wider at the beginning as well… It’s hard not to put too much pressure at the beginning. I often use a toothpick to scrape a little of the excess off. If they get a bit thinner as you go along, try and pay attention to see if you’re pulling the line of icing, instead of letting it fall.

  8. Thank you so much for taking the time to show us how you make the most perfect lines! Also, your instructions are so clear, they make it look easy, almost! 😉

    Reply

  12. Good seeing you again and chatting about teaching and baking! As usual your demos and incredible work left me inspired! I always learn so, so much from everything “Sweetopia”.

    Reply

    • Hi Marilyn! It was good chatting with you yesterday too! Have fun decorating and send me photos or tag me on social media if you like! xo

      Thanks for the comments everyone!

  13. Good day to ya Marian!!! I just adore your site and these cookies and your talent are the reasons why! Everything you show and teach us, is fun. It’s beautiful. It’s relaxing. It gives such pleasure to hide away for a while from everything else that is going on in the world and immerse ourselves in happiness. Thanks so much for this post, and for all the other posts you have ever shared with us! Blessings!

    Reply

  15. Marian, thanks for posting this great tip, you make it look so easy I was just mesmerized watching you do all those lines. Love, love, love your cookie decorating.

    Reply

  17. I find it odd I never noticed the missing pearl! If you could have seen how closely I was checking everything out (or so I thought). I actually went back after you mentioned it for a look. This is encouraging to me, though, because I obsess over things like this ALL THE TIME, and I’m thinking that if I never noticed your missing pearl, then maybe others aren’t noticing every tiny detail on my work! Great post (as always). xx

    Reply

    • Thanks so much, Peggy! Funny how many times I was looking at the cookie, but never noticed, too!

  18. Hi Marian. I reference your site often for techniques and I am so appreciative for all of the beautiful cookies and cupcakes etc that you put on here and then share with us. I use both your sugar cookie and RI recipe for my cookies and everyone loves loves loves them (I do too). I watched the video and I think you said you use the 10 second icing for the lines as well as the flooding. What about for the ball borders? Perhaps my icing was a little less than 10 second, but it seemed like the balls were flattening out too much when I tried with my regular flooding icing.

    Reply

    • Hi Angie,
      If they’re flattening out, yes, the icing may be a bit too runny. Try thickening it a bit with icing sugar. Thanks for your compliments btw! xo

  19. UGH this timely post just reminded me I should be baking cookies for my little ones birthday this Saturday. I hate the rolling and baking of the cookies, i have no space in my fridge to chill things. Wish I could get pre baked cookies and just decorate!

    Erin

    Reply

    • HI Pam,
      You can see a few examples in the video in this post if you like. It’s probably a lot easier to understand than my explanation. 🙂

  24. beautiful amazing work. You are the best!
    Love all your work. I hope you had a great time at the show last weekend.
    ML

    Reply

  30. Marian – I’ve been a fan of yours for years…..I remember you were my first go to source when I began my cookie journey. We are all so lucky to have you as our “mentor”. You are generous with your knowledge and inspire all of us. Thank you for being you. xoxo

    Yvie
    Brooklyn, NY

    Reply

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