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This easy cookie icing recipe is an excellent alternative to royal icing! It only uses 5 ingredients and can be made in under 5 minutes. This simple cookie icing sets shiny, firm but still soft. A simple icing that tastes delicious!
I developed this easy cookie icing recipe as a simple alternative to royal icing with meringue powder for cut-out sugar cookies or these chocolate sugar cookies. The added corn syrup is optional but it allows the resulting icing to be shiny when fully set and keeps the icing pleasantly soft. It is an excellent option for cookie decorating beginners or when you are short on time.
You can color this icing with food dye and decorate just as you would with royal icing, but you probably have all the ingredients on hand! It doesn’t require whipping up a meringue and can be thickened with powdered sugar if made too thin. Thin it out to ice one bowl brownies, lemon blondies or these classic chewy blondies!
Table of Contents
Why This is the Best Easy Cookie Icing
- Sets shiny and pleasantly soft. The secret ingredient is corn syrup. There is only 1 tablespoon in whole batch, but it adds a nice shiny finish and a soft texture to the fully set icing.
- Made with 5 ingredients in 5 minutes. It doesn’t get easier than this recipe. 5 minutes stands between you and icing your cookies! Yes, you do have time to make those gorgeous Christmas cookies this year!
- Flood & outline with the same consistency. Without the added stability of the meringue in royal icing, this type of icing gets too thin very fast. Outlining and then flooding with one consistency will ensure perfectly iced sugar cookies!
Professional Tips for Making Sugar Cookie Icing
- The vanilla extract will noticeably color the icing. The flavor trade-off for me was worth it but if you do not want to use food coloring, either omit the extract or find a clear vanilla extract.
- For a perfectly white, opaque icing, you will need white food coloring. Just a tiny drop of white gel food coloring is all you need to create a brilliant and opaque white icing. I iced this chocolate sugar cookie recipe using this icing, but I did need to add a touch of food coloring to cover up the chocolate cookie surface.
- Too much food coloring will keep it from setting. Even a bit too much gel food coloring will keep it from setting fully, so I recommend using a toothpick or skewer dipped into the gel food coloring for adding coloring rather than squeezing from the bottle.
Ingredients Needed
- Powdered Sugar: This is a standard powdered sugar based icing much like my easy donut glaze, and I would recommend sifting your confectioner’s sugar if it is excessively clumpy.
- Light corn syrup: Light corn syrup creates a nice shine and chew to the final icing texture. You can omit it, but I recommend adding it if you have it on hand!
- Kosher Salt: Kosher salt offsets the sweetness of a powdered sugar based icing and I would not omit it.
- Vanilla Extract: To guard that pure white color, use a clear vanilla extract or omit it. To me the vanilla extract flavor is worth it, so I either accept the slight tint or I add a white gel food coloring to offset it.
- Milk: I use whole milk because it is pure white and an alternative milk or cream will add a color to your frosting.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations & Substitutions
- Change the flavor: Use a different clear extract for added flavor. Try Nielson Massey’s lemon extract, almond extract or orange extract for a bright alternative. You could also use lemon juice rather than milk.
- Add food coloring: I kept this simple icing white but you could also use gel or liquid food coloring to color it. If using liquid food coloring, I recommend adding food coloring before the icing comes together because if you add it when it is at the perfect consistency, the resulting icing will be too thin.
- Layer colors and texture like royal icing. This icing can do everything royal icing can do, so feel free to color it and layer on textures and ornate details as you would with a more complicated icing!
How to Make Easy Icing for Decorating Cookies
Use these instructions to make a simple, but delicious, icing for decorating cookies! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.
Make the icing:
Step 1: Combine powdered sugar, corn syrup, salt, and vanilla in a medium bowl.
Step 2: Start by adding 1 tablespoon milk and whisk. Slowly add more milk a few drops at a time, whisking after each addition. If you add too much milk, add a bit more confectioner’s sugar.
When decorating with this simple powdered sugar icing, I use one consistency for outlining and flooding unlike royal icing where I have two different consistencies. The icing should flow in a thick ribbon off your whisk. It should rest for a moment on the surface of the icing in the bowl before disappearing. If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar.
Step 3: Once you achieve the right consistency, transfer to piping bags or clean squeeze bottles.
In order to get a completely opaque white icing with this recipe, especially to cover chocolate cookies, you will need to add white gel food coloring. A little goes a long way, but it will add just enough opacity so you can’t see the cookie underneath.
How to decorate cookies with cookie icing:
Step 1: Starting smaller than you think, cut the tip off the piping bag. Test a line. If it squiggles when you squeeze it, cut it just a little bigger. Test and repeat until you get a medium straight line.
Step 2: Working with 1-3 cookies at a time, use the outline bag to trace the outline of the cookie. Leave a 1/16th in border around the edges so it doesn’t run off the cookie!
Even though you are using one consistency, you will still need to outline and then flood to ensure clean lines and smooth edges. You can use the same bag for both but having 2 separate bags allows you to have two different sized openings.
Step 3: Switch to the flooding bag and squeeze a squiggle of icing inside the outline across the cookie you are icing. Use a cake tester, wooden skewer, or be lazy like me and use the tip of the flooding piping bag, to spread the icing around into one even layer.
You should not be able to see the cookie through the icing, but it should not be so thick that it flows over the outline. The outline should blend perfectly with the filling. If it doesn’t and you have a visible line, you can try to blend them or you can just outline fewer cookies before flooding next time.
Step 5: For the simple style of decorated cookies pictured, decorate up to 3 cookies with the icing then sprinkle on your décor. Try crushed dehydrated strawberries or blueberries, sprinkles, mini hearts, or gold jimmies. I kept them all white, silver and gold. The options are limitless.
Chef Lindsey’s Recipe Tip
You can fix a too thin icing with more powdered sugar, but keep in mind that you will be changing the ratio of the corn syrup and flavorings. This will produce a different final texture and flavor. It’s not the end of the World, but something worth considering.
Frequently Asked Questions
I recommend storing un-used icing in an air-tight plastic container with plastic wrap directly on the surface, or in sealed piping bag with a piece of tape folded over the tip. This will ensure it doesn’t form a skin.
Store iced cookies at room temperature in a single layer until they set fully and then stack and store in an airtight container at room temperature.
I do not recommend storing iced cookies in the freezer. This icing will bloom, colors will bleed and the surface will be more dull.
This easy icing will set completely so that you can stack the cookies in 2 hours but it does have a nice soft texture when you eat them. For extra security or thick icing, I recommend allowing the cookies to set in a single-layer, well-wrapped over night at room temperature.
If you tried this recipe and loved it please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below. I love hearing from you; your comments make my day!
Easy Cookie Icing
Ingredients
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-2 ½ tablespoons milk
- gel food coloring optional
Instructions
- Combine powdered sugar, corn syrup, salt, and vanilla in a large bowl.
- Start by adding 1 tablespoon milk and whisk. Slowly add more milk a few drops at a time, whisking after each addition. If you add too much milk, add a bit more confectioner’s sugar and whisk.
- You are looking for an “outline consistency” which you will use to both outline and flood sugar cookies.
- In order to get a completely opaque white icing with this recipe, especially to cover chocolate cookies, you will need to add white gel food coloring. A little goes a long way, but it will add just enough opacity so you can’t see the cookie underneath.
- Even though you are using one consistency, you will still need to outline and then flood to ensure clean lines and smooth edges.
Notes
Presentation – For perfectly opaque and white icing, add a little white gel food coloring.
Variations – Use clear vanilla extract, lemon extract or use lemon juice in place of the milk.
Storage – Store un-used icing in an air-tight plastic container with plastic wrap directly on the surface, or in sealed piping bag with a piece of tape folded over the tip.
Store iced cookies at room temperature in a single layer until they set fully (2 hours) and then stack and store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Nutrition
Before You Go
I hope you enjoyed this professional chef tested recipe. Check out our other delicious, chef-developed buttercream and frosting recipes or find your new favorite cookie recipes!
