How to Make Royal Icing and Flood Icing

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Royal Icing and Flood Icing can turn regular sugar cookies into little works of art! Smooth, royal icing and flood icing are actually simple to make and decorate with too.

Rainbow colors of bagged Royal Icing with gel colors and unfrosted sugar cookies.
Featured with this recipe
  1. The Right Tools (and Ingredients) for the Job
  2. Royal Icing
  3. Flood Icing
  4. How to Get the Perfect Consistency for Royal Icing
  5. The 3 main consistencies for royal icing:
  6. Royal Icing with Meringue Powder
  7. What To Do if Your Icing is Too Thick
  8. How to Decorate Cookies with Royal Icing and Flood Icing
  9. Royal Icing and Cake
  10. More Frosting and Icing Recipes
  11. Frequently Asked Questions
  12. Recipes with Royal Icing
  13. Royal Icing Recipe

Have you ever wondered how professional “cookiers” get that smooth, perfect icing on cookies? It’s like little works of art on every cookie. They are gorgeous and look really complicated. But here’s a secret: they aren’t complicated at all. In fact, this smooth royal icing and flood icing recipe is simple to make and easy to use. It’s perfect for decorating any kind of cut out cookies.

The Right Tools (and Ingredients) for the Job

Before making the frosting, set yourself up for success by getting the right ingredients and tools. Here are some of my favorite products, tips, and suggestions:

  • Powdered Sugar (aka confectioners’ sugar) – this will be the bulk of your icing. You MUST sift the powdered sugar if you want to have the perfect consistency.
  • Meringue Powder – We use Genie’s Dream Premium Blend and it is perfect.
  • Food Coloring – Don’t use the grocery store stuff. It will mess up your consistency. Get a good food coloring from the craft store or from Amazon.
  • Piping Bags – We like these small disposables ones.
Three sugar cookies and a piping bag with royal icing


Royal Icing

Royal icing is a mixture of powdered sugar, meringue powder, and water. The trick is getting the consistency just right. It hardens quickly and creates a smooth, matte finish stiff icing that is perfect for those beautifully cut-out decorated sugar cookies. Royal icing is best for outlining designs or for adding a raised texture to the cookie. It gives the icing that 3D effect. It dries really hard so it’s not the best for decorating the entire cookie. That’s what the flood icing is for.

Flood Icing

Once you’ve outlined your cookies with your royal icing outline, you’ll fill in your designs with “flood” icing. Flood icing is basically just a watered-down royal icing (watered down in consistency, not flavor). It gives your cookies that beautiful, smooth layer of texture. I like to use a toothpick to pop and smooth air bubbles while I am flooding my cookies. A toothpick can also help encourage the flood icing to go where you want it to go.

Plate of Christmas Sugar Cookies next to bags of royal icing and sprinkles.

How to Get the Perfect Consistency for Royal Icing

Before knowing what the perfect consistency is, you need to ask yourself “What am I using this for”? Are you making sugar cookies? Gingerbread houses? Flowers for a wedding cake? Are you doing detailed work or are you flooding? Or both? Here’s a quick guide for the 3 main royal icing consistencies as well as their uses:

Three royal icing consistencies on a plate next to a bag of royal icing.

The 3 main consistencies for royal icing:

  1. Piping (on the left in the image above) – Piping is very stiff and gets very hard after drying. This kind of consistency is great for using as mortar on gingerbread houses. It is also good for making transfers (which means making an icing design like a flower and transferring it to a cake or cookie after drying). To get this consistency you want to have stiff peaks that don’t flop over when you pull it up.
  2. Outline (in the middle in the image above) – The outline consistency is for, well, outlining. This will hold in your flood icing but won’t get too hard like the piping consistency. You can easily bite into it and it won’t be crunchy. It is great for sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies. To get this consistency you want to have a soft peak that gently flops over when pulled up, but not so soft that it absorbs back into the rest of the icing. You want it to still hold its form.
  3. Flood (on the right in the image above) – This is that beautiful, glossy, “fill” icing. It will flood in the areas that you have outlined. It is perfect for sugar cookies. For this flooding consistency, you want the icing to absorb back into itself in 3-4 seconds after pulling it up. It should make a thick puddle and then keep its shape.
Powdered sugar, water and meringue powder for Royal and Flood Icing.

Royal Icing with Meringue Powder

In this easy royal icing recipe we use meringue powder. Some people use egg whites, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Especially for this recipe. Using raw eggs and raw egg whites can make this recipe inconsistent and increase the risk of salmonella. I promise, this recipe is perfect as-is, no need for substitutes. Meringue powder (not to be confused with egg white powder) is the only way to go. That being said, our very favorite meringue powder is this Genie’s Dream Premium Blend Meringue Powder. It has great consistency and flavor. We can’t guarantee any other meringue powder will turn out quite as good!

What To Do if Your Icing is Too Thick

If it’s not the right consistency for your liking, stir in a tiny bit of water, a LITTLE at a time (you can always add more but you can’t take it away). My favorite tip for getting just the right amount of water is to use a spray bottle. I know it sounds weird but a little water goes a long way. A few little spritz’s with a spray bottle can help you avoid a big headache!

Decorated Halloween Cookies in the shapes of ghosts, pumpkins, candy corns, cauldrons and spider webs.
Halloween Sugar Cookies Decorated with Royal Icing

How to Decorate Cookies with Royal Icing and Flood Icing

You can decorate sugar cookies like a pro– it’s easier than it looks! Place the icing in a plastic piping bag, snip off the tip, and outline the cookies. You can also use a reusable piping bag with a very small piping tip. Fill in the outlines on the cookies with the flood icing and then use a toothpick to fill in any little gaps. Add sprinkles for more dimension and design. Be creative and have fun!

PRO TIP: When piping the outline, lift the tip of the piping bag so it isn’t directly touching the cookie. You want it lifted away from the cookie so the icing lays down gently onto the cookie rather than going directly from the tip of the bag onto the cookie. This will give you smoother, prettier lines and more control over where the icing goes.

Royal Icing and Cake

Royal icing serves a great purpose and is very beautiful, but not on a cake. At least not in large quantities. The only time you may want royal icing on a cake is if you make flowers or other decorations and transfer them to the cake after they harden. Even then, they really aren’t meant to be eaten, they are more for decoration. You can also use royal icing as a “glue” if you are wanting to attach the icing flowers or other embellishments onto the cake.

Plate of Christmas Sugar Cookies next to bags of royal icing and sprinkles.
Christmas Sugar Cookies Decorated with Royal Icing

More Frosting and Icing Recipes

Different cookies and confectionaries use different kinds of icing and frosting. This royal icing recipe is great for intricately decorating cookies, but depending on that you are making, you may be better off with a recipe meant for spreading or piping in larger quantities (such as on cakes and cupcakes). Find the one that is perfect for you and your next recipe:

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does flooding icing take to dry?

For projects like gingerbread houses or panoramic eggs, you’ll want to let the icing dry overnight. But if you’re just wanting to decorate with layers on cookies, let it dry for at leas an hour in between.

Can you store royal icing and flood icing?

While fresh royal icing is best to use for cookies, you can store this for up to a week in the refrigerator. But it must be covered with a damp towel to avoid drying out and hardening. Meringue powder royal icing can last up to a month if kept refrigerated. Putting icing in the freezer isn’t recommended, but putting finished cookies in the freezer in an airtight container AFTER the icing has set is totally fine.

Can royal icing be flavored?

Absolutely! Almond extract, vanilla extract, or coconut extracts are all delicious ways to flavor up royal icing. The meringue powder we use (see above) is already flavored so we typically don’t need to flavor it any more. If you do want to flavor your icing, just make sure to use CLEAR extracts so you don’t mess up the white color. Also, be really careful adding those extra liquids because even a little bit will change the consistency.

Fancy Alice in Wonderland sugar cookies
Cookie Decorating Credit: @HeidisSweetTooth (follow her on Instagram)

Recipes with Royal Icing

Red, pink, yellow, light green, dark green, blue and white bags of Royal Icing.

Royal Icing

4.99 from 50 votes
Royal Icing can turn regular sugar cookies into little works of art! Smooth and shiny, royal icing and flood icing are actually simple to make and decorate with too!
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Setting Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Servings 24 cookies

Video

Equipment

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Combine ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. If you don't have a stand mixer, you can use a large bowl and a hand mixer. Mix on low speed with a whisk attachment until ingredients are combined (enough that the powdered sugar won't fly everywhere).
    Mixing bowl with unmixed Royal and Flood Icing.
  • Turn up the speed to med/high and mix for 5 min or until very thick, shiny, stiff and white. You want the peaks of the icing to stand straight up without flopping over at all.
    Hand holding a mixing whisk of Royal Icing.
  • If you want to make several different colors, divide the icing into several different bowls and beat in the food coloring by hand with a rubber spatula.
    Gel paste colors next to a plastic mixing bowl of royal icing with spatula.
  • Once you get the correct consistencies for piping (see notes above), place icing in piping bags and start decorating!
    Red, pink, yellow, light green, dark green, blue and white bags of Royal Icing.
  • After icing your cookies, allow cookies to harden at room temperature for at least 12 hours before storing.
    Sugar cookies with royal icing and sprinkles

To Make Flood Icing:

  • Once you have used all of the royal icing you plan on using (or have set aside the amount of royal icing you need) add about a little of water at a time to the royal icing that you would like to make into flood icing, stirring constantly, until you get the right consistency.
    Hand squeezing a bottle of water into a bowl of thick Royal Icing.
  • You want to be able to pull up a spoonful of icing and have it drip back down into the bowl and combine with the rest of the icing within just a few seconds. You don't want to have it lay on top of the remaining icing for long, you also don't want it to absorb immediately. That means it is too thin. There is a fine line here, which is why you only want to add a little bit of water at a time so you don't overdo it. 
    Spatula of Flood Royal Icing going into a bowl of Icing.

Notes

Royal icing serves a great purpose and is very beautiful, but not on a cake. At least not in large quantities. The only time you may want royal icing on a cake is if you make flowers or other decorations and transfer them to the cake after they harden.
While fresh royal icing is best to use for cookies, you can store this for up to a week in the refrigerator. But it must be covered with a damp towel to avoid drying out and hardening. Meringue powder royal icing can last up to a month if kept refrigerated. Putting icing in the freezer isn’t recommended, but putting finished cookies AFTER the icing has set is totally fine.
This recipe is a very special recipe. It comes from my best friend Heidi over at @HeidisSweetTooth (follow her on Instagram). She was kind enough to share this recipe with us. If you live in the Boise area, she does custom orders and will make you cookies beyond your wildest dreams.
 
 

Nutrition Information

Calories: 122kcalCarbohydrates: 30gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSodium: 14mgPotassium: 11mgSugar: 30gCalcium: 1mgIron: 1mg

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About the author

Erica Walker

Erica lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband, Jared, an attorney, and her three beautiful girls. Beyond the world of recipes, she loves adventuring with everything from kayaking, to cruising, to snowboarding and taking the family along for the thrill ride.

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Comments

  1. I can never get the correct consistency to flood my cookies. your recipe say plus more water for flood icing. how much more do you suggest?

    1. It depends on how much icing you have and how thick your original icing turned out. I start out just adding a teaspoon at a time until it reaches the consistency I want. I have also seen people use a spray bottle of water and just going one spray at a time. It takes some trial and error but once you get that perfect consistency once you’ll be able to recreate it!

  2. 5 stars
    Do you have a suggestion for a dye-free gel icing? I SO want to make vibrant Christmas cookies, but I’d rather do it without the chemical dyes.

    1. I haven’t used a dye free gel coloring, but I have seen Kroger brand ones that use natural dyes. I have also seen some at Target that were Watkins brand but used natural dye. Let us know if you find a good one!

  3. I tried my hand at this icing yesterday and I think it was a success! It was very tasty. My only concern is that I left the cookies over night to set and the icing is still wet. Did I add too much water? Is there any other tips to help with the drying? I’m completely new to baking but I think letting them set out would make the cookies stale quicker.

    1. It does sound like the icing was a little too wet. Do you live in a wet or humid climate? That can also affect the drying. If they are not dry after 24 hours, they are unlikely to dry at all.

    1. While fresh royal icing is best to use for cookies, you can store this for up to a week in the refrigerator. But it must be covered with a damp towel to avoid drying out and hardening. Meringue powder royal icing can last up to a month if kept refrigerated. Putting icing in the freezer isn’t recommended but putting finished cookies AFTER the icing has set is totally fine.

  4. 5 stars
    What if I accidentally add too much Merangue Powder? Will it ruin the frosting or make it too hard? How do I fix it?

  5. 5 stars
    Super simple! I stopped beating the mix when I got to glossy with floppy peaks, like a homemade marshmallow texture before it sets. I also mixed my egg white powder and powdered sugar together first, then added the milk. Otherwise my egg white powder gets sooo clumpy.

  6. 5 stars
    Looks like fun I am going to try to make tea cup and tea pot cookies for a bridal shower. ( practice first)

  7. I made the flood icing and it worked pretty well! The only down side about is is that is takes a FULL night to dry. I would definitely try this again though!

    1. 5 stars
      I love the heart cookie cutter! Where did you get it? Thank you for the very good descriptions on how to get the different types. Very informative!

  8. 4 stars
    I have always loved Favorite Family Recipes site, but lately there are so many adds it makes it impossible to navigate the site. I causes it to be so slow and it’s so frustrating that I just end up leaving. In fact writing this took longer than it needed to.

    1. I am sorry that our site is frustrating! We try our best to make sure our site is user friendly. Our site is best viewed and navigated on a desktop or laptop computer and with Google Chrome.

  9. 5 stars
    I have enjoyed reading your blog and using some of the great recipes! Thanks for taking the time to give us wonderful recipes and tips!