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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.
Mastering the Basics: Royal Icing vs. Flood Icing
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.
Before you can start making royal icing and flood icing, it’s important to know the difference between the two. In a nutshell, royal icing is more solid and used to make clean, defined edges and intricate designs, while flood icing is thinner and the secret to that glossy, seamless finish. When decorating sugar cookies with pretty designs, you need both. Luckily it’s not a lot of effort to turn royal icing into flood icing. The only difference is that flood icing has a little more water added to it. I will get into all of that below.
The Right Tools (and Ingredients) for the Job
Before we dive into the recipe, let’s set you up for success by getting the right ingredients and tools. Here are some of my must-have 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. Otherwise you risk getting lumps and no one likes lumpy icing.
- Meringue Powder – I 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 high-quality gel food coloring from the craft store or from Amazon.
- Piping Bags – We like these small disposables ones. They make cleanup a breeze.
- Spray bottle – I have a spray bottle I use just for thinning icing. It’s my favorite consistency trick (more on this below).
- Toothpicks – These are lifesavers for smoothing flood icing and popping air bubbles.
What is 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. However, it’s not meant for covering the entire surface—that’s where flood icing comes in!
The Role of Flood Icing
Flood icing is essentially a thinner version of royal icing. Once you’ve outlined your cookies with your royal icing outline, you’ll fill in your designs with the flood icing. It will give your cookies that beautiful, smooth, polished look. To achieve this consistency, you simply add water to your royal icing one drop at a time, stirring gently until it reaches a smooth, syrup-like texture (I will go into a lot more detail on this below). Once I flood my outlines on my cookies, I like using a toothpick to guide the icing into every nook and cranny and to eliminate any pesky air bubbles.
Getting the Perfect Consistency for Royal Icing
Beginners often struggle with getting this just right—too thick, and it won’t spread; too thin, and it might run off the edges. Testing the consistency before decorating can save you from some serious frustration later on! Depending on your project, you’ll need one of three consistencies:
The 3 main consistencies for royal icing:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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: The Spray Bottle Trick
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!
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. My mom made all of our wedding cakes and I remember her spending hours upon hours making beautiful royal icing flowers as embellishments and they all turned out beautiful. You can also use royal icing as a “glue” if you are wanting to attach the icing flowers or other embellishments onto the cake.
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:
How to Make Fondant
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Cream Cheese Frosting
Sugar Cookie Frosting
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Funfetti Frosting
Raspberry Frosting
Peanut Butter Frosting
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
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.
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.
Show Me Your Creations!
Now that you’ve got all the tips and tricks, it’s time to get baking and decorating. Trust me, with a little practice, you’ll be amazed at the beautiful cookies you can create. Don’t forget to tag us on instagram @favoritefamilyrecipes to show us your beautiful creations!
Recipes for Using Royal Icing
Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 2 pounds powdered sugar sifted
- 5 tablespoons Genie's Dream Premium Meringue Powder
- 2/3 cup water plus more for flood icing
- gel food coloring (see notes above)
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).
- 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.
- 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.
- Once you get the correct consistencies for piping (see notes above), place icing in piping bags and start decorating!
- After icing your cookies, allow cookies to harden at room temperature for at least 12 hours before storing.
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.
- 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.
Hi how can I make my royal icing brown?
The simplest way is to add cocoa powder. But if you don’t want the chocolate flavor, mixing yellow food coloring with a little bit of red and blue should do it.
If I wanted to add a lemon flavor to the icing, I much lemon flavor should I add?
It really depends on how lemony you want it to taste and also the quality and concentration of your lemon flavoring. Start very small adding just a drop or two at a time and work up to the flavor you are looking for. Hope this helps!
Would 2 Tbsp be too much to start off with? The cookie I am making is also a lemon cookie.
Yes, I think 2 tablespoons would be a lot if you are using lemon extract. Lemon extract is much more concentrated of a flavor that lemon juice. I would just add a few drops at a time and check flavor and consistency each time. It much easier to add a little flavoring than it is to take it away.
5 stars for how well you gave instructions. cant wait to use this recipe
WOW, thank you! I appreciate that you appreciate our thoroughness with this icing recipe 😀
Can you add flavoring to this recipe? I normally add almond extract to my decorating frosting.
Yes absolutely! Almond extract is a great addition!
I have tried so many recipes and I finally fond a good one! I love it! ❤️
So glad you like it!
Loved the share
Hi! I’m about to try your recipe(s) for the first time and I was thinking I’d like to make the icing colors I want the night before and go ahead and put them in piping bags for the next morning. Do/have you ever do/done that? If that would work, would I need to take the bags out of the fridge and get them to room tip before using?
Thanks so much!
Yes, exactly, that will work if you get them back to room temperature before using.
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?
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!
Directions are easy to follow
Great so far, easy to understand. Let’s hope it goes well.
Hi, can regular meringue powder be used? I don’t have the brand you list in the recipe.
Yes, you can use any brand of merengue powder!
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.
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!
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.
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.
Can you store leftover icing ? If so how ?
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.
What if I accidentally add too much Merangue Powder? Will it ruin the frosting or make it too hard? How do I fix it?
I haven’t tested this, but I would try adding more water if the frosting is too stiff!
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.
I cannot seem to get the frosting to get stiff. the peaks keeep falling over. Any suggestions?
You might need to add a little more powdered sugar!
Looks like fun I am going to try to make tea cup and tea pot cookies for a bridal shower. ( practice first)
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!
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!
We got it from Etsy! Here is the link to the listing: https://www.etsy.com/listing/488362592/heart-3-cookie-cutter?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=kaleidacuts+cookie+cutters&ref=sr_gallery-1-22&organic_search_click=1
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.
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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!