The Best Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe + Techniques | Julie Blanner (2024)

FAQs

How to make black icing for sugar cookies? ›

For every 3 cups of icing, I find that 1 - 1 ½ teaspoons of black gel color (depending on the brand) is enough for a true, dark black. Stir in the color, and let the color sit for a few hours or overnight. Letting the color sit will allow the color to be fully emulsified into the icing, and it will darken as it sits.

Royal icing is probably the most popular icing that cookie decorators use. It is preferable because it holds up very well if the cookies need to be stacked, shipped, stored, etc.. Royal icing can be made into a very nice glaze and also works great for very fine detail work.

Start by outlining the cookie with piping-consistency icing in any color you choose. Then, use flooding-consistency icing to fill the outlined area, starting by flooding around the edges and working your way towards the center. If the flooding is inconsistent in thickness, redistribute the wet icing with a toothpick.

Many people find buttercream to be of superior taste. Sometimes, vanilla extract is not added into a royal icing recipe, which can also cause the taste to be very sweet. When biting into a sugar cookie decorated with royal icing, the bite will be harder. The softness will all come from the cookie.

Start by combining blue, red, and green dyes in equal amounts. Add additional drops of red and green. You will likely need to add additional drops of red and green (a bit more red than green) to reach a truly inky black.

American Buttercream Frosting

It's a creamy frosting that complements the flavors of most sponge cakes and sheet cakes. Simple buttercream is commonly used to decorate cakes because it's easy to prepare and bakers can add vanilla, chocolate, or lemon flavorings to enrich a cake's flavor profile.

Cookie icing can be used in the same way that royal icing can; however, it doesn't dry as hard as royal icing does. It's great for flooding cookies or piping designs into wet icing. To thin the consistency of cookie icing, just pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds.

Both Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Italian Meringue Buttercream are commonly used by professional bakers, with Swiss meringue being slightly more popular. Both these buttercreams are made by whipping granulated sugar and egg whites into a meringue and then whipping butter into that meringue.

As mentioned, sprinkles, sanding sugar, and edible glitter are great options for adding texture, sparkle, and dimension to your decorated cookies. Apply them while the icing is still wet for better adhesion. Once the icing is dried, you can experiment with edible food markers to draw intricate cookie designs.

How long should sugar cookies cool before icing? ›

Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating. I like to decorate cookies directly on baking sheets so I can stick the entire baking sheet in the refrigerator to help set the icing.

Outlining-consistency icing should squeeze easily out of a #2 pastry tip, stay in place, and hold its shape on the cookie when it lands. If the icing is too stiff, it will be hard to squeeze. If it is too loose, it will spread a little when it lands on the cookie—this won't help when you start flooding.

Sugar cookies are often decorated with royal icing (a hard icing made from egg whites, powdered sugar, and citrus juice) or fondant (a sugary confection that can be used as a filling, decoration, or icing).

The sugar should not be at all gritty, or it will plug pastry tips when doing fine piping work. As always, it's best to weigh all ingredients for most accuracy and consistency, and to add the egg whites gradually. The icing should be very stiff coming off the mixer, at what I refer to as my “glue” consistency.

Using your white icing and appropriate base colour, make up the base for your black food colouring. Once you have achieved this base, add a few drops of black and mix with a spatula until combined. Within minutes, you will have perfect black icing. It's really that simple.

Add equal amounts of red, blue and green to your recipe.

Start with just a couple drops of each color, stirring them in well. Repeat until the mixture darkens to a deep grey, always adding equal amounts of the color. You can use yellow instead of green, but the lighter color makes it more difficult to achieve black.

Use black cocoa and melted dark chocolate to naturally give your frosting a deep base color. If you can't find black cocoa, you can also use dark cocoa powder. Let the melted chocolate cool for about 10 minutes before adding it into your frosting. This will prevent it from melting the butter in your frosting.