This royal icing recipe is your secret to turning simple cookies into something truly special. I love how this version, made with meringue powder instead of egg whites, comes together so easily – no worrying about raw eggs, just smooth, glossy icing ready for decorating. It’s my go-to for holiday cookies. One consistency which works great for piping and flooding cookies – easy peasy is always welcome over the holidays!
Why You Will Love This Icing Royal Recipe Too
- Made with meringue powder – no raw eggs to worry about, just quick, reliable results every time.
- Dries quickly – plenty of time to allow you to apply perfect detailed piping, or flooding and will harden in about 2 hours.
- Smooth finish – gives your cookies that professional bakery look.
- Easy to color and flavor – customize it for any season or celebration.
- Stable and long-lasting – dries firm for stacking, gifting, and storing.
- Simple to make – comes together in minutes with just a few ingredients.
Equipment Needed
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This recipe uses basic baking tools, but if you’re stocking up or upgrading your kitchen gear, these items will come in handy:
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring Cups
- Mixing bowl
- A Stand Mixer or hand mixer is optional if you want to get a very stiff consistency.
- Piping Bag and Tips or zipper top bags (like a Ziploc)
Ingredients
Confectioners sugar – also known as icing sugar, gives the icing its sweetness and structure.
Meringue powder – improves consistency and provides structure and stability for piping. It also helps the icing dry and harden. If you do beat with a hand or stand mixer the meringue powder will allow the icing to become thick and fluffy.
Water – the liquid that turns the sugar and meringue powder into a smooth workable icing.
Vanilla extract – used to add flavor.
Food coloring (optional) – if you want to color your royal icing.
How To Make Royal Icing
In a bowl mix together the confectioners sugar and meringue powder with a spoon.
Add in about 2 tablespoons of the water and all of the vanilla extract. Mix together and determine if the consistency needs more water. For piping and flooding sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies etc, I find the full 3 ½ tablespoons of water is good. But you may want to add it a little bit at a time so you don’t end up with too thin an icing.
A good consistency for the icing is if you bring up a spoonful from the bowl and drip it back down in lines, the lines maintain their shape for about 6-8 seconds before “melting” back in with the rest of the icing. This consistency will allow you to pipe and flood a cookie like a pro.
But if you want an even thicker consistency, you can use a stand or hand mixer and beat the icing until stiff peaks form – usually takes a couple minutes of beating.
Once you are happy with the consistency you can add a bit of food coloring and mix it in. I prefer using gel food coloring as it doesn’t thin the icing down. You may want to have a few bowls of different colors depending on how you will be decorating your cookies.
Using Royal Icing For Cookies
This royal icing is perfect for sugar cookies or my gingerbread cookies. You can separate the icing into small bowls and use a different color for each bowl if you are going to use many colors. If I’m going to be piping a lot of different colors instead of using a piping bag I’ll just put the amount of icing I need into a snack size zipper top bag.
Squeeze all the icing to one of the bottom corners of the bag. Remove all the air and then seal the bag with the zipper top. Snip the corner off. Now you have a mini piping bag. The size of the piping will be determined by how large or small the snipped corner is.
If the icing starts flowing out of the snipped corner when the piping bag is just resting on the counter, it’s too thin to pipe. That said, a little bit of leakage is normal when the consistency is right – but it shouldn’t make a mess. On the other hand, if the icing looks dry or doesn’t flow smoothly when you pipe it, it’s probably too thick. It’s much easier to adjust the consistency before filling your piping bag, so take a moment to test it first.
FAQs
- How long does royal icing last for? On a cookie, it will stay fresh as long as the cookie stays fresh. If you have leftover icing you can store it in a plastic zipper top bag in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. It also freezes well in the zipper top bag for about 3 months. Just let it thaw overnight in the fridge and then let it come to room temperature before using it.
- Why is my icing flowing down the sides of my cookies? Sounds like the consistency of the royal icing is too thin. You need to add more icing sugar to it.
- When I pipe my icing, the lines break and are dry looking? This means the consistency is too thick, you need to thin the icing down with a bit of water – just add a couple of drops at at time.
- How long does royal icing take to dry? On average it takes about 2 hours to dry, but if you have a thicker than average layer it could take longer and vice versa for a very thin coating.
- Can I freeze cookies decorated with royal icing? Yes! royal icing that has completely dried will freeze well with a cookie.
Royal Icing with Meringue Powder
Ingredients
- 2 cups confectioners sugar g
- 1 ½ tablespoons meringue powder 15g
- 3 ½ tablespoons water divided
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Food coloring optional
Instructions
- In a bowl mix together the confectioners sugar and meringue powder.
- Add in about 2 tablespoons of the water and all of the vanilla extract. Mix together and determine if the consistency needs more water. For piping and flooding sugar cookies, and gingerbread cookies etc, I find the full 3 ½ tablespoons of water is good. But you may want to add it a little bit at a time so you don’t end up with too thin an icing.
- A good consistency for the icing is if you bring up a spoonful from the bowl and drip it back down in lines, the lines maintain their shape for about 6 seconds before “melting” back in with the rest of the icing. This consistency will allow you to pipe and flood a cookie.
- But if you want an even thicker consistency, you can use a stand or hand mixer and beat the icing until stiff peaks form – usually takes a couple minutes of beating.
- At this point you can add a bit of food coloring if you want and mix it in. I prefer using gel food coloring as it doesn’t thin the icing down. You may want to have a few bowls of different colors depending on how you will be decorating.
Notes
- How long does royal icing last for? On a cookie, it will stay fresh as long as the cookie stays fresh. If you have leftover icing you can store it in a plastic zipper top bag in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. It also freezes well in the zipper top bag for about 3 months. Just let it thaw overnight in the fridge and then let it come to room temperature before using it.
- Why is my icing flowing down the sides of my cookies? Sounds like the consistency of the royal icing is too thin. You need to add more icing sugar to it.
- When I pipe my icing, the lines break and are dry looking? This means the consistency is too thick, you need to thin the icing down with a bit of water – just add a couple of drops at at time.
- How long does royal icing take to dry? On average it takes about 2 hours to dry, but if you have a thicker than average layer it could take longer and vice versa for a very thin coating.
- Can I freeze cookies decorated with royal icing? Yes! royal icing that has completely dried will freeze well with a cookie.
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I am definitely going to use this icing when I make the cookies you shared too. It looks so simple.