This is a tutorial for how I apply my glaze icing to sugar cookies.
To make my special version of royal icing, (glaze icing) these are the ingredients I use. (click the link for full recipe)
1 cup powder sugar (confectioners sugar)
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 drop lemon juice (can be fresh)
Why do I use Lemon Juice? The acidity helps create a better tasting glaze! You dont actually taste the lemon AT ALL… it is purely used to counter all the sweet, sweet sugar!
This will outline and fill approximately one dozen cookies in one color.
(In the tutorial below, I will be making the recipe twice, or enough for two dozen)
And here are the supplies. You can find most of these at your grocery store, however the coupler set and disposable pastry bags can be found at Michaels and Walmart.
Place one cup of powder sugar in sifter. Try not to skip this step! Lumps in icing are hard to fix.
Add one tablespoon milk, one tablespoon corn syrup, and one drop lemon juice.
Mix everything together. This looks pretty dry still, so I am going to add a little more milk, about a teaspoon at a time.
Much better. Still pretty think but perfect for outlining.
Now remember these guys? You want to take the large piece in the coupler set and insert it into the bag. Really get it as far into the tip of the bag as you can without stretching the bag.
Place bag into a tall glass.
Pour icing into bag. When it is filled about half way just give your bag a twist, then put a rubber band on it so no icing can spill out the end.
Now put this bowl in the sink and rinse it out! Dried icing is a PAIN to clean up. 
Next we are going to cut off the tip of the bag. Just cut straight across.
Place your decorating tip on bag, then place the ring of the coupler set on top of the decorating tip. Tightly screw it on and you are all set!
Before you start icing your cookie, just get a piece of wax paper or use a cookie sheet and practice using your icing bag. Practice making lines… dots… learning the texture and consistency of your icing and how it looks.
Then just start at any corner, apply light pressure to the bag, and begin slowly moving your tip down the side of your cookie.
(sorry about the poor quality of these shots… it was REALLY hard to take a picture while icing!)
Its ok to have a little slack in your line… let the icing flow a bit!
Just make your way around the cookie. If you make a wobbly line or have a ‘break’ in the line just wipe off the cookies and start over. Easy!
Next you are going to want to ‘spill’ or ‘flood’ your cookie. So I made another batch of icing, the same way as before, only this time I added more milk to get a runnier consistency.
Once combined, run your spoon along the bottom of the bowl. You will want to be able to see the bottom of the bowl for at least a few seconds. If ten seconds pass and you can still see the bottom of the bowl you will need to add a little more milk.
Now grab another bag. Since I am just using this icing to flood the cookies, I am not going to use a coupler or decorating tip.
Just fill up the bag, twist it, and wrap a rubber band around the top. Then cut off the tip.
When I flood I generally run a ribbon of icing around the edges then fill in the center a bit. If you flood your cookie completely, as in, have no dry space, there will be too much icing and it will overflow.
Now we will go back in and smooth everything out.
Just grab a toothpick and start moving the icing into the corners. Make sure you cover all the dry cookie!
There will most likely be bubbles. Its a good idea to get rid of them if you can!
Just use your toothpick as a spear an pop them. There! All gone.
And here is the ‘finished’ cookie. I have finished in quotations, because now is when I normally start decorating!
Hope that answers any questions you may have about glaze icing!
Here are some examples of some decorated sugar cookies as well as some essential tips and tricks!
Christmas Cookies (and the best sugar cookie recipe ever)
How To Package and Ship Cookies
Ugly Sweater Christmas Cookies
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! This was just intime for me to do my son’s bday party cookies tonight!
I made your icing last week from the recipe you had up, but the detail helps me out a million times more! I LOVE your blog! I will show you the cookies when im all through!
Dude. this is amazingly helpful!!! Thank you!
THANK YOU! I just finished baking sugar cookies… decorating tomorrow. I’ll try out your tips and let you know how it goes.
I really enjoyed this tutorial! I need to make a stop at Michael’s or WalMart for those little gadgets!!
Thank you so much!
That seems like an awful lot of work for one little cookie!
lol Was thinking of making Sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day today – may have to try your method – we will see how ambitious I am feeling! 
lol
Have a great day!
Thank you thank you! A great tutorial especially for a beginner like me.
Great tutorial! Someday, I am going to try this icing! It is so pretty and shiny!
Thanks for the link, too!!! ♥
Great post! Lovely tutorial!
I made your cookies last night for a valentine’s party at my son’s daycare. First off they are delicious. I started decorating all of the cookies after spilling the royal icing. But quickly lost patience with that…it’s a lot of work. I think I had my decorating batch a little to thin because it wasn’t working so well. But he ended up with heart shaped cookies covered in pink, red, or white icing. However, I look forward to playing around so more next time…when it’s not so late. Your cookies are beautiful and inspiring. Sorry about the long post.
Amanda, Thank you for saving the day. Now if I can only follow the directions correctly, Valentine’s Day may have cute cookies yet
~Kim
Amanda!!! I have NEVER iced cookies. This is an awesome tutorial. Thanks!
Hi, I would like to be a broken record and say: “THANK YOU.”
I so want to try this. Maybe someday when I have 2 hands again?
I love this! I need help in this area and your tips looks awesome — of course
Oh please tell me you didn’t wash the icing out of that bowl!! Please tell me you cleaned the bowl with your finger first!! Umm… not that I would know anything about that. Cause I would neeeeevvveeeerrrr do something like that.
Lovely tutorial. Now if I could just get someone to make me some… *ahem, cough cough*
Great tutorial! I used your sugar cookie recipe for Valentine cut outs for my daughters class, they came out great!
http://ldylvbgr.blogspot.com/2010/02/decorator-sugar-cookies.html
It’s great to see a recipe that doesn’t use meringue powder or egg whites. Sometimes I’d like to make cookies but am out of meringue powder and it’s hard to come by around here!
Great tutorial!!
Oh wow. Now I think I can try this and not be so intimidated by your wonderful creations. I *think* I can do this. Don’t have the tools on hand or else I’d do this for an open house on Sunday.
Yeah! I was just popping over to write down your recipe (AGAIN) because I’m about to make some Valentine’s cookies…your tutorial is perfect timing! Thanks!
Yay, great tutorial! I think I might try to make cookies for a wedding shower next month…I’ve been elected to help with the food
I used your method to make Halloween cookies, so maybe it will be a little easier this time around. And if they aren’t as beautiful as yours, then I’ll just have to eat them here at home!
THis is exactly what I needed!!! Thanks so much!
I can’t even tell you how excited I am every time I get an email saying there is an update on your blog! I love EVERYTHING you post!!!
I love the flooding method for decorating cookies, but your frosting recipe looks like it works better than my own. I am going to have to give it a try!
Wow. Seeing this tutorial makes me appreciate even more the beautiful pictures I’ve seen of your other finished cookies. You do this process for all of them! That’s amazing. Especially the toothpick part.
Thanks for sharing!
I am cracking up because I made your cookies and icing today and I saw that there was an update, but didn’t have time to read it. Wishing I had read it first!
But my family enjoyed the finished product. I love this tutorial, it really cleared up a few of the questions I had this evening making your cookies.
Thanks again!
Your cookies and icing are beautiful!
I was wondering what is the consistency used for decorating on top of the flooded icing? Not even sure if I asked that question correctly??
Blessings,
Suzanne
You must have the patience of a saint! Not sure I could manage a whole batch of these without tearing my hair out lol.
Very helpful tips though, thanks for sharing.
Thank you!!! I am trying this recipe either tonight or tomorrow!!! I can’t wait!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
I just have to say, again, that you rock. I am not doing this, but I made one heart cake last night and how you came up with it I’ll never know! I would have given up. I did it after some mistakes, and I THINK that it turned out great, but I would have never done it without your specific step by step instructions!
So I might try a rainbow cake for my daughter’s cake, or just color the french vanilla cakes pink, purple, and red. 
Thanks for the tutorial, though. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but it definitely made it manageable!
I don’t think I am going to make the second, because I am almost out of red velvet crumbles…
If you use my recipe, you can decorate in a matter of minutes… if you use traditional royal icing, I think you need to wait at least an hour.
Good luck!!
Thank you!!!!!! You’re amazing.
Thanks for showing how you ice cookies and thanks for praying for my brother=)
Thanks for the step by step. I have been studying all the tutorials on this online as I can find. I am ‘almost’ ready to give it a try. Any tips on drying time between steps?? I have never used royal icing or icing with the corn syrup. Would they ship okay??
GREAT tutorial! I do a lot of baking and decorating, and this had lots of useful tips I never thought of. Thanks!
Great tutorial, though I’m not usually patient enough to do any detailed frosting of cookies! I’m usually more of a plop the dough on a pan, bake, and eat kind of cookie baker, lol!
i have neither the patience nor fortitude to take on an endeavor like this…yet. this’ll be handy to have if and when i develop those attributes.
meanwhile, are you a lefty or are you just depicting that because you’re snapping pictures with your right hand? just curious.
Ha! I AM a lefty… how astute of you!!
This was an absolutely awesome tutorial and just in the nick of time! I kid you not…I was just popping over to your site to get some inspiration for some sugar cookies I JUST baked (and am still baking as I type this) when I saw this lil’ tutorial about how to ice them!!!! YAY! I was heading into ice these cookies and doing it for the first time with the royal icing and ‘spill’ method. Now I am positive I can do it! Okay…here I go…just took the last batch out of the oven. Wish me luck!
I just love both of your blogs!!! Thanks!
Oh ya…one question before I go…
How long does it take for the iced cookie to be dry enough to add the rest of the decorations?
So helpful! Thank you!!!
Wow, thanks for this. I’m not usually patient enough to ice things but I gave it ago today. I think I’ll be doing it more in future!
I like your icing recipe so much better than those that use meringue powder. Who wants a cookie that doesn’t taste good?!
THANK YOU sooooooo much!!!!! I just finished making this and decorating some cookies! Of course I didn’t make enough so I’ll be making more later, LOL! This tastes PHENOMENAL – so much better than the meringue powder recipes, and of course now I don’t have to spend so much on that! YAYAYAYAYAY!!! I will post a link to some pics later. Ummm, did I say thank you? Oh!! I also put the icing bags into a glass to fill them for the first time. That is HUGE! Such a big help!
Whooey! Awesome post. And very handy indeed. I had been looking for a great cookie recipe and your posts have been timely and very much appreciated.
We’re having our daughters 3rd birthday Thursday. So out I went today to gather the things I needed. I forgot the lemon juice. Crud! hehe out goes the hubby to get it. BUT … I could not for the life of me find LIGHT corn syrup anywhere. I was able to get just corn syrup, which sadly looks nothing like your nice clear syrup. Mine is all brown and hehe syrupy.
Will the “brown” corn syrup not work for your icing recipe? I mean, if you had to guess (not sure if you’ve ever been stuck with just brown too :/)
If I have have HAVE to scour the twin cities to find light corn syrup hehe and call it a lesson learned I suppose, but I just wanted to ask first
Wow, you make it look so easy. I definitely need more practice, but this guide will definitely help. Thanks!
Thank you again Amanda!! Here are some pics of the cookies I made today after trying your icing recipe for the first time! All of your incredible cookies inspire me to keep practicing!
http://amylynnbakes.blogspot.com/2010/02/hearts.html
I FOUND IT! It being “light” corn syrup. hehe the other regular stuff, well that will just have to sit there all left out of the fun. So, made some cookies. Looked everywhere for a castle cookie cutter and could not find one. I improvised, and just freehanded one into the dough, then cut in little hearts and layered on top of the castles for doors. Baked. SO CUTE!
The icing part. Not nearly as pretty as yours (my icing ran over the sides on some. Oops!) But thats okay. Still have lots of dough to bake and tons of everything needed for the icing. So tomorrow, maybe some prettier castles.
In the meantime, I came to thank you very much for your help.
Really appreciate it.
Hi! I printed out your tutorial and made an attempt to frost some cookies. I definitely need more practice! I do have to tell you: I threw away what was left of my “Just Whites” powder. Your recipe is much easier, tastes MUCH better and dries beautifully. Thanks again!
It has been a pleasure talking about you in my Vday post… I’m fascinated form people like you! Thanks for your tips on how to decorate cookies? the pics are fantastic and so helpful! I won’t make any mistake (or I’ll try!)!
Found your blog from MckMama and was so enamored of your fun that I added you to my blog roll! I have three daughters and do cake decorating myself. I have dabbled in cookies and they have come out adorable, too. But, you’ve inspired me to do more! Thanks … love the cookies!
You have more patience than I! That is a lot of work but they sure are beautiful!
thank you so much for sharing your recipe & techniques
You have a lovely site, just discovered it today.
Will this icing recipe set hard like royal icing? Are you able to stack the cookies without them getting damaged?
I wanted to make these flowers to put on my rainbow cake but I don’t have meriengue powder. So is that the only way to make real royal icing??
Thank you SO MUCH! Your decorating skills are the best as far as I know. Hope to see more of your products in the future!
You may never, ever take this recipe down. no matter how many times I use it I always read though it here first- just thought you should know how I feel
Ahhh….I am such a happy person today…I found this tutorial. It is awesome. But I am also such a preggo person…and I can’t remember…if I am decorating a cake top, do I use this same recipe for royal icing and same steps for designing/filling in?!? I’ve done a couple of cakes in the past year, so you’d think I’d remember.
Also, do you know of a site that can help me mix my Wilton gel colors to get certain things (like the burgundy in my hubby’s business logo??)
Blessings, Amanda!!
I would like to know which is better for icing sugar cookies? Royal. Glaze, or color flow. What is the difference?
Hey, just wondering, how long would the royal icing take to harden?
Oh my goodness! This was so easy to make! Last time I attempted royal icing it called for egg whites…lets just say it didn’t turn out great. But this turned out amazing! Thank you for sharing it and I will for sure be making it again and telling my friends about it!
I just posted some pictures if some cookies I decorated. You really will laugh at them because they look like a 3 year old decorated them. But I had fun and the icing was FAB! I included a link to your blog! http://firsttime9months.blogspot.com/2010/12/5k-and-some-cookies.html Thanks for the recipe. I love it!
Amanada – Do you use the same icing to do your writing (like on the Facebook cookies) or do you use a food-safe writing pen? Your penmanship is amazing either way. Julie
I have a question: I don’t like lemon and was wondering if I could use vanilla instead of lemon juice for this recipe?
Oh my gosh, I wish I would have found your blog ages ago!!! Super helpful tutorial; I cannot wait to try to ice cookies again!
Hi Amanda,
I found your blog from Bridget over at Bat at 350, and I literally have been going through every post… I read a few, minimze the screen, go to work, come home, read some more, make dinner… you get the idea.
You are so talented and I am getting so many ideas. I have what is a really simple question… Do you let your icing outline dry before you flood it? Reading though Bridgets tutorial about how to ice cookies, she mentions she lets it dry for about 30 minutes. Since your icing is different, I wasn’t sure if it was the same or not.
Thank you for all your step-by step instructions. I have just started decorating cookies, and have been doing a few cakes over the last year, and I am so excited to do more. Thanks!
Katie
PS… I hope you get this, since this is a post from over a year ago!
Made some sugar cookies and followed your directions for the icing!! I hope they want be stale by the time they are ready to eat! I made the dough on Sunday, bake some cookies put the rest of the dough in the refrig, baked the rest on Monday and just started icing them last night! I must say the icing directions i followed above worked really well!!! I am so proud of myself! i Still have more to direct its just taking so much time!!! Thank you for all your help!! I would like to attempt making the royal icing though someday!!! The unfrosted cookies were kept in a tupperware container they should be alright don’t you think!!!
Hi, Great suggestions, thanks so much! What could I use instead of the corn syrup? I live in Nepal and it’s hard to get it, or I can’t get it at all!
Any alternatives would be great!
Thanks
Sally
Hi Amanda,
First of all, would like to say that I LOVE your website so much ! You have a talent in baking beautiful cookies & cakes.
Second, do you know if there’s any substitute for corn syrup? I live in Australia & they told me that golden syrup can replace corn syrup in most recipes, but I just realized that your corn syrup is colorless (which makes it easy to color) and my golden syrup is … well, it’s brown. I’m not quite sure how to color this because it already has color to begin with. Please help. Thank you !
HI there – I live in Australia too and just made this with Glucose Syrup (found in the baking aisle at Woolworths)- I figure it must be the same stuff as on my jar it says (made form Corn) straight under Glucose Syrup. Anyway it worked a treat and looks amazing!!
Saw you on Pinterest and had to come check this out because… this is my favorite cookie glaze for the last 15 yrs! It is THE glaze/frosting to use for gingerbread men when you want to do those outlines and zigzags! Works great with gel/paste color, too, and SO much easier to deal with than royal (pain … ) icing. TIP: you get the best results when you keep the milk/corn syrup in equal proportions, so I mix 1/8 — 1/4 c. each together, and dilute the sifted powdered sugar to the consistency I want; how much you use also depends on the recent humidity. PS don’t use “Lite” corn syrup as in less sugar, use Light as in not Dark.
@Stef V although Dark or Golden Syrup works too but it is more an ivory or buff… I am at this minute testing whether a frosting whitener lets this harden as it should — it does whiten it nicely.
Awesome tips and info!! Thank you!
I usually don’t refrigerate my sugar cookies, do you think that is safe with the icing having milk in it?
Also, whenever I use powder sugar icing with milk or water my sprinkles seem to run, which they don’t with traditional royal icing. Do you find that to not be a issue with your icing?
Hi Judy, I think it is fine to not refrigerate your cookies. I have never had an issue with that. It sounds like the “sprinkles running” is a consistency issue. Maybe just try to make a thicker icing!
This great! I am inspired to try the icing.
I have all the ingredients in my kitchen.
Can I go over the white icing with another color or design?
Yes!! Of course. The sky is the limit!
Can I use lemon extract instead of pure lemon juice and water instead of milk? Thank you!
Why add a drop of lemon juice? What consistency would the icing be without it? Does it cut the sweetness? Keep it from hardening? Thanks-
This tutorial is so cool! I’m going to make some for my sweet 16 birthday party and I’m going to decorate them!
I was wondering: do you use a special type of sugar cookie or just a normal sugar cookie recipe?
I am looking for a recipe for cookie iceing that professional bakers put on my favorite Christmas cookies. It is usually made in differen colors. It is SHINY when SET and you can TAP it with your fingernail without putting a dent in it. It isn’t rock hard, just hard enough to hear yourself tapping it.
Is the iceing you have demonstrated the recipe I’v been looking for?
wow! I’ve never seen such a detailed recipe of that 101 glazing. Thank you so much
I am not worthy! Once upon a time I made my own frosting and then decided that using the stuff in the plastic cans was just has good.
We will NOT be doing that this year. I’ll assume you use paste for coloring. If you are adding an extract do you adjust the amount of any other liquid?
What bags are you using?
You are a sheer genius for pointing out how much easier it is to fill the icing bag in a glass and then to twist and use a rubber band. I’ve been baking for a millon years and neither of those ideas ever game up to me!
I made your icing today – it behaved beautifully. I was impressed that i was able to repair gaps for some time and there were NO Air bubbles! (what? How awesome!) i added some extra icing sugar to get a good consistency for my purposes (mixing colours for fall leaves). My milk/syrup ratio was equal and per the recipe instruction. I didnt use much gel colour. However, it has been 6-7 hours since I iced the cookies, and they are still tacky/slightly sticky. It wasnt a high humidity da y here. Any thoughts/ideas? I love this recipe, but if it doesnt harden to protect the icing, I’m lost! Thanks for any ideas you could offer.
Just was wondering if I could substitute the lemon for vanilla? I love vanilla flavour things.
Thank you so much for the tutorial!
how long does it take this to dry?I absolutely loathe the taste of royal icing so I’m searching for an alternative. I’d like to continue decorating after the initial flooding dries. Also, do the colors bleed?
Another “thank you”
I have a question… what is the purpose of the lemon juice? I’d like to try using this with my Christmas anise cookies, but I would hate for the lemon juice to clash with the anise…
I used your recipe in my blog post!
Used this recipe and the cookies set up nice & tasted great. I had to add about twice as much milk.
Glad you liked it!
This was very helpful – thanks for posting.
Does this icing harden up enough to stack the cookies?
Wow, you really make a great post here. Really helps me.
Terrific!! For 30 years I’ve been using the royal icing made with egg whites… this is SUCH an improvement!
this Icing will Harden up??? Correct???
Yes
This Icing will Harden up correct??
Great tips & techniques on how to flood icing. I tried it out for the first time this Christmas, and blogged about it here: http://hellojemma.com/journal/2012/12/17/let-them-eat-cookies-pretty-cookies
thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I just made the cutest Christmas cookies!!
Great tutorial. Is it necessary to let the border dry before filling in with more icing?
Love this recipe! So, now I have to make footballs (BROWN). Is there a chocolate version of this?
Nice tutorial! I have never used an actual decorating bag and tips and such, so I decided to TRY this tonight. I didn’t do too bad, minus a few rookie mistakes (such as not securing the bag, etc) I didn’t have any light corn syrup, so I used honey instead – DO NOT DO THIS IT TASTES AWFUL. I was just testing it out. I bet my daughter will still eat it though LOL!
You always amaze me with your talent and just love, love, love your site. I can’t wait to try this glaze recipe. I’ve always used RI and have been intimidated to use a glaze with milk. No idea why. When I do cookies it usually takes me a few days to decorate because, A) I’m slow at it and B) I’m always terrified the first layer hasn’t dried enough to start doing the second layer or putting on more details.
Which leads me to my questions – How do you store cookies with glaze on them? Mine are usually on racks all over my dining room table for a few days drying and then I store them in airtight containers for a few days (if they’re not eaten by then). Can I do the same with the glaze? Will they “spoil” because of the milk? I guess what I’m asking is, can they be left out for a few days drying?
Also, does the glaze dry hard like the RI? I know you said that it can stick to the cello so I’m assuming it doesn’t??
I apologize if I’m posting this comment twice. Not sure if it went through.
I have 2 questions – Does the glaze dry hard like RI? and also, how long are the cookies “fresh” with the glaze on top? I ask this because of the milk. I’m so excited to try the glaze and have only ever made RI with the merengue powder. Usually my cookies are drying for at least two days as I decorate them layer by layer. Will the milk cause them to “spoil” if I leave them for a day or two before putting them in an airtight container?
The glaze will not get as hard as RI, but will get hard. They stay good for at least a week. The milk amount is so small there will not be any spoilage! Happy Baking!
Thanks so much for getting back to me Amanda. You are so unbelievably talented!
I am going to be using edible images on cookies for my son’s birthday. I have never used the edible images before and had planned to use royal icing. Do you think I could use your recipe and still have success? I want to package each cookie in a cello bag to put in the guests favor bags.
Thanks for the great tutorial!
You have the patience of a saint. My cookies always turn out a little…messy. I just keep looking at the clock and want to move on. I like the addition of lemon juice in your icing. I’m definitely going to try it!