Sugar Cookie Decorating 101

This is a tutorial for how I apply my glaze icing to sugar cookies. Looking for the best Cutout Sugar Cookie Recipe? I’ve got you covered!

Sugar Cookie Glaze Icing

To make my special version of royal icing (glaze icing)  these are the ingredients I use. (recipe below as well)

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 don’t 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.

And here are the supplies.

bowl

spoon

sifter

measuring cups

pastry bags

tips & coupler set

rubber band

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 thick 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 the 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 the 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!)

It’s 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. Pop those suckers!

Just use your toothpick. 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!

I often quadruple this recipe and then divide up the mixture and add food color. When I am outlining and filling cookies I will make a lot of one color with the “thicker” version of the icing, then add more milk to thin the icing down for filling.

Here are some examples of some decorated sugar cookies as well as some essential tips and tricks!

Christmas Cookies

Sugar Cookie Troubleshooting

How To Package and Ship Cookies

Ugly Sweater Christmas Cookies

Fathers Day Sugar Cookies

Its a Boy! (New Baby Cookies)

Rainbow Bus Cookies (VW Bus Cookies)

Peeking Baby Cookies

Sports Themed Wedding Cookies