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.
Glaze Icing
Ingredients
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1 drop lemon juice, fresh or bottled
Instructions
- Place one cup of confectioners' sugar in a 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. If it looks too dry, add more milk, ½ teaspoon at a time. Be sure to mix well after each addition as you don't need much.
Did you make this recipe?
Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.
Here are some examples of some decorated sugar cookies as well as some essential tips and tricks!
How To Package and Ship Cookies
Ugly Sweater Christmas Cookies
Rainbow Bus Cookies (VW Bus Cookies)
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!
Amanda..Thanks for the recipe and tutorials. My girls and I decorated our first cookies yesterday and they turned out great. Delicious and fun…Thanks. I share the outcome in my blog: http://www.prishashomebakes.blogspot.com
Thanks for sharing.
Does anyone know how long it takes for this icing to dry?
Hello there! I wanted to tell you that I found your icing recipe on Pinterest and I used it to make cookie favors for my sisters Mustaches and Bowties Baby Shower. I am doing a post on these cookies and I’m linking back to this post. Your detailed tutorial was so incredibly helpful and the pictures were an important part of that. Having done a few tutorials on my own blog, I know how time consuming they can be and I can tell how much went into this one. I wanted to be sure and truly thank you for taking the time to do this. I very much appreciate it and so did my sister. I will definitely be checking out more on your blog! Please feel free to drop by my site tomorrow and see how I created with your amazing advice and recipe.
I wanted to make these for my daughters birthday and let the kids decorate them. Can you use those decorator markers on the icing?
I wanted to make cookies and let the kids decorate them. Can you use the decorator markers on them or is it to soft.
The decorator markers work fine after the glaze gardens. I let mine set overnight, but they were dry to the touch after about an hour.
Hi! I love this idea! I am wondering if it would work to make a batch of cookies, ice them like you show here, let the icing dry/harden then freeze them until I can get the kids together. Then, let the kids paint the iced cookies with milk paint. Would the wet milk paint mess up the dried/hardened icing? I just thought milk paint would be easier for the kids to add color. What do you think? Thanks!
Can the corn syrup be replaced with glucose? Thank you!
I was wondering how long it takes for it to completely dry. I am planning to place the cookies in individual bags for a cookie swap.
Thank you. ♡