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 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.