This has been our family's exclusive cookie icing for nearly four decades. Just 3 ingredients, 7 minutes to make, and dries hard making cookies easy to share with friends and family.
How We Found This Recipe
In 1990, my third-grade homeroom mom handed out her royal icing recipe at our class holiday party. I don't remember her name or what cookies we decorated. But my Mom kept that recipe and we've used it faithfully for sugar cookies and gingerbread every year since.
You can watch the behind-the-scenes of my family's annual cookie tradition in 2016 for some inspiration. We admittedly like some unconventional cookie cutters 🌶️
This royal icing pipes beautifully, holds its shape while you work, and dries hard enough to stack cookies without smudging.
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Food Coloring, Piping Bags & Tips
If you decide to add color to your icing, I recommend Wilton's gel colors or US Cake Supply Gel colors. They are vibrant and they won't water down the consistency of your icing.
As for piping bags, tips and couplers, I've always been into Wilton products. They're easy to find and come in a wide assortment of shapes and sizes. I typically go with the 16'' piping bags when decorating cookies.
Top Tip
Decorating with kids? Mine famously squeeze the piping bags from the center of the bag, causing frosting to ooze out the top. To prevent that problem, I use a zip tie or twist tie to tie off the top of the bag to keep things contained and clean.
Favorite Cookie Recipes
We've gone through lots of different sugar cookie and gingerbread recipes over the years for our decorating parties. Everyone in our family loves a soft cookie and the winners in that category are Handle the Heat's Classic Gingerbread and Butternut Bakery's Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies (remind me of lofthouse cookies!)
Storage & Make-Ahead
It can be nice to prepare this icing ahead of time. It keeps well stored a few different ways:
- Room temperature: 2–3 days
- Refrigerator: up to 6 weeks
- Freezer: several months
Before sealing it in an airtight container, press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface. This prevents a crust from forming on top. When you're ready to use it, let it come to room temperature and give it a whisk checking the consistency. Add a little powdered sugar if it's too thin, or a few drops of water if it's too thick.
Simple Royal Icing Recipe
- Prep Time: 10
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups icing
- Category: dessert
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
An easy Royal Icing that dries hard for decorating cookies or a gingerbread house.
Ingredients
- 3 large egg whites
- ½ tsp cream of tartar
- 16 oz confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
- Gel food color *optional
Instructions
- Put all of the icing ingredients into a stand mixer bowl and mix on medium high (7 on a Kitchen Aid) with the whisk attachment for seven minutes. The consistency should be thick and hold a stiff peak on the end of the whisk attachement. If it's too runny and doesn't hold its form, add a tablespoon full of powdered sugar at a time until it holds a stiff peak. If it's too thick and not easily spoonable, add a teaspoon of water at a time until desired consistency.
- Add gel food color if you want your icing to be a specific color
- Fold down the sides of a piping bag halfway and then scoop the icing into your piping bag fitted with a piping tip and secured with a coupler. Once you filled the bag halfway, roll the sides of the bag up and then twist the bag at the top of the frosting to force the frosting down to the tip of the bag.
- Apply pressure at the twisted part of the bag, forcing the frosting to come out through the tip and have fun decorating your cookies.
- If you're working with several different bags of icing because of different colors, as a bag sits, the frosting will slightly harden. I keep a damp towel nearby for cleaning the end of the tips when this happens.
Did you make this recipe? Let me know!