Description
Royal icing for sugar cookie frosting delight brings festive magic to holiday baking. Professional decorators and home bakers can elevate simple cookies with elegant designs you’ll want to share with friends and family.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 cups (454 g / 16 oz) butter, softened (no substitutions)
- 6 cups (720 g / 25.4 oz) powdered sugar (approximately)
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp almond extract
- Food coloring (optional)
Instructions
- Preparation: Cream softened butter with vanilla and almond extracts using an electric mixer until achieving a smooth, homogeneous texture.
- Sugar Integration: Gradually incorporate powdered sugar at low speed, ensuring complete blending after each addition to prevent lumps and create a consistent frosting base.
- Consistency Adjustment: Fine-tune frosting’s thickness by adding milk sparingly, creating a spreadable and silky mixture that flows effortlessly yet holds its shape.
- Color Customization: Partition frosting into separate bowls and introduce food coloring, mixing thoroughly to generate a vibrant palette of decorative hues for visual appeal.
- Decorative Techniques: Utilize piping bags, spatulas, or improvised tools like trimmed plastic bags to apply frosting with precision, transforming cookies into artistic culinary creations with elegant swirls, intricate borders, and imaginative designs.
Notes
- Master Consistency Control: Gradually add powdered sugar to prevent lumps and achieve a silky, spreadable frosting texture that glides perfectly over cookies.
- Color Crafting Technique: Use gel food coloring for vibrant, intense shades without altering frosting consistency; start with tiny drops and mix thoroughly for even color distribution.
- Piping Pro Hack: Transform a simple resealable plastic bag into a decorator’s tool by cutting a small corner, creating an instant, budget-friendly piping bag for intricate designs.
- Temperature Matters: Keep frosted cookies at room temperature to maintain optimal texture and prevent color bleeding or decorative details from becoming messy.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Desserts, Snacks
- Method: Mixing
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 25
- Calories: 163
- Sugar: 16 g
- Sodium: 8 mg
- Fat: 7 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 25 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 0.2 g
- Cholesterol: 15 mg