Description
This easy sugar cookie icing recipe creates a smooth, hardening glaze perfect for decorating your favorite cookies. Made with powdered sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and milk or water, this icing dries to a firm finish, ideal for intricate designs and festive treats.
Ingredients
Scale
Ingredients
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tbsp corn syrup
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ tbsp cold milk or water
- Gel food coloring, as needed
Instructions
- Sift the powdered sugar: Sift 2 cups of powdered sugar into a mixing bowl to ensure there are no lumps, which helps achieve a smooth icing texture.
- Mix wet ingredients: Add 1 ½ tablespoons corn syrup, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 ½ tablespoons of cold milk or water to the powdered sugar. Stir until the mixture becomes smooth and well combined.
- Adjust consistency: To get the perfect icing thickness, add more milk or water little by little if the icing is too thick. The ideal consistency should be thick enough to hold shape but spreadable.
- Color the icing: Divide the icing into smaller bowls according to how many colors you need. Add gel food coloring to each bowl and mix until the color is evenly distributed.
- Decorate cookies: Use the colored icing to decorate your cookies. Let the icing set at room temperature for several hours until it hardens completely before storing or stacking the cookies.
Notes
- Use gel food coloring instead of liquid to avoid thinning the icing.
- If icing is too runny, add more powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time to thicken it.
- Store leftover icing covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying out.
- Allow cookies to dry completely at room temperature; refrigeration may cause the icing to sweat.
- This icing works great for detailed piping or flooding sugar cookies.
