Sugar Cookie Icing

This simple sugar cookie icing mixes in minutes, pipes smoothly, and dries with a light, glossy sheen. It’s perfect for holiday decorating.

Flavor: Sweet and smooth with a light vanilla flavor.
Recommended Tools: A piping bag and a #2 cake decorating tip help to make neat outlines, but zip-top bags work in a pinch.
Yield: This recipe makes enough to ice about 48 medium cookies, depending on your decorating style.
Freezing: Decorated cookies freeze well once the icing has fully hardened.

Ingredient Notes

Powdered Sugar: Also called icing sugar or confectioners’ sugar, creates a smooth, glossy finish; sift it for the best texture.
Vanilla Extract: Clear vanilla extract keeps icing bright white; regular vanilla adds flavor but will tint the icing slightly. Swap it for almond or peppermint extract for a holiday flavor, or use lemon for a fresh twist.
Light Corn Syrup: Adds shine and helps the icing harden while still having a soft bite.
Milk: Use whole milk, non-dairy milk, or skim milk. If using non-dairy milk, like almond milk, the icing will not be bright white.
Gel Food Coloring: Blends smoothly without thinning the icing; just remember, a little goes a long way.

How to Make Icing For Sugar Cookies

Mix all ingredients until smooth (full recipe below).
Adjust the thickness as needed and color with food coloring.

Add seasonal sprinkles or crushed candy canes to add some fun to your cookie decorating

To Ice Cookies:

I usually stick to one icing, but if you want, make one for outlining (thicker) and one for flooding (thinner) by adding milk little by little, and follow the steps below:

Fill a piping bag with the thicker icing and outline each cookie.
Once the cookie outlines have set for about 10 minutes, ‘flood’ the inner section of the cookies with thinner icing.
Top with sprinkles, crushed candy canes, or a variety of fun toppings!

red , green and white Sugar Cookie Icing on cookies with sprinkles

Add the milk slowly (in drops) when getting the right consistency, as it changes quickly!
The flood consistency icing should flow easily but stay inside the border, so don’t make it too runny. Try outlining and flooding a test cookie, then adjust the consistencies as needed.
Any food coloring can be used, but gel food coloring will give you the most vibrant colors. For deeper colors, mix the food coloring in slowly to minimize the air in your icing and let it sit for an hour or overnight so the color can fully develop.
When my kids were small, it was so much fun to fill several piping bags or icing bottles with different colors of icing, put out little pots of sprinkles, and let them decorate. Sometimes the most perfect cookies aren’t “perfect” at all.

Storing Your Iced Cookies

Icing: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Rewhisk before using and adjust consistency with a drop of milk if needed.

Cookies: Decorated cookies should dry completely before storing between layers of parchment. Once set, they keep at room temperature for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Add them to a Christmas cookie platter along with soft sugar cookies, shortbread cookies, old-fashioned butter cookies, and gingerbread cookies!

More Delicious Holiday Baking

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image of Everyday Comfort cookbook by Holly Nilsson of Spend With Pennies plus text

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

With a hand mixer, beat powdered sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon milk in a small bowl until smooth.
Add milk a few drops at a time to reach desired consistency.
Stir in food coloring to reach desired color. Decorate cookies and allow icing to set.

*Number of cookies iced will depend on size and amount of icing used on each cookie.
Consistency of the Icing:
If you’ve watched cookie decorating videos you’ll usually see both:

thick icing (peanut butter consistency) used to outline the shape
thinner icing to fill the inside (more like a gravy consistency)

If you’re making fancy cookies, you’ll want both consistencies. If it’s too thick, add a little more milk (½ teaspoon at a time, it doesn’t take much). If it’s too runny, add a little more powdered sugar.
You can test one cookie to make sure it doesn’t run off the edges and holds it shape well enough.
To Ice Cookies:

Use a piping bag with a #2 cake decorating tip and outline sugar cookies.
Once the cookie outline has set for about 10 minutes, then you can ‘flood’ the inner section of the cookie with the same or another color.
Top with sprinkles, crushed candy canes, or a variety of fun toppings!
If you are new to piping with icing, practice your ‘drawing’ on a piece of parchment paper until you get the hang of it. Instant sugar art!

Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.

Course Cookies, Dessert

Cuisine American

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Recipe slightly adapted from food.com