Easy Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe

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Easy Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe

This easy sugar cookie icing recipe is made with 4 ingredients in 5 minutes! It tastes delicious, is easy to pipe and decorate with, and hardens with a beautiful shiny finish. It's the best sugar cookie frosting for decorating cut out sugar cookies!

Prep Time5

Total Time5

Course: cookies, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian

Servings: Cookies

Author: Laura Sandford

Cost: $3

Equipment

Ingredients

4 cups powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons whole milk (room temperature)
2 ½ Tablespoons light corn syrup
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Gel food coloring

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, whole milk, corn syrup and vanilla extract until smooth.
If the frosting isn’t thin enough, add more milk ½ Tablespoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency.
Divide the frosting into bowls. Add gel food coloring and stir to combine,
Put the colored icing into piping bags with small round tips (or your preferred tip).
Put cut out sugar cookies on a wire rack on a baking sheet and decorate the cookies.
Let the icing harden at room temperature for at least 3 hours, or in the refrigerator or freezer for 1 hour.
Make sure the frosting is hardened before stacking and storing.

Video

Notes

*Nutrition information. calculated for the icing on 1 cookie.

Ingredient Notes & Substitution

Powdered sugar. This is the main ingredient of the icing, I don't recommend substitutions.
Whole milk. Heavy cream or half and half are good substitutes. Make sure it's room temperature - cold milk will be harder to mix into the powdered sugar, so you'll be tempted to add more to get it to a smooth consistency. But if you do this, the frosting will be too thin and runny as the milk comes to room temperature. For the perfect sugar cookie icing consistency, start with room-temperature milk and add more only if necessary.
Light corn syrup. This is the secret to sugar cookie icing that hardens with a beautiful shine. I don't recommend leaving it out of this recipe. If you're looking for an icing without corn syrup, try my vanilla icing instead.
Vanilla extract. Pure vanilla - no imitation - always.

Add powdered sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until it reaches the desired consistency. You may even need to do this after adding the food coloring if you notice it thinned out the frosting too much.

How to Thin Out Sugar Cookie Frosting

Add milk ½ teaspoon at a time. Make sure you use tiny amounts of milk because it's super easy to go from too thick to way too thin really quickly.

My Icing Isn't Hardening

It's possible your kitchen is too warm and it's preventing the frosting from hardening. Put the decorated cookies in the refrigerator for 2 hours or freezer for 1 hour to speed up the process.

To Make in Advance

Make and color the sugar cookie frosting. Then, put it in plastic piping bags but don't put the tips on, and remove excess air. I often will close the top of the bag with a rubberband.

Then, let the icing come to room temperature (or close), cut small holes in the tips of the piping bags and let the kids (or adults) decorate.

How to Store Sugar Cookie Icing

Store leftover sugar cookie icing in an airtight container - preferably a piping bag - in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Let it come to room temperature before using, then stir until smooth. If necessary, add a small amount of room-temperature milk to reach the desired consistency.

Freeze

You can freeze this sugar cookie frosting in a piping bag for up to 2 months. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator, then let it come to room temperature and stir well before using.

Nutrition