An electric mixer is essential for incorporating ingredients for cookie dough and royal icing. A hand mixer can work, but a more powerful stand mixer like a KitchenAid Artisan mixer is worth investing in. To start decorating cookies, you need a pastry bag, food coloring, and a toothpick. Once you feel comfortable with cookie decorating, invest more in tools like decorating bags, tips, scribe tools, or toothpicks. Semi Sweet Designs offers 700+ unique cookie cutter designs, tutorials, and tips for cookie decorators.
The Ultimate Cookie Decorating Checklist contains essential tools and supplies for making sugar cookies, royal icing, and decorating the cookies. The checklist includes recipes for cut-out cookies like gingerbread cookies, chocolate sugar cookies, and sugar cookies, as well as top choices for icing including royal icing and glaze-style cookies. SemiSweet is a cookie decorating blog and shop that showcases unique cookie cutters and tools to create beautiful, handcrafted royal icing cookies.
To buy when you are just starting out, consider the following items: rolling pin and baking sheets. SemiSweet offers a beginner’s guide to cookie decorating supplies, including information on basic supplies and upgrades, choosing and using color, and tasty options. Professional sugar artists may use less supplies than others, but all of Sweet Sugarbelle’s cookie cutters come with several ideas to decorate each.
In summary, an electric mixer, pastry bag, food coloring, and toothpicks are essential tools for cookie decorating. SemiSweet provides a comprehensive guide to cookie decorating supplies, helping beginners and professionals alike advance their skills.
📹 Sugar Cookie Decorating Supplies-Best Tools for Cookie Decorating
What are the tools of the trade that help professional cookie decorators create those incredible royal icing creations? Well, I’m …
What is everything you need for cookie decorating?
To decorate plain cookies, you need ingredients such as cookies, squeeze bottles or piping bags, funnels, small bowls, spoons for mixing, paint brushes and toothpicks for spreading icing, food coloring, and sprinkles or sugars. Techniques for decorating include making and working with frosting and icing. Once you get a feel for the basics, you can practice to take your skills to any level. To ensure proper adhesion, cookies should be completely cooled before decorating. It’s often easier to bake cookies one day and decorate the next.
How early can you make decorated sugar cookies?
Baked and decorated cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. Ensure the icing has hardened before stacking and add a layer of parchment paper for additional protection. To save time by baking ahead, store sugar cookies and dough in their raw form. Sugar cookie dough should be used immediately at room temperature, as it may soften the butter and spread when baked. It also contains raw eggs and other perishables that should not be left at room temperature for long. Adding a layer of parchment paper between cookie layers is recommended for additional protection.
What does every cookie need?
The fundamental composition of a cookie is comprised of four primary ingredients: butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. The proportions and mixing methods are the defining factors of these cookies. Upon introduction of the dough to the oven, the butter begins to melt, resulting in a gradual expansion of the dough. This process is of paramount importance in the creation of delicious and distinctive cookies.
What can I use to practice cookie decorating?
Before decorating cookies, it is recommended to start with practice sheets to practice basic and complex piping lines and flooding techniques. These sheets can be found in various consistency outline and flood types. However, it is important not to become too attached to the practice sheets and be afraid to decorate on the cookies. In cookie decorating classes, it is recommended to use only 1-2 sheets before starting decorating.
To hold tipless bags, line the seam with your knuckles, line the top of the bag with your hands, hold the bag from the top with your point finger and thumb, and wrap the rest of your fingers around the bag. This will help you to hold the bag properly and achieve success in decorating cookies.
What do professionals use to decorate cookies?
Piping-consistency icing is used to outline cookies and add intricate details, while flooding-consistency icing fills the surface and covers large areas. The difference is the amount of water added. For piping-consistency icing, look for a glossy icing with soft peaks that pull back in 20-30 seconds. For flooding-consistency icing, look for a more liquid icing that falls quickly from the spoon and holds its shape.
Both icings should return to shape in about 10 seconds. To prepare piping bags, it is recommended to prepare all desired colors and consistencies before decorating. There are two types of piping bags: tipless piping bags and metal tips.
What items do you need to decorate sugar cookies?
This is a list of necessary and preferred supplies for making and decorating sugar cookies. Disposable piping bags, gel food coloring, scissors, bowls, toothpicks, silicone spatulas, couplers, and icing tips are essential for a successful baking process. These supplies can be purchased online or at stores like Bed Bath and Beyond, Walmart, and Target. Discount stores and craft stores may also offer less expensive options.
It is recommended to use coupons when shopping at these stores or craft stores to get the best price. Purchasing these supplies can make baking and decorating easier, making the process more enjoyable.
What can I use instead of icing to practice piping?
In order to create a smooth icing, it is necessary to combine all of the ingredients in a bowl using a mixer. The ingredients to be combined are icing sugar, shortening, and water. Once all of the ingredients have been combined, the resulting mixture should be piped.
How do you decorate cut out cookies like a pro?
This blog provides tips for decorating sugar cookies like professionals, without the need for fancy equipment. To begin, let the dough chill before baking to ensure firm, firm cookies that hold their shape. Chill the dough in the fridge for about half an hour to prevent butter from melting and prevent the cookies from spreading and losing their shape in the oven.
Roll the dough out to an even thickness, avoiding sloping or uneven cookies. Use a rolling pin with measuring capabilities or a ruler if necessary. Icing on wet icing can be used for defined designs that are level.
After finding the perfect sugar cookie recipe, chill the dough for about half an hour to prevent butter from melting and spreading. Roll the dough out to either ¼ of an inch or ⅜ of an inch, ensuring even thickness.
In summary, these tips can help you decorate sugar cookies like a professional with practice, without the need for fancy equipment. By following these simple tips, you can create beautiful, edible works of art from your sugar cookies.
Do you decorate sugar cookies before you put them in the oven or after?
To create a unique cookie decorating technique, use decorative sugar, turbinado sugar, or pearl sugar. Shape the dough into balls, roll them in sugar, and bake them as directed. Flatten the cookies with a drinking glass, fork, or thumb. Sprinkles can be added before baking, but may melt in the oven. Test the technique with one cookie before committing to an entire batch. The recipe is simple and easy to follow.
How long to let cookies sit before icing?
To decorate sugar cookies, it is essential to avoid attempting to decorate them when they are warm, as this can cause the royal icing to melt and colored sprinkles to bleed. Instead, let the cookies sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to fully chill. Once the cookies feel cool, it is time to decorate. Some quick and easy techniques for decorating cookies include making buttercream frosting, placing another cookie on top, and rolling the edges in crushed candy or sprinkles.
For standard cookie sizes, leave a 1/4-inch border around the cookie. Place another cookie on top and press gently until the frosting squishes out to the edges. For a festive touch, use chocolate sugar cookies and peppermint candies. These quick and easy techniques are perfect for last-minute holiday cookie baking.
Can I sprinkle colored sugar on cookies before baking?
To create a unique cookie decorating technique, use decorative sugar, turbinado sugar, or pearl sugar. Shape the dough into balls, roll them in sugar, and bake them as directed. Flatten the cookies with a drinking glass, fork, or thumb. Sprinkles can be added before baking, but may melt in the oven. Test the technique with one cookie before committing to an entire batch. The recipe is simple and easy to follow.
📹 How to Make The BEST ROYAL ICING (Quick & Easy Tasty Recipe)
If you wanted to know how I make my icing from start to finish, you´ve come to the right place! This is a very easy and forgiving …
Well, you get me going! Now I really want to go dig out all of my tips & stuff, go buy all the things I don’t have and need, come home and bake and get to DECORATING!! This all looks so fun, yet so relaxing and satisfying! I cannot wait to begin practicing, perfecting, and getting busy making some beautiful creations and see the surprise and delight of those I share with. Again though…you are so easy to follow and you seem very patient, you really should be teaching! If we can learn this easily from you online, imagine how much a person would benefit from learning with your help in person. Really nice job. Thank you…
Thank you as always for this thorough article!! I have learned so much from you! You have made my cookie decorating journey so much fun and have taken the stress out of it!! The icing/consistencies, in my opinion is the most time consuming and can be the most stressful in cookie decorating. However, with your articles, it’s done with ease!!! Thank you again!! You’re awesome! And PLEASE keep your tutorials coming!! You’re the best! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
As a former professional pastry chef, I haven’t worked with royal icing in about 35 years. I appreciate all of your instruction, tips and techniques to help me to remember it all again. The technique is about the same as it always has been to do outlining and flooding, but with a few modern innovations that are always good to know about. Thank you!
Your icing is a game changer. I used another one and didn’t understand why it would come out grainy. I gave yours a shot and my cookies looked smooth!! I was about to give up trying to make cookies but your icing gives me confidence now. I just need to work on decorating. Thank u for sharing your recipe!! ❤️❤️
Thank you so much for this article ! It definitely is a game changer for me because I couldn’t get my cookies smooth like yours and I followed your article and they came out 100 percent better and I am so happy? I still need lots of practice but this article totally changed the way I will make my royal icing, outline and flood my cookies….thank you again!
Great article👍👍like the vanilla without the butter emulsion better. Agree with making thinner to start with….takes a lot longer to get to flood consistency otherwise. My old recipe uses 6 tablespoons of meringue powder. Can’t wait to see how this version compares in texture and how well it stands up to packing and shipping. Thanks for sharing! 🙏🏼😊
I use your sugar cookie recipe and I also use this royal icing recipe not only do I feel like the corn syrup in. It makes it a softer bite, but it also gives it a really good flavor with the vanilla. I’ve been using both recipes for about a year I think I tried probably five different recipes and I have always come back to this that sugar cookie and this royal icing recipe for the best. Thank you again love them.♥️
I absolutely love your royal icing and your cookie recipe ❤️ I tried different royal icing that used double amount of meringue powder and it was much harder and didn’t taste as delicious as yours. I have a question for you: I want to learn how to paint with food coloring gels on the cookies…is this royal icing good for this technique? Thank you for your awesome tutorials ❤️
I just made this step by step along with the article. It is such a great article! Three things: one, I used a lot more water to get where I wanted it to be consistency-wise. I assume could be normal based on humidity and other environmental and ingredient conditions? Two, the way I outlined and piped, this recipe covered 120 Easter egg cookies – about 3+” x 2.25+” ovals. I include this in case anyone else wonders. I decided to just make one color and do as many cookies as I could to help my busy brain figure it out. I used about 1/5 for piping and 4/5 for flooding. Three, any ideas for flooding that don’t leave 1/4″ thick layer of icing on the cookie? It seems like using a tinier opening just requires more rounds of flooding. I’ll just have to watch more flooding articles!
Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful articles and techniques, I’m excited to try it. I’ve never made sugar cookies and I can’t get plain LorAnn butter emulsion, only LorAnn butter vanilla emulsion – would that replace the vanilla extract in the recipe or would you still use it and the butter vanilla emulsion? Same question for the sugar cookies. Also for your sugar cookie recipe corn syrup is not available in Ireland from searching online, could I use glucose syrup instead for the sugar cookies?
I am so glad you explained about the WHITE color added. I used to “Flip” RVs and ALWAYS painted the walls a PURE WHITE FIRST, then the 2nd coat was the true color … because if you don’t have WHITE to begin with whatever Color you add will be DARKER of Off… This is so smart of you… You have to have a WHITE Canvas to start with to have the TRUE Color you want… “Ta-Da”
WOW… Another GREAT Tutorial… YOU are such a fantastic Teacher and I should know, because I’m a Teacher. People do not know how time consuming a Cupcake or Cookies or Cakes can be… I heard a man the other day complaining how Expensive they are to Buy…I (tried) to explain how Expensive ALL te tools and ingredients cost… and this is NOT you Grandma’s cupcake she buys at walmart in a box and a little tube of icing… This is an ART… YOU are an ARTIST… and the cookies, cakes and cupcakes are your Canvas…
I’m so glad I came across this article. This looks like a great recipe. I can’t wait to try it out! This is only my second attempt to make royal icing. The first time didn’t go so well. I burned up my electric hand mixer trying to mix it up too thick. 😬 I don’t think I’ll have this problem with this recipe and now that I have a stand mixer. Lol. What do I do if I have leftover icing when I’m finished decorating? How should I store it and how long will it last?
Have you considered putting a PayPal account link in your description? I have seen a really good idea in other articles where the uploader has said something like “Would you like to buy me a cup of coffee?” to support the website, which I think (personally speaking) is a brilliant idea. I feel that this idea is so that people can donate a ‘no pressure’ amount, if so moved, to help support the uploader. I would love to ‘buy you a cup of coffee’ in gratitude for all you have taught me through your generosity. 😊I am sure I wouldn’t be the only one.🤔🙂 Just a thought…. 🤔🤷🏼♀️☺️💐😁
Thank you for this article! I plan on doing christmas/thanksgiving baking this year (this weekend) and i just learned what a “butter bakery emulsion” was. From what I gather, it’s another extract that you would find with all the other extracts in the baking aisle…I hope 🙁 This will be my first time making royal icing, decorating cookies…I hope they turn out OK. worried
We continued our Christmas Cookie adventure by making your royal icing yesterday. We learned a ton along the way, and it was so much fun! The consistency is such a big factor in decorating. Once we started decorating, we laughed nearly the entire time! It was getting late, and my wife said it was time to shut it down, I checked back after 30 minutes, and she was still decorating cookies! We are looking forward to getting family together for a cookie decorating party! The butter emulsion was a nice touch and very flavorful. Does using the bright white on the overall batch drive you to add more color to darken (deepen) colors like green, red and black? Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much for your great recipe and tutorial! I was just curious as to the butter bakery emulsion… do you use it for flavor or is it necessary in the final product? I have a few different flavors of the emulsions by Amoretti and LorAnn oils. I hate to have to buy more if I don’t have to. The Amoretti wild strawberry emulsion was pretty expensive
This is great. I will need to try this recipe. When you’re adding the white, is it like the americolor white? It’s been a year now that I’ve been perusal YT. Learned so much from you and others about the cookies. I did get americolor gels. Wanted to try something else other than wilton. I’ve really enjoyed the articles since it’s been a few years that I’ve baked/decorated.👍
Hi! I followed your ingredients list and ordered all needed for making the best royal icing, only to realize thatI ordered a big bottle of Americolor Fog instead of Bright White. It’s not refundable. Do you have any recipes that use this Fog color? 🙂 I can’t seem to find any description or recipes online for using it. Thought I’d reach out for ideas! 🙂 Thanks.
You’re step-by-step instruction is wonderful …. the best I’ve ever seen. However, I had some difficulty with seeing the portions of the article that were all white. For instance, the parchment paper (or background), the icing, and the bowl were all white. Just a thought for easier viewing. Thank you so much for your recipes and instruction. I’m subscribed.
I can’t thank you enough for all of your articles !! I am in the process of starting my own small dessert business and your articles are making it possible for me to add cookies to my skills ! Thank you 1000x over for sharing and being so thorough . Btw, how far in advance can the iced cookies be made ?
Hi I have a question I want to make your icing recipe. I’m going to make all my sugar cookies pumpkin cutouts ahead of time and freeze them. And I want to bring a treat to work on October 14 because my birthday is the 15th. But my only time I can ice cookies Would probably be Monday the 11th or Tuesday the 12th. And I have to work. Would I be able to make the icing the night before and put it in containers. Or can I put icing in the decorating bags and put them in large Ziploc bags and have them ready. So when I come home from work it’ll still be good to ice cookies. I have bags for each one of my cookies I ordered on Amazon. Does your icing dry fast or do I have to let it sit. I need black icing do you know how to get black icing Thanks
Heyy! I watched this so many times, but there’s still something i don’t get. For bow long should we mix the sugar, water, corn syrup, and meringue powder? When i tried this yesterday i only mixed it for 3 minutes. It was flat and not tasty at all when I added everything else. 😭😭 Any tips for a beginner??
How do you take this consistency and make it thick enough to pipe the flowers like you showed in the Royal Icing Flowers & Leaves for Beginners…..my problem is getting a thick enough consistency to pipe leaves so they keep a “ruffled” shape and come off with a nice point on the end of the leaf. Seems like I always make it too thick. Thanks!
Hi, thank you so much for such great article tutorials on Royal Icing. I can’t wait to get started. I just have one question, because I can’t find any info on it. What do you do with your piping bags when you put them down to do the next cookie? Does the flood consistency icing pour out everywhere? I’m so scared I’ll have icing pouring out all around me while I’m decorating. Thank you, kind regards, Corrinne H
I really appreciate your articles. I have a baby shower coming up and my baker canceled on me. I thought it would be fun to try and bake my own cookies. I almost spent $50 on a “secret” sugar cookie and royal frosting recipe when I suddenly came across one of your articles. Thank you for saving my party!
I’ve used this royal icing recipe and it’s great! It definitely hardens but it’s never gotten rock hard n crumbly even after a few days. Thanks for being so detailed n explaining things clearly. Btw I use Wilton meringue powder and I mix just until everything’s well incorporated…no over mixing. Tnx ☺️
I just stumbled on your article, not sure how it ended up in my recommended articles but I’m SO GLAD it did! What a terrific article, you’ve made it so easy to understand. Last Christmas we tried our hand at decorated cookies and it was a ton of fun but the royal icing was awful. We’re definitely going to try your recipe this year and I’m about to head over to your library to check out more tips and tricks. Thank you so much for this, I’m excited to get started! Wonderful article, thank you!
Okay i gotta sayyyy. I made it today and I’m really excited to finish decorating my cookies! I used an almond emulsion, but everything else is the same, and it is super tasty and it is drying shinny and smooth! i have tried like 5 different royal icing recipes and… yours is my fav!! thank you so much for sharing!!! love from Argentina!!
good article but the amounts of butter flavoring, vanilla, white gel resulted in my son telling me it tastes like nail polish remover .. sure enough, i gave it a try and he was right! I am sure the royal icing is good if the amounts of the flavorings is reduced. other than the flavor, consistency was good and the cookies are beautiful… since these are valentines cookies that I am sharing with family and friends, hope they don’t notice the odd flavor. cookies are a lot of work and I did not want to make a new batch of icing ….
First – I truly deeply appreciate the details you go into in all your articles for cookie decorating. No gatekeeping here!! Second … I don’t know if you’re covered this somewhere, but can you make cookies (decorated and frosted and everything) about a week BEFORE an event and keep them frozen or in the fridge? Say the Saturday before a Saturday event? Is it possible? Do they still taste good and look good once defrosted? I know you can freeze plain ol’ cookies but even the frosting takes time to do and as the director of a 3 day event I wouldn’t have time to do the decorating part in the days before Saturday.
Just watch this article again as a refresher before I color my latest batch of icing…Question – when you are preparing a color of piping and then same color of flood, do you start with about a cup to color? Take about a third of that for piping and the rest is made into flood consistency? I am just wondering how to decide how much of each color to prepare before I start decorating?
So glad I found this YouTube article. I have a royal icing recipe I’ve been using from a site I follow. Problem was it dried so quickly, very little working time. I love the viscosity of this icing. Flows beautifully. And doesn’t have that hard crunch after drying. No hardness in the bite of the cookie. I did find the instructions a bit confusing. You state…… “While on low speed add HALF of the water, corn syrup, vanilla and butter emulsion.” But no where in the rest of the instructions do say when to add the other HALF of the water, corn syrup, vanilla and emulsion????? You do say to add the water a teaspoon at a time, sparingly. But when do you add the rest of the corn syrup?????? Are you only supposed to add the other half of the corn syrup if necessary??? I’m a pretty experienced baker/decorator, so I know what I’m doing. I just added all the corn syrup at once with the water + extracts. Seemed to have worked, icing was great. But you may want to amend your instructions for those less experienced. Of course, although I’ve read the recipe several times, perhaps it’s me that is not understanding fully?? Thanks so much for the great article as well. ❤️❤️
Hi! I absolutely LOVE all of your articles, you are amazing at what you do! I have a couple of questions…I have two little boys so I can’t always get the entire job done (making the cookies, baking then frosting them all) in one setting…can I put the cookies in the fridge or something after I bake them if I can’t get to it right away? Also, if I am in the middle of frosting what can I do to keep the frosting good, but finish frosting later on?? Last question, to make cookies in advance..do you freeze your cookies you sell after they are done? So sorry for this HUGE comment! I am so inspired by you!!
Hello. First your articles are very informative but my question, I’m just starting this, I’ve been having issues with keeping my cookies from spreading, but any ways. When you say a BAG of powder sugar? Do you have the recipe in cup form? I buy 4pound bags, I DONT think you mean that, lol. But thank you have great holiday’s and keep making beautiful eatable ART!
I’m curious about the need for the butter emulsion. Is there anyway I can use something natural – like butter? In the grand scheme of things it’s not that much in each cookie but I’m curious what it is for – just flavor or something else. I will add to the chorus here – your articles are fabulous, so well done, they seem easy to follow (haven’t tried yet, but assembling supplies!). Thanks, Katie
have a request from my 4 year old granddaughter to make gingerbread men which of course will need to be decorated with icing, right? So I am going to be making and icing these cookies with the help of a 7, 5, 4 and 2 year old….oh and did I mention that I’ve never made icing before? Your article made it look fairly simple but I think I am going to make a test sample of the icing just to make sure I know what I should be looking for, in the way of proper consistency of the icing at various stages..