How To Decorate Cookies Without Flooding Them?

This video teaches you how to decorate sugar cookies with royal icing and flood icing for a beautiful, seamless finish. The proper technique is called flooding, which allows you to apply a smooth layer of icing to all or part of the cookie. To flood a cookie with royal icing, place the icing in a plastic piping bag, snip off the tip, and outline the cookies.

To flood a cookie with royal icing, you can use a second, colored icing, add details and designs by outlining and flooding certain areas, or simply by piping. Start with a completely dry flooded cookie, which may take several hours or overnight. Use a squeeze bottle filled with runny royal icing to start piping from the outside and work your way into the middle. Be careful not to overflood the cookie, and touch down to start your line and then immediately lift your bag and let the icing flow naturally.

To flood your cookie, first make an outline of the area you want filled in. Firmly squeeze the top of the piping bag and use your other hand to direct the tip. This smooth royal icing and flood icing recipe is simple to make and easy to use, perfect for decorating any kind of cut-out cookies. The proper technique is called flooding, and right after piping your outline, fill in or “flood” your cookie with the flooding icing in the bottles. Remember that the icing will spread a bit and settle.