Description
This Sugar Cookie Icing recipe creates a smooth, glossy, and pipeable icing perfect for decorating sugar cookies. Made with powdered sugar, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract, this icing sets to a hard finish, making it ideal for intricate designs and vibrant colors when using gel food coloring.
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Ingredients
- 3 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
Wet Ingredients
- 3-4 tablespoons whole milk
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (use clear vanilla extract for bright white icing)
Optional
- Gel food coloring (optional)
Instructions
- Combine ingredients: In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk, light corn syrup, and vanilla extract until smooth and combined. Adjust the consistency by adding more milk a teaspoon at a time if the icing is too thick, aiming for a thick but pipeable texture. If the mixture becomes too thin, add more powdered sugar until the desired consistency is reached.
- Divide and color: Separate the icing into small bowls and add gel food coloring to each portion if desired, mixing well to incorporate the colors thoroughly.
- Prepare piping bag: Transfer the colored or plain frosting into a piping bag fitted with your chosen piping tip for decorating.
- Pipe and decorate: Carefully pipe the icing onto your sugar cookies, adding sprinkles or candies on top if you want extra decoration.
- Allow to harden: Let the icing sit at room temperature for several hours, or until completely hardened before serving, stacking, or storing your decorated cookies.
Notes
- Use clear vanilla extract if you want the icing to remain bright white and not tinted brownish from regular vanilla.
- Adjust milk quantity carefully; adding too much will make the icing runny, while too little will make it difficult to pipe.
- The icing needs time to harden completely, which may vary depending on humidity and room temperature.
- Gel food coloring is recommended to avoid thinning the icing compared to liquid colorings.
- Store unused icing in an airtight container to prevent drying out.
