Here's everything worth knowing about icing for decorating and how to pick it, what it is, how to store it, and what to use instead, plus 13 recipes to cook tonight.

What is icing for decorating?

Icing for decorating is the thin, pipeable sugar icing you use to draw on cookies and assemble gingerbread. It sets up firm and matte rather than staying soft like a spread frosting.

Most decorating icing is royal icing: powdered sugar beaten with egg white or meringue powder and a little water until smooth and glossy. The defining trait is that it dries hard.

A piped line or flooded surface goes from wet to a crisp, touchable shell, which is exactly what lets you stack decorated cookies or glue a gingerbread house together.

That hardness is the whole reason it isn't buttercream: buttercream stays creamy and smudges, while decorating icing locks in place and holds a sharp edge.

Working With Decorating Icing

The trick that makes everything else possible is consistency, controlled by how much water you add. Two thicknesses do most of the work: a stiffer "piping" icing for outlines and detail, and a looser "flooding" icing for filling those outlines in.

Piping consistency holds a peak and a clean line without slumping. It's what you pipe spiderwebs and lettering with, as in Halloween Spiderweb Cookies, and what holds fine detail on Gloria's Best Gingerbread Cookies.

Flooding consistency is thinned with a few drops of water until a knife drawn through the surface smooths back out in about 10 seconds. You pipe a dam of stiff icing around the edge first, then flood the center so it self-levels into a glassy panel.

Tint batches with gel food coloring rather than liquid, since gel adds deep color without thinning your carefully judged consistency. Pipe details from a bag with a fine round tip or a parchment cone with the tip snipped off.

For gingerbread houses, stiff royal icing is the mortar. It pipes thick and dries rock-hard to hold walls upright, which is why holiday builds and gingerbread cutouts lean on it instead of frosting.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Decorating icing is built for crisp sugar cookies and gingerbread, sturdy bases that can take a hard-setting coat without going soggy. It dresses up cut-out cookies, Clown Cupcakes, and a spooky Graveyard Treat.

The most common mistake is wrong consistency. Too thick and flooding leaves lumpy ridges that never level; too thin and your outline breaks and the flood runs off the edge.

Add water a few drops at a time and test on scrap before committing.

The second mistake is rushing the layers. Flood over a wet outline and the colors bleed together, so let outlines set 10 to 15 minutes before flooding, and let a flooded base dry an hour or more before piping detail on top.

The last trap is letting it dry in the bowl. Royal icing crusts fast in open air, so keep the bowl covered with a damp cloth and bag tips capped between uses, or you'll be piping clogs.

Substitutes

If you don't want raw egg white, meringue powder is the standard swap and makes the same royal icing. It's pasteurized and shelf-stable, which makes it the safer choice for kids and gifts.

A quick stand-in is a simple powdered-sugar glaze of sugar thinned with milk or water and a little corn syrup. It dries to a softer, shinier shell and won't hold fine piped detail, but it's fine for a flat drizzle or flood when you don't need crisp lines.

Tubes of store-bought decorating icing and gel work for quick lettering and accents, though they're pricier per ounce and come in limited colors. For gluing gingerbread, melted sugar or caramel holds even harder, but it sets in seconds and can burn fingers.

Buying and Storing

Most decorating icing is homemade from powdered sugar and meringue powder, both of which keep for ages in the pantry. You'll also find ready-to-use tubes and pouches in the baking aisle, plus squeeze bottles of cookie icing made to flood straight from the bottle.

Buy meringue powder if you decorate often. One tub makes many batches and avoids raw egg entirely, and a few gel colors plus round piping tips let you mix any shade you need.

Made-up royal icing keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to about two weeks. Re-whip it and adjust with a drop of water before using, since it stiffens and separates as it sits.

Cookies decorated with fully dried royal icing are stable at room temperature for days and stack without smudging once the surface is hard. Let them dry uncovered overnight before you box or bag them, or trapped moisture will soften the shell and dull the finish.

Quick facts

In Chinese

结冰的装饰

British (UK) term

Icing for decorating

en français

givrage pour la décoration

en español

glas para decorar

Recipes using icing for decorating

There are 13 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 13 recipes