14 icing decorating recipes

Holiday decorating icing whisks powdered sugar with a splash of milk and a drop of flavor extract into a smooth, pipe-able glaze for outlining, flooding, and drizzling Christmas cookies.

Halloween Jack-o-Lantern frosties: hollowed oranges filled with a blended orange-yogurt smoothie, decorated with icing faces and candy for a festive kid-friendly treat.

Halloween spiderweb cookies decorate sugar cookies with white flooded icing and black piped concentric circles, then drag a toothpick to create perfect web patterns. Show-stopping party cookies for kids and adults.

Jack-o'-lantern cookies made by dipping Oreos in orange-tinted cream cheese frosting coating. A fun no-bake Halloween treat kids love to decorate with chocolate icing faces.

Lemon snowflake cookies with a tender lemon-zest dough rolled thin, cut with fluted cutters, and decorated with lemon royal icing piped into snowflake patterns. A beautiful holiday cookie.

Sugar cookies with a half-shortening half-butter base for crisp edges and tender centers. Pressed flat with a sugar-dipped glass, baked 8 minutes, ready to ice and decorate.

Classic Christmas cut-out cookies that hold their shape, with cornstarch in the dough for a tender bite and crisp edges. Roll, cut into festive shapes, bake golden, and decorate with icing.

Cute Easter egg cookies are tender cut-out cookies shaped with an egg cutter and decorated with smooth pastel icing. A fun Easter baking project for kids, made lighter with a sugar substitute in the dough.

Father Time chocolate chip cookies decorated with piped clock face icing for New Year's Eve. Chewy brown sugar cookies with a simple powdered sugar icing design.

Orange sugar cookies with orange flower water, fresh orange juice, and zest. Rolled thin, cut into shapes, and baked pale for decorating with icing.

Crispy vanilla rosettes fried on a decorative iron, then dipped in vanilla icing. Scandinavian holiday cookies that look like edible snowflakes. Yields 12 cookies.

Hand print sugar cookies traced from paper cutouts of each family member's hand. Refrigerated dough shortcut, decorated with icings and candies. Memory-keeper recipe.

Fluffy white buttercream icing made with shortening, powdered sugar, and a hint of almond extract. Stays bright white and pipes like a dream for decorated cakes.

Mexican flag cookies bake a coconut-extract sheet cookie cut into 3x4 rectangles, then decorate with green, white, and red icing stripes plus a chocolate eagle. Cinco de Mayo party favorite.