Decorating Cookies with Royal Icing

There are several ways to use royal icing (see variation) to decorate cookies. You can spread it out in a baking dish and dip the cookies face down into the icing; you can pipe it with a paper cone; you can color it; and you can paint it onto the cookies with a brush.

1. Dip a cookie face down into the royal icing. Hold it suspended for a few seconds over the icing to allow excess icing to drip off.

   

2. Turn the cookie over. If it isn’t evenly coated, rotate it around to distribute the icing.

   

3. To create a marbled effect, spread one drop of food coloring in the royal icing with a fork. Dip the cookie face down in the colored icing.

   

4. Paint royal icing on cookies with a brush.

   

5. Some people prefer painting cookies holding them in one hand, while others like to paint the cookies set on the work surface as shown above.

   

6. Here the rim of a star cookie is decorated with yellow royal icing flavored with lemon oil, piped out of a paper cone.