How to Pipe Icing Onto Cookies
With a few simple tools, it's easy to pipe icing onto cookies to create attractive-looking designs. For piping, it's best to use royal icing, which hardens quickly on top of the cookie. Royal icing is made up of powdered sugar, water, and egg whites or meringue powder. The icing can be made thick or thin, depending on what you are using it for --- such as piping and flooding cookies with icing. When piping icing onto cookies, select a tip that will pipe out the icing thinly enough to outline or draw intricate details. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Place the prepared royal icing into a pastry bag. The consistency of the royal icing should be soft. Royal icing hardens quickly so add a few drops of warm water if it is starting to get stiff.
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Hold the bag about a 1/2 inch above the cookie and pipe the icing around the edges of the cookie to create an icing outline on the cookie.
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Prepare remaining royal icing to fill in the middle of the cookie by placing it in a bowl and mixing in water 1 tbsp. at a time until the icing reaches a liquid consistency. Add food coloring if you want a colorful icing.
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Allow the thinned royal icing to rest for 30 minutes to reduce the air bubbles that have occurred because of the mixing, then pour the icing into a squeeze bottle.
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Gently squeeze out the royal icing to fill in the center of the cookie. Work from the outer edges to the center, flooding the cookie with the thin icing until it is fully covered.
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Leave the icing to dry on the cookie overnight to a smooth finish.
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Tips & Warnings
Shake sprinkles or colorful sugar onto the icing while it is still wet to embed the sprinkles into the icing.
Keep plastic wrap covering the icing if it is out in a bowl as much as possible, as it will begin to harden when exposed to air. Stir frequently to keep the icing soft while you are working.
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