How to Make Colored Frosting for Sugar Cookies

Royal icing adds a delicious and colorful touch to your sugar cookies.

For extra-tasty sugar cookies with a festive touch, add a colorful and sweet topping just like the bakeries use. Royal icing dries hard for stacking your sugar cookies, and it will keep well without refrigeration. Typical recipes use raw egg whites, but to avoid the slight salmonella risk, opt for meringue powder instead of egg whites. Meringue powder is readily available at cooking supply stores and online.

Things You'll Need

• Sugar cookies
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• Hand or stand mixer with whisk attachment
• Bowl
• 3 tbsp. meringue powder
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 6 tbsp. water
• Food coloring
• Plastic wrap

Instructions

1. Combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder, vanilla extract and 6 tbsp. of water in the bowl of a hand or stand mixer with a whisk attachment.

2. Beat the ingredients on low speed until just combined.

3. Mix in the food coloring by drops until the icing is the desired color.

4. Increase the mixer speed to high and continue to beat for 5 minutes or until the icing forms stiff peaks.

5. Immediately spread the icing onto your sugar cookies. Keep the leftovers covered tightly with plastic wrap in a cool, dry place.

Tips & Warnings

• Change the flavoring of the icing to match the cookie. Use peppermint extract with red food coloring to make a pink peppermint icing for chocolate cookies. Try lemon extract with yellow food coloring for a lemon icing. Chocolate extract with brown food coloring makes a chocolate icing. Replace the water with fruit juice and use a purple or pink food coloring for a fruity-flavored cookie topping.

References

• Chow; Royal Icing Recipe; Aida Mollencamp
• MyRecipes.com; Royal Icing Recipe; Southern Living; March 2002