The Easiest Way to Decorate a Cookie: Dipping Cookies in Royal Icing

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Do you struggle to decorate a sugar cookie with royal icing?  I do too, and I've been practicing for years.  This is, hands-down, the easiest way to cover a sugar cookie with royal icing.  You just dip the cookies in royal icing.  And then, after that, you can paint it with food coloring, add sprinkles--whatever you want to do to embellish the icing.  But as for a basic covering?  This is the ultimate method.

Sugar cookies dipped in royal icing and covered in sprinkles.

Cute, right?  And the royal icing covers the tops of the cookies absolutely perfectly.  Dipping the cookies in royal icing, quite frankly, covers the cookies better than I've ever managed to do with standard icing flooding techniques.

Sugar cookies dipped in royal icing and covered in sprinkles.

Add a few sprinkles and you've got yourself a festive, fabulous sugar cookie.

Materials for decorating sugar cookies by dipping cookies in royal icing.

It all starts with royal icing, sprinkles, sugar cookies, and a toothpick.

Dipping Cookies in Royal Icing:

.Dipping sugar cookies in royal icing

Thin your royal icing until it's nice and runny.  I'm talking liquid.  Thinner than you'd thin the icing for flooding consistancy.  

 

Dipping sugar cookies in royal icing

Hold the cookie by the edges and simply dip it in the nice, loose, liquidy royal icing.  

Dipping sugar cookies in royal icing

Let the excess icing drip off.

popping bubbles in cookies dipped in royal icing

This technique does tend to make a lot of bubbles in the surface of the icing.  No idea why, but it does.  Simply pop the bubbles with a toothpick immediately after you coat the cookie with icing and the royal icing will settle down into a smooth surface.

Sugar cookies coated in royal icing and covered in patriotic, red white and blue sprinkles.

While the icing is still wet, sprinkle the surface with your sprinkles.  I used these patriotic sprinkles for the 4th of July ice cream sandwiches I made.

Sugar cookies coated in royal icing and covered in patriotic, red white and blue sprinkles.

Sprinkles make everything adorable, don't they?

Sugar cookies dipped in royal icing and covered in sprinkles.

Rainbow sprinkles, patriotic sprinkles, it's all amazing!

Sugar cookies dipped in royal icing and covered in sprinkles.

Add a little bit of disco dust if you want extra sparkle and flair.

Think just adding sprinkles is simply chaotic fun?  Check out how amazing and effective simply adding sprinkles in a concentrated fashion is to these fabulous cookies from Blue Sugar Cookie Co.

Sugar cookies dipped in royal icing and covered in sprinkles.

Gorgeous decorated sugar cookies, with very little effort!  You know this is a win in every sense.

 

Nicole Wills, creator of Tikkido

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