Decorating cutout cookies can be as simple as sprinkling sugar on them before they head into the oven or as involved as designs far more elaborate than I’ve done here. When going beyond a minimal approach, we need royal icing, the familiar cement for making gingerbread houses.
But it doesn’t have to be a tooth-chipping mortar. We control that with confectioners’ sugar and for cookies we want a less-stiff consistency. It will still be hard when it dries, but not like those inedible piped flowers on so many birthday cakes.
The process goes quickly if I’ve spent time thinking about the steps and the tools and embellishments I’ll need. I start with a royal icing that’s not very stiff and use that for areas that will be covered with sugar, nonpareils or sprinkles. I then add more powdered sugar for a stiffer consistency to pipe lines and dots, stiffer still if piping stars. If any is to be tinted, I will have set that aside at the beginning, along with a cup or so to be used as needed.
With these cookies, all made with No Chill Cutout Cookie dough, I knew I’d use my cookie glaze as a base; buttercream tends to overpower the cookie. The time saved with the dough went into the glaze’s drying time, which was slightly longer than three hours. It was late at night by that point so I left them till morning. Next day I made the royal icing, set up my “assembly line” and got busy. Again, the longest time spent was the drying time, about four hours.
Caveat emptor
I wondered if I could recommend, as a time saver or for those without pastry bags, the decorating icing in a tube called Cake Mate. The answer is no. I tried it with the gingerbread cookies – or attempted to — but found it difficult to get an even flow or any flow at all, even when squeezing hard. I popped the tube into a glass of warm water to soften it but the frosting became runny. I wasted my time and money, nearly $5 since I also had to buy the plastic tips. (Another WordPress blogger had similar results with the Betty Crocker product.) And a third strike against Cake Mate is its artificial taste.
A product I do like is a set of cookie paints, which I used on the flames of the menorah and on the tree, giving it both color and texture. These are powders we mix with water and they can be painted onto raw dough or onto a baked cookie that is glazed or frosted. A bare baked cookie will just soak it up. King Arthur sells the set and I’ve seen it online at decorating supply sites.
Meringue powder, sold by Wilton, and powdered egg whites, such as Just Whites, are not the same product. Meringue powder contains stabilizers and flavoring. In most applications, powdered whites must be reconstituted first as directed on the package. In either case, royal icing should not be frozen.
Royal Icing
3 TB meringue powder or:
3 TB powdered whites
6 TB water
2 cups / 8 ounces sifted confectioners’ sugar (sift before measuring)
2 tsp lemon juice
Mix powder with water and whip until stiff but not dry. Add confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice. Beat for another minute, adding more juice or water if necessary to thin the consistency. If too thin, add more sifted sugar.
Makes about 2 1/2 cups. Store tightly sealed at room temperature for up to a week. If necessary, re-whip before using again.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Boy, did you jar a whole lot of memories.
My grandmother was a semi-professional cake decorator–she baked and decorated cakes for countless weddings and special occasions.
“Royal icing” was a part of her everyday vocabulary. I never hear that word in the every day world. Yet, it was definitely part of vocabulary I was raised with, long ago left behind. Wilton supplies were part of our kitchen, and were pretty much the only cake supplies she used.
Thanks also for the no chill cookie cutout cookie dough.
Not sure yet if I’ll for nostalgia and make Mom’s recipe, or try yours for its ease.
Either way, I’m saving all three recipes you offered into the file, for future use and to surprise myself every so often, with a warm memory of Nana.
You have the patience of a saint.
Feel free to ship them to me,all of them, I’ll eat them ALL, just for you. Surely you must be tired by now, all this baking, then decorating? I could never! But the eating, yes.
Yes, this I could do.
@bluesmoke – What a lovely message. Thank you so much. Truly, I am humbled by it and I share your fondness for that type of memory.
Perhaps you won’t surprised if I recommend making her recipe. The other will always be there for spur of the moment cookies.
Thank you again.
@dissfunktional – Well, they’re still here, except for the menorah, just waiting to be gobbled. C’mon over!
I must say, there is nothing remotely saintly about me, and anybody who knows me would agreee. I do have to be in the mood for this sort of decorating but when I am, it’s like playtime and I love it. That said, I am a wee bit cookied out now.
goodness, are those edible? they look too pretty to eat! especially them silvery little balls, can you eat that??
Hi, sulz! Thanks for the kind words. Yep, they’re 100% edible. The silver balls are dragees and they’re just really, really hard sugar candies. Edible, but most adults don’t eat them. Unless they’re married to dentists…
At this very second you are on the front page of Wordpress.com.
I didn’t know. Thank you!
You have such delicious recipes and an obvious touch of artistry when it comes to decorating your christmas cookies. I agree with sulz – they almost look to pretty to eat.
Thank you, brightfeather. Coming from someone who is an artist, that’s extra-special indeed. (I think I never outgrew fingerpainta!)
Why can’t royal icing be frozen? I hate throwing away leftovers…
dms – Good question. The icing is different after being frozen. It tends to be grainy and doesn’t pipe as well. I don’t know why, whether it’s the whites or the lemon juice or something else, but the bottom line is you’d probably end up throwing it out.
I hate waste too and sometimes make only half this recipe.
I have some flopped royal icing in the freezer. I know that I can make it into regular icing by adding butter. But will flopped icing work to cover a cookie as a runny icing and dry hard?
Hi, Carol. I’m not sure what you mean by “flopped” royal icing and I never freeze it, so I’m afraid I’m absolutely useless to you on this. I hate waste, so what I would do is use either foil or parchment as a pretend cookie and see if it works. If not, at least you tried.
Thanks for the question and I wish I had an answer. You just won the Stump the Blogger Award.
by flopped I mean the icing never got stiff, just stayed runny. I was making royal icing to frost cookies. I was just wondering if this would work to totally cover the top of the cookie and still get hard.
Ah, I see. I think you got weirdly lucky then, because successful royal icing isn’t to be used on an entire cookie. It’s way too hard when it dries. It’s for accents like you see above or for gingerbread house mortar.
I suppose you could try to rewhip it; your problem with it staying runny was probably because the whites were too old or there could have been a speck of grease left on the bowl or beaters. I posted about whipping egg whites in either March or April of 2007, if you wish to consult the archives.
Frankly, I’d toss it at this point or do a test pretend cookie as I mentioned. We sometimes learn best from projects that don’t come out quite the way we hoped.