The Best Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe for Decorating

Updated: August 22, 2025 / By: Cassie Johnston / This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy

Closeup view of a cut out sugar cookie shaped like a christmas tree topped with green icing and sprinkles.

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featured review

Five yellow stars in a row

"This is absolutely the best sugar cookie icing recipe! I have used this recipe over and over to decorate cookies with fabulous results every time. Delicious and easy!"

- CAROLE -

This is the perfect icing recipe for decorating my cut out cookie recipe. It's creamy, sweet, and packed full of flavor, plus it ends up drying solid enough to pack the cookies in a tin but still soft enough to bite into. And it shines so bright and glossy in the light. It makes for some obnoxiously pretty cookies!

The best part of all? It takes just a couple minutes to whip up using ingredients you already probably have in your pantry. Let's make some frosting!

In this post:

Cookies shaped like evergreen trees sit next to a bowl of green frosting. One cookie has some green icing on it already.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

Cassie Johnston (a light skinned brunette woman with glasses and a red streak in her hair) smiles toward the camera with a wall of photo frames behind her

I think the icing can make or break a good cut-out sugar cookie. Too hard and it feels like you're going to break a tooth. Too runny and it's a mess to eat. This recipe is right in between- it's the magical unicorn of sugar cookie icings!

Here's why you'll love this recipe:

  • It comes together in minutes using ingredients you already have around. No fuss here! This icing comes together in a flash in a single bowl.
  • It's dries hard enough to stack but still soft enough to enjoy. It's the magical unicorn of sugar cookie icings! Soft enough to be tender when you bite into it, but solid enough to make these cookies stackable.
  • The flavor is up to you! For classic vanilla sugar cookies, stick to vanilla extract. But peppermint, coconut, and almond are all amazing options as well.
  • Super duper extra pretty. Want shiny, smooth, and absolutely perfect looking sugar cookies? This icing will give them to you every time.

featured review

Five yellow stars in a row

"The only sugar cookie frosting I will ever use from now on! Perfect taste, perfect texture. Easily stackable and tastes great. 

- DEV -

Step-by-Step how to MAKE SUGAR COOKIE ICING

1

Combine ingredients in bowl

Mix together powdered sugar (aka: confectioner's sugar), milk, corn syrup or honey, and the extract of your choice until smooth.

2

Add in food coloring

If using food coloring, whisk it into the icing until well-distributed. I recommend using gel food coloring if available.

3

Decorate your sugar cookies

Squeeze, spread, or dip the icing onto your fully cooled rolled sugar cookies. My favorite method is to use a squeeze bottle-perfect for kids and adults alike. If you'd like to use sprinkles, add them before the icing dries.

4

Let the icing dry

The icing will harden to soft, but stackable glaze within 2-3 hours of sitting out at room temperature.

SuGar Cookie Icing protips

  • Let the cookies cool completely before icing. If not, the icing will run everywhere. 
  • Thicker icing is easier to work with. Start with thicker icing at first, and then thin it out if needed.
  • Squeeze bottles are the easiest way to decorate with the whole family. Make a few bottles of a few different colors and go to town!
  • Go corn-syrup free! For sugar cookie icing without corn syrup, replace the corn syrup with honey. The decorated cookies will not be stackable, but the iced cookies will be delicious and corn syrup-free!
  • Change the color: No matter if you're making Halloween sugar cookies, Easter sugar cookies, Valentine's Day sugar cookies, or Christmas sugar cookies, you can make the perfect icing!

featured review

Five yellow stars in a row

"Wish I found this recipe earlier in my life-it's awesome! Thank you for helping make my cookies look professional without being a professional!"

- CHRISTY -

WATCH Me Make Iced Sugar cookies

📖 Recipe

Decorated Christmas tree sugar cookies with green frosting and sprinkles rest on a white background.

Easy Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe

This is the best icing recipe for decorating sugar cookies. It's easy to make, and dries into a nice and smooth finish. Plus, there's an option without corn syrup!
(This is our favorite cut out cookie recipe!)
4.46 from 861 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Additional Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 18 minutes
Servings: 72 cookies' worth
Calories: 14kcal
Author: Cassie Johnston

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2-4 tablespoons milk
  • 1 tablespoon light corn syrup or honey see notes
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla, almond, peppermint, or coconut extract
  • Food coloring

Instructions

  • Combine powdered sugar, two tablespoons milk, corn syrup or honey, and vanilla extract, adding more milk until icing reaches desired consistency. For piping and spreading, you're looking for a thicker icing. For dipping cookies, you'll want something a little bit thinner.
  • Pipe, spread, or dip onto baked cookies. If you'd like to use sprinkles, apply them before the icing dries.

Video

Youtube video

Notes

  • Using corn syrup in the cookie icing recipe will result in an icing that dries soft, but stackable. Using honey will result in a softer icing that should not be stacked.
  • Make sure the cookies are completely cooled before frosting.
  • Looking for a sugar cookie recipe to use this icing on? This cut-out cookie recipe is our go-to, fan-favorite recipe.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 14kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 0.01g | Fat: 0.01g | Saturated Fat: 0.01g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.003g | Cholesterol: 0.1mg | Sodium: 0.4mg | Potassium: 1mg | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Calcium: 1mg | Iron: 0.002mg
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Frequently Asked Questions about FROSTING SUGAR COOKIES

Our cut out sugar cookie recipe has tons of 5-star reviews for a reason! The cookies keep their shape in the oven and have a delicious rich, buttery flavor. It's a keeper!

There are really three kinds of sugar cookie icing you'll see out there in the baking world. All three have their benefits:

  • Royal icing: This is the hard icing that you see people using to make intricate decorations on cookies (or gingerbread houses). While this icing makes for beautiful cookies, I honestly find the flavor to be...not great. So I tend to not use royal icing for my Christmas cookies (or cookies for any occasion, really).
  • Buttercream frosting: You'll see this kind of fluffy, thick, buttery frosting more frequently on soft-baked Lofthouse style sugar cookies. It's delicious on these cookies, but it does tend to be tricky to stack on a cookie tray or pack in a gift tin.
  • Powdered sugar glaze: The sugar cookie icing we're showing here and the one I use most frequently is a simple powdered sugar glaze. The resulting iced sugar cookies dry solid enough to stack on a cookie tray, but soft enough to bite into without chipping a tooth (I'm looking at you, royal icing). It's easy to color, easy to flavor, and easy to work with.  This sugar cookie icing will harden in 2-3 hours at room temperature (or even faster if you chill the cookies). 

The right consistency is the icing that is easy to work with for you, depending on your icing method. It might take a bit of trial and error, but once you get the exact right tablespoons of milk, you'll always know it for future cookie batches. You can always add more milk to make it thinner or more powdered sugar to thicken it back up.

Here are some tips depending on your icing method:

  • If you are dipping the cookies: You'll want a thinner icing that easily coats the cookies.
  • If you're piping the icing on: Piping bags tend to warm up in your hand pretty quickly, so we recommend erring on the side of thicker icing-knowing it'll thin out as it warms.
  • If you're using a squeeze bottle (our favorite way to decorate cookies with kids!): Go for a frosting that is just thin enough to easily go through the nozzle without free-flowing.
  • If you are spreading the icing on the cookies: You'll want a pretty thick icing for spreading.

I normally make my frosting thick enough that it will stay on top of the cookie, but still thin enough that it will self-settle and dry with a smooth, bump-free top. It's really the fool-proof way to frost cookies.

For the home baker, there are a few good methods for icing your sugar cookies without getting too complicated:

  • Squeeze. If you're decorating with kids (or, ahem, inebriated adults-it makes a fun holiday party activity), squeeze bottles are the way to go! You could also using piping bags if you're feeling fancy.
  • Spread. I typically just spread icing on my sugar cookies using a popsicle stick or a proper icing spatula. You could most definitely pipe this frosting on if that's your (piping) bag, but I'll stick to my lazy girl popsicle stick method for now, thank you very much.
  • Dip. You can also dip your sugar cookies in the icing. Just make the icing thin enough to be dippable, then grab a cookie and barely dip the top in a bowl of the icing. Make sure to do this over parchment paper or wax paper-it gets messy!

On its own, this is a clean white icing. It makes a beautiful surface for all sorts of sprinkles and decorations. But if you want to add some color to the frosting itself, both liquid and gel food coloring work well in this sugar cookie icing. Gel food coloring will give your icing more vibrant and bold colors, but it does stain. If you're decorating with kids, we recommend sticking with liquid food coloring. If you want multiple different colors of icing, divide the batch into smaller bowls to be colored.

You can make this same sugar cookie icing with honey, but it does not dry to the same soft-but-stackable texture-it stays pretty soft.

Once the frosting has hardened, I stack them between layers of parchment paper in a glass food storage, airtight container and leave them on the counter for up to a week. 

I've tried it before, and while the taste is fine, this particular icing recipe tends to crack and lose its luster in the freezer. Our sugar cookie icing recipe is so easy to mix up, it will take you no time to frost the cookies once they are out of the freezer!

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Cassie Johnston

Cassie is a Certified Holistic Nutritionist (AFPA, 2017) and Certified Health Coach (AFPA, 2017), cookbook author, and all-around food lover. She grew up cooking dinner with her parents every evening, and her passion for home cooking has been strong ever since. Cassie is the author of two published cookbooks—Cooking with Greek Yogurt (W.W. Norton, 2013) and Chia, Quinoa, Kale, Oh My! (W.W. Norton, 2014) and dozens of recipes published in major magazines and newspapers. Cassie has been sharing her award-winning recipes on Wholefully since 2010. She loves dark chocolate, homegrown tomatoes, motorsports, and anything that sparkles. She lives in Indiana with her family on a small homestead.

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246 Comments

  1. My dough is the consistency of a soft chocolate chip cookie dough, is this normal. I haven't refrigerated yet but am worried it might still be too soft.

    Reply

  5. I found these on pinterest. FABULOUS!
    I switched out margarine for the butter and salt.
    A little more economical and still so tender.
    Didn't try the icing. I always make royal icing from the wilton website.

    Reply

  6. I am too looking forward to making these cookies! Quick question about the icing, do you use a gel food coloring or a liquid food coloring? Im not sure if one of the other would change the consistency of the icing?

    Reply

  7. Hi,
    I have never made sugar cookies before and I want to try your recepie. I don't have a stand mixer though. Would a hand held mixer work just as well? I'm trying to make these for my daughter birthday.

    Reply

  8. I don't have a paddle attachment on my mixture. I have the regular ones, a wish one and this spiral looking one, will any of these work? Thanks!

    Reply

  9. im in the process of making these cookies right now, I'm baking them and then bringing them to the local nursing home. How long will the iced cookies keep in a foil tray?

    Reply

    1. If they are covered (like say with plastic wrap), a few days, uncovered, I'd get them out within 6-8 hours or they'll start to dry out.

      Reply

  10. I just pulled my first batch out of the oven and you were right, you really have to watch them! My oven also runs hot and it only took 5 minutes for my cookies to be perfect looking! I decided to do this as a project with my daughter and we can't wait to frost them and eat them! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!

    Reply

  11. I have made 2 batches of these cookies so far and they are being eaten as fast as I can make them. All of a sudden my boys are coming to see Mom all the time! LOL I also have some dough frozen for Valentine's Day.
    Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

  13. Hi Cassie!
    I'm planning on making these cookies for friday and just had a question. From past experiences I have always found to never halve a recipe, only because it doesn't always turn out. Since I don't need THAT many cookies i'll take your advice and freeze some of the dough. Could you tell me how long it will keep in the freezer? Thank you!

    Reply

    1. Sugar is an excellent preservative, so just as long as you keep it protected from freezer burn (I'd recommend wrapping each disc in plastic wrap, and then placing them in a freezer zip-top bag with the air squeezed out), I'd say indefinitely! But at least six months.

      Reply

  14. I got so excited to use my paddle attachment that I forgot to add the third stick of butter. The dough still seemed to be the right consistency and tasted delish, but will it ruin my results? I have never done that before! Thanks! 🙂

    Reply

  15. Hi! I commented last year and I'm back to say we made the icing and cookies exactly as the recipe is written. (Vanilla for both). They were perfect. I baked all of them, decorated mine and divided the rest into large to go containers. Later that week I took half to my moms and half to my in-laws for our ladies/kids baking nights, and they were still perfect. Kids and adults had a blast decorating them! The glaze hardens perfectly for stacking and giving. Thank you! I will be making these cookies and the glaze again this year for all 3 places!!

    Reply

  17. Going to make thies today for my sons and there friend to cut out and decorate tonight but I have salted butter with this Change anything or will they be fine thank you

    Reply

  18. I don't suppose you know the measurements in grams or ounces do you ? Cups aren't the most accurate of measurements and I am in the UK where it is really uncommon to use cups.
    thanks!

    Reply

  19. I wa excited to make these but they did not keep their shape. I let them chill for 1 day. They spread so much I had to trow them out. They also tasted like flour I added half of cup sugar more.

    Reply

    1. Hi Lucy - that happened to me also. I wonder if we both were using self rising flour? I transfer my flour from the bag into a container so I cant be sure if that is what the issue is, however, I did notice on a different recipe it specifically said not to use self rising flour.. I did decorate mine using the frosting to show the detail of the cut out. This is a great frosting recipe; I ended up using about 4-5 Tbls of milk; I find a tin inner frosting spreads best

      Reply

  20. I am excited to try out this recipe this week! However, I know you said it makes a lot of cookies, but what size cookie cutter do you have? I plan on using a cutter that is approximately 5" x 3" big. And I wanted to make my cookies about 1/4 -1/2 an inch thick. How many dozens should I get with this dough? Thanks!

    Reply