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. Dear Cassie, I'm looking for a cookie with a slightly crisp exterior, soft interior and will stay soft inside, and keeps shape while baking. Is this the one? Why the high oven temp 400 degrees? What level should my oven rack be set so the top or bottoms don't burn? By the way, I enjoy your blog. Thanks for such helpful info for us new bakers.

    Reply

    1. This is the cookie you're looking for then! The high oven temp cooks the outside of the cookie quickly, while still leaving the inside nice and soft. Put you oven rack in the middle of the ocen, and you should be good. 🙂

      Reply

  2. Worked out Great, we loved them, I made just a basic butter frosting with confectioners sugar thin enough to sort of glaze on and sprinkle with sprinkles. The cookies were soft and yummy. thank you

    Reply

  4. Omg just took these out of the oven and they taste great! The dough holds shape and bakes very well! This will be my go to sugar cookie recipe!

    Reply

  5. These cookies are AMAZING. I make them at least once a month and they are a hit. I'm baking them for a friends gender reveal party... EEEEK! I hope I can perfect the consistency of the icing. Any tips?

    Reply

  6. I love this recipe. I have baked them today (Friday) for a party on Sunday. They are wonderful!! Will they still be fresh for Sunday? I will be icing them this evening, what would be the best way to store the iced cookies once they have dried on the counter? I am concerned about the milk in the icing and them being left out of the fridge?

    Reply

    1. They'll definitely be fine for Sunday. I would put them in layers (with parchment or wax paper between) in an airtight container. I keep mine out on the counter, because sugar is an excellent preservative, but if that makes you nervous, the fridge is fine.

      Reply

  8. These cookies were AMAZING!!! I made them and my whole family loved them!! u should definitely try this recipe 🙂

    Reply

  9. I made these at Christmas minus the icing. I use melted candy melts to frost my sugar cookies. These were good even without frosting. I just made some for Valentine's and will make more at Easter. Love this recipe!! Thank you!!

    Reply

  10. I made these last night and I think you have revolutionized my sugar cookie baking...

    I had NO idea that sugar cookies baked so fast. I have tried many recipes over the years and was always disappointed that the cookies turned out crunchy. My thought now is that it wasn't the recipe... it was me. I was overcooking them.

    Following your advice, I watched these cookies like a hawk. Sure enough, they were done at the 5 min mark. I left some in for 7 just for comparison sake and they were way too hard.

    Thank you SO much.

    I'm frosting the 70 or so cookies tonight with your recipe for my son's class Valentine Party. Can you put the frosting in a piping bag? How does it hold up?

    Thanks again!

    Reply

    1. Sure can! I'd maybe just add a touch more powdered sugar to it so it's thick enough not to just stream out of the piping bag. I'm so glad this post helped you! 🙂

      Reply

  11. I made a 'test' batch that made about 2 dozen cookies that turned out great! Will definitely keep your recipe for Valentines Day and every other upcoming event just to have an excuse to make more!
    My daughter lives out of state and would love to send some to her. She usually gets mail from me within 2 days. I like to use royal icing so they will be decorated using that instead. How long will these last one I bake/decorate so I know how long she has to enjoy them?

    Reply

    1. If they are packaged up really nice and air-tight, I think you could get by with 5-7 days before they start to taste stale. 🙂

      Reply

  14. you cookies look great, I have been looking for the perfect sugar cookie recipe. mine always come out plain tasting and gummy. I think the gummy is from under cooking but no matter how much vanilla it still taste plain and even bitter after. any advice?

    Reply

  16. These cookies are delicious! Eat them with or without frosting, either way they're yummy!!

    I made the dough yesterday and left it overnight in the fridge. Rolled and cut out the cookies today and it made 70 cookies. They cooked very well and evenly. Six minutes and they were perfect.

    The frosting was delicious too! I did make one slight alteration by adding in 3 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream and 1 tablespoon of milk. The frosting was shiny, easy to spread on the cookie without any stickiness or breaking of the cookies.

    These two recipes are a keeper in my book!! Thanks for sharing 🙂

    Reply

  17. Sugar cookies that actually worked for me and are absolutely delicious! My kids were trying to eat them all before they were even iced! Yay thank you ?

    Reply

  20. What should the dough look like when done. It is quite sticky and not forming into a ball. I need to refrigerate it still but I'm wondering how it looks for you?

    Reply