Sugar Cookie Icing

Name: Sugar Cookie Icing
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter (1 cube, ideally 85% fat European style butter); 2 cups confectioners sugar (240g, sifted (see recipe note #1)); 2 tablespoons water; 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

December 21, 2020 · · by: Marissa Stevens

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This Sugar Cookie Icing is buttery sweet and made in minutes. It’s the ideal texture for pouring in swirling designs over your soft sugar cookies (or these gluten free Almond Flour Sugar Cookies) or cut-out sugar cookies and hardens just enough to make them stackable for party platters and edible gift giving.

Sugar Cookie Icing pouring over soft sugar cookies

With a melted butter base, this sugar cookie icing is made without light corn syrup (a riff on this recipe from Tieghan of Half Baked Harvest) and has a decadently rich flavor that you can’t achieve with the sugar and water glazes that often adorn sugar cookies. It’s so easy to make – just 4 ingredients and there is no need for a mixer. Just combine the icing ingredients in a small saucepan and whisk until silky smooth (Watch the recipe video below to see what I mean!).

It’s easy to adjust this icing to the right consistency; if it’s too thick, add a little water; too thin, add more confectioners sugar. You can also add food coloring and/or liquid flavoring like almond extract if you like.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between icing and frosting?

First of all, the terms are debatable (and you can throw ‘glaze’ in there too). Typically, ‘frosting’ is thick, fluffy, and less sweet than icing. It also stays soft and doesn’t stack well so it’s not ideal for party platters (unless you can place them in a single layer) or for edible gift giving. Icing is sweeter than frosting, glossy instead of fluffy, and is often pourable for easy cookie decorating, and hardens enough to allow for stacking.

Is cookie icing the same as royal icing?

Royal icing is typically made with beaten raw egg whites, powdered sugar and often a citrus juice like lime or lemon and hardens as it drys. But ‘icing‘ is a broader term that is used to refer to everything from the simplest glacé icing that is just powdered sugar and water, to elaborate buttercream frostings and fondants.

Many icings are too sweet for my taste, but it’s the amount of sugar that determines how much the icing will harden. This sugar cookie icing recipe leans more toward buttery and hardens just enough to make your cookies stackable in an airtight container, but you’ll want to be gentle with them.

If you’re in need of a perfect sugar cookie recipe, these Soft Sugar Cookies are a family favorite!

How to make sugar cookie icing

Step 1: Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add remaining icing ingredients (confectioners sugar, water and vanilla) and whisk until smooth and shiny (all sugar has dissolved). Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

confectioners sugar and melted butter in a saucepan

adding water to confectioners sugar and butter in saucepan

adding vanilla to confectioners sugar and melted butter in saucepan

Step 2: Transfer slightly cooled icing to small pitcher for drizzling over sugar cookies. Allow icing to cool and harden on cookies before serving.