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 cut-out sugar cookies and hardens just enough to make them stackable for party platters and edible gift giving.
With a melted butter base, this sugar cookie icing is made without 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 customize this icing to the consistency you prefer; if it’s too thick, add a little water; too thin, add more confectioners sugar.
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 and hardens enough to allow for stacking.
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, but you’ll want to be gentle with them too.
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.
Step 2: Transfer slightly cooled frosting to small pitcher for drizzling over sugar cookies. Allow frosting to cool and harden on cookies before serving.
Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe Video
Sugar Cookie Icing
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter 1 cube, ideally 85% fat European style butter
- 2 cups confectioners sugar 240g
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When butter has melted, whisk in remaining ingredients until very shiny and smooth (sugar has dissolved completely). Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Check consistency of icing: it should be thin enough to be pourable, but not so thin that it runs off the sides of the sugar cookie. If too thick, whisk in more water a few drops at a time. If too thin, whisk in more sugar until the icing reaches your desired consistency.
- Transfer icing to small pitcher and swirl artfully over cooled sugar cookies. Let icing cool and harden. Serve.
Notes
- If your powdered sugar is at all lumpy, be sure to sift / sieve it to remove any lumps before adding to the butter.
- This recipe makes enough for icing about 25, 3-inch round sugar cookies.
I wisked this recipie up and put it on my sugar cookies. The vanilla was a little strong for me but it complimented the cookie well, mine was grainy, which is fine but it turned out well otherwis
Hi Hailey…Glad you enjoyed the frosting and you can always reduce the vanilla. As you’ll read from other comments, this recipe seems to be hit or miss with the graininess. I haven’t had the issue – mine has turned out smooth and iridescent. There are several thoughts on avoiding graininess in the post and comments if you’d like to give the recipe another go. Thanks for your comment.
Worse sugar cookie icing I have ever made. Unappealing color, grainy, and yucky in flavor. We were sorely disappointed
Oh no! Sorry this one was a disappointment for you, Kat.
Wow!!!! This is my absolute new favorite sugar cookie icing recipe! I happened to have European butter because all of the butter was gone at the store (due to the pandemic). I swear that is the key! This icing is perfect and so quick! Our sugar cookies with the best icing were a nice distraction at this time. Thank you!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying the recipe, Katie! Be safe and well… 🙂
How should I store these iced cookies
Hi, Linda. You can keep them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. I recommend placing a sheet of parchment or wax paper between each layer so they’re sure not to stick together. 🙂
Hi! Can I use this as a glaze over petit fours?
Hi Sara! Yes, absolutely!
I tried this recipe for the first time last night.
It’s definitely ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!
I read some of the reviews regarding it being grainy, so I decided to try something as I dont have a sifter of any sort. I started off with the stove and transferred everything to the Vitamix! In my opinion, it’s perfect and I will definitely be making it again,
Thank you
So glad you enjoyed it, Sandra!
thank you!!
Hi, I’ve never made cookie icing before and I was wondering if I could put food coloring in this? And if so, what type and when to add it? Thank you!
Hi Audrey! Yes, you can certainly add color. I would go with a drop or two of liquid coloring whisked in at the end.
This may be a silly question, but can this icing be piped instead of poured out?
Hi Vanessa! Not a silly questions at all. This frosting isn’t good for piping, it’s just right for pouring. It goes on easily and then hardens just enough to allow you to stack the cookies if you like.
I was wondering could you substitute lemon for the vanilla extract? Have you thought about or tried it?
Hi Viola! Lemon juice in this sounds really good, but I haven’t tried it. If you give it a try, will you let me know how it goes?
I actually substituted almond extract for the Vanilla and it was delicious! I received so many compliments! Thanks for the recipe!
That’s fantastic, Carrie! Thank you for coming back to let me know!
The flavor of this icing is great (especially when doing 1/2 vanilla, 1/2 almond! 😊), but the texture is grainy. Is yours grainy? When mine looks like yours does in the video- it’s super grainy. I cooked it for longer, whisking all the while, and it seemed to get grainier! Any ideas? Sugar was not lumpy, and I checked the texture frequently throughout cooking and whisking…
Hi Holly! I’m sorry that your frosting was grainy! Mine was silky smooth, not grainy at all. I know that grainyness is a fairly common problem with icings and frostings like buttercream. There are a few common reasons, but you said that you cooked it for quite a while and that the sugar wasn’t lumpy, but did you run it through a sieve? That’s the only other thing I can think of.
I wonder what is causing some to have a grainy result. Perhaps the temp the mixture was heated to, or temp when sugar was added. Maybe water and fat content of the butter….
Thanks for providing a unique option for a hardened icing, something with actual flavor! This ought to be more popular.
I love the flavor of this icing! Mine turned out grainy though. Any ideas to fix or prevent that in the future?
Hi Stacy! I’m glad you enjoyed the flavor, but I’m sorry your icing was grainy. A couple of questions come to mind: was your powdered sugar at all lumpy? Did you whisk the frosting until it was so smooth it was almost pearlescent, a sign that the sugar has dissolved completely? (see the video to see what I mean) Those are the only two issues I can think of that might make the icing grainy.
I have been searching for the past few days to find a great icing recipe that does not contain corn syrup! I’m so happy that I stumbled upon yours and will be making this today with my kids! Thank you!
That’s wonderful, Dayna! I hop that you and your kids have so much fun and love the icing!! 😊
I rarely ice my sugar cookies because usually the icing has no flavor. THANK YOU for this! I see a lot of deliciously frosted sugar cookies in my future and I can taste that buttery icing already 🙂
woohoo! Thanks, Kelsie!! 🙂
I like how simple this recipe is, with simple ingredients! I plan to make a batch of plain sugar cookies this year and let the boys go crazy decorating them. This icing recipe is perfect!
How fun! I hope they love it, Katherine!! xo
Perfect icing for you perfect soft sugar cookie – keeping this one handy for the holiday season!
aww…thanks, Kevin!
Hi Marissa! I love all kinds of cookies, but I rarely pass up a frosted/iced sugar cookie! With only one “wing” there won’t be much baking going on here for the Holidays 🙁 but I’ll try to do a couple of things.
Hi Dorothy! I’ve been thinking about you and your one wing!! So rough to have an arm injury during the holidays when all you want to do it bake!! Love to you my friend!
I absolutely love sugar cookies, and it’s always good to have a go-to icing recipe. Thanks for sharing this one! I’m definitely going to hang on to it. 🙂
My pleasure! So easy and SO good!! 🙂
Great idea for a post Marissa! This will definitely come in handy this holiday season. It sounds delicious!
Thanks so much, Mary Ann!