Sugar. Cookie. Icing. {The Recipe}

Ye ask and Ye shall receive! 

Egads!  After my last post here many of you have been asking for me to post my sugar cookie icing recipe, to say I was shocked is an understatement!  Who knew that sugar cookie icing recipes were such a hot commodity!!  And let me just say I'm so sorry I never posted it with the cookie, I didn't know, honest!  Anyways this icing is sooo sooo good that it really does deserve it own post and taking the pretty pictures for this one was almost as fun and colorful as my fabric cabinet post :-) (Yay for me!) And let's just say my hubby and the kids sure didn't mind that I was making another batch of sugar cookies either, my little sugar martyrs...they'll do anything for an iced sugar cookie (and so will I ahthankyouverymuch!)

So, this recipe is my go-to, my favorite, my best-est icing ev-ah recipe.   It gives you that nice and shiny icing that hardens perfectly so that you can stack your cookies for all those cookie trays you are handing out this year...or really anytime of year!  And unlike Royal Icing it doesn't have egg whites or egg white powder (which just weirds me out a bit anyway) aaaand it doesn't make your cookies rock hard and dentist-appointment-making-worthy.  

Sugar Cookie Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons milk

2 tsp corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon extract (vanilla or almond!)

Simple ingredient list, right? 

Add your powdered sugar to a medium sized bowl and to that bowl add your milk and your corn syrup.  Mix well.  Then add your extract and slowly add more milk and corn syrup until you get the consistency you prefer.  More runny for flooding or more thick for well, a more thick icing!

First, place 1 cup of powdered sugar in a bowl and add 2 tsp of milk and corn syrup each...

You will get something that looks like this...basically it looks like a complete fail BUT it's not!

It will be all lumpy and dry looking and that is okay, actually it's just right!!

Let's keep going, shall we?

Next, add in 1/2 teaspoon of the extract of your choice.  I like to use almond and vanilla would be my runner-up choice.  I love vanilla but there is something oh-so-yummy about a touch of almond in this icing!  

If you choose to use vanilla let it be known that if you are looking for that perfectly pure white icing you will want to use CLEAR vanilla extract, most commonly found at Michael's or some store that sells Wilton products (possibly even Joann Fabrics, anyone?  Bueller?)  Regular vanilla extract is brown in color so it will never give you that wedding cake white color.  Now, if you are planning on coloring your icing red, green, blue, etc than go ahead and use your regular vanilla, you won't be able to tell the difference!  Also, almond extract is clear...just an FYI for y'all!

Okay, back to the show...

So, once you've added your extract you still will have a bit of lumpiness going on there so what you are going to do is add 1 tsp of milk and then 1 tsp of corn syrup at a time (mixing after each addition) until you get a nice and shiny icing.  If you have some small lumps you can whisk it a bit but truth be told I never do, I just smash 'em up with the back of my spoon.

Now, depending on what kind of icing you are looking for you are more or less done.  For my sugar cookies I like my icing to be a bit runny yet thick.  Not runny enough where the icing is running off the edges of the cookies (watery) but runny enough where I can easily spread it with a spatula...capiche?

Just so you know I used 3 tsp of milk and 3 tsp of corn syrup to decorate these cookies.   But again, this will totally depend on YOU and what you want your end product to be oh, aaand your climate.  We are pretty dry and humidity-free here in the midwest right now!

And a quick side note about food coloring.  You can use these liquid food colors, found at almost any store in the baking aisle, just fine with this recipe.  Actually, these are what I usually have around anyways.  This recipe is NOT finicky to the type of food coloring you use...YAY!

Or, if you prefer you can use these concentrated paste/gel colors found again at any Michael's or usually any store that sells Wilton products.  Oh!  Hobby Lobby would be another one, boo-yah!

And, that's it! 

Just keep adding more food coloring until you have that most perfect pretty color you are looking for and start your cookie de-cor-a-ting!!

Fa-la-la-la-la-la-laaaaaaa!

On another side note, here's a peek at the cutters I used to make my round sugar cookies from this post.  

They are actually a biscuit cutter, for reals!   They are smooth on one edge and rounded on the flip side.

This is the one I used for those Melted Snowman Cookies... a 3 7/16 inch circle...in case you really cared or just want to indulge my picture taking fun.

Mmmm...stacks and stacks of sugar cookies.

What's that?  You'd like to be iced!?!

Aww, I guess I should since you asked so nice and all.

And on yet another side note, since I mean really when can a post have too many side notes?

This is what the bottom of the sugar cookies should look like if you bake them juuuust for the most minimum of time...6-7 minutes.  They will be soft yet firm, NOT crunchy!  (For those of you that have asked anyways!)  Do not, and I repeat, do not let them get golden brown!!!

Ahhh, all iced!

Just what the doctor ordered ;-)

Pretty little pretties!

We all need a star to tree ratio like this, don't you think?

And,  you wanna know one of the best-est things about this recipe?

That shiny icing dries up nice but not hard and rock-like!  

 You can stack those babies as high as you'd like.

(If you've made it this far, I think a congratulations are in order.  This was a long post fo' sho but well worth it, right!!)

Happy Icing!!

Oh and if you haven't entered the Weebles Wobble and HasbroToyShop.com $100 gift card giveaway enter here to do so now!!