Cookie Decorating with Royal Icing! 
Everything you need to know about making sugar cookies, royal icing, and how to decorate them along with all ingredients and tools needed to get the job done. Plus tutorials to help you in the process along the way
Learn the ins and outs on how to make a proper cookie to decorate, how to make the icing, and tips and tricks for decorating too!
Preppy Kitchen has the best recipes and tutorials. Here is John's no spread cookie recipe & tutorial video
How to make royal icing
Another royal icing recipe
One of my favorite cookiers walking through how to modify your royal icing to get different consistencies for different uses
How to pipe royal icing and about piping bags
The best cookie recipes & icing recipes for this art form
I like to add a ½ tsp of lemon juice and a ½ tsp of vanilla extract to mine as well. This cuts the sugar flavor and makes for a more complex icing.
When you want your cookies to look crisp and professional, you want to use a “no spread” recipe. This means that the cookies will be the same size and shape as when you cut them out with the cookie cutter. Pro tip, chill your dough before rolling out...
Another sugar cookie roll out recipe option
All the tools you need to properly make the dough, icing, and decorate the cookies
An essential tool used to create flat fully flooded cookies, fill small gaps, and poke down points in the icing.
Trays I use to decorate cookies when I am teaching a cookie class! They fit about 6 cookies and are easy to take home. Very sturdy
Piping bags are necessary for icing work! But WOW do these little clamps for the cut/ open icing bags work wonders. The icing crusts with exposure to air so this helps prevent that.
When selecting piping bags, you want ones that do not have a plastic “fin” where the seams meet. This fin can interrupt the flow of icing and cause issues.
A handy tool for scraping icing off of cookies when you mess up, or a plastic alternative to the metal scribe
All of what goes into sugar cookies and royal icing
Instead of egg whites, I like to use a shelf stable option that gets the job done! Plus, it is convenient
For the best tasting icing and cookies, make sure you use REAL vanialla extract! NOT imitation
Whenever possible, use a real lemon for zest or juice in your desserts. The concentrates taste artificial and have additives in them. Lemons do not
When making cookies, use all purpose flour.
When making cookies use unsalted butter. This allows you to be able to control the amount of salt your adding to a recipe to get consistent results each time
You do not need cookie cutters to make cookies. You can flip over a cup and use that, but if you want fun complex shapes, cookie cutters are a must! Here are some of my favorite shapes and brands
Great spring flower cutters
A classic cone that is versatile and can be turned upside down to make many characters in hats
Cute dino cutters that either can be alive dinos or skeletons!
Cute leaves, on the smaller side though
A firework or rocket for birthdays or the 4th of july