How to decorate holiday cookies with royal icing

Decorating with royal icing can be intimidating, but once you master the skill, you'll be able to make beautiful designs on your cookies. You can purchase ready-to-mix royal icing at your local baking store, Bulk Barn, or use our recipe here.

Watch me show you how to decorate cookies with royal icing, then scroll down for more ideas!

Cookie decorations (in video, clockwise from top):

Hearts design: Pipe a border around your cookie with thick royal icing. Flood the cookie with thin royal icing. Immediately pipe dots of another colour of thin royal icing on to your base. The larger the dot, the larger the heart will be. Drag a toothpick in a single line through the dots to create hearts.

Firework design: Pipe a border around your cookie with thick royal icing. Flood the cookie with thin royal icing. Immediately pipe a dot of another colour of thin royal icing into the centre of your cookie. Pipe concentric circles around the dot. Drag a toothpick from the centre outwards to the edge of your cookie. Turn cookie and repeat until you're back at the starting point.

Flower design: Pipe a border around your cookie with thick royal icing. Flood the cookie with thin royal icing. Immediately pipe a dot of another colour of thin royal icing into the centre of your cookie. Pipe concentric circles around the dot. Drag a toothpick from the centre outwards to the edge of the cookie. Turn cookie and drag toothpick from the outside into the centre of the cookie. Repeat, alternating directions, until you're back at the starting point.

Marble: Pipe a border around your cookie with thick royal icing. Flood the cookie with thin royal icing. Immediately pipe horizontal lines of another colour of thin royal icing into the cookie. Bisect the lines by dragging a toothpick across them vertically – first from top to bottom, then next from bottom to top. Repeat, alternating directions, until you reach the end of the horizontal lines.