Summer cookies baking with Royal icing decorations
Flamingos, palm trees and fruits made from lemon shortcrust pastry, decorated with Royal icing
Hello foodies,
this week we are decorating cookies with Royal icing! Many people feel a bit intimidated by this technique, yet it is not that difficult at all. With this guide and the video, you will surely take on this lovely challenge.
Our cookies have a summer theme: flamingos, palm trees, pineapples, lemons and melons, plus a «Merci» made of letter cookies. In a pretty box they make a great gift, for example for your children's teacher.
Let's get started!
The recipe in the video
2:21 min
Ingredients
Cookie dough (approx. 40 cookies à 7 cm)
Royal icing
Material
For packaging
Step by Step
Cookie dough
Butter, icing sugar and lemon
Put 250 g soft butter and 150 g icing sugar into a mixing bowl and grate the zest of one lemon into it with a fine grater. Be sure to use icing sugar and not granulated sugar, so the surface of your cookies stays as smooth as possible.
Steel grater
Cream together, add egg and salt
Beat everything with the paddle attachment for about 2 minutes, until you have a nice creamy mixture. Then add 1 egg and 1/2 tsp salt.
Briefly mix in the flour
Mix for another 1 to 2 minutes. The mixture will become slightly grainy in the process, which is normal. Finally, add 450 g flour and mix it in for just a few seconds, until coarse crumbs form.
Finish by hand
Once the mixture looks like the first picture, switch off the machine and continue by hand. In a mixer the gluten would develop too much and the cookies would get blisters on the surface while baking. So knead as little as possible and simply shape the dough into a ball with a dough scraper.
Roll out and chill
Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper with a large rolling pin. With 5 mm dough guides, it will be the same thickness everywhere. Then place it in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes, which makes it much easier to work with.
Dough guides
Non-stick rolling pin 50 cm
Preheat the oven, choose the cookie cutters
Preheat the oven to 135 °C fan. For our summer cookies we used three sets: flamingo and palm tree, fruits and the alphabet for the lettering.
Note: the small letters are not so easy to release from the cookie cutter. A small, dry and clean brush makes it much easier, and it leaves no marks from fingernails or a knife.
Cookie cutters "Pink Flamingo and Palme"
Alphabet cookie cutter set
Cut out and bake
Cut out the cookies and place them on a Perforated baking sheet lined with baking paper or on a Baking mat. You can place them close together, as they barely spread while baking. Bake the cookies for 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges are lightly browned.
The dough yields about 40 cookies, so depending on their size, you will need two rounds with two trays. Let the cookies cool completely afterwards.
Perforated aluminium sheet 40 x 30 cm
Silicone mat with microperforation, 30 x 40 cm
Royal icing
Prepare the icing
Put 900 g Royal Icing Mix into a Mixing bowl and add 110 g water. If you would rather make the Royal icing yourself, simply follow our recipe for egg white icing.
Eiweissglasur 900g
Mix and divide
Mix everything with the paddle beater on the lowest setting for 1 to 2 minutes. You will get a fairly thick icing, which is exactly how it should be. Divide it into small bowls: 200 g for yellow, 200 g for green, 140 g each for light pink, fuchsia and brown, and 80 g each for black and white.
Colour and thin
Add some Gel color and a few drops of water to each bowl. With a Dosing bottle you can measure the water very precisely. Stir with a spoon and adjust the colour and consistency gradually. The icing is right when it flows like a ribbon: gently shake the bowl, and if the surface becomes smooth, it is ready.
Set 8 Farbstoffe Gele Funcakes
Dosierflasche 2er Set
Decorating
Prepare the piping bags
Fill each colour into a piping bag with adapter and piping nozzle and close it with a rubber band. Use 1.5 mm nozzles for filling the areas and 1 mm nozzles for the details. Thanks to the adapters, you can change the nozzle at any time while decorating.
Always place a damp cloth over the nozzles so the icing does not dry out and clog the tips.
Disposable piping bag S - 30cm - 10 pcs
Adapter with cap for small piping nozzles
Round piping nozzles for Royal icing - opening: 1 mm
Wilton round piping nozzle - opening: 1.5 mm
Rubber band for piping bags
Pipe outlines and fill
The video shows best how to decorate the cookies step by step. First pipe the outlines, then fill the areas. Use the icing needle to spread the icing into the corners and pop small air bubbles. Then add details such as feathers, centres, faces and letters.
Prefer photos to video? We also show the individual steps in the recipe for egg white icing.
Icing needle
Dry in between
Dry the cookies between the individual steps in a food dehydrator or in the oven at 40 °C, top and bottom heat. This way the decorations do not sink, stay nicely three-dimensional and the cookies keep their shine.
Packaging
Packed in pretty kraft boxes with a window, your cookies become the perfect gift, for example as a thank-you for the teacher at the end of the school year.
Small Kraft sweet boxes
Decorated summer cookies with Royal icing
Ingredients
Cookie dough (approx. 40 cookies, 7 cm)
Royal icing
Material
For packaging
Preparation
- Dough: Cream the butter, icing sugar and lemon zest, add egg and salt, then mix in the flour only briefly and bring together by hand.
- Rolling out: Roll out to 5 mm thickness between baking paper, freeze for 15 to 20 min.
- Baking: Cut out the shapes, bake at 135 °C convection for 40 min, let cool completely.
- Royal icing: Stir 900 g mix with 110 g water for 1 to 2 min, divide, colour with gel color and thin with water drop by drop.
- Decorating: Pipe outlines, fill areas with the 1.5 mm nozzle, details with the 1 mm nozzle, dry at 40 °C in between.
- Packaging: Place in kraft boxes with window.
Nutritional values per 100 g
Storage & shelf life
Everything for this recipe
Recommended by our bakery team: exactly the sizes this recipe has been tested with.
Ingredients
Egg white icing 900g
Set of 8 FunCakes gel food colourings
Disposable piping bag S - 30cm - 10 pcs
Round piping nozzles for Royal icing - Opening: 1 mm
Wilton round piping nozzle - Opening: 1.5 mm
Adapter with cap for small piping nozzles
Rubber band for piping bags
Dosing bottle 2-piece set
Needle for icing
Cookie cutters "Pink Flamingo and Palme"
Small Kraft candy boxes
Accessories
Alphabet Cookie cutter set
Steel grater
Dough sticks
Antihaftbeschichteter rolling pin 50 cm
Perforated aluminium sheet 40 x 30 cm
Silicone mat with microperforation, 30 x 40 cm
Delivery in 1 to 2 working days · Free shipping from CHF 100
To make sure it works every time
Icing sugar instead of granulated sugar gives the cookies a nice smooth surface. This is the perfect base for the Royal icing.
Small letters tend to stick in the cookie cutter. Push them out with a dry, clean brush so no marks are left in the dough.
Royal icing dries quickly in the air. Place the piping bags with their tips under a damp cloth so the fine piping nozzles don't clog.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, but without decoration. On the day you want to decorate, take the cookies out in good time and let them thaw in the fridge.
Yes, it's best to use half water and half lemon juice, otherwise the icing becomes too sour. Pour the juice through a sieve so no fruit bits get into the icing.
We recommend the oven: 40 °C top and bottom heat for about 10 minutes. This makes the icing nice and dry, the decorations won't sink and the cookies stay glossy.
Print recipe
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Comments
Question de Céline
By: Céline V. On 2024-03-25Bonjour,
Est-ce qu'il est possible de remplacer l'eau par du jus de citron pour donner plus de pep's?
Merci d'avance et belle journée
Replied by: Karin On 2024-03-26
Question de Tiffany
By: Tiffany D. On 2023-09-06Bonjour,
Je souhaite faire votre recette pour une déco de confirmation.
Combien de temps les biscuits peuvent être conserver avec le glacage?
Merci d avance pour votre réponse
Replied by: Karin On 2023-09-06
Question de Maeva
By: Maeva S. On 2022-11-08Bonjour,
J’ai fait de grands biscuits pour les décorer le lendemain certains avaient fendus au milieu mais pas le jour même. Savez-vous la raison de cela?
Merci d’avance
Cordialement
Replied by: Laura On 2022-11-08
Replied by: Maeva S. On 2022-11-09
Replied by: Laura On 2022-11-11
Question de Aurélie
By: Aurélie G. On 2022-05-10Bonsoir, est il possible de préparer les biscuits à l'avance et les congeler ?
Merci et bonne soirée
Aurélie
Replied by: Karin On 2022-05-11
Question de Sonia
By: Sonia C. On 2022-04-28Bonjour! Peut-on laisser sécher la glace royale à l'air libre aussi? Si oui combien de temps faut-il jusqu'à durcissement complet? Et si l'on choisir le four, combien de temps faut-il? Merci d'avance!
Replied by: Karin On 2022-04-28
Question de Aurélie
By: Aurélie C. On 2022-03-07Bonsoir,
Après les pauses de séchage pouvons-nous ranger les biscuits les uns par dessus les autres dans une boîte ou la déco va se coller aux autres biscuits ?
Replied by: Laura On 2022-03-08