Hey Bestie! As a cookie coach who works with thousands of aspiring cookiers every day, I’m tackling one of the biggest misconceptions about royal icing cookie decorating. One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is from people looking for a “flood recipe” or an “outline recipe.” But the truth is that such a thing doesn’t exist! So let’s break this this down and get to what bakers are really after.
A flood recipe doesn’t exist
If you’re new to decorating with royal icing, there are a few universal truths that are helpful to understand. First, royal icing is very sensitive to humidity. This isn’t really something you notice when working with buttercream or other icings. So when a fresh batch of royal icing is made, the final consistency is going to be slightly different for each cookier based on their environment. Five cookiers using the exact same recipe and method will commonly end up with five different results because of this. So for this reason, there is no formula or recipe to create a “flood icing”. Since we all start at different consistencies, it’s impossible to say “add X amount of water” to create a flood icing.
Cookie decorators use one recipe for all their decorating and create different consistencies for whatever technique they are doing. Flooding, piping, writing, florals, etc. Same recipe, different consistencies.
So learning to create your royal icing is your first step. Once you have your icing, then you need to create your consistencies. And here’s the bestie truth…mastering different consistencies is arguably the hardest part of cookie decorating. But the good news is that once you learn your consistencies, you’re over the biggest hurdle and it all gets much easier from there.
So the question is not, “Where can I find a flood icing recipe?” The question should be, “How do I create a flood consistency?’
Royal icing recipe
If you need a fabulous royal icing recipe that’s loved by thousands of cookiers, you can find that HERE. This walks through exactly how I make my royal icing every day. As explained in that recipe and the included video, the amount of water to use when you make your icing will vary for every cookier, based on their indoor humidity level. I use a full cup of water when making my icing, or scale back closer to 3/4 cup of water during the time of the year my home is more humid. Whereas cookiers who live in humid homes (shout out Florida and Louisiana besties), only use 1/2 cup of water. You’ll find the sweet spot for your home, and it can change with the seasons. Once you make your icing, you’ve conquered the first hurdle!
How to make royal icing consistencies
Alright, so you’ve made your icing, now you need to create your consistencies for what you’ll be doing. If you just make your icing and try flooding cookies with that icing, you’re going to quickly learn that fresh icing is far too thick to settle smooth. So if you want to flood cookies, you’ll want to make a flood consistency.
I have many consistency videos and tutorials on this topic. You’ll find my consistency guide HERE which includes a video of each consistency. You’ll use small amounts of water (I suggest using a spray bottle for precision) to thin your icing to your desired consistency. Or you can add powdered sugar if you need to thicken your icing, for floral consistency, for example.
Pro tip: Always create your colors before creating your consistencies. Coloring is water-based so if you created your consistencies first and then added your coloring, you’d be thinning your consistency more from the coloring.
Let’s make a flooding consistency together
I made this quick video for you that shows how we go from our fresh batch of icing to a 15-second flood consistency. You’ll find the video HERE or by clicking on the icing image below.
Flooding tutorials
Flooding is the first consistency I recommend you focus on since it is the base of learning to decorate, so I’m including a few helpful resources for you. You’ll find four different consistency methods to flood beautiful cookies in THIS tutorial. I encourage cookiers to try different methods to find the one that works the best for you. There is no one way that works best for everyone.
And HERE, you’ll see the most common challenges cookiers have when learning to flood cookies and how to fix them.
Time to get decorating!
I hope this post all about making royal icing, creating consistencies, along with tutorials on mastering flooding, has been helpful for you. That’s always my number one goal. And if you hear of other cookiers struggling, please share this so the circle of love can continue. If you need any more help, you can find me and thousands of fellow Besties HERE. It’s the happiest corner of the internet where you’ll find endless help, support, inspiration and celebration of beautiful bakes. And I’d LOVE to see your cookies there too!
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What is your opinion of using old icing. That sounds gross when I write it but I always have so much left over, I store it in the bag it was in, either in my cookie cabinet or freezer. Then when I need it, I just squeeze it out of the bag and stir it really well and re-use it. Usually it’s fine but lately it’s been so thin that I will need to start adding more powdered sugar! Just hate to waste it!
Hi Jaye! It’s VERY common for cookiers to use leftover icing! No one wants to waste icing. I definitely freeze mine if I won’t be using it for a couple days. This should help! https://www.yourbakingbestie.com/how-to-store-royal-icing/
Works perfectly well for me. In between cookie seasons and events I leave baked cookies and icing in the freezer, so I can product a dozen birthday or other event cookies without cluttering up the whole kitchen. I do make sure that the base is well beaten again, don’t need the mixer.
By the way, Ericka, I recommend you try Elderflower and Lime cookies for birthdays, Valentines, Easter and even Christmas – the flavor is refreshing against the sweetness of the icing. Or use a vanilla or coconut cookie and put the elderflower and lime in the icing. In Cookies use fresh lime zest, in icing use lime extract. I’m English and have loved learning how to ice cookies this past two years through your fantastic tuition. In England our cookies (biscuits!) are thinner, and so my cookies are thin with think flood icing; when I want to include puffy icing I use a thicker cookie. The elderflower and lime cookie recipe is traditional English for Easter and for Christmas stars and snowflakes. But then I adapted the flavorings to your no chill recipe and it works really well.