Hey Besties! If you’ve been here before, you know that I LOVE creating and sharing a huge variety of cutout cookie flavor recipes! I’ve lost track of how many different flavors we have now…close to 30 I think now! And one of the first questions I receive when sharing a new recipe is, “What flavor icing do you pair with this?” In anticipation of this question, I almost always include that information, but I also know many of you love playing with fun flavor combos! So that’s what we’re doing today! I’m sharing some of my favorite royal icing flavors, how to make them and what to avoid when flavoring your royal icing!
Let’s Start with the Cookies
Before we ice, we have to bake a delicious canvas! And your cookie flavor will set the stage for your icing flavor! While vanilla cookies are delish, different flavors are also incredibly delicious and can set your cookies apart from the rest! Our top rear-round flavors are as follows: Chocolate, Red Velvet, Funfetti, Peanut Butter, Salted Caramel, Lemon and Chocolate Chip! And then there are other flavors that are popular seasonally, such as Pumpkin Spice, Chocolate Mint, Strawberry, Gingerbread and M&M! And there are other flavors, such as Cookies & Cream, Mocha and more! Seriously, you’ve got options! You can find them HERE and also searching my site for flavors you’re looking for.
Who’s got time for chilling?
While us bakers love kicking our feet up to chill, one thing we don’t have time for is chilling dough. When you’re making hundreds of cutout cookies every week, it’s all about efficiency. Which is why ALL of my cutout cookie recipes require NO CHILLING! Mix, cut, bake and cool – that’s it! Any one of these flavors can be made in under 40 minutes and you’re on your way to decorating…or enjoying plain in your favorite shapes!
And of course, these are all no-spread recipes, so your shapes come out of the oven just like when they went in. If you ever encounter cookie spread or expansion, THIS post explains exactly how you can avoid any growth in your cookie shapes!
Our Favorite Royal Icing Recipe
We use the same one recipe for ALL of our cookie decorating! It’s super simple to make and gives us beautiful results and flavor every time. From the time I start putting my ingredients in my bowl, about 7 minutes later, I have a beautiful batch of royal icing! There’s nothing better than a beautiful batch of fresh icing! Oh, the possibilities! You can find it HERE!
This recipe is simple to make with just a few key steps! HOW royal icing is made makes all the difference in the results you achieve. We love beautiful, silky royal icing that gives us PUFF when we want it, no color bleeding, no craters and a polished finish. That is what this recipe gives us every day.
I will note that we use a full cup of water when mixing our icing to create medium to stiff peaks once it’s fully mixed. It also makes this icing super easy to pipe at even the stiffest consistencies for florals – no hand cramps! That said, if you’re in a more humid home, some cookiers prefer to start with 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water to start if they want their icing really stiff once fully mixed. You’ll find the sweet spot that works for your climate and your preference, but a full cup of water works beautifully for thousands of cookiers!
And if making and working with royal icing is completely new to you, THIS FAQ post will be super helpful to learn the fundamentals and avoid any pitfalls.
Let’s talk Royal Icing Flavors!
That’s why we’re here, right? I’ll start off by saying that our regular vanilla royal icing recipe pairs BEAUTIFULLY with every flavor cookie we make. And most commonly, that is what we use with our cookies as it lets the amazing cookie flavor take center stage. However, there are some flavor combos we love, and I know many of you love flavoring your royal icing.
Emulsions, Extracts and super strength flavors, oh my!
Bestie, you have a whole world of flavoring options available to you! In THIS post, I break down the differences between these different types of flavorings and how they are used in baking and more. But the most important rule to remember is that you do not want to use any oil-based products when flavoring your royal icing. It will impact how your icing dries and may prevent it from drying altogether.
The fabulous news is that emulsions are all water-based, extracts are alcohol-based and most of the super-strength flavors out there are also water-soluble. So again, you’re got SO many options! There is a common misconception that super strength flavors are oil-based because the name of the company on the label is “LorAnn Oils”. Have no fear, that is just the company name. Simply check the ingredient label on each flavor to see if it is oil-based so you can avoid those in your royal icing. The vast majority are water-soluble and work beautifully in royal icing.
Our Favorite Royal Icing Flavors!
Like I said, we never want our royal icing to compete with our cookie flavor but compliment it! I think you’d be surprised how delicious vanilla royal icing is with every cookie flavor! But I will also say that THIS emulsion is my favorite flavor to add to my vanilla cookies. It takes regular vanilla cookies and icing to a whole new level! But here are some of our other favorite flavor combos when we flavor our royal icing!
- Chocolate cookies pair deliciously with marshmallow, peanut butter, hazelnut and orange flavored royal icing!
- Red Velvet cookies are amazing with cream cheese flavored icing and chocolate royal icing too!
- Funfetti cookies are crazy good when you add the same cake better flavoring to your icing!
- Peanut butter cookies are incredibly delicious with vanilla, chocolate and marshmallow royal icing!
- Salted caramel cookies are seriously so good with vanilla, but many cookiers include some of the caramel flavoring in their icing too! Chocolate royal icing is also an excellent choice!
- Pumpkin spice cookies are out of this world with cream cheese flavored icing, vanilla and chocolate too!
- Chocolate mint cookies are perfect with either vanilla icing, chocolate or by adding a smidge of the peppermint emulsion to your icing as well. A little goes a LONG way with mint, so work in small doses!
- Gingerbread cookies honestly are the best with vanilla icing in my opinion, but also delicious by adding a little cinnamon spice emulsion to your icing too!
These are the favorite flavor combos we go to with our recipes. We have found that our customer base shies away from anything TOO wild, so we love the classic flavor combos.
How do I make different royal icing flavors?
It’s all about substituting your desired flavor in for some of the vanilla extract your recipe calls for. It’s rare when we completely substitute all of the vanilla for another flavor. We prefer to keep some vanilla in the icing and combine it with our desired flavor. So for example, our royal icing calls for 1.5 tsp of vanilla. So I usually still keep 1/2 or 1 tsp of vanilla in the icing and then make up the rest with the flavor I want.
Every flavor is different, and it also depends on the product you’re using. Emulsions have the same potency as extracts, so you can consider them a 1:1 substitute. However, super-strength flavors are roughly 4 times stronger than emulsions or extracts, so you’ll work in much smaller amounts. My general rule is 1 tsp of emulsion flavoring with 1/2 tsp vanilla or 1/2 tsp of super-strength flavor with 1 tsp of vanilla.
And it really depends on how bold you want your flavor to be. Again, icing should never overpower your cookie creation, so seek a good balance of flavors. When in doubt, I tend to err on the side of a more subtle flavor as something too strong can be an immediate turn off.
Once you start playing with royal icing flavors, you’ll find what you love best and the amounts for the flavor you desire. Take notes when you learn exactly how much you use in each batch because you’ll find every flavor will be different!
I have a category in my Amazon shop dedicated to our go-to flavors so you can see them all in one place! You’ll find it HERE!
Move Over Vanilla…
You’ll never find me denying the deliciousness of a vanilla cookie, but in a world full of vanilla cookies, why not stand out? You’re got SO many delicious cutout cookie flavor options that are so easy to make. And an endless number of options to compliment your cookies with royal icing flavors. Have fun, be bold, surprise those you bake for with something new!
I hope this post all about royal icing flavors was helpful and has inspired you to try something new! Share your favorite flavor combos in our group HERE to inspire fellow Besties! And make sure you’ve already subscribed to receive my weekly newsletter below! Never miss out on a new recipe, tutorial, technique, sale, free printables and more! It may be your favorite email each week! Happy Baking, Bestie!