How to Decorate Sugar Cookies by Dragging With Royal Icing

Royal icing, a fast-hardening frosting recipe, serves as a delicious decorative touch to desserts such as sugar cookies. Decorating sugar cookies with royal icing allows you to achieve special, eye-catching effects. One technique, dragging, involves creating marbled, intricate designs in the icing using various colors. Dragging royal icing on sugar cookies isn't difficult and will delight those who enjoy your delicious, decorative dessert.

Things You'll Need

  • 12 sugar cookies
  • Tube of white royal icing
  • Tube of red royal icing
  • Toothpicks
  • Small icing spatula
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Squeeze a generous amount of white royal icing from the tube onto the center of a sugar cookie.

    • 2

      Smooth the icing over the entire surface of the cookie with a spatula, making sure it is about 1/8 inch thick all over the surface.

    • 3

      Place a single drop of red royal icing onto the center of the white icing-covered cookie. A drop about the size of a pea is adequate, but you can use more or less depending on your tastes.

    • 4

      Dip the tip of a toothpick into the center of the red dot of icing, making sure to penetrate the white icing carefully as well.

    • 5

      Drag the toothpick gently through the icing in any direction you please. For example, you can make circles, lines or even swirling designs as you drag the toothpick. This creates a marbled, colorful design throughout the cookie.