Decorate Sugar Cookies Just Like the Pros
You can learn to beautifully decorate sugar cookies just like you see on social media and I can teach you how! Whether you like to learn from pictures and text or videos and words, I've got you covered! I have created photo Cookie Cards and a Video Tutorial so that you can choose your method of instruction.
*This tutorial is provided for those that have purchased my annually offered Royal Icing Ocean Cookie Decorating Kit. If you are creating the cookies and icing on your own, I use medium flood royal icing to both outline and flood the cookies.
Ocean Cookie Cutters
Cookie Cards: Sugar Cookie Decorating Guides
Use my Cookie Cards below as a guide to decorate your Ocean sugar cookies. Step by step photos plus written instructions give you all the details that you need to create beautifully decorated sugar cookies of your own.
Decorate a Starfish Cookie with Royal Icing
- Pipe an outline around the edge of the cookie.
- Following the outline, flood the entire cookie working towards the center.
- Give the cookie a gentle shake by moving it back and forth to even out the royal icing. If needed, use a toothpick or scribe tool to move the icing around on the cookie to fill in any gaps or holes.
- Let the royal icing dry for at least 20 minutes before you add top layers and adjacent sections. You can speed up the drying time of your royal icing by using a small table fan or dehydrator on the lowest setting.
- Pipe dots of icing in various sizes to add texture to the arms of the starfish.
PRO TIP: For an added crunch, try using Pink Sugar Pearl Sprinkles instead of icing for the dots on the starfish. Sprinkles will sink in to your icing if it is too wet. Let your icing crust over for just a minute before you add your sprinkles so that they stick to the top of the icing.
Decorate a Mermaid Tail Cookie with Royal Icing using the Marbling Technique
- Pipe an outline around the edge of the fins, leaving a slight "v" shape at the top for the base of the tail.
- Following the outline, flood the fins working towards the center.
- Give the cookie a gentle shake by moving it back and forth to even out the royal icing. If needed, use a toothpick or scribe tool to move the icing around on the cookie to fill in any gaps or holes.
- Let the royal icing dry for at least 20 minutes before you add top layers and adjacent sections. You can speed up the drying time of your royal icing by using a small table fan or dehydrator on the lowest setting.
- Pipe an outline around the edge of the tail, coming to a point at the bottom.
- Following the outline, flood the tail, working towards the center.
- While the base layer of royal icing is still wet, pipe horizontal stripes across the tail, alternating colors.
- Using a toothpick or scribe tool, scrape a line through the icing in the center of the tail from bottom to top. Scrape two more lines through the icing from bottom to top, each on either side of the center line, essentially dividing the cookie into four sections
- Give the cookie a gentle shake.
- Pipe an outline around each fin,
- Pipe wavy lines on the fins.
PRO TIP: To achieve a seamlessly smooth marbling design, flood the cookie quickly and marble with a toothpick or scribe tool immediately before the royal icing begins to dry.
Decorate a Sea Shell Cookie with Royal Icing using the Marbling Technique
- Pipe an outline around the edge of the cookie.
- Following the outline, flood the cookie working towards the center.
- Give the cookie a gentle shake by moving it back and forth to even out the royal icing. If needed, use a toothpick or scribe tool to move the icing around on the cookie to fill in any gaps or holes.
- Pipe horizontal stripes that are slightly arched, mimicking the rounded shape of the sea shell.
- Using a toothpick or scribe tool, scrape a line through the icing from top to bottom starting in between two of the scallops at the top of the cookie and working down toward the center point of the cookie.
- Repeat by scraping 5-7 more lines, each starting at the top in between a scallop and curving down toward the center of the cookie.
- Give the cookie a gentle shake.
- Let the royal icing dry for at least 20 minutes before you add top layers and adjacent sections. You can speed up the drying time of your royal icing by using a small table fan or dehydrator on the lowest setting.
- Pipe a dot in the bottom center of the shell.
- Starting at the bottom center dot, pipe scallops around each curve of the top of the cookie, coming back to the center point at the bottom.
- Add sprinkles to the bottom of the cookie.
PRO TIP: Placing sprinkles at the bottom of the cookie works as delicious camouflage in case your scallops don't all meet together neatly at the center point.
Step by Step Sugar Cookie Decorating VIDEO Tutorial
Visual Learner? Let's Decorate Cookies Together!
Follow along to my step by step video tutorial. Learn how to decorate Ocean Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing including a Sea Shell, Mermaid Tail and Starfish. I break down the decorating process into easy to follow steps and give you helpful tips along the way.
Helpful Cookie Decorating Tools:
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Want to Learn More?!
Looking for more inspiration? Check out my Buttercream Icing Ocean Sugar Cookie Decorating Tutorial. Learn to decorate the same Ocean cookies with buttercream icing in different designs that can also be translated to royal icing.
