
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 Summer 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.
Cookie Cards: Sugar Cookie Decorating Guides
Use my Cookie Cards below as a guide to decorate your Summer 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 Flower Cookie with Royal Icing
- Pipe a dot in the center of the cookie to use as your starting point for each petal.
- Outline and flood one alternating petal at a time, leaving blank petals in between each one.
- 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 each petal 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.
- Outline and flood the remaining petals one at a time. Let dry for 20 minutes.
- Pipe a circle over the center of the flower and flood in with icing.
- Sprinkle sanding sugar over the entire cookie or just the flower's center.

PRO TIP: Sanding sugar will stick to wet royal icing. Make sure the petals are dry before adding sanding sugar to the center of the flower. Or, for easier more exact sanding sugar application on just the center of the flower, consider filling a shallow bowl or plate with sanding sugar. Hold the flower cookie upside down and lightly press the center icing into the sanding sugar so that it sticks.
Decorate a Sunglasses Cookie with Royal Icing
- Pipe a half circle outline for each lens just inside the edge of the cookie, leaving blank cookie space all around for the frames of the sunglasses.
- Following the outlines, flood the lenses 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 entire outside of the cookie and around the lenses.
- Following the outlines, flood the lenses. Let dry for 20 minutes.
- Pipe heart shaped "screws" on the frames by piping a tiny "V" shape in each corner.

PRO TIP: To speed up the decorating of this cookie, outline and flood the frames first. Then, after 20 minutes of drying time, you can flood the lenses and pipe the heart "screws" in the same step.
Decorate a Watermelon Cookie with Royal Icing using the Marbling Technique
- 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.
- While the base layer of royal icing is still wet, pipe vertical lines for the veins of the watermelon rind.
- Using a toothpick or scribe tool , gently move the icing of the vertical lines back and forth horizontally to create a zig zag affect.

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.
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 Summer Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing including a Flower, Sunglasses and Watermelon. 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 Summer Sugar Cookie Decorating Tutorial. Learn to decorate the same Summer cookies with buttercream icing in different designs that can also be translated to royal icing.