Sugar Cookie Icing

If light corn syrup is not available, you can substitute a sugar syrup made with 1-1/4 cups sugar and 1/3 cup water, boiled together until syrupy.

You have to play around with the milk and corn syrup pretty much, but it's best to start with what the recipe calls for and add to desired consistency. This recipe was great. The glaze does take time to dry - overnight is best. But the colors don't fade and the icing dries shiny, but not too hard. I made this icing using both almond and lemon extract with superb results for both. The icing adds that big of extra flavor to boring old sugar cookie recipes but the flavor isn't overbearing. Cookies come out stackable and easy to transport after drying. This was my first time ever making decorated cookies and the person who received my cookie gifts asked me if I'd purchased them at a bakery! So I was very pleased with this recipe and will probably use it forever!

Great basic recipe for beautiful, colorful, glossy frosting. I have to work at it each time to get the right consistency. Tip: add a little more milk to make it thinner and easier to brush onto the cookies (if you are getting artistic, like I do). Adding more syrup will not allow it to dry and it will stay gooey until you eat them! I use frosting food colors from the cake decorating section of my craft store, they work great.

I adjusted the recipe with the amount of milk and corn syrup to get it to the consistency I liked (about 3 tsp of milk and 3 tsp of corn syrup). The icing tasted and looked good and was pretty easy to work with. I used this on the Soft Christmas Cookies by Georgie Bowers. I will use this again.

Great for traditional iced cookies. Icing takes a good 6-8 hours to completely dry.

EXCELLENT recipe! Unusual for me to tweak to such an extent BUT I make mine as per another reviewer with 1 c powdered sugar, 4 t milk, 1 t extract, 1 T corn syrup. I found out that if you substitute 4 t heavy cream instead of milk, you get the PERFECT consistency for bordering/lettering - it's stiff enough to hold it's shape but not difficult in any way to work with & will squeeze through a # 2 icing tip with the greatest of ease! Use milk if you are making flood icing and keep adding milk by 1/2 teaspoonful increments until you achieve the consistency you want. This is the ONLY recipe I use to decorate my cookies - it is AWESOME!!! (Check out my photos of the cookies I have decorated using this tweaked recipe!)

I agree that this is the "holy grail" of sugar cookie icing recipes, same for petite fours. This is the same icing I've seen others refer to as "paint brush cookie" icing. I too had to add some milk and corn syrup. Keep in mind bakers, the more corn syrup you use, the longer it will take to dry. In exchange, you will have a nice shiny cookie icing. If the shine doesn't matter, just increase the milk little by little and don't increase the corn syrup. Also, I'm not a fan of an overpowing almond flavor (so little goes very far) so I use my old standby of 1 tsp butter flavoring and 1 tsp vanilla flavoring for every 1/4 tsp of almond flavoring. This is sheer perfection to my family's palates. The ratio of those three flavors is same flavor as buttercream wedding cake icing. Also, I felt the recipe as it is (serving for 12) did not make enough to provide nice coverage of 12 cookies so for 1 dozen cookies, I increased the servings in this recipes(to change the ingredient amounts) to 24 and was stretching the icing at that. I dipped mine and laid on the rack to dry. Also, make sure they are thoroughly dry before stacking. Mine took about 16 hours; that was with the additional corn syrup to make it the perfect consistency. With the necessary changes as stated by other other bakers (adding milk/corn syrup), you are going to love this recipe. The bakeries back in the 60s and 70s used this recipe on their sugar cookies making them much sought after. Addictive!

This is a nice icing recipe, I agree, but one thing is missing - a pinch or two of salt. I don't suggest the icing should be SALTY - not a all - but salt is a flavor enhancer and the ingredient that keeps things (especially sweet things) from being bland. If, for example, you've ever left the salt out of a batch of chocolate chip cookies, you'll know what I mean. A fair number of folks who've reviewed this recipe have described it as overly sweet and/or bland, and this is because it lacks a a little salt. Whether you use vanilla, almond or any other extract, it won't taste right without a little salt to balance the flavor and sweetness - trust me. I added a scant 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt to the recipe - perfect.

This lovely sugar cookie icing works well even for people like me who are lazy and don't have the patience to frost and decorate elaborate cookies. I just spread it with a pastry brush onto simple, round sugar cookies. Maybe not the most impressive looking, but they sure did taste good! I did have to play around with the measurements of the milk and the corn syrup,needing to add more of both to thin it out, but in the end it was a nice, glossy, easily spreadable glaze; just what I was after.

This, as one reviewer noted, is the holy grail of icing recipes... it should be, it's been around for a long time. Some reviews wrote that the icing didn't totally dry, and some said that it wasn't shinny enough. The secret is in the mixing of the syrup and milk. Use whole milk and light syrup in a 50/50 ratio. It takes a bit of practice. If you add too much milk you will lose some of the shine, and too much syrup will keep it from hardening. Once you get it right, you'll never use another icing... FYI: Using lemon extract in place of the almond, as suggested gives the icing a light taste that balances quite well against a typical sugar cookie.

Ok - so after 3 failed attempts at this icing... i finally figured out the "tricks". here's what i discovered: 1. 2 tsp milk is NOT enough! and you can't just dump the sugar in and then pour in the milk as in other icing recipes. 2. Increase the milk to 4 tsp. 3. put the milk in your bowl FIRST. and THEN add the powdered sugar 4. add the powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time!!! it has to be added VERY gradually to the milk. whisking continuously to keep the smooth creamy texture. 5. you DEFINITELY need a "paint brush" to apply this icing. it's very drippy and running. 6. as others have mentioned - if you get it right - the icing is GREAT. very glossy and sets up quickly (if you put on a thin coat applied with a brush). hope this helps others! :)

This is a nice icing recipe, I agree, but one thing is missing - a pinch or two of salt. I don't suggest the icing should be SALTY - not a all - but salt is a flavor enhancer and the ingredient that keeps things (especially sweet things) from being bland. If, for example, you've ever left the salt out of a batch of chocolate chip cookies, you'll know what I mean. A fair number of folks who've reviewed this recipe have described it as overly sweet and/or bland, and this is because it lacks a a little salt. Whether you use vanilla, almond or any other extract, it won't taste right without a little salt to balance the flavor and sweetness - trust me. I added a scant 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt to the recipe - perfect.

I've used this recipe so many times and the result is always fabulous! This icing sets up hard enough to stack cookies (I let them dry overnight first). The colors stay vibrant. For a professional look, I pipe icing around the edges, let dry a while, then flood the cookie with thinned icing to cover it. If you allow the icing to dry slightly between colors, it's simple to add details without the colors bleeding. This icing makes it possible to make cookies that look like they came from a bakery. It is necessary to add additional milk during step one to get it to a smooth consistency, but the outcome makes this a 5 star recipe!

This icing was so easy to make and made my cookies absolutely beautiful. I had to add additional corn syrup, but other than that I followed the recipe exactly. Definitely use gel food coloring. *UPDATE* Now that I have used this several times, I have developed a system. First add the milk (I use about 3 Tbsp.) Then slowly whisk in the powdered sugar. Lastly, add the corn syrup & flavoring (I use vanilla extract), then food coloring. I don't recommend using more corn syrup than required because the icing will not dry properly. However, the more milk you use, the less glossy it will be.

I do love this icing but a word of WARNING! The first several times I made it, I made the adjustment that everyone seemed to be making - using 2 TABLEspoons of milk instead of teaspoons. If you do you will end up with decent icing but you will NOT end up with the gorgeous glossy colors you see in some of these photos. You will get a matte finish. The up side is that it dries much faster - about 4-5 hours. It also covers 30-35 3" cookies with no problem. When you make it with the 2 teaspoons you'll get glossy but it does take 8-9 hours to dry and it will only cover about 20-23 cookies. It doesn't look like it will - I stared at it thinking "You've got to be kidding me!" but I put mine on with a small craft paint brush using three colors and it did.

for those asking for suggestions...I put the icing into small plastic bottles (find them in the candy-making aisle at craft stores). Tint the frostings and then funnel them into the squeeze bottles. When you ice the cookies, outline the cookie and then squeeze a bit more icing into the center. Use a metal spatula to "fill in". Also, I've used the plastic paint brushes (the kind found in water color kits)...takes more time but offers more control. Now that I've been painting cookies for years, I can get the same effect just using a metal spatula (and it's quicker). Let cookies dry on rack before stacking on plate...

I did not care for this because of the flavor. Sure did look nice on the cookies, though.

LOVE this icing! Absolutely use colored paste, especially for intense colors. Liquid food coloring will make the icing runny & you will need to add more sugar. I divided the icing while it was a bit firm and added a tiny bit more milk to one batch, which I used to paint the main color. A firm craft paint brush worked great. It dried perfectly smooth and shiny. I used the slightly firmer batch for piping the fine lines, etc. Thin the icing with additional milk - not corn syrup, or your icing will not dry properly. Substitute vanilla for a milder flavor. It is available in clear, if you need your icing to remain pure white. There are dozens more iced cookies in my future. Thanks for a tasty, easy to use recipe!

Definitely add the sugar to the milk not the milk to the sugar!! It is very hard to mix if you add the milk to the sugar all at once. Great taste though. Will definitely use this recipe again.

I read the past reviews and added more milk to thin the icing a little. I thought it turned out great and after the icing dried, I could stack the cookies with no problems. It works well with the "Best Rolled Sugar Cookie" on the site, too.

I love this icing. It looks so pretty when it dries! The colors stay bright and shiny. Update: I use this recipe everytime I make sugar cookies, but I have found that if it is too thick, DO NOT add more corn syrup. Add more milk instead. If you add more corn syrup, it does not harden, it stays very sticky.

Used this icing to decorate Halloween cookies with my 4 and 8 year old great nieces and it is the best I've tried! I used orange extract for pumpkins, almond for bats and vanilla for ghosts and all were tasty. Put this icing with the Cut Out Cookies In a Flower Pot recipe on this web site and you have a perfect "bakery quality" cookie. I'm anxious to make Christmas cookies with this recipe and decorate gingerbread boys! Thank you for sharing!

This was great. Much easier to use than royal icing. Just add a little more icing sugar for stiffer piping, and a little more milk for a glazed look.

For anyone who has issues with the icing consistency, the way I make this is to start with 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. Add the milk, stir together. Then add the corn syrup and almond extract. Whisk it together with a wire whisk. Then slowly add the other half a cup of powdered sugar, whisking all the while. I found it far easier to get the icing the consistency I wanted this way. :)

Wonderful icing to use for decorating cookies. I used clear vanilla vs. almond extract - just what I was looking for!

So good w/ almond extract - and it leaves the icing pure white. (Tried it w/ vanilla, and it gave it almost a cream-colored tint.) Double the recipe for a full batch of Best Rolled Sugar Cookies from this site. Perfect for Christmas baking!

This icing is delicious! It is just like a local bakery makes. I used a sugar cookie recipe from this site as well and they turned out delicious. I can't wait to make Christmas cookies. With the recommendation of others I did use 1 tsp. more of milk and 1 tsp. more of light corn syrup. I also used other extracts to change the taste slightly. Although the extra liquid in the icing was great for covering the entire cookie. I think next time I will try the original recipe for piping details on the cookies.

This is the first time I made my own icing for cookies. I had a cookie decorating party at my house for myself and 3 other ladies. I have to tell you I am impressed. The icing set up beautifully! I did not use almond flavoring I used some butter flavoring and some vanilla extract. We used paintbrushes to paint the icing on. The cookies dried very fast and by the end of the party we were able to stack the cookies into our containers so the girls could take theirs home. On a side note: I used tablespoons instead of teaspoons for the milk and corn syrup. Perfect!

I love this icing! I use lemon flavor and it is absolutely the best. I have been having trouble with the icing getting spotty and cloudy. I put them in the fridge and it happened. I thought it was the moisture...so I left them out overnight to dry, sometimes it happens, sometimes not. Occasionally I sell these cookies for events, like baby showers or birthdays and it breaks my heart when I get up in the morning and the cookies are spotty. Would ANYONE have any ideas on how to help me. This is the best tasting icing recipe and I want to continue to use it. Thanks

Excellent! I am not an expert cookie baker and I LOVED this recipe! Everyone raved! You do need to add more milk and karo to get the right consistency. I had no problem with drying time -I think those that are having problems are adding too much karo syrup rather than milk. BEAUTIFUL!!

DEFINITELY double the recipe for a whole batch of cookies. Also, I normally wouldn't 5-star a recipe we had to tweak but I think consistency depends so much on humidity, etc, in this recipe that you have to expect it. Overall - the base recipe was great. After doubling the milk and Karo - well, our cookies look great - so 5 stars!

This was a nice icing suprise. I have glazed my sugar cookies for 40 years with powdered sugar, water, vanilla & color. The corn syrup completely changed the process in a good way. I did have to add more corn syrup and milk, but the outcome was very good.

I've used this recipe a lot and it's pretty much fool-proof. It's very easy and always hardens well. I've used both almond and vanilla extract and they both result in very impressive sugar cookies...try it!

This turned out perfect for us. It makes a manageable amount and I wanted something without egg whites. Our icing dried silky and was easy to pipe as well as flood. I used clear vanilla extract in place of the almond. Will be using this recipe again.

LOVE THIS icing, used the thick cookie dough, colored them in yellow, they were vibrant and really nice. Usually glazes are hard to see this was nice and easy and quick and held up well. Took a long time to dry. The blue I made came out thinner and more like a glaze, but I thinned with milk and not the corn syrup, which the recipe says to do. The yellow which came out vibrant and thick I used the corn syrup to thin. Think its great.

I agree that the proportions are off (thanks to prior reviewers for the advice), but when you get the right consistency, the icing is very good! Got rave reviews from people at work! I followed the recipe except I used 2T milk, and then added an extra 1/4 c. of powdered sugar after it turned out too thin for my liking. After the adjustments, I was able to spread the icing on the cookies with a knife and it didn't run off the sides. Still dried hard and shiny, but make sure to let them dry completely... it takes a bit to set hard enough to stack them or plate them. I used with the Best Rolled Sugar Cookies recipe, and this amount frosted approx. 20 basic cookie cutter cookies... I had to make another batch to finish the rest of my cookies. Whenever I bake sugar cookies in the future, I'll use this or the Sugar Cookie Frosting recipe depending on the kind of decorating I'm doing on the cookie. This is better for detail work.

Not only does this icing look fantastic, but it is super easy to work with and tastes great! I will definitely use it from now on for cookies that look and taste great! I needed and extra teaspoon of milk, but otherwise made the recipe exactly as stated. I also tried it with vanilla and it is good that way, too. What I love is that you can spread this on the cookie with a knife, and after you let it set, it smoothes out and looks shiny and perfect. Highly, highly recommend this recipe!

THIS IS IT! You will never need another icing recipe for cookie decorating after this one! Very easy to make and looks very professional. I added a 1/2 tsp of milk at a time past the two tsp in the recipe until I reached the desired consistency. I was able to add a second color of icing about 20 minutes after the first color without any bleeding of colors.

QUESTIONS: 1. Whole milk used? and is it room temp or from fridge? 2. Do you sift the powdered sugar? I read somewhere it is to prevent the white splotches in the following days.

I must have done something wrong because the icing came out horrible. I threw it away! First of all...2 t. of milk and corn syrup for 1 cup of confectioners sugar?!?!? I kept adding more and more of each and it just was not good at all!! I thought it would come out better based on the reviews but it did not. Disappointed! ;-(

I LOVE this icing! I used it on shamrock cut outs this year for St Patricks Day (I used "The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie" recipe here). The cookie itself is very plain which is perfect for this very sweet icing :) Like other reviewers, I used 4 tsp of milk, 4 tsp of corn syrup, and 2 tsp of vanilla. The consistency wasn't too runny and dried in a couple of hours. The color was beautiful and shiny; they truly looked professional and tasted great. I will never use anything else!

Followed directions and it was crumbly,added more milk and corn syrup and finally got it to proper consistency. Yes its shiny but we REALLY did not care for the taste.

I have used this recipe time and time again and it never fails! I too add extra milk and corn syrup to thin it out a bit. I use the Wilton gel food colors and the color is always vibrant and doesn't fade! One decorating tip (not sure if this has been posted in another review, if so I apologize) is to allow the icing to dry completely. Then to add decorative sugars/candies, I warm some corn syrup in a bowl, paint my design on the cookie with the corn syrup and sprinkle the sugars over it. The decorations stick to the cookie without sinking into the icing!

I have had trouble with two batches of this icing. The icing is grainy and doesn't stay shiny but goes matt. Any suggestions. I have followed the recipe exactly (using vanilla)...I can't figure it out since everyone else is having great success...any suggestions? Tastes good though.

I needed to update this poor review I gave two years ago, because it wasn't clear to me that I needed to use a hand mixer or mixer to get the right consistency. I used a similar recipe for my cookies this year using a hand mixer and it was great. My family loved them. Thanks!

This icing MADE my cookies! I've always been unimpressed with sugar cookies before but that is now history. I think now sugar cookies are going to be a staple item in our cookie jar now. I was a little discouraged with the frosting at first because I needed WAY more milk and corn syrup than the recipe states, but I stuck with it because another reviewer said that she also had to play with it to get the right consistency. And she was right. I did use whipping cream instead of milk (which may or may not have contributed to the problem with the consistency) and I used Lemon extract for flavor which I believe I wil always use now because the lemon made these SO addicting! I also dipped some of my cookies in chocolate and the resulting Lemon/chocolate combination was just plain AWESOME! I simply love this recipe!

This icing makes beautiful, professional-looking cookies. I used vanilla instead of almond extract and doubled the milk and corn syrup. The consistency was perfect and if it started to thicken up I just added a few drops of corn syrup. The icing was shiny, the colors looked great, and they hardened up nicely. I will look no further for cookie icing recipes.

I haven't tried this one out. But I am really considering it for my twenty thousand (exaggerating slightly) Christmas cookies. The only thing I am unsure about... some pictures show the frosting at such a perfect edge and others look like a two year old frosted them. How in the world do I get them to look so professional and not like I let my toddlers loose in the kitchen??? Any help is much appreciated!!!

The ingredient amounts don't work as listed. More milk has to be added. I found that 2 Tbs was too much. Next time I'll try less.

I increased the teaspoon measurements to tablespoon measurements like everyone said and ended up having to add more sugar because my icing ran over the sides of my cookies. If you want thick, spreadable icing that stays in place only add 1 Tbsp of milk. I also used 1/4 tsp vanilla instead of almond extract. The icing tastes horrible wet, but once it dries it tastes really wonderful. I used the icing with the Soft Sugar Cookies V recipe on this site by Eileen Sieger. I highly recommend using that recipe along with this icing. A real winning combo.

This is a great recipe - i used this bc i couldnt find my meingue powder and wanted to ecorate my cookies - I adjusted the consitency to make it ticker for pipping and thinner for flooding - Highly recommended - i will use this again!!!

Good, I used vanilla extract since I don't like almond. Set really nice on cookies but dries very fast in bowl so have to be quick.

I'm giving 5 stars with the variations suggested by other reviewers. I used 1 heaping tbsp. of milk and 1 tbsp of corn syrup and the icing turned out beautiful. It was very easy to spread with a knife. To add extra embelishments I used a ziplock baggie as a piping bag and just snipped a small piece of the corner off. Edit: I tried this recipe again last night with the "Best Ever Chocolate Cutout Cookies" recipe from this site and substituted the almond with pepermint extract - WONDERFUL!

There is no way these proportions are correct - the sugar was mostly dry after trying to mix in the wet ingredients...did anyone find a better combination of ingredients? I tried adding "a bit" more corn syrup but it was still like wet sand...

Added 5 tsp of milk, 1/4 tsp vanilla, & 1/4 tsp almond extract. Have used this recipe for last 3 yrs, everyone likes it.

Very good base. For some reason I had to add about 4 teaspoons of milk to have the desired consistency...I couldn't even mix it with 2. The flavour and they way it stayed shiny was great though!

Amazing. I live in Europe and have trouble making frostings. This is the first one in 8 years that turned out perfectly! I had no corn syrup so substituted 4 teaspoons golden syrup. I had no almond extract so added 1/4 tsp citrus extract and 1 tsp vanilla. I separated into five bowls and added food coloring, covered with tin foil, baked the cookies and spread on with a knife and decorated with sprinkles etc... Someone else said it took a long time to harden, but within 15 minutes the icing hardened. They are delicious! Thank you so much for your recipe, so simple and perfect!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this recipe! Paired it up with "The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies" recipe and they were awesome! This icing is wonderful because you can basically do with it what you want! I made it a little thicker at first, then piped the outline, then thinned it out and filled the outline in. PERFECT- I will use it every time I make sugar cookie! Thanks!

Great Base. You will need to play around with the amount of milk & corn syrup to get it to the consistancy you need. Dries beautiful & glossy. As with any sugar cookie icing, allow several hours for drying time. You can't make at 5 and take at 6.

The more corn syrup you add then the longer it takes to dry, sometimes as long as 10 hours. This recipe makes enough for about 12 cookies.

good for decorating nice gloss but the taste is awful glue from gade school has a better taste

This is getting a 5 for the flavor, tasted so good and added just the right touch to my sugar cookies. As far as preparing the recipe, I had a little bit of trouble with my first batch because there was just not enough milk. The recipe says to add more corn syrup if it is too thick, but that really didn't help. The second batch I made, I added about 3 tsp. of milk & 3 tsp. corn syrup. It was the perfect consistancy for decorating my cookies!!!

I wish that this had worked out better for me. After all the glowing reviews, I thought it was the best recipe to try, but the flavor is off and it's time consuming to use. I was hoping for a more opaque icing, but it was rather transparent...probably a side effect of my adding more milk than it called for. It tastes like powdered sugar with almond extract in it.

Love the way this turned out. However, do NOT add more corn syrup. Add more milk a little at a time to get the desired consistency. NOT corn syrup!

This is the BEST icing recipe I have found for the "shiny-smooth" look on a cookie. The icing doesn't mottle like the other recipes I've found that use egg white as an ingredient and no need for constant stirring. The icings dry beautifuly and true to color. **NOTE: As suggested by another reviewer, add the sugar a bit at a time to the milk, mixing thoroughly between addition. Add a little milk to thin the icing if needed. The corn syrup amount of 2 tsp. should stay the same.

Substituted light corn syrup for sugar syrup, as was suggested by another user. This recipe made enough icing for about two dozen cookies, and I especially liked how it dried and hardened fairly quickly. It also tasted really good, not too sweet.

I added a little extra milk and used vanilla instead of almond extract as a matter of personal preference. The icing set up perfectly and had the shiny finish I'd hoped for. I'll use this recipe for all my sugar cookies! I highly recommend this one to anyone looking for an easy cookie icing that holds its color and gives you a wonderful finished product.

Very good -- used a little more milk than called for. Dried hard and shiny, good for stacking.

Easy to make and fun to use. I did have to add a little more milk to this recipe.

PERFECT ICING! I started out using only 1 tsp milk because I live in humid Texas, and ended up adding the other tsp to make a stiff icing. I used it to pipe my edges, then added an additional 1 tsp to the leftover icing to make it "flooding" consistency. My first try ever and my cookies look professional! I tried one batch with lemon juice instead of milk and vanilla instead of almond, and it was KILLER! thank you so much! love this recipe!

This icing made pretty, shiny cookies. It dried fairly fast which made decorating nice. My only complaint is the amount of liquid in this recipe is WAY off. There is no way the amount of milk it called for would have allowed me to make a smooth icing. I added a bit more milk and corn syrup until I got a consistency that I could work with.

I used about 5 tsp of milk and an additional squeeze of corn syrup. I added the milk 1 tsp at a time until it reached the consistency I liked. I used this to decorate gingerbread cookies and it dries in about 40 minutes and remains glossy. Will make again!

Best icing I have ever used. Looks beautifull and shiny. I used the best rolled sugar cookie with it and it looked like a professional baker would have done it. These will become favors for future parites I will host.

I didn't care for this icing. The flavor was too sweet and it was hard to get it to spreadable consistency.

Excellent. I've tried several recipes for icing here and this worked out the best for what I was looking for in terms of flavor and glossy finish. You will probably need to add a little more milk, but start with the quantity it calls for and determine for yourself. Look no further, this is the one!

Turns out perfect every time and dries to perfection. This icing goes great with "The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies," also found here on AR.

Love this recipe! I often use lemon juice or some other extract in place of the almond and it's just as good. I do add a pinch of salt too, and I find that really sets the taste off.

I used this recipe for the first time and was a little disappointed. I probably didn't make it thick enough, but I found it too runny and not fast-drying as a lot of reviews had said. I have always previously used basically the same recipe except with butter instead of corn syrup and thought I'd try this because of the reviews. The corn syrup does make it shinier, and I like that. The tastes are the same to me. I'll have to play around with the consistency.

I make this icing more like a glaze and it dries hard so you can stack the cookies easily. It is the tastiest icing I have ever eaten, and no raw egg makes it particularly appealing to me. When I decorate sugar cookies with this icing I have recieved rave reviews from all. Wonderful!

Great recipe! I was searching for an icing that would allow me to stack my cookies for travel, and this was perfect. Cookies had a great finished look and tasted great.

I don't understand how this is getting such high ratings, the ingredients are listed in the wrong amounts, if you mix them exactly as stated, you end up with a powdery lumpy sticky mess. This recipe needs 3tbsp milk and about 5 tbsp corn syrup.

This frosting works so well. I've made it a couple of times now and with great success. I do have to add a little more milk (usually double it). You can use vanilla instead of almond extract. I like either. It's a great icing for "The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies" recipe from this site.

used 1T of corn syrup and 2T of milk,1/2t of vanilla, pics here too. used to frost the best rolled sugar cookies from this site. made two batches to do all the cookies from the recipe.

Awesome Recipe! I've never made a sugar cookie glaze before...but this was easy, quick & tasty. I added about 4tsp. of milk though. Thanks for the awesome recipe!! I was looking for something to use for Wedding Cookie Favors & I think I found it!

It was a bit runny, not good for detailed cookies unless you add more sugar. Love how glossey it dried. If you are going to use vanilla instead of almond extract, i would use the clear and not the brown.

This was good, but the milk and corn syrup was off. I had to add several more teaspoons of milk and corn syrup to be able to use it.. but it's pretty easy to do.. I used this on sugar cookies that I was making for Chanukah so I needed to make it white and blue.. I used clear vanilla extract that I found at wal-mart so that the color wouldn't affect the white.. It looks nice and tastes good when it dries. Good recipe with some modifications, and it's a good base to add whatever extract you like!

This recipe is great for decorating cookies. It is so pretty and easy.

This icing is shiny and definitely hardens like it states, but it's very difficult to use in a piping bag to write words because it's too thick (even after "thinning" it lots with the syrup).

I finally found a good recipe i can use to frost my cookies!! The only change i did make was using honey instead of corn syrup. As a substitute, you are supposed to use boil equal parts distilled water and honey....i boiled 2 tbsp of honey with 2 tbsp of water (i boiled extra just in case i needed to make more icing) and used the 2 tsp of this mixture to replace the 2 tsp of corn syrup. Its a healthy replacement. The icing still kept its shine and im pretty positive it did not change the taste either!!

This is absolutely the best cookie icing I've ever had! It looks beautiful on the cookies, it really does stay shiny, and the designs look sharp and professional. And it tastes great! I didn't add extra milk, but I did have to add quite a bit more corn syrup and it worked out fine. I tried adding cocoa powder for a chocolate flavor, but I don't recommend it - the flavor was faint, and the color was pretty ugly!

Perfect. Used twice as much liquid as called for. Very smooth and dried quickly. Sprinkles added to festive look. Used with krusteaz sugar cookie mix.

This is great, I always wondered how the pro's got the icing so smooth? I did have to use a little more milk then stated and I used extra almond flavoring and a little vanilla. And it's best to sift the powdered sugar first. I used the tall skinny keptchup and mustard tubes/containers to put the icing on the cookies, the little holes worked great. I outlined the cookies and if I wanted to cover the cookie in icing I drizzled it all over the cookie and used a knife to spead it around. it's best if you want to accent or layer the cookies to let the bottom coat dry for a few minutes then put your accents on, otherwise the icing "melts" into the other. Thanks for sharing!

I used this with my seven year old son and had great success with this recipe. I did take the advice of another reviewer and used 4 tsps of milk and 1 tbs of corn syrup and the consistency was perfect. I must admit I did not have corn syrup so I looked up a recipe online and tried to make it, but failed, so I resorted to using maple syrup (the imitation kind) because I knew it was made up of mostly corn syrup. The slight maple flavor combined with vanilla (I did not use the almond extract) tasted great. I agree with the other reviewers this dries nicely and has a great shine making it look just like a cookie you would buy in a bakery, thanks for the great tips.

Looks good, tastes good and easy to work with.

I had to add way more milk to it. 2 teaspoons doesn't go very far. But once I got it to a spreadable consistency, it worked great and it tastes great too!

This tasted great, and was a nice creamy white color. I used whipping cream instead of milk, and put it on some of our 'Best Ever Chocolate Cutout Cookies' from this site. Great combination. This was one of the easier icing recipes out there, but didn't taste like pure powdered sugar (like so many of them do!). The only change I made was subbing vanilla for the almond extract.

Something is terribly wrong with this recipe. I needed 2 T of milk and corn syrup to get the right consistency. But then it didn't dry quickly enough. I was hoping this was the one I used to use and it was perfect. Nope.

Perfect christmas cookie icing. Can use pancake syrup if you don't have karo syrup. I added an extra teaspoon of syrup.

I did not have any light corn syrup on-hand (neither did my neighbors) so I ended up skipping that ingredient and using more milk instead. I was afraid the icing wouldn't be shiny, but it turned out just fine! Next time I'll try it with the corn syrup, to see if it makes a difference, but it's nice to know it still works without it. I was using the recipe to ice cookies large enough to put on a stick, and it was enough for just over a dozen of them.