Royal Flood Icing for Cookies and Cakes

Homemade icing shows you've got serious baking game. After you've meticulously cut cookies into thematic shapes or letters to spell your favorite person's name, then baked them perfectly to be level and crisp, you're ready to move on to the defining element: royal icing, or flood icing.

Ok, so before we move on... have you tried our Sugar-free Cookie Mix yet? That's the cookie base we used as we developed these icing recipes... it rolled out great in coconut flour, cut really well with the cookie cutters, and baked to a perfect, level, crisp canvas for our icing trials! You gotta try this mix!

A few quick tips for great cookie cut-outs:

• dough should be firm but not sticky. Consider using less coconut oil than called for or add coconut flour to dough to absorb excess oil
• when rolling the dough, use 2 stacked paint stirring sticks on the sides of your dough to elevate the rolling pin by a 1/4 inch. It creates an even layer of rolled dough
• freeze your cut cookies for 10 minutes in the freezer on a lined sheet for better baking
• after baking, let your cookies rest for at least an hour before icing. They'll be firmer and easier to frost

Sugar-free flood icing—a variation on royal icing.

Our flood icing recipe below has obviously been made sugar-free, and is a monk fruit version of the original. It has the trademark characteristics of that classic icing you've seen atop beautifully decorated cakes and cookies: bright white, sets up dense (sometimes as thick as the cookie itself), with a glossy sheen when finished.

You can add color to individual batches of this flood icing and use it to create anything you'd like. When you have some extra time on your hands, take some inspiration from Pinterest or a magazine and try something extra fancy. Holidays are the perfect reason to go above and beyond the standard cookie or cake to make something memorable and photo-worthy.

Two recipes for decoration icing.

As our product developers worked on this in our test kitchen, they tried several of our monk fruit sweeteners and products. Launching from a high-sugar recipe that also called for common allergen ingredients, they brought in healthier ingredients, like ones you'll find in many of our other products or recipes. In the end, they created two recipes for a decorative icing: one is more classic, and the other has a maple flavor, which paired really well with our sugar-free sugar cookies. Conversation of maple glazed cookies, donuts, and cakes got everyone excited, so we decided to share both!

Quick tips for great frosting:

• if the icing is too thick or not spreading like "flood" icing, add almond milk in small amounts until desired consistency is reached
• the icing might have a tendency to pile up- to help the icing lay flat, try tapping the cookie edges gently until the icing moves

Sugar-free Royal Icing Recipe with Lakanto Powdered Sweetener

This recipe is your close-to-classic with a clean, original icing flavor. Use it on anything you want to add icing to!

Ingredients & Directions

• 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp) of any unsweetened milk (we used almond)
• 2 tsp extract, either vanilla or almond
• 1 and 1/3 cup Lakanto 1X Powdered Sweetener

Stir wet ingredients together first. Spoon mixing works fine—no need for a blender or a wisk. Add the powdered sweetener in 1/3 cup at a time, continually mixing.

This recipe makes enough icing to flood at least one dozen of 3" cookies or one 12" round cake. The recipe doubles easily for more cookies or a larger cake.

Small batch recipe for accent colors

Use this small batch recipe to make about 3 ounces of icing if you need separate colors to make decorative accents.

• 2 Tbsp of any unsweetened milk
• 1/2 tsp of extract
• 1/3 cup Lakanto 1X Powdered Sweetener
• food coloring drops until desired color is achieved

Sugar-free Maple Flood Icing with Lakanto Powdered Sweetener

This maple flavored recipe is a great option if you love a subtle maple flavor on anything, or if you're using this for fall or spiced recipes. It will set just a bit thinner than the classic flood icing recipe but it will still allow for both piping and filling, or a pour method of application.

We found that the small batch of this recipe does retain the white color; however, if you make the full batch you will notice a off-white, creamy color due to the maple syrup.

Ingredients & Directions

• 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp) of any unsweetened milk (we used almond)
• 4 Tbsp of Lakanto Maple Syrup
• 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp softened coconut oil
• 4 cups Lakanto 1X Powdered Sweetener

Stir wet ingredients together first. Spoon mixing works fine—no need for a blender or a wisk, just so long as your coconut oil is softened. Add the powdered sweetener in 1/2 cup at a time, continually mixing.

This recipe makes enough icing to flood at least one dozen of 3" cookies or one 12" round cake. The recipe doubles easily for more cookies or a larger cake.

Small batch maple recipe for accent colors

Use this small batch recipe to make about 3 ounces of icing if you need separate colors to make decorative accents.

• 2 Tbsp of any unsweetened milk
• 1 Tbsp of Lakanto Maple Syrup
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 cup Lakanto 1X Powdered Sweetener
• 1/4 tsp softened coconut oil
• food coloring drops until desired color is achieved

Looking for more Easter recipes? Check out our DIY Chocolate Easter Egg recipe!

*For more tips on how and when to use Lakanto sweeteners, check out our Baking Guide