Royal Icing Recipe For Gingerbread House Or Holiday Cookies

Here is a super easy royal icing recipe, also known as edible glue, to use on your gingerbread houses and holiday cookies. If you haven’t made a gingerbread house since you were a kid (or ever) this is the year to give it a try because it is a fun activity and it’s much easier than in the past.

Ingredients:

3 egg whites
1 lb. box confectioners’ sugar (about 4 cups)
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or lemon flavoring (adjust to taste)
1/2 cup warm water (to adjust consistency)
Food coloring for additional colors (optional)

Instructions:

Use an electric mixer to beat the powdered sugar, corn starch, flavoring, and egg whites until the mixture is thick and shiny. Add more powdered sugar by tablespoonfuls if mixture is too thin. Add water one tablespoonful at a time if too thick.

Add lemon juice and/or vanilla flavoring. Mix well. If you need different colors to decorate your goodies, divide the icing into portions and add food coloring to each portion. Cover in airtight container until ready to use.

*Notes:

1. If you are decorating cookies, you may want to have a thinner consistency where as with the gingerbread house, you’ll want it to be thicker so you can glue on candy.
2. This recipe makes a lot of icing and is written for decorating gingerbread houses (several small or one large.) If you are decorating a few batches of cookies, you will want to cut this recipe in half .
3. This icing hardens when exposed to air so you will want to keep it in an airtight container and mix well before each use.

Need the recipe and instructions for the easiest gingerbread house ever? You can find them in my Kid Friendly Gingerbread House Recipe post.