How To Marble Sugar Cookies
Marbling sugar cookies is even easier than piping on royal icing. This post will show you how to marble sugar cookies!
It can be a little messy, but dipping cookies is faster than piping and flooding. No two marbled sugar cookies look alike. Each time you dip, the gel food dye pattern changes, especially if you add more than one gel color. You could also call these tie dye cookies!
Gather A Few Tools
To marble sugar cookies you need a shallow bowl. This makes it easier to dip the cookie.
Color the icing using a gel food dye. I use AmeriColor because it’s gel so it won’t add any extra liquid and gives vibrant colors with less drops.
A scribe tool or a toothpick to gently mix the food gel with the royal icing.
Step 1: Bake the Cookies
To begin, you need to bake up some sugar cookies. Cut out any shape you want, I decided to use a star and a moon cutter.
You can find my soft cut-out sugar cookie recipe here. Make the dough and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. After you take it out, sprinkle flour onto a clean flat surface.
Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness to get soft centers and slightly crisp edges. Bake the cookies and then let them cool for ten minutes before marbling.
Watch the Video!
Step 2: Make the Royal Icing
While the sugar cookies are baking/cooling, you can start mixing together the powdered sugar and pasteurized egg whites in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment.
My easy royal icing recipe with egg whites is just two ingredients. I made this recipe to pair perfectly with my sugar cooke recipe. ?
This recipe makes pipe-able consistency icing which is perfect for dipping sugar cookies. Pipe-able icing can be used to flood cookies but it’s not as thin as flooding consistency. This makes it’s perfect because it won’t get *as* messy.
Step 3: Marble Sugar Cookies
Pour your royal icing into a shallow bowl. Add a few drops of color and use a scribe tool to drag the color around. This will ensure that the food dye won’t be too concentrated on one cookie.
Hold the cookie, top side down and dip into the royal icing.
Tip: To ensure that the icing is on the cookie evenly, gently rock the cookie back and forth and slowly pull the cookie straight up.
Sometimes there may be too much icing on the cookie. Hold the cookie almost upside down and gently shake it so it can drip into the bowl. I don’t recommend scraping the cookie on the side of the bowl because it will change the marbled design.
Place the sugar cookies on a wire rack to dry. If there was too much icing on the cookie, it will run off. For easier clean up, place parchment paper under the wire rack so if any royal icing drips, it won’t get onto your surface. You can clean the sides of the cookies with a paper towel or your finger.
To dip cookies with two colors, all you have to do is add a few drops of color and mix with a scribe tool.
Tip: To make pretty marbled cookies, add two colors that go well together i.e. blue + pink = purple. Yellow + blue = green. Or mix two similar shades of colors i.e. light pink and dark park.
You can mix more than two colors, but be careful. Too many clashing colors can leave the royal icing muddled.
For shapes that have corners like stars, make sure to gently rock the cookie to get all of the edges covered. If you see that there is some cookie showing, just go back and dip that part into the icing.
Step 4: Optional Glitter (is it optional though?)
When the marbled sugar cookies are completely dry you can add edible glitter. There are many edible glitters out there, one that I like is this edible glitter from O’Creme.
You can tap it on lightly using a food safe brush. Or if you want the glitter to stand out and be precise, use 1/4 tsp clear vodka and add edible glitter to make a paste. The alcohol evaporates as it dries and leaves the glitter. The glitter will be much more noticeable than lightly dusting the cookie.
How Long do Iced Cookies Need to Dry?
It can take between 12-24 hours for royal icing to full dry. It can depend on how humid your kitchen is and the icing consistency you piped. To be sure the cookies are fully dry when packaging or serving, I recommend letting the cookies dry overnight!
How to Store Sugar Cookies
Decorated cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. You can freeze undecorated cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
