How Long Does Royal Icing Take To Dry?

If you've ever eaten a sugar cookie with picture-perfect, hard icing that still tasted delicious, the odds are you were eating royal icing. Royal icing is a type of frosting that dries smooth and firm, meaning you can pick up a cookie that's been iced and none will come off. While today, it's typically used on sugar cookies, it got its name from its use on the British royal family's wedding cakes in the 1800s. It's ideal for decorating, as you can layer different colored icings to make various designs without them smudging or smearing away. However, your decorations will turn into a disaster if you don't give the icing enough time to set.

Estimations for how long you need to let royal icing dry vary, but you should typically let it sit for at least four hours. Trying to bag, package, or stack the cookies before this time has elapsed will cause the icing to smear, defeating the purpose of your careful decorating. Some people on Reddit even recommend leaving them to dry for an entire day or two, an especially good idea if you live in a humid area.

If you're in a rush to eat some delicious sugar cookies or take them to a holiday party on the same day, there are ways to make royal icing set quicker. For instance, there are quick-dry royal icing recipes that claim to dry fully in a few hours. The secret seems to be cream of tartar, with multiple quick-dry royal icing recipes utilizing the ingredient. Pair this with the right kind of powdered sugar, and you'll have delicious royal icing that's ready to go in a flash.

In addition, you can put your food dehydrator to use. A user on Reddit recommends using a quick-dry recipe and then putting the cookies in a dehydrator, saying their cookies are perfectly dry and ready to be packaged four to six hours afterwards with this method. If you use this method, however, be sure the entire cookie is covered in icing to prevent it from drying out when dehydrated. If you don't have a food dehydrator, you can also put the cookies in the oven at a low temperature for a short amount of time. Not only will this help dry the icing, but it will leave you with pleasantly warm cookies even if they were baked a while ago.

While some might assume that the fridge is an option for quicker setting, this is actually a bad idea. Because of the humidity, placing your royally iced cookies in the fridge can actually have the opposite effect.