Marbled royal icing is one of the most stunning and deceptively simple cookie decorating techniques out there. Unfortunately, many decorators are intimidated to try it, assuming it is more complex than it really is.

This lovely tutorial created by Cake Central user sweetopia of the popular decorating blog sweetopia.net, walks you through how to create not only the classic “S” icing design, but a precious swirled “heart” design as well.

Check out just how easy (and impressive) this technique can be!

Materials

Sugar cookies
Royal icing in desired colors
Icing bags or bottles, coupler and #2 tip
Toothpick

Instructions

“S” Design:

Once you have your cookies baked and icing made, it’s time to begin by piping your outline. I like to use a piping bag fitted with a coupler and #2 tip.

Fill or flood your cookie with royal icing right away. You could leave the outline to set to create a solid dam, but you’ll be able to see the border when the icing dries.

Once you’ve filled the whole cookie in, shake it gently left to right on your work surface, to help smooth the icing out.

Add your second (or more) layer(s) or color(s) of icing. Work as quickly as you can before the icing sets.

Take a toothpick, pin, skewer or dough tester (hey, whatever works!), and drag it through the icing. In this case, I drew S-like shapes. The image above shows which direction I dragged the toothpick.

Finish off the edges with dots or another design of your choice and you’re done!

Heart Design:

The hearts are made by piping dots and dragging the toothpick through the center of each dot.

Let your cookies dry, then package and finish off with a ribbon. Simple, easy, fun and impressive!