These decorated crown cookies are fit for a Queen or King, and they’re really fun to make with kids for an all-family activity.

Whether you’re teaching the kids about Kings and Queens or are having a medieval themed birthday party, these decorated crown cookies are fun to get creative with and don’t require a huge amount of technical skill – perfect for royal icing beginners!

In this guide to decorating crown cookies, you’ll learn how to make the cookies, how to make the royal icing, and decorating techniques.

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Ingredients You’ll Need

Most of the ingredients you’ll need are basic baking ingredients like flour and butter, but the one ingredient you may need to source is meringue powder.

This is used to make the royal icing.

You’ll find the full list of ingredients in the cut-out sugar cookie recipe and the royal icing recipe.

Must-Have Baking Tools (seriously)

Silicone baking mats – I use this brand and my cookies slide right off without burning!
a cookie scoop – get this one. It makes the perfect rounded cookies every time!
silicone spatula – try this set. It’s the best way to get the most out of your dough and batters
rolling pin guides – I use this one. Genius way to roll your dough out evenly!

Tools You’ll Want

In addition to the ingredients, you will need a few tools to make these cookies, including:

crown cookie cutter – this is a great one
baking tray
silicone baking mat – I use these ones
piping bags for the royal icing – these are the best
gel food coloring – this is the best (always go gel over liquid for icing)
any decorative sprinkles or chocolates

Making the Sugar Cookie Dough

The most important part of making sugar cookie dough for these recipes is the “no spread” part.

“Spread” is when the cookie literally spreads out in the oven, and this is what we want for some recipes.

However, for any decorated cookies, whether it’s decorated lizard cookies, decorated citrus cookies or decorated baby shower cookies, we want the shapes to be crisp and clean with nice edges that are defined.

The cut-out sugar cookie recipe I use is formulated to prevent spread and ensure those crisp edges, which is done with a combination of chilling the dough and the components of the dough, like using powdered sugar, that help avoid spread.

I bake these cookies at about 8 minutes and take them out just as they are going a slight golden, as this makes them nice and soft when it comes time to eat them.

I don’t like hard cookies!

Using Royal Icing to Decorate

Royal icing is the type of icing you will use to decorate these cookies, because it’s the only way to get a firm, smooth, and detailed surface.

Unlike buttercream icing or glaze icing which is used to frost cookies that need much less detail, royal icing goes on “wet”, but then firms up and holds its shape and color, so eventually you will be able to touch it and get no icing on your hands as it will have become completely firm.

Some people add cornstarch to their royal icing to try and make it have a softer “bite,” but I find that the firmness of the royal icing recipe I use is completely fine.

You’ll learn more in the royal icing recipe about how to make royal icing of different consistencies, but you should know that I used a thicker, toothpaste like consistency for the details on these crowns and a thinner, honey-like consistency for the yellow base.

Substitutions

You really shouldn’t make substitutions to the cut-out sugar cookie recipe, as it is specifically formulated to prevent spread in the oven.

However, if you want to substitute flavoring in the royal icing instead of the vanilla extract, that is totally fine.

Must-Have Decorating Tools

Piping bags – I use and love these ones
Gel food coloring – much better than liquid food coloring
Meringue powder – I use this kind for my royal icing
Scribe – for awesome detail and clean up

How to Store Decorated Crown Cookies

Good news!

You don’t need a fridge or a freezer to store these cookies.

Because they’re made with meringue powder, you can keep them at room temperature in an airtight container and they’ll be good for about 2 to 3 weeks.

How to Decorate Crown Cookies

Decorating crown cookies is insanely easy, as there is just one color for the base.

First, outline the crown in yellow, and then immediately flood it in with the same yellow.

Let this dry for a good 2 or 3 hours, and then use other colors and toppings to create patterns.

You can do stripes, dots, or add pearls or sprinkles at the tops of the crowns to act as jewels.

There are no rules, just get creative and enjoy the fun of cookie decorating!

Yield: 24 cookies

Decorated Crown Cookies

These decorated crown cookies are perfect for celebrating Kings and Queens and having medieval themed parties.

Prep Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

24 crown cookies
1 batch of royal icing

Instructions

Bake the crown cookies using the sugar cut-out cookie recipe
Make a batch of royal icing using the royal icing recipe
First, outline the crown in yellow, and then immediately flood it in with the same yellow.
Let this dry for a good 2 or 3 hours, and then use other colors and toppings to create patterns. You can do stripes, dots, or add pearls or sprinkles at the tops of the crowns to act as jewels.