How to Prevent Royal Icing from Over Flooding

If you’ve been wondering how to prevent royal icing from over flooding, you’re in the right place. You take your time outlining and flooding your cookie, step back feeling good, and then—bam!—the icing slowly oozes over the sides. It’s a frustration that even seasoned cookiers (hi, guilty!) still face from time to time.

But don’t worry! With a little practice and a few key adjustments, you can almost entirely eliminate over flooding from your cookie decorating woes.

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First, let’s talk about what’s really going on. The simple explanation is that your icing is too thin or you’ve applied too much icing. And while that’s technically true, the real culprit is usually a combination of three things: the thickness of your icing, the pressure you apply to your piping bag, and the size of the opening on your piping tip or cut bag. All three work together—and when they’re not balanced just right, you’re going to see overflow.

So how do you prevent royal icing from over flooding?

1. Get Your Flood Consistency Right

The thicker the flood, the less likely it is to over flood. That said, you don’t want it to be too thick that it doesn’t settle flat! For a one-consistency outline and flood I recommend my thick flood, and for a two-consistency outline and flood I recommend my thin flood.

Too thin, and it runs like crazy. Too thick, and it won’t spread nicely. When in doubt, it’s better to lean a little thicker when you can—you can always use a scribe to help spread it out smoothly.

2. Adjust Your Pressure

One of the trickiest parts of cookie decorating is figuring out how much pressure to use when piping. If your icing is on the thinner side, use very light pressure. If it’s a little thicker, you can apply a touch more. It takes practice to feel this out, but being mindful while you’re working can make a big difference.

3. Size Matters

The size of your bag opening or piping tip affects flow, too. A larger opening lets more icing out at once, making it easier to accidentally over flood. If you’re struggling, try cutting a smaller opening or switching to a smaller tip size until you get more comfortable balancing pressure and flow.

4. Don’t Overfill!

Remember: the icing will settle and spread, especially with a little help from a scribe tool. Overfilling almost guarantees overflow.

When doing a one-consistency outline and flood (outline and flood with a thick consistency), you don’t want to flood all the way to the edge. By doing this, you’re giving the icing space to naturally spread out without falling off the edge.

When doing a two-consistency outline and flood (outline with a piping consistency and flood with a thinner flood), you might even intentionally want to under flood the cookie depending on the thickness of your icing and the design you’re doing after. If the icing is really thin and/or you’re doing an intricate wet on wet design after, definitely under flood! Add just enough icing so that it will settle flat (with some help from a scribe).

5. Work Quickly, But Carefully

Flood icing starts crusting quickly. If you wait too long after outlining, or if you pause while flooding, it can mess with the smoothness and cause pooling or dripping.

6. Be Mindful of the Temperature

I find that when it’s really hot and/or humid, I tend to get a lot more over flooding. This might be because my hand is also warming up the icing more. Either way, I have to be more careful in this environment and will intentionally under flood more often.

7. Keep Your Cookie Level

This might seem like the most obvious tip of them all: make sure to keep your cookie level! If your cookie is drying on an uneven surface and/or you move it too much while the flood is still drying, the uneven level is more likely to send the flood dripping off one edge.

8. Allow Outline to Dry

When using a two-consistency outline and flood, make sure to allow the outline to dry before adding the flood icing. The point of the outline is like a fence to keep the animals in: a fence made of wood is going to be a lot more effective than a fence made of marshmallow!

Final Tip: If you do get a slight overflow, it’s not the end of the world. Use your scribe to gently push icing back into place and/or scrape off the excess from the side.

The time this doesn’t work as well is if you have an intricate wet on wet design, if you did a two-consistency outline and flood (so you’ll be taking off the outline along with the flood) or if the icing has already started to dry too much.

Sometimes… it’s just better to let the icing over flood and call it a day. If a cookie is a little messy—hey, it’s still going to taste amazing. Practice, patience, and tweaking your techniques will get you there!

Happy decorating!

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