Shimmery Royal Icing for Cookies

Combine powdered sugar and meringue powder in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Add 5 tablespoons of warm water and the vanilla. Mix on medium-high for 5-7 minutes until thick, glossy, and white. Add the last tablespoon of water if it’s too stiff to pipe — you want it to hold its shape but flow smoothly out of the bag.

Two ways to do this, and they give different results. Mix-in: whisk luster dust directly into the finished icing before it goes in the piping bag. You’ll get shimmer baked right into every bit of coverage. Dust-on: flood and pipe your cookies first, let them dry completely (minimum 4 hours, overnight is better), then brush dry luster dust over the surface with a soft food-safe brush. The dust-on method gives a more metallic, almost chrome finish.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of luster dust per cup of icing. Whisk thoroughly — you want even distribution, no streaks. Taste it. You should taste nothing, which is exactly right. The icing should look slightly shimmery even in the bowl. It gets more dramatic once it dries on the cookie.

Fill your piping bag, outline the cookie edges with a #2 tip, then flood the centers with thinned icing. If you want multiple colors of shimmer on one cookie, work section by section while the icing is still wet so the edges blend, or let each section dry fully for clean lines.

Once the icing is bone dry, dip a soft brush into your luster dust and tap off the excess before touching it to the cookie. Light, circular strokes. You can build up coverage, but you can’t take it back. Gold on white icing reads warm and luxe. Silver on white looks almost liquid.