How to Fix a Mistake on a Decorated Cookie
I’m the most clumsy person in the world and it never fails that somehow I mess up a decorated cookie by sticking my finger in the icing. I don’t stick it the wet royal icing so it can be easily fixed. Nope. I stick in the royal icing that has started forming a crust so it’s a little harder to fix. But the good news is, you can fix a mistake on most (I wish it were all) of your cookies with almost dry royal icing.
It’s not hard to fix a mistake on a cookie if you’ve got a turkey lacer, toothpick, or a Cookie Scraper Boo Boo Stick. Keep reading and I’ll show you how because it’s really simple!
How to Fix a Mistake on a Decorated Cookie
- If you’re like me it’s inevitable you are going to stick your finger in your royal icing after you’ve outlined and flooded it because that’s just what we do. It’s like my hand becomes this claw that has a mind of its own and must poke the smooth icing because it’s too pretty to be left alone.
- Here is a tip for ya. If you poke the royal icing that has crusted on the top, grab a turkey lacer and scrape off the small damaged area.
- Grab a piping bag and pipe a little royal icing where you removed the damaged royal icing.
- Take the turkey lacer and stick the tip of it in the wet royal icing you just piped.
- Here is the secret, treat the turkey lacer like it’s a sewing machine needle. Move it up and down in the same spot so it will kinda jiggle the royal icing smooth. This will also make the royal icing that has formed a crust blend with the new wet royal icing you just piped. You can see this in action in the video at the end of this post.
- Once you have the icing looking smooth, use the turkey lacer to clean the edges of the cookie so it will look good as new.
- There you go. How to fix a mistake on a decorated cookie even if the icing has started to form a crust. This has saved a ton of cookies for me in the past. Just to make sure you can see how I fix the mistake, here’s a video for you to watch.
How to Fix a Mistake on a Decorated Cookies:
While your watching, notice how the turkey lacer “jiggles” the royal icing until it becomes smooth and looks like it wasn’t damaged in the first place. Easy!
I use this trick all the time to fix mistakes because my hands can’t resist poking beautifully crusted royal icing. Bad hand! Bad, bad hand!!
Breakfast Cookie Tutorials:
Egg Cookie Tutorial
Bacon Cookie Tutorial
Waffle Cookie Tutorial
Royal Icing Recipe
Sugar Cookie Recipe
Bear hugs,
I am SO glad that you posted this, Lisa!
Oh my goodness….I have been scraping off ALL of the icing from my cookies whenever my finger goes wonky and touches icing that has crusted but is still wet underneath. It never occurred to me to only remove the spot that my finger touched (duh). Actually, I never tried it as I didn’t think that the crusted icing would “blend” into the fresh repair….but now I know differently because of YOU! <3
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! You have just saved me so much time and frustration….I owe you. 🙂
Same here!!!!!!
Hey Melissa,
Hope you have fun “Fixing Cookies!” 😉
You are so welcome Janis! I’m so glad you found something that is helpful! Remember, it will work on most royal icing mistakes, but there are a few you will need to scrape off and start again. I honestly don’t have to start over on very many of them since I’ve been using this technique. Hopefully you won’t either. 😉
Thanks for posting this!!! It’s nice to know that “Experienced” Decorators make mistakes too! I always thought that the more I practiced, I would have less mistakes. Unfortunately, after 2+ years, I still poke my finger into the icing when it starts to harden! No matter how careful I am, it still happens! I have small hands, so I can’t use that as an excuse. I guess i’m just clumsy and need to deal with it!
I will no longer scrape all the icing off the cookie and start over. You certainly saved me a lot of frustration & time!
Thanks!!!
Hey Karen,
I always seem to poke my finger in a crusted cookie. I don’t understand why the cookie pulls my finger in like a magnet! LOL At least know we have something that may help us out on a few of the boo boo cookies!
Great tip! Thanks Lisa
Your very welcome Linda! I hope it helps!
I thought we had to eat our mistakes! 🙂 Thanks for the techniques. And all of the Saved Cookies and Cookie Calories thank you too!
Hey Barbara,
You can eat them if you want! I won’t tell if you don’t! hehehehe
So interesting and helpful.
I hope it helps Lisa! Happy Baking! 😉
Um, yea that fits my description to a tee, err T? It seems to happen mostly when I’m trying to make room on the cookie sheet where I have all the other cookies hanging out to dry that my clumsy fingers interfere. Now all I need is a tutorial on how to fix a cookie that’s been bitten 😉
Hahaha! If you figure that one out Cori, PLESE LET ME KNOW! LOL
You mean I’m not the only one messing up my cookies? It happens more than I’d like to admit, I do try and fix it, but sometimes I give up. Now I’ll keep trying! 🙂
Not you Kim! You don’t make mistakes on cookies like me do you? LOL Man, poking our finger in the crusted icing thing is contagious! 😉
Thanks Lisa, I usually eat the cookie I mess up, but sometimes for an order there are no extras. I have tried smoothing it out and it doesn’t work so I appreciate your tip to remove that portion of icing, re-ice and spread again. The video was tremendously helpful. Have a great day!
I hope it works for you Joan! Like I said, it won’t fix all the cookies, but I’ve sure fixed a lot this way! 😉
I just wanted to add my tip for avoiding this problem. I try not to touch a cookie once it is iced. If I need to move it I use a small spatula.
I totally understand Joan! But I’ve been known to do a little damage with a spatula also! What can I say, I’m clumsy! 😉