This is the recipe my mother uses to frost gingerbread cookies at Christmas.

Gingerbread Cookie Frosting

confectioners' sugar

milk

food coloring

Sift the confectioners' sugar into a small bowl.  Stir in enough milk to make a smooth but not too runny consistency.  You may need to adjust with some more sugar.  Divide this mixture into small containers, depending on how many colors you want.  Color each small container with colors appropriate for the season, using as much food coloring as needed to create desired hues.


This was a great frosting for my gingerbread men.  I did find, however, that 1/4 cup of milk was far to much and produced a very runny frosting-more like a glaze.  I kept adding sugar until it was more of a spreading consistancy.  I also made a batch that was very stiff and put it into a bag and piped it onto the arms and legs-it was adorable!

Please note that the directions do not say to add the entire 1/4 cup of milk, it states to add ENOUGH milk to make a smooth but not too runny consistency.  So all of those who are blaming the recipe for being too runny should blame themselves for not following directions.

This frosting recipe makes a good "glaze" for gingerbread cookies, as other raters have stated.  I was looking for a frosting that would stiffen up nicely so I changed it up slightly.  Instead of the 1/4c of milk, I used 1 large egg white & I doubled the powdered sugar to 2 cups.  I also add the juice of 1/2 lemon; it gives it a less "powdery sugar" flavor but does not overpower.  I'm a big fan of vanilla extract so I usually add a little of that too!  Stick to the clear vanilla extract if you want to keep the frosting white.  Add food color for color.  I found this combination to be good for decorating as well as "flooding".  To "flood", you will need to dilute frosting w/more egg white to thin it out.  Also, I use the liquid egg whites in the carton; no yolks to deal with & they're pasteurized, which makes them much safer to consume than traditional raw egg whites.

I could not find my recipe for Gingerbread cookies so I made these instead.......I was very disappointed in the outcome. They did not have a good flavor or a food texture. WASTE IF TIME!

Great on gingerbread! As others have said more of a glaze than a frosting. I used about 1/6 milk with 1 cup sugar and the consistency was perfect. I added 1 drop red food coloring for a nice pink color and used them on my Valentine's day cookies. They were a big hit. Will use again. Thanks Alison!

Thanks Alison for the recipe! After reading the reviews I only added 1 tbsp of milk at a time and ended between 3 and 4 tbsps. My kids (5 & 3) enjoyed frosting their gingerbread cookies!

If you read the instructions (a lot of the reviewers clearly didn't!)...it says to start with the sugar and add as much milk as needed to make a good consistancy. If you follow this you will not get too runny a consistancy and it will work just fine!

Way too runny. You need about 5 times as much powdered sugar then it calls for.

This was very good. The only problem is that the name of the recipe should be gingerbread glaze. I added about 5 more cups of powdered sugar and made a thicker icing to pipe on decorations. Great recipe. You can't mess it up! I made some gingerbread men with the very runny glaze and some with a stiffer version more like a frosting.

gingerbread cookie frosting

Author : Alison Hendon

Ingredients

Instructions

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