How to Make a Honeycomb Cookie with Royal Icing

Textured royal icing sugar cookies? Yes, please! Cookie decorating doesn’t need to be intimidating; sometimes the simplest techniques can have the biggest impact and wow factor. With an inexpensive household item and some brightly coloured royal icing, you can create this stunning cookie design. In this tutorial, I will walk you through creating a honeycomb texture cookie with royal icing which is perfect for a bee-themed cookie set.

Items Needed to Create this Cookie

To recreate the honeycomb texture on a sugar cookie, you will need the following items:

Cookie: ensure that you bake your cookies in advance and allow them to cool completely before decorating. I used my no spread, no chill sugar cookie recipe.

Icing: to achieve the texture, I am using a stiff/thick consistency royal icing, coloured with Lemon Yellow food colouring.

Spatula: to spread the icing on the cookie. I prefer a tapered spatula as this gives better control.

Bubble Wrap: make sure you wash and dry the bubble wrap thoroughly before use.

How to Make Honeycomb

This really is the simplest and most satisfying way to create the honeycomb texture on a cookie. No fancy tools or piping skills are needed.

Applying the Icing

Start by spreading some thick consistency royal icing onto the cookie. Be generous with the icing as you want to make sure it’s thick enough to create detailed indentations from the bubble wrap.

Creating the Texture

Place some clean and dry bubble wrap on top of the icing and press it down slightly.

You can see right away whether the indentations are deep enough – give it another press if needed. Don’t worry if some of the icing spills over the side of the cookie. You can always scrape it off after it has dried.

Drying Time

This is the longest part of the technique – waiting for the icing to dry. I let my cookie sit at room temperature to dry for about 24 hours. You can speed up the drying by using a dehydrator if you prefer. Just make sure that the fan doesn’t move the bubble wrap.

To test if the icing is dry, gently peel back one edge to check it. Once fully dried, you can peel it off fully. This is the most satisfying part of the process.

Look how great the icing looks! All those nice details of honeycomb. This is sure to impress your friends and family.

How to Use this Cookie

Here’s the bee-themed cookie set that this cookie belongs to. When planning cookies, it’s always fun to have a variety of designs and textures to showcase your creativity.

Video Tutorial

If you prefer to learn visually, watch my short tutorial for the honeycomb cookie technique.

Storage Tips

Decorated sugar cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 1 week. They will last longer if you heat seal them in food-grade bags.

Prefer to freeze cookies for a later date? I recommend freezing decorated cookies in a single layer in an airtight container. Allow them to defrost at room temperature before removing from the container. This will stop any condensation affecting the icing as it comes back to temperature.

Common Questions

More Decorating Tutorials

I’ll be sharing the bee tutorial soon so stay tuned to my blog for that. In the meantime, feel free to check out more of my decorating tutorials.

And if you’re looking for some cookie recipes, check out my collection of allergy friendly cookies. My recipes are always dairy free, kid-approved and full of fun and flavour.

Let me know if you try this technique. And if you share your honeycomb photos on social media, please tag me @itsbakeangel. I love seeing your work.

Happy decorating cookie friend!