There’s something weirdly satisfying about watching royal icing flow across a cookie like shiny sugar lava — right before it dries into a flawless, bakery-level finish. This simple royal icing recipe ...

All that to say, while I like to consider myself a great baker, intricately decorating sugar cookies with royal icing is not ...

Kat Lieu is the author of 108 Asian Cookies and the founder of Subtle Asian Baking. Through the decades, royal icing has been the edible glue of choice when it comes to building gingerbread houses.