How to Make Royal Icing for Cookie Decorating
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What is Royal Icing?
Image courtesy of betsyweber on Flickr.
Recipe
Getting Started
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons warm water
Makes: About 3 cups of icing.
Instructions:
Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).
NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency.
For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water. When using large countertop mixer or for stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.
Thinned Royal Icing:
To thin for pouring, add 1 teaspoon water per cup of royal icing. Use grease-free spoon or spatula to stir slowly. Add 1/2 teaspoon water at a time until you reach proper consistency.
So You're Strapped for Time
Skip on Scratch
CK Products Royal Icing Mix, 1 pound Bag
Amazon Price: $2.58 (as of 06/01/2012)
If you're strapped for time or think that you won't be able to pull off the right consistency of the icing, there are ready-to-mix packages out there. Save yourself time and hassle with these packages or give them as gifts.
Consistency Tips
For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water. When using large countertop mixer or for stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.
The Key to Success
Pay Close Attention
Meringue powder is available in a jar in the baking aisle at large craft stores and can also be found at specialty cooking stores. It's not at all hard to work with and should not intimidate you in any way.Once you make your first batch of royal icing, you will see how easy it is to work with. Spread it on cookies and then draw with edible markers once it dries to a smooth surface. Create a surface for edible printed paper to adhere to. This is a special paper made of confectionary ingredients that you can print on using specialty food inks. Bakeries use this to make cakes that have photographs printed onto the frosting.
Making Royal Icing
See it on Video
Coloring the Icing
Taking the Icing and Making It Your Own
Most home bakers will want to tint their royal icing to make different colored iced cookies.You can use food coloring paste or powder, found at craft or cooking stores, to get deeper, richer icing colors.
Food coloring drops tend to diffuse too much and make pastel colors, which are still pretty, but not as dark.
Colorful Cookies
Adding Color and Making It Fun
Adding More Decor
For You Overachievers
Once you have iced cookies with royal icing, you'll want to add any colored sanding sugars or decorations right away before the icing sets. Once it sets, you really can't stick anything else to it.So go ahead and sprinkle and shake dots and jimmies onto your gourmet cookie favors as soon as you frost them. Why stop there? Go with a theme and make different colors of your icing. Then go crazy decorating your cookies with a cause.
More Jazz
Why Use Royal Icing?
It's Simple Really...
Royal icing is a great medium to use with kids for gourmet cookies. They love how easily it spreads and can see their results quickly when it dries. It's also very sweet. And because it is so sweet, it's not recommended for frosting entire cakes.For that type of icing, the one with the smooth surface, use rolled fondant icing. This is a paste you can also buy at the craft or candy store and roll out to cover a whole cake. You can also use cookie cutters to cut designs out of it. It will be semi-pliable and not hard when it dries so it's fine for eating in larger quantities.
What's Your Take?
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Thoughts?
Have you tried making royal icing?
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Bestbuyguide
Apr 18, 2012 @ 3:51 am | delete
- I hate living in the UK when I hear of all the stuff that they have in the US that is a bind to find in the UK.
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goo2eyes
Mar 9, 2012 @ 9:43 pm | delete
- angel blessings for the wonderful ideas. you've got lots of knowledge in baking.
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Pinkchic18
Mar 6, 2012 @ 11:06 am | delete
- I have made royal icing before, it didn't turn out the best but it was still tasty! Practice makes perfect, i'm sure.
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janices7 Feb 28, 2012 @ 10:04 am | delete
- Found the meringue powder at Joann Fabrics - recipe worked great for some cute Valentine's Day heart cookies.
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miaponzo
Apr 21, 2011 @ 12:25 am | delete
- I have.. but not with exactly the same recipe.. Thanks for the insight and tips!
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jkvkdailey
Mar 2, 2011 @ 8:10 am | delete
- I haven't made royal icing yet, but I'm going to try it soon because the cookies look so cool with it!
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- I learned how to make royal icing and decorate cut-out cookies from Martha Stewart a long time ago....royal icing is the key to making great looking cookies. Thanks for sharing your ideas and tips!
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by DessertLover
I am an expert on all things sweet - baking, designing, and especially eating desserts! I'll be sharing my baking tips, recipes and favorite desserts.
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