Royal Icing Recipe

Royal icing is the awesome, hard-drying icing you see on all of the most awesome cookies out there. I have been working for months (literally) to get the recipe just right, so here it is.

What You Need:
Vinegar or lemon juice to wipe down equipment
1 lb. powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. meringue powder
1/3 cup water
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
1-2 tsp. clear vanilla flavoring (or other flavoring of your choice)

(Click here for a Royal Icing Recipe using Egg Whites instead of Meringue Powder.)

Begin by wiping down all of the tools you will use with your icing (bowl, spatula, beaters, measuring cups/spoons, etc.) with a paper towel dampened with white vinegar or lemon juice. This will help remove all of the grease. Grease is the mortal enemy of royal icing. It will cause it to never dry completely... making you crazy in the process.

Measure powdered sugar. (preferably by weight. If you don't have a kitchen scale, approx. 3 1/2 -4 cups of powdered sugar will do.)

In the bowl of a mixer, combine the powdered sugar and the meringue powder.

Add the corn syrup and the flavoring to the 1/3 cup of water.

With the mixer on low, add the liquid to the powdered sugar mixture.

Once the powders have all been combined, mix the icing for about 4-5 minutes on medium speed until it holds a stiff peak...

... like this.

Always, always, always keep your royal icing covered with a damp cloth. This stuff dries out very quickly. So, if you don't have it covered, it will harden and you won't be able to use it. 

You always want to color your royal icing with gel-based icing colors. If you use an oil-based color (usually only used for candy, so you probably don't have any unless you bought it on purpose), it will ruin your icing.

This colored (or white) icing is what you will use for your outline. Grab some plastic wrap and put about 1/3 or 1/4 of the icing into an icing bag bullet to use for outlines.
(Besides the fact that the bullets make clean up so much easier, for royal icing, they are great because they help keep it from drying out while you're coloring and mixing the other icing.)

To get the rest of the icing to a "flooding" consistency, the consistency you want to make smooth, pretty cookies, you'll want to add water a little at a time- we're talking by the teaspoon or less- until any lines in the icing disappear in 8 seconds.

What that means is that you will thin the icing until it looks kind of runny. Get a dollop on the spatula or spoon. Drop a large drop into the cup of icing as seen above.

That drop should all but disappear like you see above in the slow count of 8-10. one...... two...... three........ ten.

I then pour this icing into a zip-top sandwich bag to flood my cookies.

To decorate with this icing, you want to outline your cookies with a tip #1, 2, or 3 (depending on how thick you like your outline to be). Allow that to dry for at least 20 minutes before you add the flooding icing.

The flooding icing usually takes several hours to overnight to dry completely. And some colors, like red and black occasionally don't dry completely. I'm still working the bugs out on those two. My last project, I got the red to dry... but still not the black, so I'm avoiding black to flood cookies with for now if I can.

You want to use this icing the same day you make it. If it sits for more than a few hours, you'll need to mix it up again. Sometimes just squeezing it in the bag will do, but if it's been more than 24 hours, you'll need to get it in a bowl and actually mix it with a spatula or mixer.

Royal icing is a pain to work with sometimes, just because it is a little fussy, but it's so worth it when you can stack all of your cookies, or send perfect cookies in the mail, and have the icing stay just right! Give it a try!

Would you like a printable version of this recipe for $1? Click here to purchase this recipe in an easy-to-view format. The link will take you to PayPal, where you will enter your email address, and after you pay, I will email you a .pdf verson of this recipe. Thank you!

Click the Links Below to See:
Other Icing Recipes & Tricks
Cookie Decorating Ideas & Recipes
My Complete Recipe Index

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Delivered by FeedBurner

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Royal Icing Recipe

Royal icing is the awesome, hard-drying icing you see on all of the most awesome cookies out there. I have been working for months (literally) to get the recipe just right, so here it is.

What You Need:
Vinegar or lemon juice to wipe down equipment
1 lb. powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. meringue powder
1/3 cup water
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
1-2 tsp. clear vanilla flavoring (or other flavoring of your choice)

(Click here for a Royal Icing Recipe using Egg Whites instead of Meringue Powder.)

Begin by wiping down all of the tools you will use with your icing (bowl, spatula, beaters, measuring cups/spoons, etc.) with a paper towel dampened with white vinegar or lemon juice. This will help remove all of the grease. Grease is the mortal enemy of royal icing. It will cause it to never dry completely... making you crazy in the process.

Measure powdered sugar. (preferably by weight. If you don't have a kitchen scale, approx. 3 1/2 -4 cups of powdered sugar will do.)

In the bowl of a mixer, combine the powdered sugar and the meringue powder.

Add the corn syrup and the flavoring to the 1/3 cup of water.

With the mixer on low, add the liquid to the powdered sugar mixture.

Once the powders have all been combined, mix the icing for about 4-5 minutes on medium speed until it holds a stiff peak...

... like this.

Always, always, always keep your royal icing covered with a damp cloth. This stuff dries out very quickly. So, if you don't have it covered, it will harden and you won't be able to use it. 

You always want to color your royal icing with gel-based icing colors. If you use an oil-based color (usually only used for candy, so you probably don't have any unless you bought it on purpose), it will ruin your icing.

This colored (or white) icing is what you will use for your outline. Grab some plastic wrap and put about 1/3 or 1/4 of the icing into an icing bag bullet to use for outlines.
(Besides the fact that the bullets make clean up so much easier, for royal icing, they are great because they help keep it from drying out while you're coloring and mixing the other icing.)

To get the rest of the icing to a "flooding" consistency, the consistency you want to make smooth, pretty cookies, you'll want to add water a little at a time- we're talking by the teaspoon or less- until any lines in the icing disappear in 8 seconds.

What that means is that you will thin the icing until it looks kind of runny. Get a dollop on the spatula or spoon. Drop a large drop into the cup of icing as seen above.

That drop should all but disappear like you see above in the slow count of 8-10. one...... two...... three........ ten.

I then pour this icing into a zip-top sandwich bag to flood my cookies.

To decorate with this icing, you want to outline your cookies with a tip #1, 2, or 3 (depending on how thick you like your outline to be). Allow that to dry for at least 20 minutes before you add the flooding icing.

The flooding icing usually takes several hours to overnight to dry completely. And some colors, like red and black occasionally don't dry completely. I'm still working the bugs out on those two. My last project, I got the red to dry... but still not the black, so I'm avoiding black to flood cookies with for now if I can.

You want to use this icing the same day you make it. If it sits for more than a few hours, you'll need to mix it up again. Sometimes just squeezing it in the bag will do, but if it's been more than 24 hours, you'll need to get it in a bowl and actually mix it with a spatula or mixer.

Royal icing is a pain to work with sometimes, just because it is a little fussy, but it's so worth it when you can stack all of your cookies, or send perfect cookies in the mail, and have the icing stay just right! Give it a try!

Would you like a printable version of this recipe for $1? Click here to purchase this recipe in an easy-to-view format. The link will take you to PayPal, where you will enter your email address, and after you pay, I will email you a .pdf verson of this recipe. Thank you!

Click the Links Below to See:
Other Icing Recipes & Tricks
Cookie Decorating Ideas & Recipes
My Complete Recipe Index

Enter your email address below to receive the latest recipes, tips and ideas in your email inbox:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Read More

Testing Egg-Free Hard-Drying Cookie Icing

A friend posted a recipe link to an "easy," hard-drying icing similar to this over the holidays, and I was intrigued. Would cookie icing made without egg whites or meringue powder really dry hard? Could it be as useful as royal icing, and this easy to make? I had to try it myself to see. But I was skeptical, so it took me a few months.

What You Need:
2 cups powdered sugar
3-4 Tbsp. milk (or water)
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
2 tsp. clear vanilla flavoring
Optional:
Food coloring 

In a small bowl, use a fork to combine sugar, 3 Tbsp. milk, corn syrup and vanilla.
It will probably be more like a ball of icing before it settles. I needed closer to 4 Tbsp. of liquid each time, but it's always better to start out with the 3 Tbsp., and add more milk 1/2 tsp. at a time.

For the icing to "flood" the cookies, you want the icing to "melt back in" within a slow count of 12-15.

That means that you drop a dollop into the bowl of icing, and start counting. The photo above is when I'm at 1.

This photo is what the same drop of icing then looked like when I got to about 13. (This is a s-l-o-w count. Not like when you tell your kids to count to 20 while they wash their hands. Slow. Aim for seconds.)

I then pour this icing in to a zip top sandwich baggie.

*Note: Let the icing set for a couple of minutes after you add that first round of milk. I found that mine tended to get thinner after a minute or two of resting. Not hugely so, but enough that you may be able to take out some of the liquid. (Maybe then leading to better drying... I'll talk more about that in a second.)

Then I just decorated with the icing as I normally would royal icing, with the exception of having a good outline... which is what I need to work on with this icing before I can render my final opinion.

You can see in the photo that the cookie(s) I outlined, using the same icing and bag just have a funny look to them because the outline is so thick and wonky.
However, the un-outlined one overflowed its banks in two places.
I don't love either one. But they're not terrible.

To write, I halved the recipe, and used just 1 Tbsp. of water. It was still a little too thin, and not white enough to see very well. The writing/outline consistency, I think, would be the downside to this icing.

As for the 'hard-drying' claim... they do "dry," but it's not quite as hard as royal icing. The icing remains a little tacky for a few days. I was able to stack them with parchment paper between the layers of cookies, and they didn't get deformed much. But they just didn't dry or hold up quite as well as the royal icing does.

That said, my husband said he preferred the taste of this icing to the royal icing.I'm on the fence about it. I need to have a side by side comparison.

So, this was my first attempt with the glaze-type of hard-drying icing. I need to do some more tweaking, and hope to update this post when I try it again. (And I'll repost with changes, of course.) But I think it is a good alternative, especially if you have an egg allergy in your house.

Click the Links Below to See:
Royal Icing Recipe
Vanilla Sugar Recipe
Other Cookie Decorating Ideas and Projects

Enter your email address below to receive the latest recipes, tips and ideas in your email inbox:


Delivered by FeedBurner

And don't forget, if you shop at Amazon.com through my link, you support this blog and its contents. Thank you!

Read More

Testing Egg-Free Hard-Drying Cookie Icing

A friend posted a recipe link to an "easy," hard-drying icing similar to this over the holidays, and I was intrigued. Would cookie icing made without egg whites or meringue powder really dry hard? Could it be as useful as royal icing, and this easy to make? I had to try it myself to see. But I was skeptical, so it took me a few months.

What You Need:
2 cups powdered sugar
3-4 Tbsp. milk (or water)
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
2 tsp. clear vanilla flavoring
Optional:
Food coloring 

In a small bowl, use a fork to combine sugar, 3 Tbsp. milk, corn syrup and vanilla.
It will probably be more like a ball of icing before it settles. I needed closer to 4 Tbsp. of liquid each time, but it's always better to start out with the 3 Tbsp., and add more milk 1/2 tsp. at a time.

For the icing to "flood" the cookies, you want the icing to "melt back in" within a slow count of 12-15.

That means that you drop a dollop into the bowl of icing, and start counting. The photo above is when I'm at 1.

This photo is what the same drop of icing then looked like when I got to about 13. (This is a s-l-o-w count. Not like when you tell your kids to count to 20 while they wash their hands. Slow. Aim for seconds.)

I then pour this icing in to a zip top sandwich baggie.

*Note: Let the icing set for a couple of minutes after you add that first round of milk. I found that mine tended to get thinner after a minute or two of resting. Not hugely so, but enough that you may be able to take out some of the liquid. (Maybe then leading to better drying... I'll talk more about that in a second.)

Then I just decorated with the icing as I normally would royal icing, with the exception of having a good outline... which is what I need to work on with this icing before I can render my final opinion.

You can see in the photo that the cookie(s) I outlined, using the same icing and bag just have a funny look to them because the outline is so thick and wonky.
However, the un-outlined one overflowed its banks in two places.
I don't love either one. But they're not terrible.

To write, I halved the recipe, and used just 1 Tbsp. of water. It was still a little too thin, and not white enough to see very well. The writing/outline consistency, I think, would be the downside to this icing.

As for the 'hard-drying' claim... they do "dry," but it's not quite as hard as royal icing. The icing remains a little tacky for a few days. I was able to stack them with parchment paper between the layers of cookies, and they didn't get deformed much. But they just didn't dry or hold up quite as well as the royal icing does.

That said, my husband said he preferred the taste of this icing to the royal icing.I'm on the fence about it. I need to have a side by side comparison.

So, this was my first attempt with the glaze-type of hard-drying icing. I need to do some more tweaking, and hope to update this post when I try it again. (And I'll repost with changes, of course.) But I think it is a good alternative, especially if you have an egg allergy in your house.

Click the Links Below to See:
Royal Icing Recipe
Vanilla Sugar Recipe
Other Cookie Decorating Ideas and Projects

Enter your email address below to receive the latest recipes, tips and ideas in your email inbox:


Delivered by FeedBurner

And don't forget, if you shop at Amazon.com through my link, you support this blog and its contents. Thank you!

Read More