Introduction: Royal Icing Recipe

By Etsy Store
About: Community Manager for Instructables and Tinkercad.

Royal icing is easy to make and great for decorating cookies. It is tasty on its own and it is really easy to add flavoring to change things up!

I've used a cheater royal icing before, so I thought I would go ahead and try out the traditional methods and see how they go!

Projects I've used Royal Icing in:

Step 1: Royal Icing Information

Information about Royal Icing:

  • Since it is made from powdered sugar, you want to make sure you sift it to avoid getting clumps.
  • It is commonly used in a thick form to outline cookies and and is then thinned out to flood the cookie.
  • Needs to be used right away or put away in an airtight container. If left out it will develop a crusty layer on top. Also when storing it, it is good to put a piece of saran wrap right on top of the icing to help prevent it from getting crusty.
  • Royal icing can go from one consistency to another very easily so it is good to add water a little at a time and make sure to replace water with flavor if you are going to use any and not just add it in.
  • Will get rock hard when given time to sit (can take up to 24 hours), but glycerine can be added to prevent it from getting too hard, or you can use sugarkissed.net's recipe.
  • Can be colored, if using a liquid color, take that into consideration when adding water. If you use gel coloring, it shouldn't make much of a difference in consistency.
  • Used with gingerbread houses because it hardens and holds the house together well.
  • Pipe it out to create hard sugary decorations for cakes and cookies: Example from sugarkissed.net, superman royal icing transfers.

Overall Ingredients Used in all Recipes:

Supplies:

  • Mixing Bowls
  • Whisk and Spoons
  • Mixer (I didn't use one because I was doing small amounts, but is helpful for bigger batches)
  • Measuring Cups
  • Measuring Spoons
  • Cookies (to decorate)
  • You do not need a Silpat mat, I just have it in the pictures because I was using it to make cookies

Step 2: Cheater Royal Icing

I tend to use this a lot since it is really easy to do. So I wanted to share it along with the other royal icing recipes.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Cups sifted Powdered Sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tbs. Water
  • *replace 1/2 teaspoon of the water with flavoring if you want

Sift the powdered sugar and add in the water a little at a time. That's it!

Step 3: Egg Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 2 Cups sifted Powered Sugar
  • 1 Egg White
  • 2 tsp. Water
  • 1/2 tsp. Flavoring (or water if you don't want flavoring)

Start by sifting the powdered sugar. Add in the egg white. Once that is mixed together (it will be very thick) add in the water a little at a time.

Step 4: Meringue Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 2 Cups sifted Powered Sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tbs Meringue Powder
  • 3 Tbs Water
  • *if you want flavoring, replace 1/2 a teaspoon of the water with a flavoring (that would mean you would need about 8 1/2 teaspoons of water)

Sift the powered sugar and mix it with the meringue powder. Add the water in a tablespoon at a time. This seemed to be the perfect amount of water, but it is always good to go slow otherwise you have to use more powered sugar to thicken it.

*The very last image shows the first time I tried a meringue royal icing. Instead of using as Wilton suggested, I used the amount that was the equivalent of one egg white. It didn't seem to add much to the frosting and you can see a difference in the last two photos.

Step 5: Thoughts

After trying out eggs and meringue and comparing them to my cheater method, I would say my favorite recipe was the one using Meringue. Though they are all good, regardless, since they are mostly just sugar and whatever flavor you add to them so just go for it :)