Royal Icing

Royal Icing Tutorial

To get the flat, smooth icing that dries hard enough so you can stack, package, and mail cookies, royal icing is the way to go. To make royal icing, you use powdered sugar plus either meringue powder (they have it in the baking section at craft stores or you can order it online), egg whites and lemon juice (use pasteurized egg whites because they won't be cooked), or corn syrup and milk (not exactly royal icing, but it yields similar results).

I add clear vanilla extract or almond extract as well.

Figuring out the right consistency of the icing is the key to getting smooth, yet easy to control icing. The trick is to run a spoon or knife through the icing and count how long it takes for the surface to smooth out. If it's less than 5 seconds, add more powdered sugar or whip the icing more until it's thicker. If it takes longer than 10 seconds, add water a drop at a time until it's thinner.

For a simple design like the flower, I use only this consistency icing. If the design is more complex, I use a thicker icing to outline the cookie and this thinner icing to fill the inside.

To color the icing, gel past food coloring works best; it won't water down the icing and you only need a tiny bit to dye a lot of icing.

I add the dye with a tooth pick.

Then mix it in gently with a spoon; stirring gently helps pop any bubbles in the icing.

I added just a touch of pink to one bowl, a lot of pink to another bowl plus a touch of purple. I dyed the icing in the tea cup orange and didn't dye the white icing at all.

Set up as many pastry bags as you have colors. I put them in glasses to hold them up while I fill them. You can get pastry bags, couplers, and tips at walmart or the craft store. I mostly use round #2 tips. Couplers allow you to change the tip out without having to get a new bag.

To make the flowers, I first outline the shape of the petal.

Before the outline dries, I begin filling the inside of the petal.

Outline and fill all the petals.

After the petals set for a few minutes, add a white dot for the center.

All the icing will dry flat and smooth. Wait 24 hours before stacking the cookies.

Ethan's Birthday Cookies

I made cookies to send to my brother-in-law for his birthday this year. He's very interested in Russia, so I made the Russian flag in cookie form.

I made cakes with blue stripes and dots because I had extra blue icing after making the flag. I always get worried about making cookies for guys because most of the cookies I usually make are brightly colored and girly or more suited to younger boys (dinosaurs, cars, etc.). Unless the guy is into sports or cars, I have a hard time deciding what to make.

I've been learning, though, that when it comes to food, most men don't really care if it's a pink and girly as long as it tastes good. I do think these cake cookies turned out festive and appropriate for a guy.

I packaged them in individual bags and put them in a box with bubble wrap to mail. Ethan's birthday was last Saturday, but the cookies didn't get mailed until Tuesday... oops...

Ethan got the cookies yesterday, but I forgot to ask him if any of them broke. He didn't mention it, so I'm going to assume they got their in one piece. He did say he liked the Russian flags.

I'm really enjoying making cakes. I can't wait for Andrew's birthday! I already have some ideas.

Owls

I made pink owls and flowers to bring to my church small group last night.

For the owls, I drew circle with pointy ears on top, filled it in, and let it dry for about an hour.

I added white eyes next and let them dry for about 15-20 minutes.

Then, I put a light pink circle under the eyes and added dark pink U shaped onto the wet light pink icing. When you add a different color to icing that is already wet, it dries flat. I let that sit for about 30 more minutes before putting the blue pupils on the eyes and the orange beak, feet, and wings.

I got the design for these owls from the site sweetopia.net, I just changed the colors a bit.

I also made dark and light pink flowers to go with the owls. Tomorrow I'll post a tutorial about royal icing & making the flowers.

Pink, Polka Dots, and Flowers

Thursday was one of my friend's birthdays, so I decided to try out my new cake cookie cutter and a chocolate cookie recipe I've been experimenting with.

I made pink cake cookies and pink flowers to go with them. The colors didn't show up perfectly in the photos because I finished them up after the sun set. I used Wilton's gel icing colors: just a touch of rose color for the light pink and a lot of rose plus a touch of purple for the dark pink.

I outlined the cake cookies in white icing and added candles at the top. The bottom and top layers are just light and dark pink with dots. The middle layer is white with dark pink flowers. The flowers are made by putting five dark pink dots close together, then adding a light pink dot in the center.

I added the yellow candle flames last, then let them sit out and harden a bit before we took them over to the birthday girl.

I made the flowers to make the cakes. Because of the simple shape, I didn't bother to outline the petals. The flooding icing I use is on the thicker side, so though it dries flat, it keeps its shap pretty well.

I made some other birthday cookies this week that we're mailing out tomorrow, but I'll wait until they have been received to put pictures up here.

Flour and Flowers

We don't usually do much for Valentine's Day around here. Christmas & Birthdays are where we buy gifts; instead, we make something or go do something together in celebration of Valentine's Day. This year Andrew and I went out to eat and went out shopping the Friday before Valentine's because he had to work on Sunday. While we were out he bought me an apron I'd had my eye on for awhile.

I love it! Now I don't get covered in flour and powdered sugar while I bake. I really like the ruffles on the bottom.

Andrew then surprised me with flowers on Monday. They have really brightened up our living room.

I love when he surprises me with flowers.

These flowers and the apron inspired me to make some flowers of my own yesterday for a friend's birthday. I'll post about those tomorrow, but here's a preview:

Sugar Cookies

I've played around with a bunch of different sugar cookie recipes ever since I started decorating cookies. I like the artistic aspect of decorating with royal icing, but I've always thought it's more important for a cookie to taste good than look good. I mean, royal icing it basically just sugar, so a decorated cookie could end up being sickeningly sweet if the cookie is too sweet by itself.

The sugar cookie recipe I finally settled with is a slightly modified version of one I got off of a Wilton cookie cutter. I like it because it's not overwhelmingly sweet, so the royal icing balances it out nicely. It's sturdy enough for icing without being rock hard, it holds it's shape relatively well, and, most importantly, it tastes good.

I start by setting my oven to 400 degrees.

(My cute little chicken timer is only a pointless decoration. I thought it was cute, so I got it, but it doesn't work well at all, we use the microwave timer instead.)

I gather all my ingredients because I've had the oh so fun experience of getting half way through a recipe before realizing I was out of eggs.

For this recipe I use:

1 cup unsalted butter, cut up

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1-2 tsp vanilla extract (I use more if I leave out almond or want a more subtle almond flavor)

1/4-1/2 tsp almond extract

3 cups all-purpose flour (with the last cup, I add it slowly until the dough is the right consistency. If it's a humid day, I usually use the whole thing, if not I use less.)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

I sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together - biting into a chunk of baking powder in a cookie is gross. Mixing it with a fork would do the trick, too.

I cut the butter into pieces and throw it in the mixing bowl. It works as well for me as using softened butter and takes less planning ahead.

I begin mixing the butter, then add sugar, egg, and extracts, beating until combined after each ingredient.

I then add the flour mixture slowly and beat until combined.

I form the dough into a couple disks and roll it out on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch think.

I cut out the cookies and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (you don't need the parchment paper, but it makes clean up easier and helps you move the cookies to the cooling rack). I then stick the cookie sheet with the cookies in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. That helps them hold their shape as they bake.

To use the scraps from cutting out the cookies, I knead them together thoroughly, then roll them out again. The extra four that is added when you use the scraps can make the cookies tough, so I only do this once or twice and I try to cut the cookies as close together as possible.

Then I bake them in a 400 degree oven for 6-10 minutes. The time varies a lot depending on the size and thickness of the cookie, so I check them and rotate the cookie sheet at four minutes to see how much time I think they need and I check every couple minutes after that.

They need to cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes until they are set, then they can be moved to a cooling rack. They must cool completely before they can be decorated, or the royal icing will be melty and messy.

These cookies are buttery, flavorful, and just sweet enough, perfect for royal icing decorations.

Butterfly Cookies

I made these butterfly cookies for the Seminary bake sale last November. The colors aren't my favorite, but the pinks, purples, and sprinkles turned out to be very popular with little girls.

To get the flat, smooth surface on a cookie like this you have to flood the cookie. To flood a cookie, you first outline it with royal icing, as I did with the pink icing.

Then, you thin out the icing you want to fill the cookie with. I used a light purple icing for this cookie. If you use the same color as your outlined icing, the outlining won't be very obvious. I wanted it to stand out with this particular design.

To make sure you have the right consistency for your flood icing, run a spatula through it and count how many seconds it takes for it to smooth out. If it takes more than 10, add a couple drops of water & try again. If it takes less than 5, add more powdered sugar.

When piping in the flood icing, use your piping tip or a tooth pick to spread the icing. It should even out and dry flat when you are done. Also, look for air bubbles and pop them with a tooth pick. The icing will fill in those spaces if you do this before it dries. If you wait, it will leave holes.

If you want to add dots or other designs to the flat icing, use another color of flooding consistency icing and pipe in those designs after the original color has had a few seconds to set.

Anything you pipe onto the flood icing before it while it is wet will dry flat.

For the butterflies, i used a toothpick to make the design on the wings.

Let the cookies dry about 24 hours before you package them or stack them (I've ignored this and put them in plastic bags after they felt dry, but my colors bled into each other and it wasn't pretty.)