Megan's Confections: 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.