By Show Me Step by StepPublished
Based on a video by Little Cookie Co.
Royal icing is easy to make and easy to ruin, and the ruining almost always happens for the same reason: it gets whipped too fast.
Beat air into royal icing and it dries crumbly, dull and unpleasant to eat. Mix it slow and it dries with a shine and a clean snap.
This version uses meringue powder rather than raw egg white, so it is shelf stable and safe for anyone. Corn syrup gives it the shine, and a little white gel counteracts the yellow cast that real vanilla brings.
The half most recipes skip is consistency. One batch of stiff icing gets thinned into two working consistencies - one that holds a piped outline and one that floods flat inside it. That thinning is the actual skill, and it is most of what is covered here.
One batch ices about three dozen cut-out sugar cookies.
Meringue powder is dried pasteurised egg white, so there is no food-safety question when you hand a cookie to a child. Raw white sets harder but leaves raw egg on a cookie that sits out for a week. Carton whites are safe, though gums in cheaper ones stop them whipping.
Decorators talk about icing in seconds. Cut a line through the surface with a spoon and count how long it takes to close up.
Add water half a teaspoon at a time. The gap between outline and flood is narrower than people expect, and a splash from the tap takes a bowl past both.
Gel is strong and half a cup of icing needs very little. Red, black and navy want enough to loosen the bowl, so start those stiffer. Colour deepens as it sits, so mix dark shades an hour ahead, then look.
Two different waits, and confusing them ruins a tray at the last stage. A flooded surface crusts in 15 to 30 minutes, after which piped detail sits on top instead of sinking in. Colours only merge flat in the first few wet minutes.
Drying through takes 6 to 8 hours, and overnight is the honest answer before you stack them. Humidity doubles it. A low fan across the tray speeds it up and cuts colour bleed. Never refrigerate decorated cookies: condensation forms as they warm and colours run. Leftover icing keeps four days under cling film pressed to the surface. It separates, so stir it back with a spatula, never the mixer.
Gingerbread cookies take the same icing, and a stiffer batch is the mortar for a gingerbread house. For a soft frosting to eat instead, American buttercream goes the other way.
10 steps · about 12 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Start with a full 1 kg bag of powdered sugar. That is the base and everything else scales to it.
If you are working from a 2 lb bag instead, use slightly less water. Bag sizes differ by country and it catches people out.
Tip the powdered sugar into the mixer bowl and add three tablespoons of meringue powder.
Combine on the lowest speed. Anything faster and you will wear most of it.
Still on low, add HALF the water along with the corn syrup, vanilla and butter emulsion.
Half, not all. You can always add more water; you cannot take it out. Holding some back is what keeps this recipe forgiving.
Any flavouring works here - this is just the combination the recipe favours.
Tip
Corn syrup is what gives the dried icing its shine. Leave it out and the finish goes matte.
Add about a teaspoon of white gel colour.
Real vanilla extract is brown and it tints the icing. The white gel pulls it back to a true bright white, which matters because every other colour you mix will be built on this base.
Scrape the bowl down properly. Dry sugar hides in the bottom corner.
If it still will not come together, add another teaspoon of water at a time.
Once everything is incorporated, take it to medium speed for one minute. Then stop.
This is the step that decides whether your icing is good. Whip it fast or long and you beat in air, and aerated royal icing dries crumbly, dull, and almost chalky to eat.
One minute on medium. No more.
Tip
If you have already over-whipped a batch, letting it sit covered for a few hours lets some air escape. Prevention is easier.
Lift the paddle. You want a soft peak - not stiff and rigid, but holding all the little lines and creases in the surface.
That is your master batch. Everything from here is thinning it down, so getting this right saves a lot of time later.
Split the icing into bowls and colour each one a few drops of gel at a time.
Start with very little. A half cup of icing needs almost nothing, and gel colour is far stronger than it looks.
Stir thoroughly after every addition, scraping the sides in - colour hides on the walls of the bowl and on the spoon, and you end up with streaks.
Add a little of the reserved water to thin part of your batch to outline consistency.
Outline icing holds a piped line without spreading. It is what draws the border that the flood then fills.
Go slowly with the water. A tiny amount changes it a lot, and thinning is far easier than thickening back up.
Thin further for flood icing, and time it rather than guessing.
Cut through the surface with a spoon and count how many seconds it takes to settle flat again. That count is what decorators mean by a 10 second or 15 second icing, and it is the only reliable way to describe consistency.
Looser flood spreads faster but traps more bubbles.
Tap the bowl and pop any surface bubbles before you bag the icing.
Bubbles that go into the bag come out on your cookie and dry as little craters in what should be a smooth surface. Dealing with them now is much easier than fixing them later.
Then fill your piping bags and go and decorate.
Tip
Royal icing keeps well in an airtight container. Give it a gentle stir before reuse - do not re-whip it.
Keep going
How to Make Toffee
How to Make Royal Icing
How to Make Royal Icing
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Question 1 of 5
Why does this recipe use meringue powder rather than raw egg white?
Quick reference
5 questions, answers, and one-line explanations. Tap to expand.
1.Why does this recipe use meringue powder rather than raw egg white?
Answer: It is shelf stable and safe for anyone
Meringue powder skips the raw egg question entirely and keeps well in the cupboard.
2.What ruins royal icing more often than anything else?
Answer: Whipping it too fast or too long
Beaten-in air dries crumbly and dull instead of shiny with a clean snap.
3.Why hold back half the water at the start?
Answer: You can always add more, but you cannot take it out
Thinning is easy and thickening back up is not, so you start dry and work down.
4.A teaspoon of white gel colour goes in. What is it fixing?
Answer: The yellow cast that real vanilla brings
Vanilla extract is brown, so the white gel pulls the base back to true white.
5.Decorators talk about a 10 second icing. How do you actually measure that?
Answer: Cut the surface and count until it settles flat
Drawing a line through the icing and timing it closing is the only reliable read.
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