Royal Icing 101 - Recipes, Coloring, Consistency,

I have learned soooooooooo many things about royal icing and rather than have you search and run all over the world wide web on a world wide expedition to Crazy Town...I figured I would continue on my quest do my best to keep you in a blissful state and share my best and most favorite tips and tricks with you (insertkisssmoochhugsandmorekissessmoochiesandhugs).

RECIPES:
To start off...we need recipes that will work for us.  Recipes that will ALWAYS work for us.  Recipes that can MOVE and BEND with us.  The LAST thing we need is a recipe with royal icing that dries before we can make it all the way into the cookie or an icing that cracks at the slightest herky jerky twitch of the newborn novice icing shaking hand.  I found two recipes that I work with and have been very happy to work with.  They are forgiving and have allowed my novice hand and skills to still accomplish cookies with steady lines and porcelain finished surfaces.  One recipe is an actual royal icing recipe and has proven, for me at least, to be the harder recipe to work with as a newbie cookie artist.  The other recipe is a royal icing "glaze" and so far is my personal favorite. It works better for me and is way more forgiving when I make a stray move and need to correct my mistakes.  The difference between the 2 recipes is the addition of corn syrup and glycerin, both of which add the sheen to the surface of the icing's finish.  Here are the 2 recipes I have been working with so far:

Royal Icing Recipe (Adapted from Sweetopia)




Royal Icing Glaze Recipe (Adapted from SugarKissed.net)

Royal Icing Glaze

Author: sugarkissed.net, adapted from Sweet P’s Royal Glaze

 

The perfect royal icing recipe for decorating cookies, stiff enough for detailing, stacking and shipping but soft enough to be enjoyed.

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons meringue powder
• ¾ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ¾ cup warm water
• 2 pounds powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon glycerin
• 12 drops white gel food coloring
• 1 teaspoon oil-free clear vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon oil-free clear almond extract
• ¼ teaspoon oil-free clear butter flavoring

Instructions

1. Use a whisk to mix together the water, meringue powder, and cream of tartar for about 30 seconds, making sure there are no lumps.
2. In a separate bowl, sift the powdered sugar.
3. Add the water mixture to the sugar and mix for one minute.
4. Add the corn syrup, glycerin, food coloring and flavoring.
5. Beat until the mixture forms stiff peaks, approximately 6 to 8 minutes, pausing to scrape down the edges of the bowl if needed.

COLORING:

Now that we have the icing, it's time to create the different colors we need.  There are so many choices out there for coloring royal icing.  From gel to liquid to powder to non-chemical...which is which and what do you want?  Well, I can say in my own research that the dyes used in certain colors of food coloring, that you wouldn't want to douse bajillions of cookies in bright reds or blacks or really any of the great bold colors offered,  but, in moderation, I haven't found any research that would cause harm if eaten on your cookies.

That being said, the best food coloring I have found is Americolor gel food coloring.  It has the BEST red food coloring and black coloring and you use a lot less of it than the Wilton food coloring to get what you want.  With Wilton I always seemed to get a brighter and hotter version of pink no matter how much red I put in my mixing bowl and always ended up with chalkboard grey when I was trying to get black.  With just a few drops of Americolor, I had bright red lips and deep black lines that were exactly what I was looking for.

Take a look at the deep red I accomplished with Americolor!

CONSISTENCY:

To flood or not to flood????  That seems to be quite the question in cookie bakedome.  

• I have been working with both and just recently really found my groove with the "10 second rule" movement of icing.  This means that you have the same icing for piping and outlining as you do for "flooding" the cookie.  
• You use a #2 tip and this tip works for both processes. 
• To get to the consistency you need and to make sure you don't end up with royal icing soup, use a spray bottle and spray your icing one spray at a time, until you get the consistency you desire.  It works like a charm and gives you more control in the process of consistency.  
• How do you know when you have the right consistency?  Drag a knife through your icing and count to 10!  It should take 10 seconds for the icing to recover and fill back in the space that your knife just drug through.  This "10 second" consistency is what you will use for everything and makes life soooooo much easier when it comes to icing your cookies!

BAGGING or SQUEEZE BOTTLES???:

We now have our icing in the colors we need and need to get the icing ready for decorating.  There are two main ways to decorate cookies from what I have found so far, and those 2 are bagging and squeeze bottles.  I've done both and have to say that I prefer using the squeeze bottle to the bag approach, but that could very much have to do with my jerky hand issue I deal with.  The squeeze bottle gives me a little more control and the bag is sometimes cumbersome for me to consistently use.  Either way, as long as you are consistent and give each way a try, you will find your niche and will be pumping out perfectly iced cookies in no time!  

I DID find a tip for decorating with decorating bags that I absolutely just HAD to share with you!

• BAGGING TIP: One of my favorite tips I have come across has to do with bagging.  Most people who use bags, use disposable bags and throw them away or go through the process of having to wash regular bags over and over, BUT...try this and your problems are totally solved!

• Wrap up your icing in saran wrap or Press N Seal and create a "pillow" of icing with 2 long threads on either end.  (You can even store your icing "pillows" in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them).  
• When you are ready, snip the end of your decorating bag, insert your coupler,  and then all you have to do is thread one end of the icing "pillow" into your decorating bag and then pull it through the end and cut the Press N Seal thread off and then place the tip and coupler on and you are ready to decorate!
• Once you are done, open up your decorating bag, pull out the Press N Seal "pillow" that used to have the icing in it, throw it away, and wash the tip and coupler and the decorating bag never gets dirty!

So, now you have my favorite resources and my favorite tips and tricks for all things royal icing...at least for tonight!!!  Please give me your feedback and ask questions if you have any.  I would absolutely LOOOOOVVVEEEE to see your cookies and share in your works of baked bliss!  Send them my way and we can help show each other off!  Possibly even into one of my blog parties!

Happy Blissful Baking!

Kristen