Royal Icing Recipe and Tips (2024)

FAQs

How to get perfect royal icing consistency? ›

When you mix the royal icing, keep your mixer on medium-low speed (I use speed 2 on my stand mixer) and mix the icing for no more than 5 minutes. The icing should hold a stiff peak and have a thick and creamy consistency. It looks a lot like softened cream cheese.

If the icing surface becomes smooth in anywhere between 5-10 seconds, then your icing is ready to use. If it takes longer than approximately 10 seconds, the icing is too thick. Slowly add more water. If your icing surface smoothes over in less than 5-10 seconds, it is too runny.

Outlining with Royal Icing

This step keeps the flooding icing from flowing over the edge of the cookie and making a big mess! Outlining-consistency icing should squeeze easily out of a #2 pastry tip, stay in place, and hold its shape on the cookie when it lands. If the icing is too stiff, it will be hard to squeeze.

Undermix, and your royal icing looks translucent and is structurally weak. Overwhip, and you're giving too much volume to the egg proteins via air, causing the structure to weaken in a different way. Overmixed icing usually looks porous when dry, and sometimes will not even fully dry and be soft/brittle.

-Spread the icing over the top of the cake with the spatula so that it just tips over the sides. -Lean against the turntable to hold it firmly in place (without touching the cake), hold the metal ruler horizontally at a 45° angle and pull it towards you evenly across the surface of the icing to smooth it.

It sound like your icing needs to be thicker. Sift in a tablespoon more icing sugar and stir well. Test it in the bowl so make sure it will form a peak that holds. If it doesen't, sift in some more icing sugar, stir and test again until it does.

For flooding, the royal icing should be thinned out enough to melt in on itself in about 10-15 seconds when you run a knife through it.

Royal icing needs a nice temperate environment to dry completely and/or at the usual pace. You have placed the cookies in an airtight container BEFORE they are dry. Yes, you heard that right! You should NOT put royal icing cookies in an airtight container until they're completely dry.

There are three main types of royal icing: stiff consistency, piping consistency, and flood consistency. They are used for different decorating techniques, although sometimes you can use different consistencies to achieve the same result.

Is meringue powder necessary for royal icing? ›

You can make royal icing—with egg whites! This simple royal icing is made with pasteurized egg whites instead of meringue powder.

The only surefire way to dry royal icing is simply time - letting royal icing cookies sit out at room temperature to fully harden. This typically takes a minimum of 6-8 hours. Though there is no substitute for time, there are a few tips and tricks to help speed up the process.

There are different versions of royal icing out there, but this is an easy one that comes together quickly with basic ingredients. This recipe uses milk instead of water, which gives it more flavor and just a tad of creaminess.

Rule of thumb: if the icing is the exact color you want it in the bowl, you've added too much color! The color will continue to darken as you bag the icing, decorate and dry. So, you want the icing still to be a shade or two lighter in the bowl than you ultimately want.

When you make your fresh batch of royal icing, it should be thick. Properly made royal icing should be mixed to medium/stiff peaks to have the structure it needs for the best results. In order to get the consistencies you need, you will thin it by using small amounts of water or thicken it by adding powdered sugar.

Piping consistency royal icing is stiff icing that has been thinned down with a couple spritzes of water from the spray bottle. The icing still forms peaks, but the peaks are softer and fall after forming. When piping with this consistency, the icing should flow nice and smooth out of the tip.

Royal icing needs a nice temperate environment to dry completely and/or at the usual pace. You have placed the cookies in an airtight container BEFORE they are dry. Yes, you heard that right! You should NOT put royal icing cookies in an airtight container until they're completely dry.