Royal
Icing
Ingredients
–
400g confectioners sugar
–
5 Tbs water
–
2 Tbs meringue powder
–
Food coloring
Directions
–
Sift the sugar with a cloth
covering the bowl to avoid cover everything in sugar. Add water (gradually) and meringue powder and blend with a
spoon.
When you start blending the ingredients it will probably look like the photo above. Do NOT add more water than the recipe indicates, if you keep on stirring, you will get something like this:
Depending on how you want to decorate the cookies, separate some icing in the bowl. I usually scoop two or three spoonfuls of the icing in a small bowl in order to add the food coloring. Cover the bowl with the rest of the icing with plastic wrap so it doesn't dry.
You can add the food coloring with a toothpick. A little bit will be enough.
Stir well with a spoon and you can put it in a bottle or in a pastry bag.
You will see that is really easy. Simply put the tip of the bottle next to the cookie and trace the borders with a thin line.
Let the borders dry before starting with the centers. You will see that the icing has dried because its colour is matte and it has hardened.
Flood the cookies. Remember that this icing needs to be more liquid, so you can add some water in order to make it more fluid. Be careful not to add too much water, do it gradually until you get the desired consistency. You can do it only with the bottle tip or with the help of a toothpick.
Now you will have to wait until the icing dries completely. The time will vary depending on the liquidness of your icing and the amount you have used. It will take a few hours probably so be patient.
To make the details of the cookies, the thickness of the icing should be the same that you had to make the borders. The details will be thinner and won't spread.
TIPS
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Yes, I know it sounds tiring to sift the sugar but when the tip of the bottle or
the pastry bag clogs for the fifth time because there is a tiny lump, you will wish you had sifted the sugar.
–
Add the water
gradually. When you are mixing the ingredients you will
think that there is not water enough but, believe me, it will be enough. If you
put too much water, you can always add more sugar to thicken the icing but it's
better to be careful with the water you add to avoid ending up with a lot of
icing. So add the water gradually.
–
The icing has to be thick to
trace the borders and, afterwards, the detailed decorations. However, for the
interior of the cookie, the icing has to needs to be more fluid, therefore you
will have to add more water to the mix (gradually!).
–
Have some smaller bowls prepared
in order to add the food coloring.
–
When you use the food coloring,
bear in mind that is very concentrated. Just a little will do! I use the tip of
a toothpick to add the coloring to the icing. If you want a darker shade, you
can always add more.
–
Cover the bowl that has the
icing in it with plastic wrap while you are not using it. By doing this you
will prevent the top layer of icing getting hard.
–
My last advice is that you do just half of the recipe, 200g of sugar. In the
case that you need more, you will always be able to make another batch and you
will also know how much you need. You can keep the leftover icing for a month.
Here you have a pdf of the Royal Icing recipe.
I hope you like them!
Anna
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