Are you curious how the top cake decorators make the best details on their cakes? Do you ever wonder how bakers make the perfect icing on top of sugar cookies?
Royal icing is the frosting that top bakers and cake decorators use to make the perfect details on their cakes and cookies. This icing can be used for many things in cake decorating, but the most popular use is for decorating cookies.
Royal icing has saved my butt a few times while decorating cakes. It’s like the edible glue for building cakes. It’s strong and easy to make.
For decorating cookies, you can make royal icing fluid, so it coats the whole cookie with a spoonful, or you can have it much stiffer for “gluing” sweets together. It’s also great for writing on confections or delicate details on a cake.
Anyways, this recipe is straightforward and easy to remember once you have made it a couple of times.
After mixing for 5 minutes, it is ready for use. Put directly into a piping bag (these are my favorite pipping bags, they never pop on me and last forever), and it’s ready to go. If you have some leftover in the mixing bowl, put a damp paper towel directly on top of the icing, so it doesn’t dry out the mixture.
For decorating sugar cookies, here is a really simple cookie recipe that you can easily decorate. Make sure the cookies are cooled fully before decorating.
When you are finished decorating the sugar cookies or cakes, let the icing dry thoroughly before packaging or moving around. For flooded, or fully coated, decorated cookies can take up to 12-24 hours to dry depending on the humidity around you.
For small details or lettering, it can take 1-2 hours to dry thoroughly. Just be careful you don’t want to spoil all your hard work.
It’s easy to feel intimidated and less confident in the kitchen when you are just starting to bake. If you’re looking for an easy way to avoid common baking mistakes then you should check out my FREE checklist. This will give you the best start to feeling more confident in the kitchen.
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- Simple Sugar Cookies (tutorial)
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- How to Decorate Your First Cake (free course)
Royal icing is a foundational recipe that will allow you to design and create in many sweet ways!
Happy Decorating!
Hey, if you liked this tutorial, you really should check out, Cake Decorating Creator Program, my online cake program. I coach you on everything I teach on these cake tutorials so that you can uplevel your baking and decorating skills. We 10x it so you get the results you want most. Like any new skill, it’s important to learn from the ground up to build a foundation, so you can take on any cake challenge. It is an investment your future self will thank you for. Check it out at XOKatieRosario.com/creator-program. I will see you there!
Watch the How-To Video Below:
Royal Icing for Cookies & Cakes
Ingredients
- 2 whole egg whites pasteurized
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon water (to thin out, if too thick)
- food coloring optional
Instructions
- In large bowl of stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine the egg whites (and vanilla) and beat until frothy.
- Add powdered sugar gradually and mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated and the mixture is shiny.
- Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks. This step should take approximately 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add vanilla and food coloring, if desired. For immediate use, transfer icing to a pastry (piping) bag or heavy duty storage bag and pipe as desired.
Notes
- If using a storage bag, clip corner. Store in airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- If you would like a fluid icing for flooding add 1 tablespoon of water at a time while mixing until you achieve the desired consistency.
- For stiffer icing add 1 tbsp of powder sugar until desired consistency.
- When filling a piping bag with icing and there's still icing left in mixing bowl, place a damp paper towel directly on top of royal icing so the top won't become crusty and make your icing challenging to work.
CONTAINS RAW EGGS: XO, Katie Rosario suggests caution in consuming raw and lightly cooked egg due to the slight risk of salmonella or other food-borne illness. To reduce this risk, we recommend you use only fresh, properly refrigerated, clean grade A or AA eggs with intact shells, and avoid contact between the yolks or whites and the shell. For recipes that call for eggs that are raw or undercooked when the dish is served, use shell eggs that have been treated to destroy salmonella, by pasteurization or another approved method.
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How to Avoid These Common Baking Mistakes
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