Royal Icing

Below is the royal icing recipe that I used for Carson's birthday cookies. I followed Bridget's step by step instructions from Bake at 350. She makes some of the cutest sugar cookies! I love checking her food blog each week to see her new creations. I would consider her a master at cookie decorating. While mine don't even compare to hers, I'm sure that with each attempt, mine will get better and better. You know what they say..."Practice Makes Perfect!"

Enjoy!





Royal Icing
Source: Bake at 350

4 T. meringue powder
*scant 1/2 c. water
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 - 1 t. light corn syrup
few drops clear extract (optional)

Combine the meringue powder and water. With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat until combined and foamy. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine. Add in the corn syrup and extract if desired. (The corn syrup helps keep the icing shiny.)

Increase speed to med-high/high and beat for about 5 minutes, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form. (You should be able to remove the beater from the mixer and hold up and jiggle without the peak falling.) Do not overbeat. Cover with plastic wrap touching the icing or divide and color using gel paste food colorings.

This "stiff" icing is perfect for outlining and even for building gingerbread houses and monogramming. To fill in your cookies, add water to your icing a teaspoon at a time, stirring with a rubber spatula, until it is the consistency of syrup. This technique of filling a cookie with thinned icing is called "flooding."

*Note: A "scant" cup is a measuring cup not filled all the way up to the top. Bridget has a great picture to illustrate this on her blog.