Royal Icing Recipe and Tips (2024)

FAQs

How to get perfect royal icing consistency? ›

To achieve flood consistency, start with stiff icing and add a couple of tablespoons of water at a time. To test it, take a spoonful of icing and drop it back into the bowl. It should take between 15-20 seconds for the icing to smooth itself out. This is known as 15 or 20-second count royal icing.

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.

A few notes from these three initial tests: I feel confident stating that: with 12 oz of icing, you can decorate: 12 Large cookies, 18 medium cookies, or 24 small cookies. This process is approximate, making it quick and easy to set up and mix colors. In all tests, the icing was almost completely gone after decorating.

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.

If you are using an instant royal icing mix then it should already set quite hard but you can and some extra powdered egg white to make it even harder. If you want the icing to remain slightly soft then you can also add 1/2 teaspoon liquid glycerine to each 500g/5 cups sugar.

Overmixing the icing

If you overmix or mix the icing on a high setting, you'll whip too much air into the mix, leaving you with a frosting that looks more like a crunchy sponge than a smooth finish. Follow our step-by-step guide to make perfect royal icing.

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.

Royal icing will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks, so you can make the royal icing ahead of time! Just keep all royal icing in airtight containers. If you have royal icing already in a piping bag, just place the bag in a zip-top freezer bag.

Royal Icing with Pasteurized Egg Whites

This means the eggs were partially sterilized and more likely to be rid of any food-borne illness. You'll be able to find a pasteurized label on eggs at most grocery stores.

Perfecting royal icing consistencies is one of the hardest things to do with the medium. Even for me, as an expert cookier, I don't always get the consistency right.

How to tell if royal icing is bad? ›

You'll know it's bad if you open it and it has puffed up a lot (bacteria growth) and/or it smells sour. If you're using pasteurized egg whites or fresh egg whites in your royal icing recipe, shelf life is generally lowered by about 50% for countertop, and 25% for fridge, and remains the same for freezer.

A: Bad tasting icing is very disappointing. It is likely caused by bad powdered sugar or vanilla extract.

The short answer to this question is about 8 hours (or one sleep as I like to say). In this post, I first walk through some commonly asked questions about how royal icing dries. Then, I walk through step-by-step hour-by-hour royal icing drying for 8 hours.

The icing consistency can be adjusted at any stage of the decorating process simply by stirring in sifted powdered sugar to thicken, or water to thin. Remember, at this stage, it is important to gently stir in (not whip on the mixer) any additional water.

Keep in mind that the longer you beat the royal icing, the thicker it becomes. If your royal icing is too thin, just keep beating it to introduce more air OR you can add more sifted confectioners' sugar.

I'd experienced this issue when I thinned my icing with too much water for flooding. The good news on that front is that if you noticed that you'd done it before you start icing a cookie, you can stir in some sifted powdered sugar (or some reserved piping consistency icing if you want some) and recover.

Start with a base icing that has white gel added to it. Uncolored royal icing has an off-white natural tinge and is more likely to allow bleed and absorb color. Add white gel to your base to act as a stabilizer to prevent color bleed right off the bat. The biggest culprit in color bleed is usually oversaturated color.

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.