The Spruce Eats uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. It doesn’t take much water to change the consistency so don’t add too much at once. But the short version is, you’ll probably need to add a little water to your icing to get it to this consistency. Get it free when you sign up for our newsletter! Something like “15 second” or “20 second” icing. To make the royal icing, you’ll combine meringue … Continue whisking until the icing is thick enough to hold stiff peaks when you lift the beaters and is … This method serves as a great base for all kinds of embellishments. If you are going to be using royal icing for creating hard decorations like flowers, you’ll want to beat it some more until it has stiff peaks. Make Flood Icing (for filling cookies): The consistency should be similar to glue and not runny that it falls off the cookie when piped.When drizzled from a spoon the icing should sink immediately back into the icing. If icing is too thick, add a few drops of water at a time, mixing well between additions, until the desired consistency is obtained. Mix in a few drops at a time until you reach the right consistency. It's the perfect icing for decorating cookies, and you can use all kinds of colors to achieve pretty much any effect you can imagine. Tint with food color (s). With a little practice you can be an expert at cookie stenciling! Look carefully. A stiff version is perfect for creating icing flowers or other hard sugar decorations that are often used on cakes. If you want it to have more flavoring, you can add a teaspoon of vanilla extract or another extract. Since you can always make the icing darker but it’s really hard to make it lighter, make sure you only add in a tiny bit and then mix before deciding if you need more. You can store it for a few days in the fridge, as long as it's in an airtight container with plastic wrap pressed against the surface. Icing made with egg whites also needs to be refrigerated. Medium consistency for icing outlining: Add ⅛ teaspoons of water for every cup of stiff icing. Use the piping bag to frost a thin border. Some handy tools: Couplers – only needed if you’re using the same icing … If you are using two different consistencies of the same color (like outlining and flooding), mix the color first. ), I love finding beautiful and creative ways to entertain in style. Royal icing is one of the most popular sugar cookie icings. Use this tutorial on how to make royal icing recipe for piping and decorating sugar cookies. Using Royal Icing. 4 cups icing sugar (approximately 1 pound), flavoring (optional) – 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or other extract, stand mixer with the whisk attachment and mixing bowl, Use as little food coloring as possible to prevent the icing from having a bitter taste, To ensure the icing has completely dried, leave it overnight before stacking cookies or adding more icing colors. No egg whites, no meringue powder, just four simple ingredients whipped up with a hand or stand mixer. To use this thinner icing for flooding, you will also need to make some piping consistency icing which you’ll use to outline the cookie. Even better? Find my recipe for royal icing here! For a long time, I have loved the look of those sugar cut out cookies, decorated with the pretty colorful icing designs (that I have since found out are made with Royal Icing). Otherwise your icing will end up tasting bitter. To store it at room temperature or in the refrigerator, put a layer of plastic wrap over the icing in the bowl so that the plastic is in direct contact with the top of the icing. This recipe makes two cups of icing, plenty to decorate a huge batch of cookies. The main reason that royal icing doesn’t harden is too much water. Then push out all of the air pockets. Let it sit for a few hours. It’s something that gets easier to judge the more times you make and work with it. Royal icing is both dairy free and gluten free, so it’s fine for anyone who is sensitive to these ingredients. Soft centers, crisp edges, easy to decorate. Royal Icing that is too thick is easy to correct by adding a little water. This simple recipe only calls for three ingredients and takes 7 minutes to make. stand mixer with the whisk attachment and mixing bowl; spatula; How To Make Sugar Cookie Icing That Hardens In this video I will show you how to use a cookie stencil using a stencil frame or a simple set of magnets. Start at the lowest speed until the ingredients are combined. Thin out the royal icing a bit with water and use it to fill in the centers. Royal icing is a cinch to make, but you’ll want to separate it into bowls so that you can make two different consistencies. Use a toothpick to smooth out any bumps. Use the royal icing to decorate your cookies. https://youtu.be/c9YHvOAPIYsFind out how to make sugar cookies like the professionals, FROM a real professional! 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