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Hey Besties! Today we are going back to our roots and the fundamentals of icing! I can’t tell you how much I see and hear cookiers struggle with royal icing issues and they are so frustrated. We have to remember that baking, including icing, all comes down to science…real science! There are real reasons why different issues occur, which means there are solutions! And while I would never even pretend to know everything about cookie-ing, I know enough to be helpful and have had a lot of success with a whole lot of royal icing. So today, we’re covering the basics and how to easily make royal icing that will look and taste perfect! Let’s dive in and we’ll address all the common issues cookiers may encounter!
Decorated Cookies Are Having a Moment
In case you haven’t noticed, decorated cookies have been having a moment…or year…for a few years now. While cookie decorating has been around for many decades, the pandemic gave birth to many new hobbies and businesses. Decorated cookies have become SUPER popular for many reasons! They are beautiful and delicious, so consumers love them. And they are challenging, yet fun and even therapeutic to make, so cookiers are obsessed!
That said, with this recent explosion of cookiers, has come with A LOT of advice on how to do things. Just search the amount of cookie decorating Facebook groups and you’ll find all the advice in the world! And while everyone has the best intentions to help others, sometimes it becomes a giant version of telephone. Remember that game? One person whispers something to another and they keep going down the line and by the time you get to the 8th person, the message is completely different. THAT is what I commonly see online and it’s doing us a bit of a disservice. Again, everyone has the best intentions but there’s just a lot of bad information out there. Which is why I’m so happy we have this platform and our communities to help get the best, most helpful information out there. Again, I’m not the expert in everything, but I also don’t speak about things I don’t know. I’m always here to help home bakers be successful with tried-and-true advice.
The Basics of Royal Icing
Royal icing has been around for centuries, yes centuries. And it’s really just made up of a few simply ingredients. Meringue powder, powdered sugar, water and vanilla. We now commonly add corn syrup for a soft bite, but back in the day, they enjoyed it rock hard. And that really is what sets royal icing apart from other kinds of icing is that it dries hard and strong.
Some cookiers decorate with what they call glaze, which is essentially royal icing without the meringue powder. It behaves very differently than royal icing, has a slightly different finish and does not dry as hard, but some cookiers love it. If you ever need an egg-free icing for your cookies, glaze is your answer.
The vast majority of cookiers use royal icing for decorating. And since it’s only made up of a few ingredients, how hard can it be to make?! Haha! Harder than you think. I shouldn’t say that…it is actually very easy to make when done correctly. But just like in science class, if you don’t do it correctly, or you get bad advice, you may not get the results you want. In the case of making royal icing, it has more to do with HOW you make it. Fortunately, it is very simple and easy!
Recipes
Do a quick Google search and you’ll see there are MANY different recipes for making royal icing. Have I tried them all? Absolutely not. Do I have one that I LOVE? Darn right I do. Our go-to royal icing recipe comes directly from Semi Sweet Designs and can be found HERE. They do a fantastic job of walking you through the recipe, so I’m happy to share and give them full credit. But there’s SO much more to share so please read on to make sure you learn how to easily make royal icing you love.
A Critical Detail!
Something I’ve read and heard a lot is that cookiers are only mixing their royal icing until it gets to the consistency they want. For example, if they want a flood consistency, they are only mixing their icing for a couple minutes until it is that consistency. UGH! 😩 This is NOT how to successfully make royal icing and you will have issues with your icing. I haven’t ever seen a recipe instructing people to do this so I’m guessing someone just came up with the idea of only mixing it to the consistency they want, and word spread. Let me be clear, if you only mix your ingredients for a couple minutes, you have not even have made royal icing. Royal Icing MUST be fully made, to the point that the peaks stand up on their own. If you quit mixing before that, you will run into issues with your results.
Royal icing must be fully whipped and then you can thin it with water to the consistency you desire. The structure of the icing must be made correctly and if it’s not, that’s when you run into color bleed and other issues. Fortunately, it is ridiculously easy to make this royal icing successfully every time. I’m including pictures of every step along the way and what it should look like once ready.
Making Royal Icing
Ingredients are added to my bowl:
- 5 TBSP Meringue Powder
- 1 TBSP Light Corn Syrup (Karo)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract (I use clear)
- 1 cup Water
Using a whisk, by hand, I mix the ingredients until they are nice and frothy. You are reconstituting the dried egg whites in the meringue powder during this step.
Now I add 2 lbs Powdered Sugar and mix by hand, just enough to incorporate the powdered sugar, to create what I call “royal icing soup”.
And NOW, using my paddle attachment, I put the mixer on medium-high (KitchenAid level 4) and set my timer for 5 minutes. When I return, this is what it looks like.
Look at the consistency, it’s pretty thick. Not STIFF-STIFF, but there are soft peaks and it’s pretty thick. This is beautiful, fully whipped royal icing.
Coloring & Consistencies
Now that you have a beautiful, fresh batch of royal icing, you can now separate portions into smaller bowls and start coloring. Which brings us to another key point. You always want to color your icing and THEN thin to the consistency you want. Since gel colors are water-based, if you thinned it to your desired consistency and then colored it, it would potentially thin the icing more, depending on how much coloring you use. This is why you always color and then thin/thicken to your consistency. And as long as we’re on the topic of coloring, we have a whole post about how to achieve the colors you want HERE!
Every cookier knows royal icing consistencies are the hardest part of this whole cookie game! Which is why we have a whole post dedicated to mastering consistencies. You can find it HERE. If you don’t already use one, buy a cheap spray bottle to use to thin your icing. This gives you the best control over how much water you’re adding at a time.
Troubleshooting Royal Icing Issues
If you’re using a tried-and-true royal icing recipe and fully mix it to a stiff consistency, you will magically be able to avoid the most common royal icing issues cookiers encounter. You’ll also reap the rewards of beautiful, puffy icing! But if you’re running into issues, here are some tips to fix or avoid them. Let’s cover some of these!
Color Bleed?
There are three common reasons why colors bleed into each other on our decorated cookies.
- You may need to mix your icing longer. As described above, if you’re not fully mixing your royal icing, you may experience color bleed.
- You’re not using enough meringue powder. Generally speaking, if you’re using less than 5 Tbsp of meringue powder per 2lbs of powdered sugar, you may experience color bleeding. This is because a low meringue powder to powdered sugar ratio can make your icing more prone to color bleeding.
- You’re oversaturating your icing with coloring. Remember to stop adding color when your icing is 1-2 shades lighter than what you are trying to achieve. Colors continue to develop over time so be careful not to oversaturate.
Butter Bleed?
Butter bleed is different than color bleeding in that it is due to the butter in the cookies, not due to the icing. But the issue appears in the icing so cookiers tend to think it’s an icing issue. If your icing is drying blotchy, butter bleed is the culprit. This occurs when the butter in the cookie bleeds up into your icing, ruining your beautiful cookie! To help avoid this, cool your cookies on a cooling rack, not on the pan. Once they are cooled, you can place them on paper towels to soak up excess butter. Basically, if the butter has no way to bleed out the bottom, it may bleed up through the top and THAT is what we want to avoid.
Craters?
Ugh…those darn craters. If your royal icing is caving in, indenting or there are holes, especially in smaller spaces, craters are to blame. And like everything, you’ll hear many different theories on how to avoid them. We did a complete ‘crater study’ and published an entire post about how best to eliminate them. You can find that post HERE. The biggest takeaway to eliminate craters is by quick setting your royal icing soon after decorating. Airflow, ideally warm airflow, to quick set your icing will eliminate cratering and essentially set your icing just like you piped it!
My Icing Isn’t Drying?
There are two main reasons why your royal icing may not be fully drying, even if it’s been drying for many hours or overnight.
- Did you use any oils or oil flavoring in your icing? While it’s tempting to flavor your icing with many fun flavors, it is critical that they are water-based in your royal icing. If you add any oil-based ingredients, it may impact how your icing dries.
- You may have oversaturated your icing with too much color. Once the damage is done, there’s not much you can do. But next time, remember to back off the color when you’re 1-2 shades away from the color you desire.
How DO I Make My Icing Shiny?
The coveted shine! There are several things you can do to get a beautiful, smooth, sheen to your decorated cookies. In fact, we have a whole post about achieving that shine HERE. First, using quality meringue powder is essential for a good sheen. If you’re using a lower quality meringue powder, you likely won’t be able to achieve a good shine. Secondly, adding light corn syrup will help give shine and a soft bite to your royal icing. And third, blowing airflow, ideally warm airflow using a dehydrator, will help give a great shine.
My Icing is ROCK Hard?
Naturally, royal icing hardens like a rock, and nobody wants to bite into that…or crack a tooth on a cookie. By simply adding some corn syrup when making your royal icing, you will achieve a soft bite. It will still dry perfectly hard enough to stack your cookies but have a soft bite. I use 1 Tbsp of corn syrup in my icing.
Who Knew It Could Be SO Tricky?
If you’ve mastered an easy recipe and always have perfect results, good for you! And honestly, that’s all it really comes down to. Once you nail your recipe and technique making it, these issues will be a thing of the past! And then YOU can be the cookier giving sold, helpful advice to other cookiers to help them master it too!
I hope this post all about how to easily make royal icing was helpful. It truly is easy, fast and so much easier to work with once you nail it. And there won’t be any surprises when you wake up the next morning and check your cookies!
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