Royal Icing

1 pound powdered sugar
5 tablespoons meringue powder or 1/4 cup pasteurized egg whites
2 tablespoons water
food coloring (optional)

Combine powdered sugar and meringue powder or egg whites in a mixing bowl and beat on low speed. Add water drop by drop. The amount depends on whether you used the powder or the egg whites, and on the temperature and humidity in your kitchen. Add the water slowly and do not let the mixture get runny - you will probably not use all of it. Beat until the mixture holds a trail on the surface for five seconds when you raise the mixer from the bowl. If you like, you can tint the icing with a few drops of food coloring. Makes 6 cups.

Note: Note: we do not recommend using raw egg whites in this recipe because of the risk of Salmonella, especially if children, elderly, or pregnant women will be eating them.

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Reviews of Royal Icing:

6-15 of 45 reviews   << Previous - Next >>

   Mar 25, 2008
Would make this again.
uhhh. i dont get it..it says note: we do not recommend using raw egg whites in this recipe because of the risk of Salmonella, especially if children, elderly, or pregnant women will be eating them.
...
so what am i supposed to do with the eggs if theyre better when not raw...do i cook them? mann, i feel stupid. please explain.

RESPONSE: use pasteurized egg whites, powdered egg whites or meringue powder.

  meowomon in Florida  Dec 22, 2007
Would make this again.
Try using a little lemon flavoring or the imitation clear vanilla flavoring to keep the white color. five stars

  A cookie baker  Dec 21, 2007
Would make this again.
Great for sugar cookies five stars

  Christina in Arkansas  Dec 19, 2007
Would make this again.
My Grandma had her own bakery, so I grew up using this icing. Royal icing is about durability, not flavor. You can premake flowers or other 3D piped decorations with it and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months. Go to wiltons's website and you can learn what you can do with it. It's fun to work with because it holds up better than buttercream. five stars

  saree123 in va  Dec 9, 2006
Would make this again.
it was good i used it for my gingerbread and it tatse okay four stars

  Cathy in Newburyport, MA  Dec 9, 2006
Would make this again.
This was the first time I have ever tried royal icing and I love it. This icing is absolutely the best one I have tried for piping tiny little decorations onto glazed cookies. I have always used a solid shortening based icing for decorating and I found this much easier to make and to use. Next time, though, I'm cutting the recipe in half. I made the whole recipe and was adding a few little decorations onto cookies that were already glazed (different recipe for glaze) and I only used maybe a third of the recipe to decorate ten dozen cookies.

I used meringue powder and had to add almost 1/2 of a teaspoon of extra water to get it to a consistency to pipe the decorations. I'm strictly an amateur and it took a bit of fiddling to get it just right.

Also, I added an extra drop of water to a small amount to thin it enough for tiny dots and lines, but do it drop by drop because it thins it out really quickly. I also had to add quite a bit more sugar to pipe leaves. I used liquid food coloring and I wanted to make really dark leaves and it thinned it out too much because I was only coloring a small amount and had to use several drops to get the color I wanted. It took a lot of extra sugar just for a half cup or so to get it really stiff, and I couldn't really get it as dark as I wanted because I had to keep adding sugar.

Does anyone know if this icing can be saved for a few days like glaze? And what if it gets hard? Can you just add more water? I made way too much and hate to waste it.

Also, I noticed Katie didn't like the taste. Honestly, I agree. I think maybe the meringue powder makes it taste a little like cardboard and so I added some vanilla. BIG mistake. It colored it kind of an ivory color so it wasn't pure white, but if you do add vanilla, take it off the water you add. (Another mistake I made.) I only used this to decorate cookies I had glazed already with almond flavored glaze and so you couldn't even taste the decorations, but I probably wouldn't frost an entire cookie with it. five stars

  Tim S. in Indiana  Dec 5, 2006
Would make this again.
Awesome icing. The lemon juice did give it that little bit of kick. Great for Christmas Cookies. When using the meringue it took 2 TBS of lemon juice and about 3 more TBS of milk. four stars

  amita in bradford  Nov 29, 2006
Would make this again.
i tried this icing n it was absolutely fantastic. i recommend everyone to go for royal icing. five stars

  A cookie baker in samm wa  Nov 26, 2006
Would make this again.
it was such a good icing it was perfecto and santa ate all ten cookies with no frosting spots left on the plate five stars

  Katie in Tucson, AZ  Nov 23, 2006
Would make this again.
I didn't like the taste of this icing so I will continue looking for something that tastes better. I used 1 tbs vanilla in place of some water, I added 4 oz of cream cheese & 2 tbs butter to the recipe and it tasted much better to me. two stars

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