Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Royal Icing

I wanted to name this post "Royal Icing....Made Easy",

but as you will see in my photos...
it's not always as easy as it looks working with royal icing.

I have mastered the "free form" and techniques like feathering
the icing.  However as you will see, there is still so much I need to work on.

First, the recipe.....

The basic recipe is as follows.
I increase the recipe as needed....
usually 4 times for a double batch of shortbread cookies.

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon meringue powder
1/4 tsp vanilla
pinch of cream of tartar
2 tablespoons warm water
gel icing colors...tiny amount

I mix the above with a whisk.

You will need two consistencies of batter.
The first like toothpaste...to outline your design.
The second much runnier to float a large area of icing
within the outlined area. 


You can adjust the thickness to obtain what you need by
either adding a tiny bit of water to thin,
or adding a bit of powdered sugar to thicken it.

I use plastic decorating bottles with various tips
to outline and float color, 
but you can use a pastry bag with tips, instead.

Today's project was buttons...
but as you can see I had a bit of difficulty with them.... 


I finished with what I am better at....
a little more free-form design....


Here are my favorite inspirational websites for cookie
decorating ideas....





Even if you don't plan on baking any cookies,
check out these ladies' designs...
they are truly cookie artists.

7 comments:

anne said...

lovely! Your cookies look scrumptious :) And those other designs are awesome, too!

Have you seen this cookie lady: http://onetoughcookienyc.com/

She's pretty fun, too :)

Heather said...

I am so excited to read this!! Thanks for sharing how you decorate them and the recipe!! I am excited to try them!!
Do you have a favorite cookie recipe for decorating?
Thanks!!!

Unknown said...

Wow, I am just amazed that cookies can look like works of art!

This N That said...

Another winner..love the buttons

Anonymous said...

thanks for this tips

Anonymous said...

Those buttons look amazing. Thanks for the tutorial. The frosting looks pretty easy to whip together. no pun intented!

Anonymous said...

Excellent work done. Don’t mind me posting a link of this article on my blog? It will help my viewers as well.And yes i have tweeted your site sewonandsewfourth.blogspot.com .

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