Royal Icing

{ Technique photos by Galie Photography }

Sugar cookies get a crowning final touch when finished with royal icing. Versatile enough to be used by both amateur and highly skilled decorators, royal icing dries hard and gives the cookies a lovely snap.

This recipe is the icing we used on all our sugar cookies at the bakery. It takes color very easily. (I always use gel colors.)

When icing cookies, decorators start with two basic techniques: Piping and flooding. Piping is about “drawing” outlines and details; flooding is about “coloring in” the shapes you’ve outlined. Each technique demands icing of a different consistency.

If you make this recipe exactly as shown, your icing should have roughly the consistency of paste — yet still will flow out of a pastry bag without breaking. This is the right thickness for piping.

For flooding, you’ll need to thin my recipe with water until it has a consistency closer to honey. If you run a knife through icing that’s used for flooding, the resulting line should disappear in about 10 seconds.

If the line is gone sooner, your icing is too thin. (Add a bit of confectioners’ sugar.) If it takes longer, too thick. (Add a tiny bit of water.)

Experienced cookie decorators use all sorts of consistencies besides “honey” and “paste,” but only the most hardcore home bakers need to care about such subtleties. (And many do, of course — check out Cookie Con!)

It’s not my aim here to give a big tutorial here on how to ice cookies. I think the ingredients of good cookie decorating are clear:

• Good sugar cookies
• Good royal icing
• Practice
• Practice
• Practice

For tips, watch some YouTube videos: Many have excellent advice on cookie decorating, which is a skill that most people can master if they devote some time and effort.

Don’t worry if your early tries look a bit inelegant: It takes a lot of time to get the hang of this. And as long as they taste good, I’m sure your family and friends will be happy to enjoy all your progress.

 

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