Learn how to make easy royal icing recipe with meringue powder that dries hard, making it easy to stack cookies. Perfect for piping and decorating cut out sugar cookies, especially during Christmas holidays.
*Thank you Rodelle for sponsoring today's post so that I can share this recipe with all of you. As always, all opinions are mine.*
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When I first started cake decorating, I didn't know how to make royal icing or what the heck it was used for. Well, imagine my surprise when I decorated a dozen cupcakes with this icing, resulting in such weirdly hard tops. Thankfully, I have learnt a lot since then and today, I am sharing everything I know and answering the most common questions I have gotten over the years. This icing is a perfect for the Christmas holiday season. Once the icing dries hard, you can stack them, pack them and ship them to family friends. Use them to decorate my Easy Cut Out Chocolate Sugar Cookies and these Easy Cut Out Sugar Cookies.
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Key ingredients
- Meringue powder- Helps to stabilize the mixture.
- Powdered sugar- Sweetens and thickens the icing.
- Water- Helps to get the right consistency.
- Corn syrup- This gives a nice finished shine to the frosting.
- Vanilla extract- Adds a nice, warm flavor.
I am really fond of Rodelle extracts and use it a lot in my baking and especially frostings. I truly believe that your recipe is only as good as the ingredients you use and Rodelle products are high quality with strong flavor and aroma. My classic, old fashioned recipe uses vanilla extract but Rodelle has so many other amazing extracts that you can try as well. Thanksgiving is the perfect time to use their pumpkin spice extract, which smells heavenly! You can also add some turmeric for a yellow tinge.
Variations
- Add some color- This icing should be colored with gel food coloring. Liquid food coloring is not recommended since that can change consistency of the icing. For black icing, use black gel color but it's very important to let the icing sit for a about 6 hours and allow the color to develop and deepen. The same issue is with Black Buttercream Frosting ,too. It takes time for the color to truly deepen.
- Make outline icing- Add more powdered sugar to make a thicker consistency (like toothpaste) to pipe outlines on cookies and make decorative flowers.
- Make flood icing- By adding in some water for a thinner consistency (like corn syrup) in order to fill the inside of the cookie.
- Use to make decorative flowers- These will dry hard and can be stored for months in a cardboard box at room temperature, away from moisture, humidity and sunlight. Here is a tutorial on How to Make Easy Icing Flowers. They can be used to decorate cakes and cupcakes.
- Use to make transfers- This is a cake and cookie decorating technique in which you pipe the design on a sheet of wax paper and let the icing dry. Once the design is dry, you can carefully peel it off from the wax paper and stick it onto your cookies, cakes or cupcakes.
- "Glue" together gingerbread houses- This icing works as a great glue for sticking all the gingerbread cookie pieces together but the amount of icing needed truly depends on how big your gingerbread house is. For basic small gingerbread houses, my small batch icing recipe that I am sharing today is more than enough. I have a very detailed Tutorial For Making Gingerbread House that you should check out, too.
How to make easy royal icing recipe with meringue powder?
1. Mix together water and meringue powder- Until bubbly and frothy.
2. Add powdered sugar, corn syrup, vanilla extract- And mix.
3. Mix at high speed- Until thick peaks form.
4. Color icing with gel colors- Adding white can bring out a brighter white color.
5. Place in separate bowls- And make sure to mix coloring until fully blended.
6. Line your cookie- With the thicker frosting.
7. Flood cookie- With the thinner icing and spread with toothpick.
8. Add sprinkles- And enjoy.
Tips and techniques
- Yes, this icing is safe to eat- Some people are concerned about the use of egg whites and meringue powder but since they are pasteurized, they are safe for consumption.
- Make icing thinner or thicker- By adding water or powdered sugar a little at a time.
- This icing dries hard- So if you want a soft frosting, use buttercream because it is very soft and creamy and used for filling and frosting cakes and cupcakes.
- There is no need to add glycerine, lemon juice, or cream of tartar- Because my recipe works perfectly as is. It is tasty, hardens well, and is stable.
- You need an electric mixer to make this recipe- Because it needs to be beaten until stiff peaks form and you definitely can't just use a whisk to do that.
- If adding food coloring- Keep in mind that the colors will deepen as they sit.
- Remember that in this recipe- A little water goes a long way.
- If using at a later time- You will need to whip the icing again due to separation.
- This is a smaller batch- It makes about 1 ½ cups icing but can easily be doubled or tripled.
- Use clear vanilla extract- For a whiter icing that is not darkened by the usual brown colored extract.
Recipe FAQs
It is a type of frosting that is most commonly used for decorating sugar cookies and piping intricate scroll works on cakes. It dries hard and fast and tastes very sweet with a vanilla flavor. Cookies decorated with this icing are popular as party favors and often used to decorate traditional wedding cakes that require a lot of detailed scroll work.
There are 4 main reasons:
1) The mixing bowl and any other utensils you might have used to make your icing had some grease and oily residue from oil, shortening or butter that interfered with this recipe. This icing must be made in squeaky clean equipment.
2) Your egg whites were not fresh or your meringue powder was too old. Consider replacing them and making the recipe again.
3) You might have used oil based extracts and those delay the drying time and in some cases, your decorated cookies will not dry try at all.
4) You might be living in a place with very humid climate and the moisture in the air is interfering with the recipe and delaying the drying time of your decorated cookies.
No. This icing dries hard. Fondant is a thick sugar dough that's soft and pliable and can be rolled out. It's used to cover buttercream frosted cakes. Here is a recipe for Marshmallow Fondant if you'd like to try it out.
Glace icing is also used for cookie decorating and it dries hard, but it has a glossy finish. It's also egg-free making it perfect for people with egg allergies. It can also be made vegan, if dairy-free milk is used. I have heard people say that Glace icing is like a royal icing recipe without eggs. Here is my Glace Icing recipe for reference.
Storage
- Freeze- Place in a Ziploc bag or sealed container for up to 1 month. Thaw in the fridge and re-mix.
- Refrigerate- Store in a sealed container for up to 1 week. May need some stirring before using.
- Room temperature- Store in an air-tight sealed container (I like to cover the container in saran wrap too) for 2-3 days away from humidity and sunlight. If exposed to air, it dries very quickly.
- Make ahead- This can be made in advance, but be sure it is well covered and mix if separation occurs. See instructions above.
Soft frosting recipes these won't dry and harden
- Classic American buttercream frosting
- Best cream cheese frosting
- Seven minute frosting
- Cooked buttercream icing (with flour)
- Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (Ermine)
Recipe
How to make Royal Icing (For Cookie Decorating)
Video
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Ingredients
- 1 ½ tablespoon Meringue powder
- 3 tablespoon Warm water Not hot
- ½ tablespoon Light corn syrup
- 2 cups Powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a deep bowl, add meringue powder and warm water.
- Beat this for about 1 minute until you have a white and frothy mixture.
- Add powdered sugar, corn syrup and vanilla extract and start mixing at medium to medium-high speed.
- Continue mixing until your icing becomes thick and peaks start forming. This usually takes about 5 minutes of mixing at high speed.Note: This icing is at the “thick consistency stage.” You can add some water to thin it out if you need your icing to be thinner. Please remember that a little water goes a LONG way. Add only ¼ teaspoon water at a time and make sure to mix properly again.
- You can now color your icing with gel colors. If you want a pure bright white icing, then I highly recommend adding white gel food coloring.
- Mix with a spoon until the color is fully blended into your icing.Note: The color of your icings will get deeper and better the longer they sit.
- This icing dries very quickly, if exposed to air. Make sure you store it in a sealed container with a tight lid and cover container tightly in saran wrap.
Notes
- Use this icing immediately for your decorations OR allow it to sit at room temperature (fully sealed) until needed.
- Use within 1 week. But, remember that you will have to whip it again because this icing has a tendency to separate into sugar and water, the longer it sits.
- This is a small batch royal icing recipe and yields about 1 ½ cups of icing. It’s great for times when you just need to decorate a few cookies.
- Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.
- Outline icing should be the consistency of toothpaste and filling or flooding icing should be the consistency of corn syrup.
- For true white icing, use clear extract to avoid discoloration OR use white gel coloring.
Nutrition
An automated tool is used to calculate the nutritional information. As such, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information provided for any recipe on this site.
Alexandra
Best real icing recipe, hands down! Wondering if it can it be frozen?
Abeer Rizvi
Thanks. I have never frozen this.
Mary Bound
Love this icing , never fails.
Tammy
I love this icing! I've been looking for an easy icing that's inexpensive. I used to make it from scratch. But I got tired of doing that and it doesn't last long when you have to refrigerate it. Then I was buying the tubs of icing already made and thinning it but that got expensive. This truly is dummy proof! Thank you so much!
Marlyn Weiss
Great information thank you so much!