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Another icing thing that's good to have in your arsenal
is royal icing.
It's a hard drying icing, and it's
what we use for piping decorations that need to dry.
You can use it for putting together gingerbread houses
and icing fun colorful sugar cookies.
When it comes to flowers, it's also an alternate
for piping in buttercream.
The difference is that royal icing flowers set.
So you can let them dry, and you can actually
make them in advance.
Also, they have a longer shelf life.
So you can pipe the royal icing flowers, let them dry,
and keep them for up to six whole months.
One thing to note-- because it's hard drying,
we don't really use it to cover cakes.
Let's get started with this recipe.
Making royal icing's actually very, very simple.
One of the most important things to keep in mind,
though, is that your tools and surfaces are grease free.
So if you've recently used your bowl
for mixing cake batter or buttercream,
give it an extra wash to be sure.
Because royal icing will not set up properly
if there's any grease.
Also, make sure that you're using a paddle attachment.
And if you have a hand mixer, use the beaters.
We want to aerate the icing, but using a whisk
will give the wrong texture.
You'll also want to have a silicone spatula on hand
for the stirring.
The ingredients are super simple.
I have 3 tablespoons of meringue powder,
4 cups of powdered sugar, and 5 tablespoons of warm water,
and that is it.
Now, I'm going to go ahead and start putting all
the ingredients in the bowl.
I'm going to put my 4 cups of powdered sugar in first.
Make sure my cup is full here.
I think that's pretty good.
And then my meringue powder is already pre-measured.
And again, this is 3 tablespoons.
And then I'll be measuring 5 tablespoons of warm water.
And then finally just attaching my paddle.
Now, I'm going to go ahead and beat this
on low speed for 7 to 10 minutes,
but I'm going to start it really slow because you're
going to see here that the powdered sugar will
kind of puff up.
So you want to kind of go slowly with it at first.
You can see that my icing looks a little dry, but don't worry.
Because once it gets going, it's going to start to whip up.
Again, all we have to do is beat the ingredients together
until the ice starts to form peaks.
If your icing is looking really dry
and not coming together like this,
you can add a teaspoon of water at a time--
just enough to get rid of the dry lumps
of the powdered sugar.
It's been about six minutes, and look how fluffy this is.
If you're icing is still looking a little flat,
you can switch to medium speed, and I'm
going to let this go for one more minute.
It's been about eight minutes, and I
think my royal icing is pretty much done.
Normally, this takes about 7 to 10 minutes
on low speed with a heavy duty mixer
and about 10 to 12 minutes on high speed
if you're using a hand mixer.
That's a really long time to have your hand
mixer running on high, and this icing gets really thick
as you've seen.
So if you start seeing your hand mixer struggling,
you may want to pause and let it rest a little bit.
But not for too long because this icing will deflate.
You know that your royal icing is done when the icing looks
very matte, and I'm going to take out the paddle
and check right now.
When you check the consistency with your whip,
you're going to get stiff peeks.
See how this peak doesn't even bend?
It's staying put.
And that's it.
This is about 3 cups of stiff consistency icing.
This is going to work really well for decorations like roses
and making upright petals.
But if you're going to use it for borders and drop flowers,
you're going to need to thin this down a bit.
I'll have more information on that
and the royal icing consistency video.
You've noticed that I covered my bowl with a damp cloth.
It's really important because royal icing will crust over
very quickly, and you want to make sure it's always covered.
You need a damp cloth because that
will create a humid environment in the bowl
so that the royal icing surface stays wet.
I want to talk quickly about an ingredient
that I mentioned that might not be familiar to you,
which is meringue powder.
Traditionally, royal icing is made with raw egg whites.
Meringue powder is shelf stable, meaning
you won't have any food safety issues of using raw egg whites.
Meringue powder, however, is not the same as dried egg
whites, which is also called egg white powder.
You will not get the same results if you use it.
Meringue powder is typically hard to find in grocery stores.
You'll have better luck with stores
that have a dedicated baking and cake decorating
aisle like craft stores.
And sometimes the big box stores might carry it too.
This royal icing recipe is a great base
for your favorite flavorings.
I recommend this, especially if you're
using this as a cookie icing.
On its own, this is really just straight up sugar.
If you choose to add flavor, make sure you check it first
that it doesn't have oil listed in the ingredients
because that's going to break down your royal icing.
You can add flavorings to taste, but be
mindful not to add so much liquid
that it affects the consistency of your icing.
If you like a lot of flavor, you may
want to substitute some of the water
in the icing recipe with your flavoring.
You may also want to think about using the Treatology flavors
because it's designed especially for decorating.
Because these flavors are concentrated,
you only need to use just a few drops,
and it won't mess with the consistency of your icing.
You can also mix them to create new flavors.
Clear flavors are also a great option
for adding flavor to royal icing without adding any color.
If you use pure vanilla extract, your white icing
might get a little bit duller, more like on the ivory side
than bright white.
The last thing I want to talk about is storing icing.
You might not need all of this icing for your projects.
And because all the ingredients are shelf stable,
you can store royal icing in an airtight container
at room temperature for up to two weeks.
Before you use it again, you'll see
that the royal icing might look a bit soft and deflated,
but don't worry.
Just re-whip it using a paddle attachment on low speed,
and your royal icing will be perfect to use again.
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