Royal Icing

Royal Icing is a nearly flavorless icing that dries to a hard candy-like finish.Its a favorite of professional cake and cookie decorators.This is just a mix of powdered sugar and raw egg whites but due to the risk associated with raw eggs , its safe and easy to use the recipe using meringue powder.Meringue powder is a fine, white powder which are made form egg whites .Its available in most cake decorating and party stores . Plain royal icing is flavorless , so its better to add some kind of flavoring when we make the icing .This recipe makes about 3 cups of royal icing.


INGREDIENTS

4 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp meringue powder
1/2 tsp extract (vanilla , almond etc)
6 tbsp water












DIRECTIONS

1. In a bowl of your electric mixer take the powdered sugar and meringue powder . Mix well.


2. Now add 6 tbsp water , beat on low speed for about 7-10 minutes until stiff peaks form.

Lessons learned :

[1]Royal icing dries up fast . So store in air tight container . Dont leave it open for a long time even while you are decorating .

[2] After decorating, it takes many hours or even overnight for the royal icing to harden completely.

[3]If icing is too thick , add a bit more water . If too thin , add some more powdered sugar .