Royal icing is a magical and mysterious mixture of egg whites and powdered sugar that has so many purposes! It can be used as a base for making fondant, as a glue to stick together candy pieces, as decoration on baked goods such as cookies, cupcakes or cake pops.
If you are looking for a recipe to make your own royal icing, then you have come to the right place.
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❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Good for beginners, easy to make.
- Royal icing holds its shape so you can decorate with it.
- Great for cake pops, gingerbread, cookies, cupcakes and more!
- Enough to cover one standard-sized cake or 24 cookies.
🛒Ingredients
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- meringue powder
- water
- powdered sugar
- corn syrup
- glycerin
- clear extract (like vanilla, almond etc)
See the recipe card below for quantities.
🔪 How to Make Royal Icing
Combine the meringue powder and water. With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat until combined and foamy. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine.
Add in the corn syrup and extract if desired. Increase speed to med-high/high and beat for about 5 minutes or so, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form.
Scrape down sides and bottom of the bowl a couple of times during the 5 minutes. (You should be able to remove the beater from the mixer and hold up and jiggle without the peak falling.) Do not overbeat.
Cover with plastic wrap touching the icing or divide and color using gel paste food colorings. This “stiff” icing is perfect for outlining, monogramming, and piping details. To fill in your cookies, add water to your icing a teaspoon at a time, stirring with a rubber spatula until it is the consistency of syrup. This technique of filling a cookie with thinned icing is called “flooding.”
Need a delicious sugar cookie recipe to top with this royal icing? Check out my cream cheese sugar cookies, you will be so glad that you did.
🥄 Equipment
- mixing bowl
- mixer
- measuring cups and spoons
- spatula
🥫 Storage
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
💭 Tips
- Thick icing will hold a “soft peak.” The tip will slowly fall back down but the rest of the peak remains. This is considered an 18-20 second icing.
- A medium consistency or “flood” consistency icing has a peak that falls over right away And folds back into itself. This may leave a small mound that you can shake out. This is a 15-second icing.
- A thin icing doesn’t have peaks. It falls back down as soon as it’s lifted. This is anything under a 10-second icing. If you are a newbie stay away from this.
- To apply the “seconds” or counting test
- When you make the Royal icing and begin to add water to thin it out, stir it in full, and then run your spoon down the center of the bowl. Count how long it takes for the icing to fully come together.
- A 12-15 second icing is great for experienced cookie decorators.
- For new cookie decorators, I recommend 15-20 seconds.
Coloring Royal Icing
- Use gel color to NOT adjust the consistency of the icing when before decorating.
- When dying royal icing colors, it is important to use gel colors.
- They will not adjust the consistency of the icing and 1-2 drops are typically more than enough.
Guide to dark colors:
RED: first do 2 drops of pink and mix fully. Then add 2-3 drops of red color. If you attempt red color + white icing, it will only turn pink.
BLACK: first do 2 drops of brown and mix fully. Then add 2-3 drops of black color. If you attempt black + white icing, it will turn grey.
⁉️ FAQ
Do you have questions about this recipe? Here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions.
Royal icing can be either soft or hard, depending on how much water you add to the mixture during preparation.
Royal Icing tastes sweet with a mild flavor.
Yes! It is best to have it in a container with a tight-fitting lid. Thaw overnight at room temperature before using. If too thick, add water one teaspoon at a time to get back to the correct consistency.
🍽 More Cookie Recipes
Do you enjoy cookies, try these delicious recipes:
🧾Royal Icing
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Royal Icing
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup meringue powder
- ½ cup water
- 2 pounds powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoons corn syrup
- 1 teaspoons glycerin
- 2 teaspoons clear extract such as butter vanilla, almond
- 1 teaspoon food coloring gel use the color of your choice
Instructions
- Combine the meringue powder and water. With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat until combined and foamy. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine.
- Add in the corn syrup and extract if desired. Increase speed to med-high/high and beat for about 5 minutes or so, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form.
- Scrape down sides and bottom of the bowl a couple of times during the 5 minutes. (You should be able to remove the beater from the mixer and hold up and jiggle without the peak falling.) Do not overbeat.
- Cover with plastic wrap touching the icing or divide and color using gel paste food colorings. This “stiff” icing is perfect for outlining, monogramming, and piping details. To fill in your cookies, add water to your icing a teaspoon at a time, stirring with a rubber spatula until it is the consistency of syrup. This technique of filling a cookie with thinned icing is called “flooding.”
Notes
- Thick icing will hold a “soft peak.” The tip will slowly fall back down but the rest of the peak remains. This is considered an 18-20 second icing.
- A medium consistency or “flood” consistency icing has a peak that falls over right away And folds back into itself. This may leave a small mound that you can shake out. This is a 15-second icing.
- A thin icing doesn’t have peaks. It falls back down as soon as it’s lifted. This is anything under a 10-second icing. If you are a newbie stay away from this.
- To apply the “seconds” or counting test
- When you make the Royal icing and begin to add water to thin it out, stir it in full, and then run your spoon down the center of the bowl. Count how long it takes for the icing to fully come together.
- A 12-15 second icing is great for experienced cookie decorators.
- For new cookie decorators, I recommend 15-20 seconds.