I have received many questions about how I make my royal icing. When I make my royal icing I make it with eggwhites (pasturized) only because meringue powder or dried eggwhite powder is not commen use here in Denmark. Some of the cake decorating shops may have it though but I stick to the eggwhites.
If you do know how to make royal icing but are having trouble getting it runny for flooding your cookies then take a look at the photos maybe they can be helpful to acchive the smooth look on a flooded cookie. I can tell that I always start out with a stiff royal icing and then I thin it down with water to either soft for piping and runny for flooding.
Always remember to cover up your royal icing with either cling film or a wet cloth as this will prevent the royal icing to dry out. Also if your icing gets too thick add water or if it is too wet add more icing sugar. So here is the tutorial on how to make royal icing.
This is what I use:
2 eggwhites
2 lb icing sugar sifted (Not all may be used)
1 tsp lemon juice
Large bowl
Handheld mixer with hooks or kitchen mixer with paddle attachment
Cling film
Step 1:
Combine eggwhites and lemon juice in a large bowl. Add some of the sifted icing sugar to the mixture and start the mixer.
Step 2:
Keep adding icing sugar a little at a time. When the mixture looks like thick whipped cream and makes soft peaks when you push down the hooks/paddle in it, you can use it for piping.
Step 3:
When you have the soft peak icing, you start to only add 2 tbsp of icing sugar at a time because from now on the icing will get more and more stiff. When you can pull out small stif peaks the icing is ready. Cover the icing with cling film and a lid or wet cloth and store it in the fridge.
Runny icing:
If you want to make runny icing for flooding cookies or making run-outs then take some royal icing (stiff made) into a bowl and start mixing it with water, a few drops at the time. Continue this until the icing it thin and liquid. It should be smoothing out when you lift the spoon. The mixing with the water will most likely cause many air bubbles in the icing, so it is always good to cover up the icing and let it “rest” for 30 min. Then give it a slow stir and you have reduced the amount of air bubbles in your icing.
I hope you can use this 
Happy Caking
Louise
May 8th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Thank you Louise! Perfect timing: I’m going to prepare a cake for my boyfriend’s mom and I did not know wich coating I could use. I will try your royal icing: the tutorial is really detailed and the pictures are really helpful!! Thank you very much
Paola
May 8th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Thanks for this…I didn’t know the best way to do royal icing was to use handheld mixer with hooks…and the problems with bubbles…maybe is for this reason that my royal icing is always not smooth at all..
May 9th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Thanks Louise for the great tutorial, as always !
May 9th, 2008 at 6:17 am
Thank you Lousie for this ultrausefull post
I really didn’t know where to start with this icing so I appreciate your help and expecially the photos that really clear up my mind!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart
Silvia
May 9th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Thanks Louise for posting this! I’m going to start icing 300 cookies today, so this was perfect timing! I enjoy seeing all that you do. I’m learning loads from you!
May 9th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Thanks, Louise. This is a lot of help.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Thanks again!
May 9th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Thanks, Louise. Excellent directions. Only one question: how do you pasturized the egg whites?
May 9th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Do you pasteurize the egg whites yourself? And if so, how? Thanks!
May 9th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Thanks so much for this Louise! I cant wait to try this out! I think Ill like using the egg whites rather than the Meringue Powder. The pictures help alot too! Hugs!
May 9th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Thank you for this, Louise…today I have just prepared some cookies for a wedding. I would like to show you them, they are no excellent, but I think good. You always helps us.
Paola, Roma
May 9th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Thank you so much! I’ve attempted numerous cookie icing recipes but none ever seem to come out as beautifully as yours. I look forward to trying this!
May 9th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Dear Louise, thanks so much for the fantastic photos and tutorial. I’m sending you work off to several friends. Lovely to have you out there.
Cheers, Geraldine
May 9th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Thanks Louise. Well done!
Geraldine
May 9th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
So nice to hear that many found the tutorial usefull. About the pasturized eggwhites I get those from the grocery store. Using raw egg products in non cooked food is different around the world. Here we use pasturized egg product for things there wont be cooked/baked over 75C.
So if you cant get pasturized eggwhites then use dried eggwhite powder.
Paola: I would love to see them. Can you send them to me??
Thanks!
May 9th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Hi Louise, I have been avoiding doing anything with RI as it is humid here in Hawaii & we have a good amount of rain. I know RI will just melt away, but was wondering if there is anything I could add to it to stop this or at least delay it happening. Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks
June
May 10th, 2008 at 3:13 am
Louise… Thanks A lot you don’t know how I appreciate this!!!
I’ll be trying it out very soon!
Thanks again…and I hope my cookies look just like yours!!!
Greeting from Caracas,
May 10th, 2008 at 4:21 am
What a great tutorial on royal icing! Now whenever people send me questions about it I will send them your way!
May 10th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Tak Louise! Your site always inspires me! We have nearly 100% humidity here in Florida and I know that I have to turn our air conditioner on about 65 degrees to get the kind of results I want from royal icing. I have never been to Hawaii, June, but I think if you have A/C you can get professional results!
Have fun everyone!
Andi
May 11th, 2008 at 3:05 am
Hi, Louise, thank you very much for the tutorial, the pictures are very very helpful to get the ideal consistency for each steps…
May 11th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
June: I had to ask one of my friends she gave me this recipe for a RI with gum arabic. She have not tried it yet but told me that it is used by Geraldine Randlesome. It should dry very hard up so maybe you should try just to use a smaller amount of the gum arabic and see how it work?
8-10 oz confectioner’s sugar
1 egg white
1/4 t gum arabic
1/4 t glucose
Mix glucose with egg white, Gradually add sugar with gum arab., one Tablespoon at a time, whisking by hand.
Continue mixing by hand…should take about 20minutes to mix properly
Do let me know how it was….
Louise
May 13th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Hi Louise,
Found your blog when I’m doing some research on how to make a fondant cake this week for my friend. Really amaze on how good looking are your cake. Also you tips helps me a lot.
I want to ask if I can use cheese cake as a fondant cake base, coz I know fondant can’t be refridgrated. My friend’s daughter love cheese cake, so what am I going to do?
shira
May 14th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I found this blog on the Blogger’s Choice Awards page, voted for best food blog. Without a doubt, this site has gotten my vote! I am so glad that I came across this site. Your cookie templates are beautiful and this blog is definitely well written. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with the world! You have a new loyal subscriber here!
May 14th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Hi Shira: Do you know the company Elegant cheesecakes? http://www.elegantcheesecakes.com/ECC_Homepage.asp They make the most fantastic cakes using cheesecake so it could work.
I always keep my fondant covered cakes in the fridge, I just put them in cardboard boxes and they will be fine.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Hi Shannon,
Thank you for the vote that was very sweet of you. Well I do try to do my best with the site and getting comments like yours surely shows that I am doing the right thing
May 15th, 2008 at 5:45 am
Louise,
The anlo thing I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! A friend showed my your website a couple of days ago and I cann’t thank you enough for all the information you give and for inspirering us with so beautifull thing. I love baking as all your fans and would love to share my projects with all of you!!!
keep up the excellent work
anita
May 15th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Hi, I would like to know more about paint cakes.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Louise,
Thx for yr advise and glad to hear that the fondant cake can be chilled. I think I’ll make mango cheese cake then and will post the “cake” in my blog in few days time. Will let u know how will it turn out to be.
cheers
shira
May 15th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Shira: Just remember to buttercream it first before you cover with fondant. Because the fruit acid can melt the fondant. If it is very humid it will likely sweat but it will dry up a electric fan cna help.
Good luck!
May 16th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Bianca: you can paint on cakes with either food color paste or petal dust mixed with a few drops of clear alcohol. Or you can melt some cocoa butter and mix it with petal dust not paste or liquid colors.
May 18th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
nice… thanks so much louise!!!
May 21st, 2008 at 9:43 am
Louise,
Your tips really helpful. But I miss the last one that u wrote to me because I tot it is ok to use “mango” cream chesse icing to cream the cake before laying the fondant. Like you said, the fondant melt and starting to leak when the cake arrived my friend’s home. Also it sweeten the cheese cake. It looked fine thought.
I’ll try again next time! Feel free to go to my blog http://shiraschoice.blogspot.com to take a look of the cake photo!
Many thx!
shira
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Shira: How sad that the fondant melted. I still hope it was great tasting though. The cake is sweet with the little bees on it.
May 31st, 2008 at 6:03 am
Hello…I wanted to say your cookies look amazing with this frosing. Do you use the watery one or the stiffer one? how do you frost the cookies? I have never made cookies or used royal icing before…Thank you sooo much!!
May 31st, 2008 at 6:28 am
Oh one more question how do you color your icing? :}
June 1st, 2008 at 10:47 pm
dayanara: I use the stiff icing for the outlining of the cookies and then I fill in with the runny icing. I color my icing with food color gels or pastes. Take a look at this site it have many great recipes and how to’s on cookie decoration: http://www.karenscookies.net/shop/index.php
June 4th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Thanks for the response and the site..you are the best!!!
June 5th, 2008 at 6:39 am
hey louise. nice tutorial, i really like it:D thanks. perfect timing, me and my twin sister are going to bake a cake for our friends. we really loved your tutorial, and i’m sure our friends will really love the cake especially your royal icing. thanks again:D
June 9th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
hey i didnt know where i could ask this so i decided this would be the best section. how do you make frosting? i’ve tried to make two frosting recipes from the magnolia bakery books. and they always came out not thick enough. i followed everything to a T but then again, they were vague as to when to stop beating it in the stand mixer. it comes out runny when i pipe it, it doesnt have that creamy thick texture. especially not the texture i need to make swirls on my cupcakes do you think you could help? and do you know which paddle im supposed to use on the stand mixer? is it the whisk or the paddle?
thanks so much !
June 18th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
hey. if you don’t mind can you mail me a picture of a cupcake with royal icing on it? i’m learning to bake cupcake for my grandma’s birthday and hope that i can bake cupcakes like yours that have such wonderful design. do you mind sharing? if you do not. mind mailing me?
are royal frostings the coloured ones i see on your cupcakes pictures?
June 21st, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Help!!! I have just thrown out my second batch of cutouts. The flood went on beautifully: shiny and perfect. The next morning I came down to find the cookie surface bumpy and sweaty looking, the icing looking crystalized. Why is this happening? I have a picture of the ruined cookies if anyone thinks seeing it will help them diagnose my problem. Would be MUCH appreciated !!!
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
yaneee: Thank you:-)
elouise: I have not tried the Magnolia frostings, but when I make frosting I use the paddle and I use the amount equal parts of butter and icing sugar. If its too thick I add a few tsp of milk and offcourse I add flavourings aswell.
melinda: you can find some of my cupcakes that have been decorated with royal icing in my cake gallery here: http://www.cakejournal.com/flickr/album/72157600186762989/photo/1466487063/Cupcakes–Mini-Cakes-Chocolate-cupcakes-close-up.html
Sure you can use my desings as an insperation.
Mary Lou: Could you have used to much water to thin down the royal icing??
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Hi Louise!
this is the first time i’ve visited your blog…. Amazing cookies and cup cakes… and great tuturial…
i’ve been baking cakes for some time now… and wanted to learn new techniques…
I have never used Royal Icing…. I wanted to know that is it possible to make royal icing without egg….
I would also be greatful to you if you can forward me some Eggless cakes and cake decoration recipes….
Thank you!
June 26th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Help!!! I just iced some cookies with royal icing made from fresh egg whites which I had kept in the freezer for a few months. They were from fresh eggs I separated myself. In the past I’ve used frozen pastruized egg whites commercially packaged with great success. I made it as I always do, and always without fail. I thinned the icing to flood the top of the cookies. The icing behaved nicely and went on perfectly. However, it still has not dried 24 hours later!! It remains very sticky to the touch. I made another batch of icing with fresh pasturized egg whites that I bought from the grocery store. That batch I used to pipe on flowers on top of the glazed cookies. That batch has set up perfectly hard, like always. The weather was perfect. Not too hot, no humidity. What happened?? Why won’t the glaze dry? Any ideas?
June 26th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
The cookies are for a wedding on Saturday. Is there anything I can sprinkle on top of them to at least take away the sticky feeling?
June 26th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Tripti: the only thing that you can use as an subsitute for eggs is flax seeds that is boiled with water. I have been told that it looks really gooey but it can work to use it in royal icing. Email is on the way.
Bertilla Baker: First I would personally not use fresh egg whites. I only use pasturized egg whites. I dont know what can have caused the problem with them. I once tried to make royal icing with Meri-White powder and the next day they looked fine hard on the surface but the RI was still runny under.
I dont know what you can do so they dont stick. I am sorry to say it but I think that you will have to start over again :-(((( or can you scrape the icing off and re-decorate??
I hope it works out for you. There is nothing more anoying when things goes wrong.
July 4th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Hi Louise,
Thanks for your website. It is such a wonderful information for me to learn as a starter. Ive been wanting to make frosting the traditional way like my mom used to make when she is baking cake and frost it by herself when i was little looking at her seems too complicated but taste so much better, the homemade style. I forgot how she did it. Searching on the internet, i found your site , exactly the way how i wanted to make my frosting and in easy way step by step. Thanks a lot! More power to you!
July 4th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
annie: Nice to hear:-) Just a note this is “frosting” is mostly used for piping, decorating cookies. It can be used on cakes but it will dry hard.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:33 am
hi!
i absolutely love your site! the tutorials are great.
just a quick question, im making a cake for my sons 2nd birthday (lots of youn kiddies so the thick icing like plastic stuf is out really). is it the this royal icing you can pour over buttercream and and it makes a kind of crust that you can paint? or is there some other type of icing that you use? i really wanted to paint some animals on it.
i hope you can help me! i only have 20 days to go!!
July 7th, 2008 at 5:34 am
oh i forgot to say that the crust type thingy is quite thin, like about 3mm
July 12th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
chloe: If you want to paint on your sons cake. I would use rolled fondant icing over the buttercreamed cake.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:16 am
Finally, an icing recipe that does not use milk products. My son is allergic and all the recipes I have call for either milk or butter (which is a milk product). Thanks.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:31 am
Hi Louise,
I love your website, it’s given me so much inspiration. I was wondering if you could help me. I’ve got landed with making my own wedding cakes and all was going fine. I have baked them, covered them in marzipan which i left to dry for a week, then a friend who worked in a bakery said it should be covered in egg white to seal it and stop any discolouration. I have just started to ice the cakes and now it is drying brown patches are appearing on the icing. Do you have any ideas of what i can do about this? My wedding is in 23 days and i am starting to panic! Thanks.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Hi Helen,
So sorry that this has happend to you.
I have looked in my books and if the cake is going to be covered with RI I dont say anything about covered in egg whites only that the marzipan should be left to dry completly. It says nothing about there can appear discolouration.
How many layers of RI have you made on the cakes? maybe you can carefully scrape the RI off. Brush with egg whites and re ice again?. If you want to be safe the only thing is to start all over again. Maybe you can re-use the cakes if they are fruitcakes?
Or you could cover them with rolled fondant icing? if so then you need to brush the marzipan covered cakes with clear alcohol to make the icing stick.
I hope you find a way that works best for you
GOOD LUCK
July 31st, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Alaina: I dont think I have seen a royal icing that calls for milk or butter. It is always nice when you find something you can use if someone has allergy.