Royal Icing Recipe

This recipe uses significantly less meringue powder than is typical for royal icing; while the icing will harden enough to stack cookies when dry, it stays softer than standard royal icing (which can be quite hard and crunchy).

Combine powdered sugar and meringue powder in mixing bowl. Add almond extract and corn syrup to measuring cup, then add warm water to the ¾ cup mark. Stir until corn syrup is dissolved.

With paddle on low speed, slowly add liquid to sugar/meringue mixture. Increase speed to 50-75% when liquid is incorporated, and mix for 3-5 minutes.

Color with gel colors and thin to desired consistency before filling piping bags.

Tips

Consistency
- I typically use a single consistency of icing for both outlining and flooding (filling in the outline before it has had time to dry).
- For piping dots, lines, and simple shapes, I can usually use the same consistency if I simply switch to a smaller tip (1.5 PME is my favorite).
- The volume of liquid in this recipe yields icing that is a bit too thick for filling/flooding, so must be diluted with additional water. It is always easier to add more water than to thicken icing that has beeen over-thinned, so go slow and be conservative with the water! Using a spray bottle to add water provides better control than dripping/pouring.
- If a stiff icing is needed for piping structured elements (roses, leaves, shell borders, etc.), use more meringue powder and less liquid.
- I sometimes use just 2 to 2½ T. meringue powder for even softer icing. Once fully dried, the icing is still pretty soft (so I don't do it unless I know the cookies aren't going to be stacked more than 2 or 3 deep).
Drying
- The faster the icing dries, the shinier it will be. I usually put mine on wire racks stacked in front of a fan (and I'm fortunate to live in an area where humidity is low most of the year).
- Cookies should be allowed to dry 12-15 hours before packaging or stacking. I usually ice a few cookie scraps (or sacrificial cookies) at the end of a decorating session, and then I can push on the icing on these scraps to test whether the icing is dry enough to stack without worrying about ruining a decorated cookie.
Flavor
- This recipe uses MUCH more almond extract than most you will find. (Yes, that's 3 tablespoons.) Before the icing dries the flavor can be overwhelming, but it mellows when the icing is dry and people rave about the flavor of my cookies (and icing), so I'm sticking with it. The only time I use anything but almond extract is when I make icing for gingerbread, where I use vanilla (though not as much—maybe 1 tablespoon—since gingerbread already has plenty of flavor).
- I just use Wilton meringue powder because it's convenient—I can buy it locally. I've seen people complain online about the flavor, but perhaps because I use so much almond extract and it overwhelms the Wilton flavor, nobody has ever complained about the flavor of my icing.