This recipe is the 'glue' that holds gingerbread houses together, and makes it still edible.
I love this icing for decorative piping on my gingerbread and sugar cookies. Add some vanilla - I used regular (not clear) and my icing was perfectly white. I separate the batch in two - use the icing as is to pipe the borders. Then I add some water to the 2nd batch to loosen it up enough to flow and cover surface of the cookie (usually about 2-3 additional TBS of water). You want a consistency like thick cake batter. Decorate quickly with sprinkles, sugars, etc and let dry. Really pretty cookies. Icing is easily tinted too. I took one star off because the instructions are a bit vague. Sift together meringue powder and confect. sugar. Start with half the mixture and half the water. Whip on low to incorporate - adding the rest of the dry and water gradually. Then whip on medium to med-high til shiny and glossy and peaks form. Bowl may need to be scraped down once or twice. Good solid recipe!
Read MoreI know so many bakers seem to really like this icing and I do like the taste and how it is hard on the outside but soft in the middle but I had a hard time using them to ice cookies. I had to heat it up in the microwave in order to get it loose enought to get a smooth finish. Unfortunately it would cool very very quickly so I kept having to reheat it in small batches. Plus the recipe only makes a small amount so I would definatley reccommend doubling it. I don't think I will use this again.
Read MoreI love this icing for decorative piping on my gingerbread and sugar cookies. Add some vanilla - I used regular (not clear) and my icing was perfectly white. I separate the batch in two - use the icing as is to pipe the borders. Then I add some water to the 2nd batch to loosen it up enough to flow and cover surface of the cookie (usually about 2-3 additional TBS of water). You want a consistency like thick cake batter. Decorate quickly with sprinkles, sugars, etc and let dry. Really pretty cookies. Icing is easily tinted too. I took one star off because the instructions are a bit vague. Sift together meringue powder and confect. sugar. Start with half the mixture and half the water. Whip on low to incorporate - adding the rest of the dry and water gradually. Then whip on medium to med-high til shiny and glossy and peaks form. Bowl may need to be scraped down once or twice. Good solid recipe!
Excellent!! Used to decorate my gingerbread cookies, worked well and dried fast so I could get them put away. Tip; use ziploc freezer bags with a decorator tip fastened in a corner. This allows you to work off and on without worrying about the frosting drying out on you.
The way I made this icing I'd give it 5 stars - the way it was written I can only give it a 4. The thing I was MOST disappointed about was the fact that the actual directions are so vague. I have never made royal icing before and I just dumped all the ingredients in a bowl on my first try. The meringue powder clumped up and the icing was horrible to use because clumps of solidified powder kept getting stuck in my tips. I tried it again today and sifted all dry ingredients first into the bowl. Then I measured water into a measuring cup and added 1 tsp. of almond extract - it needed the flavor. I added just a small bit of liquid and started mixing right away and slowly added the rest. It worked out perfectly this time. I just wish more detail had been added to directions for us newbies. The ingredients and amounts themselves were great, with the exception of needing some flavor, but the extract took care of it. Now that I figured it out I will continue to use this recipe. It dries fast - but not so fast that I couldn't add spinkles, etc. Thanks for a great basic recipe...
I used it for 100 gingerbread houses at school (I'm a teacher) and it worked like a charm. So much easier than using egg whites!! I bought the meringue powder in bulk.
This is the BEST icing recipe ever. I didn't use it for gingerbread houses though; I wanted an icing that dried hard and shiny so I could stack multiple cookies together. This stuff tastes great, and dries quick. Works great with food coloring. I put the icing in piping bags (or ziploc bags) and cut a little snip off at the end. Icing holds its form well, so you can do intricate designs. I don't have a hand mixer, so I found I needed to add a dash more water to get it mixed properly. Definitely would reccomend this recipe. Hope this helps!
I loved feeling totally confident with people eating the icing (egg white powder is the only way to go in this instance). I really think my grandmother should consider this to hold her dentures in... my house was solid even as people pried the candies off.
This icing turned out great...I use different flavorings and always tastes great!
We just made gingerbread houses and this recipe was perfect "glue" for the house. We had enough time to decorate the house and yet it set up quickly. Perfect!
With a portable mixer, I found after the 10 minutes, that additions of small amounts more icing sugar, and beat until thick enough, speeds it along from there. I feel this recipe should be in the Cake section, not in Cookies.
I know so many bakers seem to really like this icing and I do like the taste and how it is hard on the outside but soft in the middle but I had a hard time using them to ice cookies. I had to heat it up in the microwave in order to get it loose enought to get a smooth finish. Unfortunately it would cool very very quickly so I kept having to reheat it in small batches. Plus the recipe only makes a small amount so I would definatley reccommend doubling it. I don't think I will use this again.
Thank you, Diane S! I had purchased some meringue powder from Hobby Lobby last year, and I had misplaced the recipe guide that came with it (for piping and flooding). I needed a royal icing that would dry fast, so using a glossy corn syrup icing wasn't a practical option for my cookies today. I did add some lemon extract and paste food coloring, so I had to add a little more powdered sugar to get the correct consistency. It's very important to mix thoroughly until the icing forms peaks. I found some small empty squeeze bottles with pointed tips in the painting section of the craft store. I filled them up with icing and used them to create lines, writing, and outlines. Some people commented that I must have a very steady hand with a piping bag to create intricate and tiny details. Little did they know about my trick ;) I find that as long as your decorated cookies aren't exposed to air, the icing will not get too hard to bite into. Update: I made my cookies 5 days ago and stored them in tied cellophane treat bags. The icing and cookies are just as tasty and not dry or hard. Beautiful results!
I bake gingerbread "students" for my daughter's school every Christmas with each childs name on them. This is the first year I have had a hassle free time of it thanks to this recipe! I've made royal icing every year with egg whites and the consistency is anything but consistent. I love using the meringue powder instead and how easy it is to make this recipe. This icing flows onto the cookies smoothly and dries quickly. No more egg whites for me!
This is an awesome recipe. Add more water if you need a thinner icing for piping fine details or working with small tips.
WOW. This is Gingerbread House Superglue... Mine dried rock-hard in about an hour and a half. TIP: If you don't have two sets of hands to hold the vertical pieces together when assembling your house, try using Press 'n' Seal plastic wrap. I put it, sticky side out, over the serving platter I put my house on. The "stick" is just enough to hold the pieces in place as the icing sets, without having to recruit extra hands.
Perfect basic royal icing. I've used it on cookies, cakes and making flowers and butterflies. To help for flooding, I use liquid food coloring to both color and thin it out. It works better for me than using paste and adding water. I also recommend using a hand mixer, not a stand mixer, to be sure the mixture isn't beaten past the consistency you're looking for. It's really easy to go from soft to super stiff in the blink of an eye.
Used it to glue together a CA mission for kid's project. Worked perfect and had plenty even with the kids sneaking bites constantly
I used this icing for a gingerbread house on Christmas Eve. I doubled the recipe and the first batch I fallowed the recipe exactly and it was like powder crumbs. The second batch I used two egg whites instead of meringue powder and mixed it with the first batch. It was the perfect texture and dried in about four hours. Great recipe!
Love it. It works spectacularly well for putting up gingerbread houses. It's easy to work with, dries very quickly, and the houses are sturdy within minutes. It tastes good, too.
Made batches of this stuff to make little milk carton / grahm cracker gingerbread houses for my sons holiday party - worked like a charm. I had to go to Hobby Lobby to find the meringue powder (in cake decorating section).
fabulous recipe- i used this to decorate petite fours, and they were simply out of this world! going back to Sweet Apron's comment on the first page of the thread: you can easily avoid grease tragedies by simply dampening a paper towel with regular white vinegar and wiping your mixer bowl and beaters (and other various items, i.e: spatula) with it. that will totally get rid of any grease that has been previously in contact with your equipment. ALSO: let air-dry. much more sanitary and will make your equipment 100% grease-free. =3
I used one sachet (= 3 tablespoons) of egg white powder and everything else as per the recipe apart from cutting back the sugar which was only because I was using it for a rather sweet cookie. I also used this recipe to make Mr. Melty the Snowman's icing for Michelle's Soft Sugar Cookies. (See my respective recipe review for more details!) This icing was true to its word and very very strong as well! I can't wait to try this on a traditional Christmas cake on top of a thin marzipan layer! Thanks for sharing Kristen! :)
Wortks great and dries hard. I made these lilies a week before I needed them to give them plenty of time to dry, unwrapped the foil bottoms a few days later before using so they can dry as well. The leaves only took 24 hours to dry... The cake is in buttercream and the stamens are un-edible... :)
I did not get this recipe from AR, but as a baker and cake decorator I have been using it for years. Royal icing works great for decorating sugar cookies and making flowers and other decorations for cakes. The idea of using uncooked egg whites makes me nervous, so I've always stuck with using meringue powder for my Royal Icing, and see no need to stray from what works in this case. It is very important when decorating with and making Royal Icing that you make sure all your equipment and utensils are grease free, otherwise the icing may not harden.
I added a tsp of cream of tartar, which helps to get air into the icing during whipping, and lets it dry faster once used.
This icing was exactly what I was looking for! I have tried multiple frosting and icing recipes, and none of them were quite right. This is PERFECT. I like the meringue flavor, but I did add a tsp of almond extract. I outlined the cookies with this recipe, then added quite a bit more water to flood the inside. Turned out perfect! I'll be making this again:)
This turned out great. I could not find merringue powder anywhere so i used 3 egg whites. It hardened and was very easy to work with. Thankyou
Great hardened icing, perfect for decorating. Ok flavor, but i'm not big on royal icing.
Wonderful for cookies. I piped in the outlines and it was the perfect thickness. I then I used my piping bag to put some in a squeeze bottle, added water and flooded the outline.
I thought this icing was great. It tasted yummy, had the perfect cookie-decorating consistency, and was very easy to add food colouring into, it absorbed the colour nicely. This will now be my go-to frosting recipe for when I bake cookies!
One of the best royal icing recipes I've tried. Very runny as is though. To pipe decorations for a cake, I needed to add a bunch more confectioners' sugar so that there could be form to the decorations (not sure of the amount).
This is the royal icing recipe I use for cake decorating. It is so easy to make, and turns out perfectly every time! Be sure to keep the icing covered with a damp cloth when it is not being used; it dries out very quickly!
Easy to make and work with - I used a half batch made with meringue powder and it came together a lot quicker, maybe 4 to 5 minutes. Used it to make decorations on a cake. Used gel food coloring and had each color in a separate disposable pastry bag while I worked, figuring it would protectthe icing from the air - no problem drying too fast, and set up nicely when I was done without being too hard or crunchy.
Very versatile recipe, dries nice and hard, I added 1 tsp vanilla. Pourable icing 3 tbsps meringue powder, 4 cups icing sugar and 9 tbsps water, 1.5 batches did 80 cookies.
Perfect recipe. (Also found on the insert for Wilton's meringue powder) This mixed up quickly and easily. We used it for decorating gingerbread houses and it worked like a dream!
This is the Wilton's Royal Icing so it's got to be good. I'm going to make it tomorrow to icing my first batch of The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies for my sons Sponge Bob birthday. It's going to be great ;)
Very easy recipe to use. I added water to some of the icing for flooding, and colored some of the others for decorating my melted snowman cookies.
This is a 5 star recipe as far as making gingerbread houses and panorama eggs. It is not very tasty but dries super hard and holds things together like glue. Because it is fast drying, you want to keep plastic wrap over it in a covered bowl and put a damp towel over your decorator tubes when not using. Air will dry it out. UPDATE: I used this recipe to make candy buttons from the 1950's. It's a great way to use up any left-over icing. I suggest drying them at least 24 hours to get them hard.
worked like a charm! i doubled the recipe to have enough to ice my cookies, other than that, it was wonderful!
Used this icing for my Gingerbread house. It was perfect! Once it dried it went rock hard and I could not pull it apart at all! Tasted great to once I get it off, lol.
This frosting was really fun to work with. I like the fact that we did not have to use raw egg or milk.
This was so simple I was able to mix the icing and put up the house walls within 45 minutes! That's pretty good considering this is my first gingerbread house. The consistency is perfect. I mixed for 9 minutes. Taste wasn't bad either! Can't wait to use again.
This icing worked well, even as my first attempt at anything other than buttercream icing. It almost worked too well though. I made this for a bunch of 5-7 yr olds to use as "glue" for graham cracker and candy castles at my daughter's princess party. The castles worked out great and we had some elaborate castles and towers, the only downside of using it like this was that after the castles dried it was nearly impossible to eat them without feeling like you were going to break a tooth.
This is just like the Wilton's royal icing recipe! Great recipe and works well. I wouldn't use another!
I used this icing to stick on Gumpaste decorations and it worked beautifully. Wasn't too runny and made everything hold nicely.
So easy and perfect. Keep thicker for piping edges and such and thin out with water (drops at a time) to " "pool". Awesome.
This is the only recipe that I use when decorating gingerbread men or houses, or even sugar cookies. I prefer not to use the liquid egg whites in other recipes.
Fantastic! Easy to prepare and works very well. I hate making ginger bread houses at the best of times but it has become a bit of a thing with my family... so this is certainly easier!
My friend and I got together before Christmas to do a bunch of baking, and at the last minute, decided to make decorated sugar cookies. We debated on the royal icing, since we'd never made it before, but decided to give this recipe a shot. It's a keeper! It made us feel very confident in our decorating ability, it was quick to whip up, and the cookies looked beautiful and tasted delicious. This icing was a great pairing with the buttery sugar cookies we made. It does start to dry out, but we felt we had more than enough time (and plenty of icing) to decorate about 5 dozen cut-out cookies. Really lovely!
Got no peaks over here. Tastes like powdered sugar even w/ flavoring--is it me? Still hardens though.
I use this recipe in my cake business. It is great, the consistency is perfect for piping and I don't have to worry about raw eggs! Just Perfect, thank you!
Perfect for my bride and groom sugar cookies. For black, I made chocoalte Royal Icing by adding 1/3 cup cocoa powder and then added black gel. Used less coloring.
Easy and foolproof. Can store extra in the fridge with a wet paper towel laying on the icing and covered with plastic wrap. Ready to go when your baking several dozen and decorating for days like I do.
This is an exceptional recipe. This is the exact consistency that I was looking for great I am going to keep this recipe wonderful thanks Diane S. This is a great recipe if you are looking for a thick consistency.
I have used this icing recipe for gingerbread houses and cookies for more than ten years. It is PERFECT for the houses, and good for the cookies as well. I just have a question for those who use it for cookies. My only complaint is that the icing doesn't "stick" well to the gingerbread cookies. Pieces of the decorations (eyes, nose, buttons, etc) fall off of the cookies easily. Does anyone have a tip that will help the icing stick to the gingerbread men a little better. I have always wondered if it is the icing, or my gingerbread recipe. Regardless, everyone RAVES over the cookies every year. I make no less than six double batches and they disappear as fast as I can decorate them!
This icing is amazing for sugar cookies! I added a bit of extra water to get the consistency I needed.
I LOVE this recipe!! Its not just for gingerbread houses. I used this to pipe cupcakes and they were awesome!!! I'm only14 but this worked perfectly for me
Nice b/c it's a super easy recipe. However, I think it needs just a touch more water. As is, it's a bit too tough to pipe out of the bag.
Frosting is great. Added 1 tsp of vanilla to add flavor. Let sit overnight to set up. Nice and shiny.
Used this recipe to ice elephant sugar cookies for a friends baby shower and LOVED the result. I added a tablespoon of vanilla and 3 extra tablespoons of water for a thinner consistency so I could "flood" the cutouts better, but was very happy with the overall look once they were finished.
I loved the way this icing set up and was still easy to bite through days later!! It was easy to make and tint and set up within hours. It was also very tasty! I will use this every christmas for our cookies!
Perfect for sugar cookies! I substitute one tablespoon of water for fresh squeezed lemon juice on my cookies!
Great icing recipe. We used it to stick candies on gingerbread men. I had no trouble making it.
I have tried this recipe and i also tried it the way my mom taught me to and i think the icing holds up better with egg whites instead of the marange powder. The best royal icing is the one made with egg whites, confectionary sugar, and a bit of vanilla essence, and a couple drops of lie or lemon juice to cut the freshness of the egg whites.
I've used this recipe for over 30 years. It's perfect for piping flowers, decorating gingerbread houses and cookies, etc., because it dries very hard and sturdy. Avoid making the icing on humid days, because it might be brittle after it dries.
In response to another reviewer... DO NOT PUT THIS IN THE MICROWAVE. I work as a cookie decorator, I have decorated thousands of cookies - not exaggerating. When the icing is too thick add water to thin it down, and when too thin you add the sugar mixture to bulk it up again. I suggest having a bowl of the sugar mixture on the side so you can gradually increase, little by little, to thicken the icing up. Likewise, depending on how large of a batch you're making, add water only a little at a time. This icing is decent. It's not stellar to work with. It has a gritty texture, and even after adjusting it for flooding and decorative piping it still didn't "feel" right. It felt thick and sludgy to work with and somehow, regardless of how much sugar was in the mix, it still had this weird wet feathered edge which is usually what happens when the consistency is too thin. It didn't set up. I've read that others have found this icing soft "on the inside". While this is delicious and awesome if consumed immediately, it does not package well! You can't stack cookies using this icing because it breaks. I thought maybe it needed a couple of hours to set but by the *next day* it was still too fragile. I had to lay them out on a plate and loosely wrap them in saran wrap. This is why it only gets 3 stars from me. It tastes decent, it's great the day of, it's too fussy to work with even for a professional and it doesn't package well at all.
EXCELLENT!! Works like a charm. Hardens in no time! This one will surely go in my recipe box!
We just whipped up a batch of this recipe because the icing that came with our gingerbread house kit was not setting up firmly enough. Thank goodness I had meringue powder on hand. This recipe was perfect! Not only is it far superior to what came with the kit, but it is whiter as well, making the overall visual effect much nicer. Incidentally, I didn't need very much so I halved the recipe and it came out perfectly.
I just made a tiny batch of this (thank goodness for AR's serving calculator!) for some old-fashioned oatcakes I found in Rock Recipe's blog. The cakes taste just like oatmeal cookies (but I didn't add any raisins or nuts because the kids don't like them) so I decided to look up a royal icing recipe I could size down to ice the small batch of cakes I made. I wanted something with a maple flavor so I added 1/2 tsp maple extract to the icing, hopefully it isn't too much extract. It is drying nicely right now though! Hopefully my daughter will opt for these instead of pop tarts in the morning!
Used egg whites rather than the power and it turned out good. Went well with Gingerbread Men.
Almost perfect in my opinion! Will be trying this recipe again. Thanks for sharing xoxoxoxo
I used this recipe last year to make 3D butterflies and am using it this year on my daughter's birthday cake to make seashells... thanks so much for sharing!
This royal icing is the best!! I added lemon extract to pick up the flavor and wow! What an awsome icing! Consistancy is wonderful to work with, it does not dry to fast, and it won't break your teeth either. I also added a bit extra confectioners sugar to one batch for piping and it worked perfectly. Thank you for submitting!
This icing worked out pretty well, but I had to spread it with my fingers as it was too thick to use anything else. Maybe more water would've helped?
This is about the same recipe I learned when I first started decorating cakes. It works very well for piping and for flowers.
Great recipe! I've used this recipe several times, all with much success. Please keep in mind that a wide variety of factors will affect how much liquid is needed (and if you used any extracts to flavor it... I like a tad of lemon... this counts as part of your liquid). It is best to add the liquid a little at a time so that you can stop if you reach the desired consistency with less liquid, and keep going if you need more. The last time I made this (for xmas cookies) I needed about 9 tbsp!
I used the ingredients, but I did not follow the quantities or instructions. I whipped the meringue powder with 5 tablespoons of hot water until they were soft peaks, then started adding powdered sugar until it was the consistency I needed. Makes it much smoother and gets rid of the grit from the meringue.
Great recipe for sugar cookie cut outs! It hardens very nicely without there being the gooey middle.
This is a pretty good recipe for Royal Icing. Even though I have a good, solid mixer I had to add a few more Tablespoons of water. The icing dries shiny and hard. Royal Icing is never that tasty in my opinion, but I use it as a base for sugar cookies and then use Buttercream to pipe decorations over top once the icing is dry.
I used this to decorate a gingerbread house, and it was perfect! The consistency is too thick for delicate decorating like piping leaves, but that could be fixed with a little water. The taste isn't great. If using for cookies or something that will be eaten, I would add some vanilla or lemon flavoring.
This recipe is Fabulous! I wanted a cement like frosting for making houses out of graham crackers. Each of the 14 houses held up for all the kids to make our giant candy town. We had an age range from 2-17 and every house survived! Even the crumbly gluten free crackers! It was a huge success! I did notice the first batch wasn’t as thick as I’d hoped, so I used 4 Tbls of water the next time which allowed me to hand roll the frosting and put it exactly where I needed it!
This is the recipe that comes with the Wilton brand of meringue powder, so if you're having problems with it, chances are the problem isn't the recipe, but rather your lack of familiarity with how the end product should work. I found that I needed more water than listed to create a flood icing that was both thick enough to outline & dry but also thin enough to flood. Worked fine for me. I think liquid coloring would've worked better for me than paste which meant I had to put it back into the mixer to get the color worked in, which was annoying and I'll try liquid next time just for kicks. I added almond extract bc this stuff tastes nasty but I think clear vanilla would've been worth the $$$ in this case. Thanks for sharing!
This icing was perfect! I baked sugar cookies for Christmas and used this icing to decorate. We drove 250 miles on Christmas day with these cookies jumping around in the trunk, and the icing stayed on.
This icing works perfect for gingerbread houses or cookies that you want to decorate and have them stay pretty as the icing firms up nicely like a candy coating and hardens well. But not so hard that you can't eat it. Flavor wise though, it's not as good as buttercream or something like that. It tastes like powdered sugar really and that's it. I was worried that they wouldn't taste very good because on its own it didn't have the best flavor when I tried it. But when I iced the cookies, they came out perfectly! Will use this again.
