Royal Icing Without Meringue Powder

If you love decorating cookies, you'll want to use this Royal Icing Without Meringue Powder made with just 4 basic ingredients.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, French

Keyword corn syrup, icing, royal icing

Prep Time 5

Total Time 5

Servings cup

Calories 16899kcal

Ingredients

3 cups confectioner’s sugar
4 tbsp warm water
1 tbsp light corn syrup
¼ tsp clear vanilla extract or almond

Instructions

Place the confectioner’s sugar in a medium mixing bowl.
Combine the warm water, corn syrup, and extract in a separate, smaller bowl. Whisk to combine.
Whisk that mixture into the confectioner’s sugar until completely combined and the mixture is smooth and glossy. It should be slow to drip off the whisk and it should not hold shape once drizzled back into the bowl.
Transfer to an icing bag or bottle fitted with a small, round tip to pipe the border/edges of the icing
Once the border is made, you can transfer the remaining icing back to the bowl and thin it out with a little bit of water. Then pour back into the icing bottle to flood the inside of the icing border to fill in the cookie decorations.

Notes

You want to use clear flavoring - such as imitation vanilla, almond, or other flavor. If you use pure vanilla, the brown color will tint the icing and it will no longer be bright white.

If the mixture is too thick, you can add a few drops of water - whisking well after each drop. Be careful not to add too much. It is better to go drop by drop vs several at a time and end up with icing that is too thin to work with.

In the event the icing is too thin - you can add more confectioner’s sugar to thicken it up. As with the water, start with a small amount and gradually build up. Start with 1 tsp at a time.

To tint the icing - I recommend using gel food coloring as it won’t thin the icing like liquid food coloring and it won’t thicken the icing like powdered food coloring. The gel is also a highly concentrated pigment, so a little goes a long way to achieve the color you desire. Keep in mind that the color will intensify as it sits.

Nutrition