Royal Icing With Meringue Powder

This Royal Icing With Meringue Powder is great for both outlining and flooding making it the perfect icing for all your cookies and treats.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword icing, royal icing

Prep Time 20

Total Time 20

Servings cups

Calories 659kcal

Ingredients

4 cups confectioner’s sugar
5 tbsp warm water
3 tbsp meringue powder
½ tsp clear vanilla extract or almond

Instructions

Place the confectioner’s sugar, warm water, and the meringue powder in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Using the whisk attachment, beat the ingredients together for about 10 minutes on low speed until the icing forms peaks.
Stop the mixer and let the icing sit for about 15-30 minutes to let all of the air bubbles rise. Gently stir to release the bubbles.
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.

Don’t over-beat. You don’t want to add more air to the icing. Also- stirring too vigorously will have the same effect.

While working with a small portion of the icing, you can cover the portion you are not using with a damp paper towel. This will ensure the icing doesn’t dry out before you are able to use it all.

To speed up the drying process of the icing, once the cookies are decorated, I recommend placing the cookies in front of a fan in a lint-free room. The icing can take several hours to dry completely.

Nutrition