Royal Icing with Meringue Powder
This royal icing recipe is your secret to turning simple cookies into something truly special. I love how this version, made with meringue powder instead of egg whites, comes together so easily - no worrying about raw eggs, just smooth, glossy icing ready for decorating. It's my go-to for holiday cookies. One consistency which works great for piping and flooding cookies - easy peasy is always welcome over the holidays!
Ingredients
- 2 cups confectioners sugar g
- 1 ½ tablespoons meringue powder 15g
- 3 ½ tablespoons water divided
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Food coloring optional
Instructions
- In a bowl mix together the confectioners sugar and meringue powder.
- Add in about 2 tablespoons of the water and all of the vanilla extract. Mix together and determine if the consistency needs more water. For piping and flooding sugar cookies, and gingerbread cookies etc, I find the full 3 ½ tablespoons of water is good. But you may want to add it a little bit at a time so you don’t end up with too thin an icing.
- A good consistency for the icing is if you bring up a spoonful from the bowl and drip it back down in lines, the lines maintain their shape for about 6 seconds before “melting” back in with the rest of the icing. This consistency will allow you to pipe and flood a cookie.
- But if you want an even thicker consistency, you can use a stand or hand mixer and beat the icing until stiff peaks form – usually takes a couple minutes of beating.
- At this point you can add a bit of food coloring if you want and mix it in. I prefer using gel food coloring as it doesn’t thin the icing down. You may want to have a few bowls of different colors depending on how you will be decorating.
Notes
- How long does royal icing last for? On a cookie, it will stay fresh as long as the cookie stays fresh. If you have leftover icing you can store it in a plastic zipper top bag in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. It also freezes well in the zipper top bag for about 3 months. Just let it thaw overnight in the fridge and then let it come to room temperature before using it.
- Why is my icing flowing down the sides of my cookies? Sounds like the consistency of the royal icing is too thin. You need to add more icing sugar to it.
- When I pipe my icing, the lines break and are dry looking? This means the consistency is too thick, you need to thin the icing down with a bit of water - just add a couple of drops at at time.
- How long does royal icing take to dry? On average it takes about 2 hours to dry, but if you have a thicker than average layer it could take longer and vice versa for a very thin coating.
- Can I freeze cookies decorated with royal icing? Yes! royal icing that has completely dried will freeze well with a cookie.