Tutorial: Decorating with Royal Icing. Beautifully, every time.

In my previous tutorial, I showed you how easy it is to make cutout cookies. In this tute, I’ll show you how easy it is to  decorate with royal icing. I’m only covering very basic techniques, though these are the ones I use most often. I’ve also included my icing recipe which is what I’ve been using for years. In subsequent tutorials, I’ll show you some more tricky tricks.

Outline Consistency Icing – with Meringue Powder (for dots, lines, and other small details)

(yields about 1 1/2 cups of icing)

2 Cups confectioners’ sugar

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon meringue powder

3 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon room temp. water

Directions: Beat three to five minutes with an electric mixer. I recommend using a metal bowl. If you don’t have one, be sure to use a deep bowl. Scrape the icing out of the bowl with a spatula into an airtight plastic container.

Base Consistency Icing (to make a spreadable base)

Same recipe as above, except use 4 Tablespoons of room temperature water. Beat three to five minutes.

Flow Consistency Icing (for flooding cookies)

Same recipe as above, except use 5 Tablespoons of room temperature water. Beat three to five minutes.

Parchment Cones: Why use them? and how to make one

I use parchment cones because I tend to use very small amounts of icing for my decorated cookies, and, because they allow me the greatest control in piping my designs onto the cookies. Usually I make up to six colors at a time, all in outline consistency, and probably use less than two tablespoons of each color for a dozen cookies.

If I put a base of icing on my cookies first, I either use an offset spatula to spread the icing onto the cookies, or, I put a large amount of base icing into a squeeze bottle and carefully pipe it onto the cookies.

Parchment cones, popsicle mold to hold cones, and squeeze bottle.

To make a parchment cone, please look at this great tutorial on Baking911.com. I’m pointing you in that direction because I didn’t have my photographer husband available to help me this time (he will at some point). Baking911.com is also a great site with tons of information on baking.

Coloring the Icing

I use gel paste color. It’s highly concentrated so you only need to use a drop or two at a time. Unless you plan to make hundreds of cookies, you’ll only need the small bottles (I think they’re about 1.75 fluid ounces each) which are available at most cooking supply stores such as SurlaTable. I buy mine online from SugarCraft – I think they’re hands down the best online retailer for baking goods. Their prices are reasonable and their service rocks. Michaels, the crafts store, sells Wilton brand gel paste colors, which are fine, but they come in little jars instead of these tiny squeeze bottles so things can get messy. If you do use the Wilton jars, use very small spoons or even toothpicks to scoop the gel color out.

Gel paste color is best for coloring royal icing. Use sparingly.

Take a tablespoon of icing, put it into a small bowl, squeeze one or two drops of the gel color paste in and mix. Spoon into your parchment cone, fold the top of the cone and cut the tip off.

Gel paste color, icing in the bowl.

Squeeze a few drops of color into the icing. You don't need much.

Mix the color into the icing with a spoon.

Colored icing. You can add more color if you want...

Put your colored icing into a parchment cone and fold the top to close.

With your parchment cone filled, cut the tip off.

Practice on wax paper first!

Once you put icing on a cookie, you can’t remove it. You can work around your mistakes, which I encourage, but if you have a specific design in mind it’s best to practice it first before committing it to your cookies. I always try everything on a sheet of wax paper first, that way I get a feel for how I need to move my hand as I decorate, and I also get a feel for how much pressure I need to use on the parchment cone. Also, because wax paper is clear, you can put a drawing of your design underneath and trace it to get a strong feel for what you’ll be drawing on your cookies.

Practice by placing your design under a sheet of wax paper.

Piping Dots and Lines

These are the easiest things to do. Keep your hand steady, and squeeze the parchment cone. For dots, you just quickly squeeze and release. Repeat. Dot after dot.

Practice piping dots. Squeeze and release onto wax paper. It's that easy!

For lines, you need to keep pressure on the cone as you draw your lines.

Practice piping lines. Squeeze your cone, and drag the icing across. Release, and voila!

Piping Hearts

Now that you know how to pipe dots, you can pipe hearts. Simply make two dots, and with the tip of the cone, pull the icing down to create a “v” between the dots. And you have a heart.

Pipe two dots next to each other.

Put the tip of your cone in one dot.

Drag the tip of your cone down, at an angle.

Drag the other dot down and form a "v." Lift your cone off the icing.

Now you have a heart. That was easy!

Creating a Base Layer

There are really two ways of creating a base layer: spreading the icing directly onto cookies and flooding the cookies.

To spread the icing, just use an offset spatula to spread base consistency icing onto your cookies. Let them dry for about one hour, or until the icing has hardened and dried enough to put details on with outline consistency icing. (sorry, I forgot to take that photo. I’ll insert it as soon as I can).

To flood cookies – which gives cookies that extra smooth look – you’ll need a cone filled with outline consistency icing and a large cone or a squeeze bottle filled with Flow Consistency icing. First, draw a border around the edge of your cookie with the outline consistency icing. Give it a few minutes to harden. Then fill that space with the flow consistency icing. Pipe one line of flow icing from one edge of the cookie to the other, then back. Each line of icing you pipe must touch the one above it. Yes, this is a time-consuming task and your fingers might cramp a bit, but it will give you the most flawless finish. For things like wedding cookie favors, this is the technique you probably want to use. Let the icing dry, about 1-2 hours, or until the icing feels hard and dry to the touch.

First, draw a border around the edge of your cookie. Use outline consistency icing.

Draw one line of icing from one edge to the other and back, one line on top of the next. Use flow consistency icing.

Eventually you'll fill the area between the border, essentially flooding the cookie with colored icing. Let dry for about an hour.

When you add details and other colors, don’t get frustrated if you make mistakes or your cookies come out differently from what you had envisioned. In the end, you’ll create your own unique and memorable treats. And those lucky enough to receive them will love them!

Final cookie with dots, line, hearts and base icing.

These are the most basic techniques for cookie decorating. Now that you know how, try it. And if you make anything, photograph it and put a link in the comments section below! Cheers!

Tagged as: baking retailers, decorating cookies, easy tutorial, mischief mari cookies, royal icing