Royal icing is a sugar-based compound used to decorate desserts. It’s generally used to write and draw on cakes and cookies with the help of a very thin-tipped sac à poche.
The recipe for Royal Icing
The ingredients required for the perfect royal icing are egg whites and sugar, always in a ratio of 1 to 5. So, if you use ½ oz of egg whites, you’ll have to add 2 oz of sugar. When we talk about sugar, we only mean the very thin icing sugar that is properly mixed with the egg whites without forming lumps.
To prepare the icing just whip the two ingredients, adding sugar to the egg whites a little at a time. The consistency should be compact.
If it’s too liquidy, add more icing sugar. If it’s too hard, add some lemon juice.
Some prefer to make the icing without eggs with just lemon juice and icing sugar. We don’t recommend it because the consistency isn’t the same and the result is less satisfactory.
Once ready, if you want to write or draw, put the icing inside a pastry bag with a very thin tip, like that of a pencil. Then with a firm hand decorate your cookies or cakes with sugar coating.
Colored Royal Icing
You can also add food coloring to your royal icing.
The best are those in gel because they have bright colors and don’t make the mixture too liquidy.
If the icing is less dense after adding the color, balance the consistency with more icing sugar.
If you need a lot of colors for different decorations, prepare a large amount of icing and then divide it into bowls, adding the desired color to each bowl.
If you want a multicolor, rainbow effect icing instead, add more colors together in the same compound and then gently mix them with a toothpick so that they all remain fairly distinct and slightly blurred.