I love Christmas Cookies. Â They are delicious and fun to eat. Â My favorite cookie is the humble sugar cookie. Â However, you can turn that humble cookie into an extraordinary cookie by using royal icing. Â This simple icing uses meringue powder as a base to form a strong and delicate icing that can hold together a gingerbread house or add whiskers to a Santa cookie. Â I love it!
Royal Icing
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer add the dry ingredients.
These include powdered sugar, meringue powder and cream of tartar.
Meringue powder is available at high end grocery stores and Walmart. Â Go figure! Â Actually you can pick it up at most stores that have a cake decorating aisle. Â These include Michaels, Hobby Lobby and A. C. Moore. Â If you do not have any of these places available you can also pick it up from Amazon here.
Next add the wet ingredients.  Warm water and vanilla. Mix on low until incorporated.
Then mix on high speed for 7-8 minutes or until you have stiff peaks.
Once you have stiff peaks you can slowly add water until you get the consistency that you desire. Â We like to add between 2-3 tablespoons of water to get the consistency that we like for piping the icing.
Then you can divvy up icing into separate bowls to tint into any shade you wish.
You can spread it on there or place the icing into piping bags to get real creative.
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tbs meringue powder
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/2 cup water warm plus 2-4 tbs for consistency
- 1 tsp vanilla
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In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer add the dry ingredients. These include powdered sugar, meringue powder and cream of tartar.
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Next add the wet ingredients. Warm water and vanilla.
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Mix on low until incorporated.
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Then mix on high speed for 7-8 minutes or until you have stiff peaks.
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Once you have stiff peaks you can slowly add water until you get the consistency that you desire. We like to add between 2-3 tablespoons of water to get the consistency that we like for piping the icing.
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Then you can divvy up icing into separate bowls to tint into any shade you wish.
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You can spread it on there or place the icing into piping bags to get real creative.