arugIn this video I show you how to make Royal icing for piping and flooding cookies.  This is a quick and simple royal icing recipe for  sugar cookies iced.

This Royal icing is great for flooding cookies you just thin it out a bit with water after you have piped your boarders. Royal icing is quick and simple to make and it can also be used as hard icing for cakes, mostly fruit cakes.

The optional glycerine in this recipe is used to prevent the Royal icing from setting too hard but if you are packaging the cookies it’s probably best to leave it out.

Royal icing is great for covering fruit cakes. You cover the cakes in marzipan first and then spread the marzipan on top and then leave to set overnight to set before adding any other decorations.

Ingredients

• 450 grams icing sugar
• 3 large egg whites
• 3 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon glycerine (optional)
• food gel colouring (optional)

Method

• In a large bowl, add the icing sugar
• Mix the egg whites and lemon juice together and mix together
• Pour the egg white mixture into the icing sugar
• Whisk the mixture together until thick, white and glossy. (This can take about 15-20 minutes depending on what are going to use to whisk it. It will take longer to whisk by hand than with an electric whisk)
• This is the right consistency for piping borders around cookies and for spreading on cakes.
• You can divide the mixture into a few small bowls and colour each a different colour for piping or flooding onto cookies.
• To flood cookies put some of the royal icing in a bowl and then add some water, a bit at a time until it is a flooding consistency. If you want to colour it you can add colour too.
• Flooding cookies means that you fill the cookies, within the borders, with runny icing and leaving it to set overnight or until hard.