A quick and easy royal icing perfect for sugar cookies and gingerbread men. It dries hard and tastes divine. You will love how quickly this recipe comes together!
Christmas time has always been my favorite time of year! Some of my fondest memories involve cookie decorating with my family. However, even as a child, my least favorite part was the mess… The sticky fingers, icing crusted knives, and imperfect cookies drove me crazy! I now realize that I was an abnormal child, but I think we can all agree that decorating cookies can be a daunting task.
This royal icing recipe makes beautiful cookies attainable with minimal effort. To make clean up super easy, I use squeeze bottles for each icing color! You can also use piping bags and tips, but I find squeeze bottles to be a fool proof method. Here’s to a future full of simple, clean cookie decorating!
Ingredient Line Up
The best part about this recipe is that it consists of four simple ingredients.
- Water
- Powdered sugar
- Pure vanilla extract
- Meringue powder – Traditional royal icing uses raw egg whites. I prefer to use meringue powder, or powdered egg whites, in place of raw eggs. You end up with the same consistency and flavor!
Tips for Easy Royal Icing Success – Consistency is Key
The most difficult part of royal icing is finding the perfect consistency. To test your consistency, just drizzle some icing back into the bowl. Then, count how many seconds it takes for it to melt back into itself. I prefer to work with an icing that takes about 15 seconds to disappear. This consistency is easy for both outlining and flooding my cookies! It’s a great all purpose icing! If you are wanting icing for small detailing, then you will want a 25 second icing. If you want a thinner icing, then add more water 1 tablespoon at a time.
Easy Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup meringue powder
- 1 cup water
- 2 lb confectioners sugar
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix the meringue powder and water together on high until frothy – about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Place powdered sugar into the bowl and mix on low until incorporated.
- Turn mixer to high for 2 minutes.
- Add the vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
- Test the icing consistency and add more water 1 tbsp at a time until you reach your desired consistency. If the icing is too thin, add more confectioners sugar.
Note: this page may contain Amazon Affiliate links that earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you. I only show products I personally use and trust in my kitchen.
Did you make this recipe? Let me know!
Tag @icingonthebakeblog on Instagram or leave a comment below!
Hi this is one of your fourth grade students Maddie Parnell I love that you’re into baking and I give you good luck with your blog
Thanks Maddie!