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Piping consistency royal icing is easy to make and a quick way to decorate cookies.

Royal icing can be used in two ways: flooding consistency and piping consistency.  Both dry hard, so it’s perfect to use when you are sharing or packaging your cookies.

Piping consistency royal icing is great for adding three dimensional details, texture, or shapes to your cookies.  You can easily tint the icing with gel food coloring.

What you need:

Egg Whites – Be sure to use pasteurized egg whites.  If you are concerned about using raw egg whites, you can use meringue powder (see alternate recipe below).

Cream of Tartar – This helps stabilize the egg whites, especially useful when you are using boxed egg whites.

Powdered Sugar – Sifted powdered sugar quickly dissolves into the egg whites, perfect for this icing.

Food Coloring –  gel food is used to tint the icing without watering it down.

How to make the icing:

Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment until foamy.*  Add the powdered sugar and gradually increase the speed to high.

Mix on high for 5 minutes, or until the icing is very thick.  Use the icing as-is or tint it with gel food coloring.  It will start to harden almost immediately, so be sure to work quickly.  Transfer to piping bags fitted with a couplers and various piping tips.  This way you can easily switch out the tips for different effects.  Once the icing is in the piping bags, it’ll keep for several days.

*As an alternative to raw egg whites, whisk together the meringue powder and warm water until foamy.  Add the powdered sugar and continue as above.

Pro Tip:

To close the bag, I use a zip tie.  Because it closes so securely, you can apply a good amount of pressure when piping and it prevents any of the icing form leaking out of the top.

How to use royal icing

Royal icing is the perfect finishing touch to sugar cookies.  Try out different piping tips for interesting texture.  Be sure to decorate with lots of sprinkles!

You can also start with a base layer of flooding consistency royal icing and pipe details on top.

Piping consistency royal icing is also perfect for constructions and decorating gingerbread houses.

Have fun decorating!