I had lots of leftover royal icing from my last Valentine’s cupcakes, so I decided to make some more royal icing decorations using these Martha Stewart Valentine stickers
As I was making these I recieved an email from Bianca, asking me how long I keep the royal icing in the piping bag and how long I keep it in storage.
She’s one of many who’ve asked, so I thought I’d share the info. here.
So how long can one keep royal icing?
Royal Icing:
Before I answer that question, a little about royal icing.
Royal icing is made using either raw egg-whites (traditional), or using dried egg whites or meringue powder.
Although I have not heard of any documented cases of food-borne illness occurring due to eating traditional royal icing (made with egg whites), there is still a possibility that bacteria such as salmonella can be present in anything made with raw eggs. Although many would not be affected by the bacteria, the very young, elderly, pregnant women and those with weaker immune systems might be.
You could use pasteurized egg whites found in cartons at the grocery store, but I’ve found that the icing doesn’t whip up as nicely using them.
Safest and most effective for cookie decorating in my experience has been royal icing made with meringue powder. I’ll be referring to royal icing made with meringue powder from here on in. All of the following information also applies to both tinted and white icing.
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What is Meringue Powder?
*Meringue powder is a fine, white powder made with pasteurized dried egg whites, sugar and gum; used to replace fresh egg whites when making icings and meringues. (*The Prentice Hall Essentials Dictionary of Culinary Arts, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008). It usually includes vanilla flavouring and is not usually sold in grocery stores but can be found in bulk food stores, baking supply stores or on the internet.
So now that that’s covered:
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How long can one keep royal icing?
Freshest is always best of course, but you can keep your icing for a week or even up to two.
The longer it sits though, the more time it has to separate.
The water and icing sugar separate; after about a week you’ll have to really mix it up again to use it, and it may be difficult to make sure it’s perfectly smooth. -The liquid pools a bit on the surface, leaving the bottom of the container with dry icing.
If you do end up keeping your icing for a few days or more, I’d recommend putting it back in your mixer quickly before you use it, to try and ensure all ‘lumps’ are out. You may also have to add icing sugar to help thicken it, or a little bit of water to thin it out. Whether or not you’ll have to add icing sugar or water depends on a few factors:
Adding icing sugar – Especially if you’re in a humid environment the icing may have absorbed humidity in the air. (Even if it’s in an air-tight container).
Adding water – Mixing the icing really well (especially with a mixer), tends to add volume/air, and thickens it up a bit. It is necessary to mix it really well to get the lumps out though.
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So how long can one keep royal icing in the (piping) bag?
The icing sugar (powdered sugar), and water in the icing begin to separate over time, so if you haven’t used your piping bags for a few hours, you’ll start to see this happen. How fast it separates depends on how runny your icing is. The runnier it is, the faster it will separate. See pic below for example.
You can try and knead the bag a little bit to help the icing combine together again, but it won’t be as effective as taking the icing out of the bag and re-mixing it with a spoon or spatula etc.
If you use the icing that has been sitting in your piping bag for a period of time, you’ll end up with icing that comes out in little pools of water and icing sugar. (See pic below).
Where do you store royal icing?
Icing made with raw egg whites needs to be kept in the fridge, however, icing made with meringue powder can be kept at room temperature. I store mine in air-tight or re-usable yoghurt containers. (Pic below; the dollop of icing on top makes it easy for me to see what color is inside).
To ensure against any crusting, place saran wrap (plastic wrap), on the surface of the icing as well. If some of it has crusted over (if you’ve forgotten to put the lid on the container for example), scoop those bits out; they can’t be used.
How long do royal icing decorations last?
Once the royal icing has dried, the decorations last indefinitley! (forever lol). They don’t spoil but must be stored in a cool, dry place, in an air-tight container. Besides humidity, the only thing to watch out for is breakage. They are fragile and should be stored between parchment paper and bubble wrap inside the air-tight container.
Grease from buttercream, for example, can also affect royal icing over time, but it will take quite a while for the icing to absorb the grease. After I posted these royal icing {LOVE} decorations (below), there were a few questions about grease affecting the royal icing in the comment section.
Since I’m going to be keeping these cupcakes in a display case at school to show students an example of what they will be learning how to make when the new semester begins in a few weeks, I’ll be able to keep tabs on the progress.
So far I’ve had the royal icing toppers in a cupcake for 2 days and there’s no dissolving, but the grease has seeped into the icing. See pic below with today’s date on the phone. 
In this case you could only see the discoloration on the back as the front was covered in disco dust.
It’s definitely best not to place your royal icing decorations on your cake, cupcakes etc. too far in advance before you’re serving them. The grease seeped into these royal icing between 24 – 48 hours of being put on the cupcakes. Smaller royal icing decorations would probably be affected sooner, especially if the entire surface area is resting on the buttercream.
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What does royal icing taste like?
Royal icing decorations are edible of course; it’s really just sugar and meringue powder. It’s delicious if you like the taste of pure icing sugar (lol), but in my humble opinion, pairs nicely with cookies especially. It dries fairly hard, but when you bite into it the sensation is kind of like a soft, crunchy texture. If you are unsure about using royal icing, I suggest trying it once to see what it’s like. Here is the recipe I use.*
For a brief visual how-to on making these Valentine cupcake toppers, see below. A more detailed version on making royal icing decorations (also known as transfers, floodwork, runouts etc.), click here.
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How to make these Valentine royal icing decorations:
1. Pipe base colors with royal icing.
2. Add icing details once the first layer has dried.
3. Sprinkle on disco dust if desired.
4. Using a paintbrush (used only for decorating purposes), brush excess disco dust off.
For a more detailed ‘how-to’, click on the image below:
Making the cupcakes:
I’m grateful to Melissa of MyCakeSchool.com for some cool cupcake tips I learned and used after watching some of her videos (Re: paper towel tip – who knew!). She’s got a ton of great advice on decorating.
I wish I had watched one of the videos before I made my royal icing hearts! It mentioned making the tail of your hearts longer, so that when you stick it in the cupcake, you can still see the whole heart.
The cupcakes themselves were dipped in light pink sanding sugar
The vanilla buttecream and vanilla cupcake recipes can be found here.
These are just some of the main things I’ve learned about royal icing which have worked for me. If you have any tips, questions or comments, please drop me a line below and come join me on facebook here.
Happy decorating!
xo,
Marian
I love you site and your designs. I love baking and every year I am part of a Christmas cookie exchange with a bunch of mom’s online (we all have children born in Sept.2008). Well we are based all over the US and we have to ship to each other. This year I wanted to do a Christmas Cookie kit. I was going to bake cut out sugar cookies and send the things to decorate them. I guess my question is can you ship royale icing that has been pre-made? If so how should I ship it? In containers? Will it ship in pastry bags?
Hi @ Mary: Here is a post on shipping cookies:
http://sweetopia.net/2009/12/how-to-ship-decorated-cookies-and-cookie-craft-giveaway/
p.s. @ Mary: Oops, forgot to mention the icing part… containers might be best for sturdiness, however I would even put the containers in ziplock bags in case they pop. Hope that helps. Oh, and I would make my icing with meringue powder, not egg whites, because of the shipping time. Meringue powder icing will be fine…. your recipients will need to stir it a bit before putting it in their piping bags.
Thanks so much, @ Jeff! I appreciate your comment!
Thank Marian.
I was just wondering how to store royal icing as I am making Christmas cookies and my partner wants to ice his own but I dont want to wait till he finishes work. And BANG here is my answer, you are awesome as always
Thank you!!!
Thank-you for this post! I’m building a Gingerbread TARDIS and came to the point where I was going to stick on the top-only to find that the TARDIS really is bigger on the inside… I had to bake a new piece and now I know I can store my blue icing until tomorrow when the gingerbread has had a chance to dry out a bit. Thank-you!
Hi thank you so much for the info on royal icing! I want to decorate a christmas cake for next week. and i want to make 3d christmas trees, so i need to use some form of sheet transfer. if i want to use either parchment paper or overhead paper (plastic) as the base, do i have to smear it with some form of fats/oil before I draw on the design with royal icing? and what do u suggest i use? butter, margarine or veg oil? thank you so much
u’re awesome!
That’s awesome, @ Courtz!
Neat, @ Jeanie TTF: I had to look up what a Tardis was… learned something new today.
Hi @ Eugenia: A little bit of shortening will do the trick. Here is a video on how i do it:
http://sweetopia.net/2011/04/video-how-to-make-daisy-cookies-with-a-little-help-from-a-kopykake-projector/
@ Jeanie TTF:
OMG, that’s sooo cool!! You made a TARDIS?!!!!
Hi there. Thanks do much for a great article. Im going to try to get my hand on some merengue powder before making my Christmas royal icing. I’m based in Ireland so hope it’s available here. In any case I’d like to see your ‘royal icing with merangue powder recipie’, but the link above does not work for me. Is there a problem with that link or is it just me? Many thanks for all the great info and inspiring photos!!
Hello, I am going to be flooding and decorating my sugar cookies for christmas tomorrow! What I was hoping to know was how long it takes (on average) for the icing to dry. This way I can play accordingly to have enough time:) Thanks!
@ Jeanie TTF: Please share pics of your TARDIS if you can!!! Here I was decorating gingerbread cookies with white and blue royal icing and it never even occurred to me. You’re brilliant!
Adorable cupcakes Marian! And wonderful writeup as well!
So once I ice the cookie with the egg white based royal icing, can the cookies be stored at room temperate safely?
Hi,
I was wondering what the difference is between meringue powder and dried egg whites? Dried egg whites is readily available where I live, but meringue powder is harder to buy. Would I be able to achieve the same results if I used dried egg whites instead of the meringue powder? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am new to baking and I would love to be able to make royal icing like you do!
Hi @ Chantel: I work with royal icing with meringue powder, so can’t tell you for sure.
@ Shayeda: I believe there are a few more ingredients in the meringue powder, such as vanilla and sometimes cream of tartar, although the two are similar. I haven’t tried making royal icing with dried egg whites and would be curious to hear your results should you try it. xo
thanks! that helped tremendously!
Hi!! Just wondering how long am I allowed to freeze royal icing if I store in an air tight container like tupperware? Thanks, love all your recipes & tips!!
Hi @ mariela: I don’t do it often, but discuss it here:
http://sweetopia.net/2012/03/easter-bunny-lamb-decorated-cookies/
Check out the comment section too.
I just read the FAQ’s and got lots of valuable info. However, I still have one royal icing question. I will be making decorated cookies for a rehearsal dinner that will occur outside at the end of July in Wisconsin. It’s likely to be hot and humid. How long do you think the cookies could be left sitting out before the royal icing starts to get sticky? Is it even reasonable to serve this type of cookie outside in the summer?
Thanks so much! I just discovered you last week and I’ve already learned a lot! Your videos are great!
Hi @ valerie heinzen: I hate to say it, but I would stay away from decorated cookies if they’re going to be outside on a hot and humid day. If they were for the dinner but kept in a cool, dry area (inside) and handed out as a favour near the end or something, that might be better. Another thing to note is that darker icing colors bleed into lighter ones much easier in hot, humid climates. You may have see my posts on that in the FAQ’s. Sorry, I wish I had better news, but heat and humidity really make cookies (desserts) melt. All the best with your planning!
@ marian:
It’s been fun spending the day with you reading your blog (my husband is from Vancouver, so I enjoy your English spellings) and watching videos. I’ve been decorating cookies for a few years (very much still a novice) and although they are far from what yours look like, my boys, their friends, and the high school students I teach are always impressed. So, onto my question. I’m preparing owls for the high school seniors (just my homeroom, not the entire class). I see that you store the icing in containers and then fill the bags while hanging out. Is that because your going to be decorating cookies that night? Otherwise, it seems the icing would separate in the bags after a few hours. Thanks for the countless questions you’ve answered – I have literally been reading for hours.
Hi @ Beth: Aw, that’s so nice to hear – that you’re enjoying it as well! We have a lot in common… high school teachers, decorating cookies…
I’m not sure I’m understanding your question 100%, please let me know either way… I’ll just explain what I do… We make the icing and put it into containers… I make the piping bags at other times… like while I’m watching TV (cut the disposable bag, insert coupler, screw coupler lid back on).
When I/we decorate we put the icing in the piping bags and decorate right away.The icing does separate over time (see picture above), so it’s best to use the icing in the piping bag right away.
I hope I’ve answered your question! xo
oh great
Very detail and informative, love your site
Do you have any suggestion for making border line(black line)to the cookies with different color icing, let’s say red? i’m a little bit confused, shall we start with the black line border then fill color we want like we usually drawing, or shall we start with base color then we make a black border line? please kindly suggest thank you