Good royal icing recipes are hard to come by, let alone magical ones. Treat your treats to this sublime icing recipe, passed down through generations of mythical fairies.
For a FREE, sharable, printable version: click here.
An alternate version was submitted and accepted on They Draw & Cook, which you can find here.
For instructions on finding icing consistency for cookie decorating, click here.
Thanks to my amazing designer/art director Arthur Kononuk, for creating this adorable illustrated recipe and intro for me! I love it and hope you do too.
Update; the word meringue in step one has been misspelled, so I’ve corrected the printable version, but have left the original up in this post, in case replacing it would break the links on Pinterest.
xo,
Marian
p.s. I linked this post up to Tidy Mom’s I’m Lovin’ It.
Candy says
Hello, i would like to ask if i want to use real egg whites instead of meringue powder, how much (gram/ cup)egg whites do i need , thanks =D
marian says
Hi Candy, the link is in this post here; https://sweetopia.net/2012/10/can-you-use-anything-besides-egg-whites-or-meringue-powder-in-royal-icing/
Criss says
What is the purpose of the cream of tartar?
marian says
It helps stabilize the icing a bit… fine if you can’t find it/don’t have it, but if you were making a gingerbread house icing, it really helps with firmness. (I use a lot more in my gingerbread house icing though).
Allison says
Wow, I just made my first batch and the second is in the mixer right now. I have to comment on how easy this was. I was expecting a lot of trial and error to reach the 10 second rule, but it happened nearly right away. Thanks for a great recipe and a great website.
marian says
Yay! Great to hear it Allison!
Jessica says
I do not have a paddle attachment for electric mixer. Can I use just a normal hand mixer with the 2 attachments?
marian says
Hi Jessica,
Yes, you can. A few things to note though… The icing gets very thick at the end… You may want to add more water to thin it out a bit early, so it doesn’t tax your machine too much.
Also, the nature of a hand mixer attachment means that more air gets incorporated into the icing, so you may have more air bubbles.
Margo says
Hi Marian,
I noticed in this recipe you add Cream of Tartar. The meringue powder I use lists cream of tartar as one of the ingredients. Would I add extra or omit it from this recipe?
Margo
marian says
Hi Margo,
No worries, you can take it out – it’s not a huge difference. The cream of tartar stabilizes the icing a bit, and if your meringue powder has it, that’s great!
Melly says
Wow, this is the best royal icing recipe ever! It flowed so smoothly and dried nicely. Thanks so much for sharing it!
Belinda says
Hi, I NEVER comment, sad to say, but to you, my hats off to your amazing website. You are such a blessing to us home cooks. I am a very busy working mom that googles and pinterests everything on the fly, and there you were. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!! You Rock
Belinda
marian says
Thanks Meli and Belinda! xo
Megan says
Hi
i was wondering – where i live we only have icing mixture not icing sugar or confectioners sugar – i’ve looked a the ingredients and it’s simply sugar and starch from tapioca or corn – do you think this is ok to use in the royal icing recipies?
Charoula says
Hi Marian,
Thank you for sharing all your secrets for decorating cookies!!!!!!!! I have never decorated a cookie, although i want to give it a try! I have read in many blogs,that royal icing doesnt taste that good. Is it true? If so, can we use any flavourings to change that?
Thank u in advance! Have a nice day! xx
Jessica R says
Hi there! I’ve been using your recipe for a while now and I love it. However recently the icing does not thicken after 10 minutes on low. I always make sure to wipe the bowl and beater with vinegar prior to starting so I’m not sure what could be wrong. After 10 minutes, its really runny so I’ve been cranking the kitchen aid to 3 or 4 for about 5 mins to thicken it. Any thoughts? Thank you
marian says
Hi Jessica,
It sounds like your measurements are off somehow. Here’s a video where I make a similar icing (just more cream of tartar), maybe it will help. xoxo
https://sweetopia.net/2011/12/gingerbread-house-royal-icing-video-kitchenaid-7-quart-mixer-giveaway/
Maggie says
I write you from Mexico, I love your page, thanks for all the information.
marian says
Thank you Maggie!
Stephanie says
How many normal-sized cookies will 1 batch of this frosting recipe cover?
marian says
Hi Stepanie,
It varies with the amount of detail and shape of the cookie of course, but it makes quite a bit – I would say enough to cover about 35-45 cookies.
Stephanie says
Hi there! For royal icing recipe, how many normal-sized cookies will the recipe cover?
marian says
Hi Stephanie,
Oops, I should have answered both of you above… Just take a quick look at the comment above you here.
as says
I don’t use cream of tartar what’s the cons and pros for this ing?
marian says
Hi As,
It helps stabilize the icing a bit… fine if you can’t find it/don’t have it, but if you were making a gingerbread house icing, it really helps with firmness. (I use a lot more in my gingerbread house icing though).
Molly says
Hi there,
Just wondering how many gingerbread houses this double recipe covers, (roughly).
I was thinking of halving the recipe.
I have 2 houses to make.
Thank You 🙂
marian says
Hi Molly,
I would do one batch for two houses. Hope that helps!
Charlotte says
I was wondering when I make my cookies the frosting looks amazing first, then when it dries it becomes sticky and looks like the flooding part has sunken. Could it be the weather?
marian says
Absolutely. Is it humid where you are? Check the weathernetwork.com in your area to see the % of precipitation in your area, and here’s a video on how to dry cookies to help you with that:
https://sweetopia.net/2012/01/video-how-to-dry-cookies-decorated-with-royal-icing/
Madison says
What is powdered icing sugar? Is it different from powdered sugar?
Rachael says
I was wondering the same thing! As a side note, your website is amazing and so, so helpful!!!!!!! 🙂
marian says
It’s the same thing. 🙂
marian says
Thanks by the way!! xo
Surekha says
Hi Marian,
I am from India and I always have a problem when some recipe contains ingredients that we do not easily get here. Like for this icing you have used meringue powder and cream of tartar… We do not get the same here. Can you suggest what to use? I bake a lot and take orders for pies cakes and cookies. But decorating the cookies would be wonderful but I have to use fondant icing which I am not really very fond of. Hope you can help.
marian says
Hi Surekha,
Here is a post for you:
https://sweetopia.net/2012/10/can-you-use-anything-besides-egg-whites-or-meringue-powder-in-royal-icing/
Definitely check out the comment section for advice from readers as well. 🙂
Jordyn says
Hey, I was wondering how many cups was 2.25 lb???
marian says
Hi Jordyn,
Here is a measurement conversion chart for you:
https://sweetopia.net/2013/06/weight-conversions-for-common-baking-ingredients-free-illustrated-printables/
Reese says
Hello Mirian,
I am new to this and don’t really understand all of the ingredients. Like what is Cream of Tartar and Icing sugar? Are these things that I can get from the supermarket?
marian says
Hello Reese,
Icing sugar is powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar. Cream of tartar is explained here:
https://sweetopia.net/glossary/
You might like the glossary for other things too.
You can find both at the supermarket, icing sugar in the baking aisle and cream of tartar is usually in the spice aisle.
Dalia says
Hi! I love everything you do, so I wanted to try doing some, but the royal icing never got the consistency of the 10 seconds rule even though I kept adding more water, finally when I said screw this and made them with that consistency, after they dried, I couldn’t even touch them because the royal icing turned into dust 🙁 Greetings from Mexico :)!
marian says
Hi Dalia,
I’m sorry to hear that. It sounds like it ended up being over mixed (see #3 here; https://sweetopia.net/2010/12/10-keys-to-cookie-decorating-success-or-10-mistakes-to-avoid/ ).
It really does depend on humidity in the air etc., but I generally have been adding about 1/4 cup and then adjusting bit by bit from there. (Have only experimented with this fairly recently). xo
Lizbeth says
Hi – I’m sorry but I dont understand your measurement conversion chart, can you tell how many cups of sugar equals 2.25 lb, thanks
marian says
Absolutely, 1 kg has 1000 grams… and if you look at the chart here; https://sweetopia.net/2013/06/weight-conversions-for-common-baking-ingredients-free-illustrated-printables/ it says, one cup is approximately 113 grams. That means that 113 grams goes into 1000 about 9 times, so 9 cups. Weighing is definitely more accurate, but those are your cups if that’s what you have to use. You can always adjust your icing consistency after you’ve mixed it. (See my 10 second rule video). xo
Crycupcakes says
Hi
I like very much your icing recipe
but when my cookies are decorated after 24h The icing crumbles!!!!
I have beat The icing less 10 minutes
Help me pleaseeeee
marian says
I’m sorry, Crycupcakes, I’m not sure, but does it look like this? #3 here; https://sweetopia.net/2010/12/10-keys-to-cookie-decorating-success-or-10-mistakes-to-avoid/
Sheri says
Love, love, love this recipe! Thank you so much for posting this
sarah cotton says
I just loveeee your website in tutorials!!! Very helpful!!
I love making cookies for my daughter’s!! 🙂
marian says
My pleasure, Sheri and Sarah!
Mandy says
Hi, could I use this recipe to ice a cake?
marian says
Hi Mandy,
It dries to a harder texture than a typical buttercream. I would recommend a buttercream recipe (have a few in my recipe section if you like).
Kimberly Pavatt says
How do you achieve such a brilliant red in the royal icing. Mine always looks pink. Thank you,
marian says
Hi Kimberly,
Unfortunately, lots of coloring. 😉 Here’s a post on how I achieve black, and red is quite similar; https://sweetopia.net/2011/05/how-to-color-royal-icing-black/
Jayne says
Hi there,
I had tried halving this receipe previously and it worked great, but i still had a lot of icing left over. This time i decided to adjust the receipe since this time i only had 200g of icing sugar. The icing didn’t dry shiny or hard like it does usually, and took a much longer time to dry. I read that you said cream of tar tar is a stabilizer, and i’m working if i’ve maybe put too little in? I did have to go down to buy and add in more icing sugar in the end because the icing did not pass the 5 sec rule cause it was too runny, and was wondering if by adding more sugar and not more cream of tar tar or meringue powder ruined it. Any advice on the best way to adjust Royal Icing portions, so i don’t have to throw out alot of the icing? Also, what does meringue power do to the icing, and how does adding too little or too much change it?
marian says
Hi Jayne,
Meringue powder, besides flavour if it has vanilla in it, helps add volume. You can actually freeze leftover royal icing if you have leftovers. Hope that helps!
Embeearqam says
Hi there, i’ve been inspiredto try my hand at cookie decorating for a while now, but your recipe and tutorials got me rolling. Even though i messed up the recipe by accidentally beating together eggs and sugar together first instead of sugar and butter, the flavor was still pretty good, and even though i was a little short on tips and still new to consistencies, i has a lit of fun creating these messy little things for my sons. Thanks for the great blog!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152338642415809&set=a.10152142893195809.1073741834.571465808&type=1&theater¬if_t=photo_comment
marian says
Thanks so much for sharing, Embeearqam! I’m glad you had fun!
stephanie says
I love your site and all your tiips. I have a question though. Sometimes when I ice my cookies they dont dry and the icing is tacky. What is causing this?
marian says
Hi Stephanie,
Is it humid where you are (where you were decorating)? Here are a few posts on the topic:
https://sweetopia.net/2012/01/video-how-to-dry-cookies-decorated-with-royal-icing/
https://sweetopia.net/2011/07/how-to-avoid-spots-on-icing/
https://sweetopia.net/2009/10/how-to-prevent-your-icing-from-bleeding-7-tips/
Fi says
Hi, can I use ‘egg white powder’ instead of meringue powder, is egg white powder better than raw eggs because of bacteria ?
marian says
Hi Fi,
Here is a post for you (see comments as well).
xo
https://sweetopia.net/2012/10/can-you-use-anything-besides-egg-whites-or-meringue-powder-in-royal-icing/
Dawn says
Hi
I was wondering about the meringue Powder, I saw you can add vanilla but either the vanilla clear is imitation or expensive – -I was wondering if you had any comments on powder vanilla (real and colorless) is I can add that – I am making caillou cookies for my son’s 2nd birthday and stumble on the site – I have never used royal icing or made it – Also I only have a hand mixer that I will be using ( this thing can cut through anything so far)any tips for a a first time royal icing user
marian says
Hi Dawn,
I’m sorry, I’ve never used powder vanilla, however, I don’t see it being an issue. Perhaps only a question of how much or little to use, depending on how strong you’d like it to be.
All the best with your decorating – have fun!
Shannon says
I made your sugar cookie recipe and royal icing on the weekend for my daughter’s Frozen birthday and I couldn’t have been happier with the results considering it was my first time. Everything worked the first time and I had so much time. I am hooked. Your website is amazing and I look forward to learning more from you. Thanks so much:)
Martha says
I have a question.. if I want the royal Icing not to be so hard can I do something or put less of any of the ingredients?? I love the flavour but I do not know if it is supposed to be that hard when it dries.. or if I did something wrong.. It was hard but edible.. just want to know if it can be a little softer.. (when you bit the cookie)
Thank y ou