Easter Cookie Prep

This is part one of a two part post. I am going to make Easter cookies with my Mom and my girls tomorrow. You will see all that next week. This week I did what I could ahead of our cookie time.

I made a large batch of Royal icing. If you do any kind of baking you need to know how to make royal icing. The icing is great it is the texture of regular buttercream when you mix it up so you can use the same decorating skills you would with buttercream but after about 24 hours it hardens. You can decorate on wax paper and after it dries you can peal it off and have 3d designs for your dessert.
I am going to show you all that in next weeks blog so please check back.

Royal Icing 

Your going to need (Recipe found on Wilton.com)

4 cups of powdered sugar

3 tablespoons of Meringue Powder

5 tablespoons of water (it usually turns out to be more like 10 tbs of water but will explain latter on.

You put the powdered sugar and meringue powder in the mixer bowl and sprinkle the water on top of the mixture. This step isn't in the recipe but after years of making royal icing, trust me it will stop the storm cloud of powdered sugar when you start the mixer.

After about a minute if you notice your icing looking like -

Add some more water a tablespoon at a time until the mixture is smooth. Don't worry over this step, if you do it wrong and add too much water you can add some powdered sugar and fix it.

Start mixing, slowly and steadily increase it till it is on high. Once the mixer is on the highest it can go set you timer for 6 minutes and walk away.

The meringue powder is made from egg whites and like when you make a meringue the mixing is what makes it stiff. After six minutes your icing should look like this.

The icing should make hard points. Meaning when you stick your spreader in the bowl and pull it out there should be a stiff little points. If the point bends at the middle or it doesn't peek at all then mix for another couple of minutes.

Once you are complete either use it or cover it tightly and store in a dark warm place.

There are some things to remember when working with royal icing. ALWAYS keep it covered and if it starts to get crunchy cover it with a damp paper towel. It will take color like any icing but while it waits in the pastry bag make sure the tips of the bags are in a fold of a wet paper towel.

Don't be afraid of royal icing it is so easy to work with and once it dries you can store the flowers or whatever you make in an air tight container for up to a year. So think about that child getting married in a year and she wants 19 million roses on her cake. With Royal Icing you can start now and make those dreams come true. Have fun and come back next week when we use this container of happiness.

Happy Easter and Happy Crafting.