So a few weeks ago I heard about making cookies with Royal icing. I am sure I had eaten it before but now I knew what it was and how to make it. Since my son was having a Christmas party I thought I would make some Christmas cookies he could take to the party. I have made Christmas cookies many times but I have never made Royal icing. I read a couple of blogs that helped me figure it out. The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle had an awesome Sugar cookie recipe. She also had some great tips about working with Royal icing. Bake at 360 had a lot of great tips too. I saw these Christmas tree cookies and used them as a guide to make my own. I decided to use the Wilton’s Royal icing recipe to see if I would like it or not. It seems like it has received mixed reviews. I did add a little vanilla to it though.
The icing itself was not hard to make. I divided it up into four different colors. Green, darker green, red and brown. I used this idea (this is a video) from Karen’s Cookies to make it a little easier for myself.
With Royal icing you use different consistencies for different things that you want to do. I made some with piping consistency and some with flood consistency for each color. I think the green turned out the best. I think I messed up on the red and brown. The red was hard to make the color I wanted it to be too. I still have a lot to learn about making this stuff.
I put the flood icing in these bottles. Picked them up for cheap at Walmart.
The piping consistency icing went in the bags.
Making the outline
I was excited to figure out how to make the dots.
Who wants a cookie?
I am really excited I decided to attempt to make these. I admit I was a little overwhelmed but it was fun. I plan to make another batch for Christmas and then something fun for New Year’s Eve. I think the next time I make them I will only stick to one cookie cutter. I also tried to make Santas, reindeer and a few other things. I just think it might be easier to make all of one type. I also think I will stick to a max of three colors. I want to play around with some other Royal icing recipes and see what I like best. The Wilton one was okay but I want to see if I can find something I like better.
What are you baking this week?
Just stumbled on this via twitter. Try Toba Garrett's Glace. 🙂 It's not royal icing, it's better. It's delicious and easy and still dries hard and shiny so you can stack the cookies (but soft enough you can bite right into it and it melts in your mouth). http://cakecentral.com/recipe/toba-garretts-glace…
My recent post Things I want to make Angela say out loud: Stateside edition
I am going to try this for our Christmas cookies! Thanks for sharing 🙂
They look great! I did my 1st royal icing cookies this holiday too! Here is a link to the photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1015045…
Your cookies look great! I also just started trying the royal icing and flood icing techniques too. I found that the piping consistency icing was difficult to work with. I ended up making a consistency a little thicker than flood and used that. I use lemon extract for flavor in my cookies and icing. So far I like it the best for flavor. Good job!