With my youngest son’s first birthday rapidly approaching I found myself once again venturing back into the familiar realm of royal icing and beautifully decorated sugar cookies. During these baking sprees my husband cringes at the return of the “nutty cookie lady” of the house as I way too willingly stay up til all hours of the night making sure my cookies are not only beautiful but also taste amazing!
So many people I’ve met don’t care for royally iced cookies. They feel like they taste like sugared cardboard…. Well until they try mine.
I’ll let you in on my secret. The key to my AMAZINGLY tasty decorated sugar cookies?
My fool proof royal icing! It’s got tons of flavor and holds its shape beautifully. It also complements the flavors in my perfect edge cookie recipe perfectly.
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Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Meringue Powder
- 4 lbs Powdered Sugar
- 1 – 1/2 Cups Warm Water
- 2 Tbsp Oil-Free Almond Extract (Check the label for oil of bitter almond you want one without it!)
- 2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract (This is the one I have ALWAYS used it’s a bit pricey but SO worth it Vencedora Mexican Vanilla)
First make sure the bowl and whisk attachment are squeaky clean! Traces of oil/ fat from previous baking endeavors can cause your royal icing not to set up properly.
Then dump the entire two bags of powdered sugar into the mixer and add the 3/4 cup of meringue powder. Use the whisk attachment on slow to combine the two.
hint: If you have one use the bowl guard to keep the powdered sugar from going everywhere!
Next add the 2 Tbsp of Vanilla extract and 2 Tbsp oil-free almond extract to the 1 – 1/2 cups warm water.
Slowly add the water-extract mixture to the mixing bowl while mixing on slow speed.
hint: If there is some straggling powdered sugar along the top of the bowl give it a spray with a spray bottle filled with warm water.
After all the water has been added and the liquid/ powdered sugar has combined, kick up the mixer to medium high speed. After mixing for 5 minutes you will want to check it every minute. Look for visible “tracks” being left in the icing by the whisk.
Once visible tracks become apparent turn off the mixer, lift the arm and check if the visible peaks begin to fall. If they do put down the arm and mix for a few more minutes on medium-high speed. If the stiff peaks stay EXACTLY where they are as if defying the laws of physics themselves your icing is done!
hint: This icing is going to be THICK when you are done mixing, so be sure to lock the arm of your mixer down.
From here you can either put a damp paper towel and saran wrap over it and throw it in the fridge for later use or get to coloring it and preparing it for cookies!
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I cant seem to find pure almond extract that does not have the oil of bitter almond in it. I cant enlarge your pic enough to see the brand you are using. Could you post the name if possible please.
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Hi Liz! I certainly understand the frustration, I at one point had a link to the extract I typically use but then they reformulated.
At this point most widely available “pure” almond extracts contain the oil. Wilton has a delicious almond no-color extract that does not contain oil and can be found at most craft stores. Although I normally shy away from most “imitation” products, imitation almond extract rarely contains oil and Watkins and Wilton are two of my favorite brands (you can hardly tell the difference!)
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Hi, any recommendation on an extract that I could substitute for the almond? My daughter has an allergy. Thanks!
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Hi Ashley!
You can double up on the vanilla or look for an artificial almond extract, most of which don’t actually contain any nut products. Personally I love Wilton’s imitation almond but I believe it may be processed in a facility with nuts so it may be a no go.
I would steer clear of any “naturally” flavored imitation almond extracts as well seeing as they contain peach/ apricot pits which are close enough to possibly cause a reaction.
If there is another oil-free, nut-free flavoring she loves like raspberry or orange you can also use that!
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I’m an allergy mom, too. From an allergy group I’m in they called and learned that McCormick imitation almond extract is safe. It is made from apricot pits and not processed on shared lines. Hope that helps!
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Allergy mom here (PN:TN). We use McCormick imitation almond. Not made from almonds and no shared lines.
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Have you ever used butter flavoring?
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I have not because it is not a flavoring I typically use (with the exception of in a few cake recipes). If you try it let me know how it tastes!
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Is this icing too think for piping?
Hi Heidi, “as is” this Royal Icing ends up being approximately detail/ decorative consistency. It is helpful to start at this level, color, and then dilute so that the color remains consistent. For a few helpful tips I have a post on preparing royal icing for use!
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How much icing does this make? I’m looking to ice 3 dz cookies and I’m wondering if one batch would be enough or would I have to increase it?
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Hi Katherine,
It makes around 3.5 -4 qts of icing approximately (almost a full Kitchen Aid Mixing Bowl). It should be plenty to decorate three dozen cookies, just be sure that if you are making multiple colors you allocate more for the base colors used to flood the cookies and less for the decorative ones!
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Thank you so much!
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This was my first time to every make royal icing and decorate sugar cookie and I loved using your recipe. You do such a great job at explaining what the icing should look like!
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I’m frosting wedding shower cookies for the first time. Can I use your frosting to flood and decorate the cookies or do I need to thin a bit for the piped decorations?
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Hi Pat, This icing will need to be thinned into outline and flooding consistencies. I have a few tips / tricks and what you are going to want each consistency to look like in a separate article which can be found HERE.
Hopefully it will have all the extra information you need and if not feel free to reach out again!
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This recipe is amazing! Easy to follow instructions. The Royal icing was perfect and exactly as the photos showed.
Doubled the vanilla because I didn’t want the use artificial almond extract. So yummy!!Reply
Hi can this royal icing recipe be made into half? I won’t need that much frosting
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Dear Sandy,
This recipe can be halved extremely easily by simply halving all the ingredients! Have fun decorating 🙂
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