Name: Royal Icing
Prep time: 7 min
Total time: 7 min
Ingredients: 3 ounces pasteurized egg whites; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 4 cups confectioners' sugar

Ice your cookies, cakes and cupcakes with Alton Brown's glossy Royal Icing recipe from Good Eats on Food Network.

Royal Icing

vanilla extract

confectioners' sugar

In large bowl of stand mixer combine the egg whites and vanilla and beat until frothy. Add confectioners' sugar gradually and mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated and mixture is shiny. Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks. This should take approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Add food coloring, if desired. For immediate use, transfer icing to pastry bag or heavy duty storage bag and pipe as desired. If using storage bag, clip corner. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 3 days.

I cut the recipe in half because I wanted to make a quick royal icing to make flowers and I love this recipe it came out great! The consistency is awesome. I used 2 egg whites, 2 cups of confectionery sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Is it 3 ounces of egg whites by weight?  Not fluid ounces?  Either way, ounces of egg whites is a bit odd.

Make sure not to add the sugar too late. First batch I added the sugar just as it started to turn white and it never formed peaks. Next batch I added the sugar as soon as I saw bubbles forming and it turned out perfect. It does take awhile to set up, I'm not sure what the others are talking about with it hardening quick. We had time to icing all of our cookies and decorate them, and this was at kid speed, as it was my husband myself and our three kids decorating. I was worried after reading some of the reviews that we wouldn't have time, but they are all iced and it's still not hardened all the way.

Way, Way too thick. Make sure that if you intend to use this recipe for cookies, and you like the flooding method, that you add 3 tb of water at the end of your mixing cycle. This is a pretty simple step that should be added into the actual recipe as a sidenote, especially to help beginners.

<span>I made this frosting yesterday. It was the shiniest white frosting ever! Then I separated it into bowls and added food color paste. My sugar cookies look BEAUTIFUL! This is a keeper recipe! </span>

I made this icing in a stand mixer and the peaks turned out beautiful. I turned my mixer up to it's highest setting to beat the egg until it was frothy before adding the powdered sugar. I think next time I'll use a little less powdered sugar (maybe half a cup less) to make it easier to work with or split the recipe in half and then make another half so I can get to the icing faster. It definitely dries fast and becomes difficult to manage/spread. It did turn out exactly like it was supposed to, though, and it tasted great!

<ul><li>3 ounces pasteurized egg whites  = how many teaspoonsufl or tablespoonsful </li></ul>

This recipe was easy to make and tasted great!  When the recipe says to beat it at high speed- it means high speed!  Beat the heck out of it to get those stiff peaks!  My only other suggestion is if you want to add sprinkles or anything on top of the icing, do so immediately.  The icing hardened very quickly- which was great, but just had to be quick with my other decorations.

It took 4 tries, but it finally worked. A big THANK YOU to tlord_verminaard and indigold_3  who pointed out the need to "beat the heck" out of it. It was very stiff, but a wee bit of milk got it to the consistency I needed.  I'm giving it three stars, though, because I had to go to the reviews to learn how to do it properly - the video and instructions weren't enough.

This is my first time making royal icing from scratch. I've previously used merengue powder or royal icing mix, being concerned with using raw egg whites. No more!  The taste, workability &amp; results of this recipe were so much better! The pasteurized egg whites were easy to find &amp; use. Thanks to fellow reviewers for the tips re: 3 oz = 6 tbsp = 3 med egg whites &amp; coloring/flavoring ideas.  I used this icing to build graham cracker houses to decorate Christmas Eve. The icing piped easily &amp; smoothly with enough working time before it set, &amp; set it did.  No structural failures.  Looking forwards to decorating with the icing tomorrow &amp; trying it with AB's sugar cookie recipe. A thought on the reason this recipe might fail:  egg whites are fussy about fat. Utensils must be free of fat/oil. A stand mixer definitely helps. Thanks AB, you're my go to guy!

https://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/altons-royal-icing-recipe-0169323

Alton shares tips for making classic Royal Icing, a cookie's best friend.

Royal Icing

Prep Time: 7 minutes

Total: 7 minutes

Servings: 2

Author : Alton Brown

Ingredients

Instructions

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