Royal icing ~ a Beginners Guide Pt 2

Royal icing...........it's an individual thing

There are a few ways to make royal icing, some people add things like lemon juice, white vinegar and even glycerine, I personally do not add anything to my royal icing.
The only thing I would say is to make sure that if using  fresh eggs, it is recommended that you use pasteurised eggs.When using fresh eggs always ensure that you use eggs with the Lion mark, which will guarantee that the eggs are produced to a high standard of food safety. Eggs can carry bacteria such as salmonella, so a good hygiene practice is always advisable when handling eggs.
When I make large quantities of royal icing I use albumen as it works out cheaper than using a large quantity of eggs.


Recipe 1  (using albumen)                                            Recipe 2

Ingredients                                                                    Ingredients

15g dried albumen                                                        90g egg white
85ml cooled boiled water                                              (approx 3 medium eggs)*
455-500g icing sugar                                                    455-500g icing sugar

Reconstitute the albumen in water,                              Separate the egg whites the day before
following the instructions.                                             then cover and leave in the fridge. The egg
                                                                                     whites will strengthen overnight.

Beat the egg whites until it almost gets to the meringue stage and then after sifting the icing sugar, beat into the the beaten egg whites. This can take upto 10 minutes of continuous beating before you get to the consistency you want to achieve.

When you've finished beating together, keep covered with a clean damp cloth to prevent the icing from skinning over.

When I'm not using the icing I store covered with clingfilm in an airtight container. A word of caution, don't store your icing in the fridge as this tends to make the icing soft and a little unworkable. Instead store in cool dry cupboard. So now you have the recipe and how to make it give it a go...............

My first Royal iced Wedding Cake

Royal icing used to enhance a cake

In Part 3 we'll really get going................................

Marcia xxx

                                                                   

Piping with Royal Icing ~ a Beginners Guide

I'm about to start something that scares me a little, because anyone who knows me knows I'm a complete technophobe and yet here I am preparing to start a blog on the different areas of Cake Decorating and Sugarcraft. I decided to start with piping skills as this is what I'm currently teaching at my local Community College. I thought it would be useful for my students to look back each week at what they learnt in class and then thought  why not do it so anyone else who was interested could join in too. So here goes!

Everyone admires beautiful Royal iced work. They ooh and ahh at the fine techniques used to create the wonderful pieces of work you see at exhibitions etc. Now every workman starts off with their tools and to start this guide I will show you some of the basic equipment you will need.

The equipment you will need to follow this guide is as follows:

Cellophane
Piping bags
Piping tubes/tips: 1, 2, 3, 42, 59,21 (I use PME nozzles)
Cupplers
Straight edge
Side scrapers
A variety of palette knives
Different sized paintbrushes
Scissors
Small bowl for water
Egg whites or dried egg albumen
Icing sugar/confectioner's sugar
Food grade colours
Plastic bowls
Turntable

This is not the be all and end of the equipment list, but this is what I will be using in my royal icing blogs over the next few weeks.
In each blog I will take through the basic stage of piping with royal icing. Each week I hope you'll build up your skills and gain confidence.

So I hope you'll come on this journey with me.

Marcia x