The Cake Boutique: 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...............