So now that you’ve baked all your cookies and, they’ve been sitting for a day (which is recommended before icing.) It’s time to make your icing. Royal Icing is used for this type of decorating, mainly because of all the elaborate designs you can make. Also the fact that it last a very long time. We will be doing a small batch of icing. I had enough icing but the original purple icing I made (which Wes did in fact identify as purple) started to look like dark gray.. So I had to make more so, that I could make a decent purple.. which was a pain in the buttocks!! but some royal blue, a little red, and some pink (the secret) did the trick!
Ok so let’s get to it!
You will need:
- Confectioners Sugar 2 lbs. bag.
- Meringue Powder 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon
- Warm water approximately 3/4 cup
- extract. I chose vanilla 2-3tsp
- mixing bowl
- and I use the dough hooks first to get everything incorporated, then I switch to the regular beaters
- Icing Colors (I use gel, so it doesn’t water down the icing and, to get a more concentrated color
- toothpicks
- spatula
- spoons
- extra bowls
- containers for flood icing
- tips 1,2 and 3
- piping bags
- couplers
- sugar
- pearls
- tweezers
In this first picture, I had just separated all the cookies into different groups.
here are all the tools you’ll be using.
Here I wrote out a list of the colors I wanted and how I wanted them. either Piping or Flood or both. This keeps me organized.
Disposable piping bags
Confectioners sugar
Meringue powder.. and be careful.. its very light, it blows all over the place if you’re not careful.
Now sorry.. but it’s just me taking all the pictures.. so after I added the meringue powder, I added the warm water and flavoring.
If you’re using regular vanilla extract, the mixture will look light brown.. tan-ish.. this is fine, as it whips up it gets whiter and whiter.
Mix first on a low speed, then increase speed to the highest. Just keep mixing until it starts to feel stiffer. Slow down the mixer and check the consistency.. does it move easily? You want it to be thicker than that. It’s done when there are stiff peaks and, as you can see, the peaks stay still!
I keep mine covered with plastic wrap while I prepare my bags.
Here I’ve folded down the bags. You can toss in the inside part of the tip holder so you know where to cut. I’ve used these plenty of times, so I know exactly where to cut. About an inch below the recycle logo on the bottom near the tip
Push it down into place. Not to hard, you don’t want to stretch the plastic.
Inn a separate bowl, take out as much icing as you need. Using a tooth pick, stick it into your gel color and, then swirl into your icing, mix thoroughly, if it’s not the color you want, repeat with a new tooth pick. Take half of this (or more if you know you’re not going to use much flooding of this color) and place it into the piping bag. (by folding the edge back and using a spatula or spoon)
with the remaining icing, place little by little of warm water ( I use 1/4 tsp. measuring cup) stir after each addition of water. Check the consistency by lifting the spoon in the air and letting the icing fall back into the bowl. watch the bowl. Count to ten.. does all the icing smooth out? if not, add more water. This “10 count icing” is want you want for flooding.
Make all your colors. Here I have made all the colors I want to use. Since I only have a few tips 1 #1, 1 #2 and, 2 #3’s, I use plastic wrap and a twist tie to keep the ends secure. I can switch between tips this way. Just clean them out and add the tip to the new color. Here you can also see my first attempt at the purple, 3rd from the left. I eventually added this to the black.. so I didn’t waste it.
Here I had also written out what kind of designs I wanted to do.. and up till now I had only done marbling and… marbling
(writing just doesn’t count)
Here each design I wanted to try will be on a separate tray.
Here I’m going to start the background for the Embroidery cookies (which will be finished tomorrow.) You start by taking the piping icing and outline the cookies. If you want the flood to blend in more, do only 1-3 cookies at a time and, immediately flood them. I didn’t do that. because.. well.. I had to take pictures for this.. Anyway..
You don’t need to fill in the entire cookie. Fill in starting outside and going in. it’s ok if there are some spaces, The whole point of the 10 second icing is that it spreads. It also needs to be this thick so that it doesn’t not over flow the cookie and, so that decorations do not bleed through. Use a tooth pick to spread out the rest of the icing and to make it even over the cookie.
Here are the flooded cookies. These need to dry for 6-8 hours, but I’m usually too tired and let them dry overnight (which is what most of the ladies do anyway)
Here’s how to do Marbling. First outline your cookie, then flood. Its best to work on this either one at a time or 2. Use a toothpick to spread the flood icing and to make it even.
Add another color. repeat in the pattern you want.
I could have done something more elaborate with this but, I decided not to. Let this dry overnight
Another marbling effect. Here I’ve outlined 3 cookies. Then flooded them.
Add dots.
Take a toothpick and drag it through the dots. Creating HEARTS!!
Puffed pillows. Now I admit.. I definitely have never tried this and, I realize I should have outlined the cookie then drawn the criss crosses.. but oh well. Next time!
Pipe criss cross lines
Using flood icing, fill in every OTHER square.
Use a toothpick to spread it out. Let it dry. Meaning go do some other cookies and, then come back. Fill in the other squares. After I had did this. I took my tweezers and added a sugar pearl to each cross section.. let dry overnight.
My finished marbled cookies!!
In this one, my toothpick never left the cookie until I was finished. (btw.. now that's purple!!)
Here each dot was done individually. Meaning I wiped off the toothpick after every drag. Then I placed a pearl in place
The double colored hears are simple. just place the second dot off center inside the first then drag the toothpick through.
In this one although my toothpick did leave the cookie after each drag, I did NOT wipe off the toothpick, you can see the previous color at the top of each new heart.
Here the icing overflowed at the very top.. only because when I thought it was dried quite a bit I moved it.. and where it was moved to was uneven.. whoops
Puffed hearts completed
Happy Valentines DAY!!
remember for better tutorials and tips please visit Sweet Sugarbelle
Stay tuned.. I have one more day for you. Featuring Embroidered cookies and packaging!
Comments
Post a Comment