How To Fix Royal Icing When It Looks Too Sugary

**Fair Alert-- This post is a piddling wordy and total of numbers and zilch actual cookies.**

Call back last jump when over Ii THOUSAND of yous poured your icing covered hearts out to me in an icing issues survey? I promise I didn't forget! I wasn't keeping it a surreptitious. I *may* have lost my notebook for a few weeks this summer...but here is what I've been upwards to --

First -- I compiled all the numbers and made a agglomeration of charts and mathed things out in percentages looking for patterns and possible theories that might solve all of our icing problems.

2nd -- I asked for volunteers to help exam those theories (and was overwhelmed by the very generous lot of yous that said yes!!) I sent out different ingredients with varying methods of mixing, storing, and coloring icing. All my volunteers tested those ingredients and methods and reported back.

Third -- I put all *that* data together in more charts with lots more scribbles. Some of my theories were completely off base and some of them were right on. I put together new theories based of this first gear up of experiments and .... went for another round of experiments! (It's a good thing my husband loves me just the manner I am! Fifty-fifty *I* am starting to worry about myself.)

4th -- I spent months and months trying to figure out butter-drain (THE DREADED BLOTCH) and came upward very nearly empty-handed. I still have a few things I'one thousand working on, simply decided that I've waited long enough. And I'one thousand just going to tell you everything we've figured out together so far. And some solar day (hopefully soon) when I effigy out the ol' blotching issues.... I'll let you lot know nigh that too!

Set?

MERINGUE POWDER VS. POWDERED EGG WHITES: I was really pretty convinced going into this that powdered egg whites would testify superior to meringue pulverization. As it turns out... I was super wrong. Whether yous use meringue powder or powdered egg whites -- nosotros've all got the aforementioned royal icing issues!

Brand OF ICING: There was no noticeable difference between brands of icing and the royal icing issues that were experienced by decorators with one exception. Wilton had substantially more than problems than the other brands. At beginning I thought we were on to something...until I realized that most new decorators utilize Wilton. When experienced decorators were sent Wilton meringue powder instead of their regular MP...the merely noticeable difference was that 17% of them experienced harder icing than they practice with their regular make.

METHOD OF DRYING: Using Any type of fan (dehydrator, heater fan, or a regular fan) reduced the occurrence of craters merely but a regular fan substantially reduced the occurrence of color bleed. (by 65%) Both heater fans and dehydrators slightly reduced the occurrence of color bleed. (by 43% and 27% respectively) And all three of them slightly reduced the frequency of craters and denting.

AMOUNT OF Time Between BAKING AND DECORATING: There was admittedly no correlation between how long the cookies sat between baking and decorating on ANY of the icing issues the survey addressed. Not even blotching. And for those that freeze your cookies first -- also
no change.

THICKNESS OF ICING (ICING CONSISTENCY): I was really excited when I saw the results of the survey. All of the bug seemed to happen at the same frequency - no matter what consistency of icing was used -- except BLOTCHING! Blotching occurred 24% less for people that used one consistency of icing (on the survey) than for people who used a thick outline and a flood icing to decorate their cookies. Unfortunately, this didn't hold upwards as well under the experiments. Don't worry... I won't stop until I figure this one out!

MERINGUE Pulverisation TO POWDERED SUGAR RATIO: And at present we get to the surprises. I kind of thought that everyone pretty much used the same ratio of meringue powder to powdered sugar. Y'all don't. I simplified all the recipes and so that I could see how many tablespoons of meringue powder were used for ii pounds of powdered sugar. five-6 tablespoons for every 2 pounds of powdered sugar is pretty boilerplate. Some people utilise as much as x tablespoons and some people use every bit little equally one or ii tablespoons of meringue powder. Those on the lowest end of the spectrum seemed to have the most problems with color drain...but definitely had no problems with hard icing! Using more than meringue powder reduced the likelihood of colour bleed, but didn't solve the issue entirely. Using more meringue powder, of course, also increased the occurrence of brittle icing. (So if yous live somewhere boiling and/or have major color drain problems, consider experimenting by adding 1 or ii tablespoons more meringue pulverization to the recipe you currently use. Endeavor to detect that sweetness spot where the additional meringue pulverization reduces color bleed without making your icing too hard.)

METHOD OF MIXING ICING: And the biggest surprise of all goes to METHOD! Who knew it would make such a difference?! Are you guys ready for this? Mix your meringue powder with the water and trounce until it reaches soft or strong height. (Strong peak is ideal, but non all meringue powders can go there because of other ingredients.) Then add your powdered sugar and flavorings. Get this -- only vi.5% of the people who mix their icing this way have craters occurring more than in one case a month.

So... in summary...

Seriously... I Love yous all for asking questions and answering questions and accepting my invitation to exam out my theories! We'll keep working on this together and find fifty-fifty more answers and probably even more questions...and somewhere in there we'll brand cookies! Cheers!!!!!!

And if I've learned anything from this icing issues madness... it is that some things will work for one person and they won't work for another person. If you accept a system that'southward working for you lot -- keep on using it! Just if you desire to make some changes...hopefully this information will point you in a direction that will help yous observe joy and success in decorating!

You lot tin discover MY icing recipe

Hither

. If yous accept questions, please electronic mail me or get out a comment below! I will do my best to answer them all.

How To Fix Royal Icing When It Looks Too Sugary,

Source: https://www.lilaloa.com/2015/09/the-solution-to-all-your-royal-icing.html

Posted by: turnergother.blogspot.com

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