Can I get some opinions on the best royal icing recipes to use to make snowflakes?
Also what is the best way to get the sparkle affect on them?
Thanks for any help.

I hope someone gives you a great answer. I'm not having any luck with my snowflake patchwork cutters, I may have to resort to royal icing.

I've heard that Antonia's RI sets hard and I have seen people using it for snowflakes. For the sparkle look you could use luster dust (disco, pearl) or sparkles. You can get all those in a cake decorating store or on-line. For the sparkles sprinkle them when the icing hasn't set. For the luster dust, just dust it with a fine brush.

mmgiles: Have you tried to use some shortening in your patchwork cutters? (if the problem is that they are sticking to the cutter).

Well, I made the ones in my gallery with the recipe in the canister of Wilton meringue powder. Didn't water it down, and didn't try to make it stiffer. Worked great for me. After I piped them out, I sprinkled some of them with prismatic pastry flakes, and some with opalescent sanding sugar. Stuck great, and looked really nice.

Here is a closeup of one of the flakes on the cake. Bad lighting, I know. but you can see the prism flakes, sorta....they sure are cool!

When I used shortening it made them really sticky. I had to pick the fondant out of the cutter with a toothpick.

I used really thin fondant. I tried with thicker fondant too, but I started with the thin, it was ugly. I thought maybe the shortening was too sticky, i cleaned it (dried it as much as possible) and then tried spray grease lol.

I would think that you'd want to dip the cutter in powdered sugar to keep stuff from sticking not use something wet or stickier

I just gotta say that I have tried RI snowflakes four times this season and the majority of them broke. So I was fooling around in the kitchen yesterday and thought "I'm going to try almond bark for snowflakes" I piped them out onto plastic and wax paper. They set up within minutes, didn't have any breakage and they turned out beautiful, and they were quick. Not to mention they taste better than RI. Just my $0.02

I just gotta say that I have tried RI snowflakes four times this season and the majority of them broke. So I was fooling around in the kitchen yesterday and thought "I'm going to try almond bark for snowflakes" I piped them out onto plastic and wax paper. They set up within minutes, didn't have any breakage and they turned out beautiful, and they were quick. Not to mention they taste better than RI. Just my $0.02

MaryJ
Thats a great idea! Now how do we make them sparkle....? LOL
I wonder if you sprinkle with sparkle dust before they dry? HMMMM
I might have to try this!
Thanks for all the help!

Absolutely sprinkle the dust/glitter/sparkles on while they are wet...at least tacky, or there is nothing to adhere to. I think the key to making sure anything RI doesn't break, is using a bigger tip when piping, using thick RI, and making sure whatever you are piping has plenty of points that join together, so everything is kind of like a honeycomb, not visually, but strength wise, make sense? The more parts of whatever you are piping that are joined together, the stronger the piece is as a whole. The only pieces that broke for me were due to my own mishandling.

I've always used melted CandyMelts to do snowflakes, as well as for a variety of pieces for decorating cakes. I will use a #1 tip, outline, let harden, flip, and re-outline. Both front and back look nice, and they are sturdier this way.

I just love the idea of making these with almond bark or candy melts. I will do that next time I make snowflakes.

Last Dec. I made a snowflake wedding cake, and I also used the Wilton recipe, after trying others which all failed. I made a half a batch at a time, because something happens to RI after it sits and it is not as strong once it dries (at least that is what I found and I also was told the same thing). Also when I piped them, I piped them on a pan which I lined with waxed paper, then I covered the wax paper with saran wrap--this was a huge trick for getting the off in one piece! I had tried making them about three times before adding this step (thank you to DianeLM, who gives great directions in making RI snowflakes).
I also sprinkled sparkles on them (which I crushed in a baggie) and sprinkled them on the snowflakes before they dried.

They were kind of hard to master, but after several tries, it was worth learning how to make them. Next time it will be the white chocolate! They will taste better, too!

mmgiles, try rolling out your fondant using cornstarch (no shortening) and letting it sit for a minute or two to slightly dry, THEN use your cutter, (dipped in cornstarch and tapped off) and it should pop right out. do it on top of parchment paper or plastic so if it doesnt come up with the cutter, its easier to pick up from the surface.

regarding a recipe for snowflakes...i agree, white chocolate (properly tempered) or white candy melts is the way to go. quick and tastes bettter than royal. i did some that i dusted with super pearl, but am planning on making some tomorrow with glitter, glad that some of you pointed out to sprinkle it on when soft, i would have forgotten! thanks!

Thank you all for being so willing to help!
Sometimes the simplest things just go right over my head....sigh....
What would I do without CC???

Thanks again

I read on someone's gallery photo of an RI bassinett to use gelatin to strengthen it. So, when I made the snowflakes on the cake in my photos, I dissolved about 1 t. gelatin into about 1 T. boiling water and used that in my RI recipe, then made it nice and thick and not a single one broke! I brushed with pearl dust after. It doesn't show in the photo, but they were nice and sparkely

I tried RI snowflakes for the first time this week. Was os happy with the light blue color and the effect of the luster dust spray. Then almost all of them broke as I tried to remove them from the paper!
Thanks to all for your suggestions. I'm intrigued by the gelatin and will try that in the future. For now, I'm off to melt some white chocolate - this sounds like such and easy and tasty fix to this problem.