I am going to make some snowflakes with Royal Icing and not sure which recipe to use. I was told that the egg whites will make the Royal Icing hold up better. Does anyone have a good egg white recipe??

I use the wilton one with meringue powder all the time, works great! I have a a lot of childeren in my family and older people and people with immune issues, I know the egg white would probably be fine but there's the little nagging "what if....?" voice that keeps me using meringue, and if it works why change? HTH!

Maybe I should use the powder instead of egg whites. I was just wondering how many use the egg whites and trust it to be safe.

i use antonia's74 RI to cover all my cookies now but i would have no problem in using an egg white one for decorations on a cake.

I use to use the egg whites one all the time before and didn't even know then that it might not be safe lol but i don't think it's THAT unsafe, but now i know, I am iffy from time to time lol

If your worried a bit why not see if your local supermarket has pasturized egg whites?

Anyway if you decide to use eggwhites here is the recipe i used:

3 cups icing sugar
2 egg whites
8 drops lemon juice

And then just add the icing sugar like 1/4 at a time to the egg white in a bowl and then beat until it is nice and thick.

I have some egg whites only (in the carton) in the fridge. I will look and see if that is unpasturized. Since the decorations are not going to be eaten I think it will be ok. Now I wouldn't use the egg white recipe to put icing on my cookies or anything like that.

sorry i wrote unpasturized before.....i meant pasterized lol but yeh i personally would be ok about using it for decorations on a cake

yep and if you want to use them in IMBC too it's makes it alot safer to leave it out of the fridge for longer too, that's mainly what i am buying them for cose when they are pasterized they are helping to eliminate the risk of selmonella

i am not 100% sure lol but i thinks it's probably just for flavour. It doesn't make it really lemony but just a hint of lemon and i think that RI tastes good........but then again i like the tastes of all the RI i make.....not that i eat spoon fulls of it lol

beside using the lemon juice in that one, i have never actually flavoured my RI with flavourings lol

I havn't actually ever used meringue powder before cose over here in AUST we have a different thing of powdered egg whites that i use so maybe it doesn't have the same funny taste that alot of people say about the meringue powder.

no sorry havn't make snowflakes before but good luck! Oh and this recipe also pipes very smoothly

oh and you can halve the recipe of you want if you find it's two much

I have used both and definitely find that the eggwhite-based icing tastes better - I use the same recipe as Elise87.

Have also found that my 3 year-old daughter has an allergy to Wilton meringue powder it makes the skin on her face red an blotchy wherever the icing touches it.

.moving to Recipe Requests.

Lemon extract is acidic and has a very high alcohol content - usually around 90%. This is used to: denature egg white proteins so that more hydrogen bonding can occur between protein molecules, thereby stabilizing the mixture, to slightly thin the royal icing without dissolving materials such and fondant or gumpaste with which it may come into contact, and also allows the mixture to dry quickly. You can also use vodka (lower ETOH content) or Everclear - but, the stabilizing effect will not be as pronounced. Besides, lemon extract smells nicer. :-)

In some places you are not supposed to use fresh egg whites due to food regulations so everyone should check their area and what is allowed if you're making it for customers. :)

A[quote name="Leetzie" url="/t/664374/royal-icing-egg-whites-or-meringue-powder#post_6673436"]

Does it have to be icing sugar?? Or can I use powdered sugar?