when I decorate my cookies with royal icing they are always get dull after drying. is there any way to keep the gloss/shine of the royal icing after it dries?

not really - many pictures you see that are shiney are taken before they dry!
xx

I've had the same problem, and if I had to guess; the fat in the cookies causes it to dull. No escaping that with a cookie. I used a confectioners sugar/corn syrup icing to flood a batch, and they stayed nice and shiny. I got the recipe here on Cake Central, but can't find it at the moment. Maybe someone else has a better idea. hth

Kat

There is a a recipe called Sugar Cookie Icing on allrecipes dot com posted by JBS BOX

Check that out - it's not royal icing though.

HTH

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/15672/glaze-icing-sugar-cookie-icing

I use Toba Garrett's Glaze Icing in her book "Creative Cookies." 1 lb confectioner's sugar, 3/8 cup milk, 3/8 cup light corn syrup, 1 tsp clear vanilla. You thicken 1/2 cup of the glace with extra powdered sugar to use for outlining the cookies and then flood with the glace. It takes longer for glace to dry but you get a nice shiny finish. By the way, I find the book to be worth the investment.

This is the link to Toba Garrett's Glace, here on CC. It's great!

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/2119/toba-garretts-glace-icing

thank you all I was hoping there was a way to keep the royal shinning but I guess not! I will try the glace Icing.

If you look at the post I did on RI using both meringue and egg whites I talk about this too. It seems I got the same nice finish using both glaze icing and egg white RI, but not a wet shiny look. I do believe the OP who said they are probably taking the pick while the icing is still wet.

RI dries to a matte finish. You can add some corn syrup to the RI and get a little shine to them....

My egg white meringue dried to the same little shine to it than my glaze did with corn syrup. It does dry a little bit shinier than meringue powder RI, but not the wet shine look I see in photos.