I am kicking myself right now!! I'm at the last of my sugar cookies (4 dozen!!) and I realized the royal icing I made I forgot to refrigerate!! I always do, I don't know what made me forget this time. I made the batch on Sunday and the icing sat at room temp in piping bags until today (taken out and remixed, but never refrigerated). I've eaten probably 3 cookies with icing over the past 3 days and feel fine. I made the icing with egg whites. Are the cookies safe to eat? Or did I ruin my Christmas dessert. :(

As long as the egg whites were brought to the right temperature they're fine. Here are a couple of info links:

http://www.cakecentral.com/t/722654/royal-icing-storage

http://sweetopia.net/2011/01/how-do-you-store-royal-icing-and-how-long-can-you-keep-it/

Hey thanks, but the icing was made with raw egg whites at room temperature, I never cooked them beforehand.

I used this simple recipe : http://allrecipes.com/recipe/royal-icing-iii/

I'm so upset about this... :(

I don't know about raw egg whites that weren't cooked..... I wouldn't chance it. Raw egg whites shouldn't be consumed by children, pregnant, or elderly so I use either pasteurized egg whites or meringue powder. That really stinks though, sorry about your cookies. Maybe someone else will chime in who knows better than me though.

That's pretty much what I'm thinking... I don't want to make my family sick.. Hopefully I don't get sick! I'm really gutted over this, I ended up making 80 total and just realized my mistake on my last 5. Going to be really difficult throwing all that food and hours of work away and showing up to Christmas dinner with no cookies.

Bummer!  Is there time to make a simpler cookie like a thumbprint?

I'm thinking of making some snickerdoodles, they are always a hit and so easy to make. I feel good despite eating a few cookies but I still won't be bringing them today. Thanks for the quick responses guys. :)

Its much easier to make royal icing with meringue powder, I definitely recommend buying some for next time!