Help! I'm scared to make royal icing, I'm not sure why. It just sounds harder to work with than BC and more complex to make. I've conquered fondant and am ready for the next challenge.
Can anyone give me any tips for working with it or a good recipe! Maybe that will give me some courage!
Thanks!
I use the Wilton recipe: http://www.wilton.com/recipes/recipesandprojects/icing/royal.cfm
Just place all the ingredients in the bowl (start with 4 tablespoons water), turn on the mixer and wait 7-10 minutes. If too stiff for what you need, add water in drops to thin it and mix again until blended.
Just make sure everything is grease free (bowls, beaters, decorating bag, tips, spatula, etc).
Royal icing is basically egg whites, powdered sugar and water. From there, it just depends on what technique you want to learn.
One of the most simple is small flowers. Most decoration boods (and the Wilton site) have picture showing how to do drop flowers, rose buds and several other items. These are intended to be made separate from the cake, dried and can be stored for ages until you need them.
Cookies can be covered in royal icing-see Antonias cookie article in the articles section.
Don't be afraid....it is only sugar!
It's really not hard to do if you have a good mixer. Just make sure that your mixer, bowls, tips, everything is grease free so that it doesn't break down. When I get ready to make and user royal icing, I usually rewash everything (tips, couplers, bowls, etc) in fresh dishwater using Dawn dishwashing liquid.
When it first starts mixing, it doesn't look like there is enough mixing but just let it keep mixing. It comes together and isn't hard to use. Depending on how much you are making, it will need to mix for at least 5 minutes.
Hope this helps. Good Luck!
royal icing isn't very scary at all. MESSY, yes. SCARY, not so much. when you say you've conquered fondant, i'm not sure if you mean that you made your own fondant, or that you've worked with pre-made fondant. if you made your own fondant, then royal icing should be a piece of cake. it does try pretty fast if it's in small quantities so you have to make sure you cover it if you're not using it.
but i would suggest using meringue powder & not egg whites. a good royal icing recipe is the wilton one. i think it's 3 tbsps meringue powder, 4-5 tbsp's lukewarm water, 4? cups powdered sugar. you'll end up with a thick consistency and then you can just make it thinner by adding more water.
i hope that helps!
Just make sure everything is grease free....i once made royal icing and my beaters or something must have had grease on them...i let it mix up for 8 min and it was like soup....i added more posdered sugar and it was still soup...i asked my instructor what i did wrong and she said i probably had grease on my beaters...other than that Royal icing is great to use....it can be stored for long periods of time (away from light to keep from fading)....and it dries hard so if you want to make say...50 roses you can make them a week in advance and then when your cake is frosted you can just blob on some forsting and stick your roses to it.... 
A long time ago someone told me that RI is hard to use and ever since then I was really nervous about using it. Then I tried it on a tiara and it turned out great. I'm also taking the Wilton course II and it does a lot with RI. I'm completely hooked now. I love it! Good luck, and just give it a try!
RI is great because you can make flowers, etc ahead of time and then just use them as you need them. I actually would use the egg white recipe over the merinque powder (sp?). It is way cheaper and I cannot see that there is a difference. If you can do fondant, you will have not problem with RI, good luck!!!
I would definitely use the meringue powder as oppposed to the egg whites, since raw eggs pose a health risk. I would use less meringue than wilton calls for by a tablespoon or so and flavor the heck out of the stuff. Especially if you are going to use it on cookies. For cookies I only use 3 tablespoons of meringue for 2 pounds of sugar, then I flavor flavor flavor it.
Use the Wilton recipe and just practice on a cookie. Make the recipe just like Wilton has it written, transfer the icing to a small container and practice with a little at a time. This will help you get used to working with it. Scoop a little out in a small bowl and add a couple drops of water and some color...just to practice and take any cookie and practice outlining with maybe a no. #3 tip...than practice your flooding. Take a little more out of your container and add more water to that until it can run off of your spoon. Put that into a bag with a small tip and practice flooding. When you become comfy...and you see that you can make it any consistency that you want, then I would practice flowers...etc...You will see, it will be fun!
Royal icing is very easy when you have a stand mixer. Trust me. I went through 3 hand mixers making royal icing. My MIL was not impressed because one of those hand mixers was hers. But it is just icing sugar, meringue powder and water. I now have a stand mixer (not a KA, but it works) and my royal icing is great. Just make sure you cover the bowl with a damp cloth as you are mixing because royal icing crusts really fast.
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