I tried making both royal icing and boiled icing, but it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.

Although it tasted good, but I am really disappointed. I have pictures to go with my icing flop and also pictures that I wanted it to turn out. I got those pictures from my flickr.com contact and on the internet. I also used tip#33 so I could make little flowers..

I made a little research a for Royal Icing but they are almost the same with the icing I made.

I don't know what I did wrong and I have several questions running through my mind right now (you'll probably laugh now) :

1) Is it because I didn't use an electric beater (because I don't have one yet, but I'll definitely buy next month!)?
2) Is it because I used refined sugar? Should I have used confectioner's sugar?
3) After the icing turned kinda firm and fluffy, do I need to put it in the fridge first before putting it on the cupcakes? For how long?
4) Do you have another recipe that I could follow?


These are the recipes I followed :

A) Fluffy Boiled Frosting

* 1-1/2 cups sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup water
* 4 egg whites (at room temperature)
* 1/2 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract

Combine sugar, cream of tartar, salt and water in heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is clear. Cook until mixture reaches 238°F on a candy thermometer (soft ball stage).

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Let mixer continue to run and slowly pour the sugar mixture in a thin stream down the side of the mixer bowl (don't let the sugar mixture come into contact with the beaters). Add the almond extract. Continue beating until stiff peaks form and frosting thickens to desired consistency.

B) Boiled Frosting Recipe

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
* 2/3 cup boiling water
* 2 egg whiles
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:
Combine granulated sugar and cream of tartar in saucepan. Add boiling water and stir until sugar is dissolved. Place saucepan over heat and bring mixture to a boil. Boil rapidly, without stirring, for about 10 minutes or until syrup forms a soft ball in cold water, or until candy thermometer indicates 240 degrees. Remove from heat while testing. Beat egg whites until stiff. Pour hot syrup in fine stream over egg whites, beating constantly with electric mixer until frosting is cool and of proper spreading consistency. Stir in vanilla.
Frosts a 2-layer cake.

Well, boiled icing is always soft and fluffy. If you wanted firm icing to pipe with that has the boiled sugar/egg whites you may have wanted Italian Meringue Buttercream. It is the boiled water and sugar mix poured into egg whites, then butter is added, which firms up in the fridge.
A meringue-less buttercream would also be stiffer and good for piping.
Granulated sugar is usually wheat gets used in those icings, not sure about refined in a boiled icing....will let the icing experts answer that one.

Royal icing is not a cooked one, it is just egg whites with confectioner's sugar (and depending on the recipe, cream of tartar, lemon juice etc.).
It can be made thin to flood or firmer to pipe with, and dries hard.

You may want to try another buttercream recipe rather than a boiled icing if you want to be able to have it firm enough to pipe the pretty flowers and such.

Good luck! Have fun shopping for your mixer too, they sure are a great help!

Hmmmm...

My royal icing recipe is pretty basic-
3 egg whites, whipped til glossy
Add 3-5 cups powdered sugar, depending on the thickness you want. It can be thinned again with water later also.
2 tsp. lemon juice
Add sugar slowly until desired consistency. Keep covered with a damp towel to keep from drying out.

As for buttercream, I am no pro at that. I use the Italian Meringue all the time and love it. Not as sweet and very fluffy.
I also like a meringue based icing that requires no cooking.

There are some great recipes in the recipe section here, just use the keywords
Italian Meringue Buttercream
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
or just Buttercream and you will get tons.

I know Indydebi's recipe is popular, an all Crisco crusting icing.
I have not gotten to try too many here yet, though I plan to!
I have put some fluffy buttercreams in my recipe box, and a couple nice chocolate ones.

Hope you find one you love! I know you will get other suggestion from the pros/longtimers.

Are you looking for buttercream, or Royal icing? Sugarshack has an AMAZING tutorial on youtube for buttercream, and tonedna1 has an AMAZING tutorial on youtube for Royal Icing. Watch them, and you will do great.

Yes, there is a major difference in icing when using granulated vs. powdered sugar. They are NOT interchangeable.