Traditionally I make my royal icing with Wilton's Meringue powder. I looked at the ingredients and it has other things besides the dried egg whites - maybe for stabilization? I was wondering...can you use other types of dried egg whites instead of the meringue powder - like to save money, or if the store is out of meringue powder in the cake decorating section of the store? I know my local grocery also sells a product called "Just Whites" - I think by Deb El, maybe? Would that work, or would I have to add anything else to the recipe to equal out the Wilton's meringue powder? Also, what about just using regular egg whites?

I make my RI from scratch - icing sugar, egg whites and a squeeze of lemon juice, dead easy!

If you google "royal icing with egg whites" or "royal icing with egg white powder" you will find all kinds of recipes.

Personally I have only used Meringue powder, so I don't know how they compare to it, but you can definitely make it with egg whites.

Thank you, ladies! If I use regular egg whites, is it important that they be at room temp, like with a meringue buttercream?

i also make my RI with 2 egg whites, 250g powdered sugar and 1 tsp lemon juice. It is very easy to make but quite fragile. (i made cindarella carriage few days ago with this RI and it survived very bad road but it didnt survived a lot of children ) (its in my photos)