What is royal icing made of?
Royal icing is a smooth, hard-drying icing typically made using powdered sugar to create the base sweetness and structure, egg whites to bind the icing and ensure it dries hard, and water or lemon juice to achieve the desired consistency. Sometimes, meringue powder is used instead of egg whites for a safer or vegan alternative. You can then add flavourings or colours to achieve your desired taste and colour.
What's the difference between icing and royal icing?
Royal icing's ingredients give it a particular texture and finish. When wet, it's smooth and thin but dries hard and crisp, ideal for fine details, structural decoration, piping, and flooding cookies.
In comparison, buttercream consists of butter, powdered sugar and a liquid like milk or cream, giving it a soft, fluffy texture and more creamy, indulgent flavour. Buttercream is best for frosting cakes or piping designs.
Royal Icing also differs from fondant icing, a dough texture made from sugar, water, gelatin, and glycerin. Fondant icing remains pliable, so you can roll it out, cover cakes, or cut out shapes and create decorations like flowers.
Can I put royal icing directly on a cake?
Yes! You can put royal icing directly on a cake for a smooth, hard finish. This is typically done on a Christmas or wedding cake but is not generally used as the primary frosting due to its hard texture when it dries. Once dried, royal icing becomes quite hard and brittle, so it's not ideal for cutting or eating in large amounts on cakes.
However, it can be used effectively as decoration, creating intricate designs like piped flowers, lacework, or lettering. Pipe directly onto fondant or buttercream to create borders, filigree, or intricate patterns. If you're using it to cover a cake, put a layer of marzipan or buttercream first to seal the moisture and create a smooth base. If the cake is very moist, the royal icing may not adhere well or could soften over time.
How long does it take for royal icing to dry?
The drying time for royal icing depends on its thickness, humidity, and air circulation in the environment. Here is a rough guideline for drying times.
- Thin layers of royal icing, for example, when flooding cookies, will take 15-30 minutes to form a dry crust.
- Under ideal conditions, thin layers will dry completely in 4-6 hours, while thicker layers will take 8-24 hours.
To make cake decorating faster and easier, you can make your own royal icing or purchase ready-made royal icing or a royal icing sugar mix here at The Cake Decorating Company.
If you are looking to add personalised messages or intricate details to your cakes, cookies and cupcakes, browse our range of royal icing and icing for piping to find the right product. Choose from royal icing mixes and 'ready-to-go' icing, both of which can be coloured to suit, or icing that comes in a ready to use pouch or tube to make things even simpler. Piping straight onto your cakes can be daunting to begin with so it is always a good idea to practice on your work surface first. Don't forget to have a look at our range of piping nozzles, bags and icing tube sets to help you achieve the look you want.
Royal icing is perfect for coating Christmas cakes piping flowers personalised messages and so much more. Royal icing mix is a convenient option – simply add water and mix on a slow speed until light and fluffy. Use it to create spider webs for Halloween cakes pipe intricate cake borders and sugar flowers or even colour it with food colouring to match your theme.
We also have a range of ready made royal icing which comes pre-made so you can use it straight from the tub. Some people think royal icing is a thing of the past but here at Cake Craft we think it's the future! If you want to stiffen your buttercream whilst covering a cake simply add a little royal icing to your buttercream. This will not only make application so much easier on a hot day but it will also whiten your frosting to give it a crisp and clean appearance.
For more types of icing including sugarpaste fondant icing modelling paste flower paste chocolate modelling paste and delicious cake frosting check out our range of icing sugarpaste food colours & ingredients.
