Graduation Cap Cookies ... Royal Icing

I've been loving those cookie YouTube video's on FB where the girl does the royal icing in time warp. They are beautiful, and I've always wanted to try! A friend from the gym asked if I could make some graduation cap cookies.  I thought this is my time to try out royal icing! NOW this was a big day for her daughter so I didn't want to mess them up OR not have anything for her! I called my best decorating gal and headed to her house with my baked cookies.

I did a Google search to find the best Royal Icing recipe and I found Julie Usher, she had a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

We decided on the outline and then the flooding. This way you make a clean line for the outline then fill in the outline middle with the flooding. WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.

We outlined with dark blue (using AmeriColor Royal Blue Soft Gel Food Color). My friend had a steady hand so she did the outling. I did the flooding. I must say it was easier then I thought. We then outlined with black (using AmeriColor Black Soft Gel Food Color). The one thing I have learned about black is it goes from grey to black. NOW I should have let it rest and turn black our's turned a bit grey in the meantime. 

It was a bit time consuming and I know why people charge like $1.50 to $2 each cookie. They turned out so cool and I have another graduation to go to in 2 weeks that I wanted to make cookies for her gift.

A BIG thanks to my friend for always helping me with my adventures in new baking techniques. 

Thanks for Stopping by!

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