I’m sure many of you have heard, but last week I unfortunately had an accident at my work that has caused me to take some time off. I was making a batch of swiss meringue buttercream and was in the process of double-boiling a bowl of 72 eggwhites and 18 cups of sugar. When I went to pick the pan up from the pot the bowl slightly stuck and the pot of boiling water fell from our mini electric stove and onto the ground spilling boiling water down my right leg. It was definitely the most painful experience I have had. The burning feeling did not stop until I woke up the next morning. Unfortunately the burning pain was replaced with giant blisters covering my foot 
. So….. now that I have to sit a lot I thought I would practice my piping!
I started out by prepping my work station
Here I have my table covered in some wax paper, with plenty of parchment paper to pipe onto. I have a bowl with some royal icing pre made in it. I have my wilton decorating kit with plenty of tips and my favorite squeeze bottles (I got these from Sur La Table and I love them because I can use standard tips on them and they have a cap to protect the tip!) I have some bowls and spoons ready along with an offset spatula and a cup of water(to thin icing). I also have my box of food coloring!
I have come to the conclusion that I need to start buying the large bottles online.
I know the photos a little blurry but its hard to take a photo with a heavy camera with one hand. I just wanted to show you guys the consistency of the frosting. Because I am making royal icing decorations that have to harden and hold their design I needed the frosting to be very thick. It was so thick that when I scooped the frosting from the bowl it did not run at all but hold its shape.
I spent most of my time just messing around trying different things. I knew I wanted to do some cute hearts that I could add to the tops of cupcakes but that I also wanted to try a lot of different things. The white blobs (look better in person) are my attempt at doing roses. Even though the frosting was super thick it didn’t hold up very well. I think part of the reason is that I made them too big but more research is definitely needed.
I also knew that I wanted to do some plain circles in yellow to speed up my flower cookie decorating process. By premaking the yellow centers I won’t have to wait for the petals to completely dry before piping the center (or vice versa).
I also did this butterfly that I traced from a picture I found online that I am planning on adding to a cake. I think it will look really cool as long as it doesn’t break (crossing my fingers!).
CONFESSION! I don’t actually have a royal icing recipe I use. I use powdered sugar and meringue powder and then some water but the measurements depend on whatever project I’m doing. But here is the basic recipe I use:
Ingredients:
2 lb powdered sugar ( 1 bag or two of the smaller boxes, I like target brand because its never clumpy so I don’t need to sift it)
1/4 meringue powder
around 3/4 cup water
To start I combine the powdered sugar and the meringue powder in the mixer and start it on low. I then add the water and let it mix for about a minute stopping to scrape down the sides. Once the frosting looks like everything has mixed together and looks like the consistency of honey I turn the mixer back on and this time turn it to medium letting it mix for about 5 minutes. It should be very stiff and like meringue be very stable.
From there I will separate the frosting into separate bowls and add food coloring and water to get it the right color and consistency I need for my various projects.
Hope you enjoyed!
