I have been at my company for five years with the same dispatcher. For the past year since I bought my house I have been bringing in treats for him. I enjoy baking and often only want 1-2 out of a dozen. I think there may have been one time I brought in meatballs…hmm.
Loving this new no chill sugar cookie recipe I came across last month, I decided to make a batch and decorate them. The meringue powder from Wilton has been on my want list for awhile. I bought a tub to try my hand at royal icing and was quite pleased.
Royal icing is the hard, crunchy icing you find on sugar cookies. It is the icing you see on elaborately decorated cookies.
The meringue powder takes the place of egg whites so you don’t ingest raw eggs. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with that, however, knowing what I do of corporate poultry farms I can’t do it. Especially taking into consideration I used to drive a reefer (refrigerated trailer) and often made pick ups at Tyson farms. Unless you raise your own chickens don’t eat raw eggs. Ok I’m done.
My dispatcher (and I) are both Alabama fans. Think Roll Tide Roll and Crimson Tide.
Deciding on white and crimson, I set up my decorating bags and went to work. This was my second attempt to decorate cookies. My first ended up in the trash. The entire 2 dozen including all that frosting. Like 3 cups worth. It was rough.
This time was a tad easier. I ate the ugly ones.
Not too shabby? I’ll get better as I get used to working with royal icing.
One trick I found was when I flooded the cookie with the fill in color, I needed to immediately use the other flood color to make a design. The icing develops a skin on it very quick and so you need to work quickly. That’s how I did the polka dots and other designs without it looking clunky. I learned the hard way when I made an ugly cookie.
I was also able to use my new little stander upper caddy thingy. It’s also by Wilton (one of my favorite companies). It holds 6 bags of icing as well as flower nails.
For the icing I used the Wilton Color Right system utilizing the crimson drops. I think I counted out about 20 drops to get the rich color. I love that system. All the Wilton colors are worth getting because they’re rich with no aftertaste.
Either way, I’ll be all set when my family comes to visit over Thanksgiving and we can decorate Xmas cookies. Until then I’ll keep baking and trying new holiday recipes. I’d love to impress them. 😉
themeanbeagle 