I made my first ever cookies tonight (yep, I don't bake...LOL!) for a cookie bouquet in two days. I made antionia's royal icing and I don't care for it at all. I added what seemed to be a ton of vanilla flavoring and it didn't change the taste at all. I'm so upset. What else can I use instead of royal icing to decorate cookies in a cookie bouquet? Is there anything else I can do to the icing at this point to improve on the taste?

Thanks!!

Michelle

Wow, most people realyy like that recipe. You know, royal is really just a super-sweet thing - it's all sugar pretty much, so there's really no getting around that.....maybe a little lemon juice?

Good luck!

I haven't tried Antonia's recipe, but I agree that royal icing is awful. I only use it in small amounts for detail work on my cookies. To outline and flood, I use Toba Garrett's glace icing instead. It taste's so much better and it's easy to make. the recipe is:

1 lb. confectioner's sugar
6 tbsp. milk or water
6 tbsp. light corn syrup
flavoring of your choice

To make the thicker version needed for outlining, stir a couple of tablespoons of confectioner's sugar into a cup of the icing.

This icing also dries nice and shiny and it doesn't dry nearly as hard as royal. You'll still be able to stack the cookies, too.
Good luck!

have u tried the icing with the coookies?? i din't think i would like it either, but once it was on the cookies...mmm...i loved it...that's my fav recipe now...what i DID find...was that the Wilton meringue powder smells...when i made antonias icing i bought meringue in bulk..and it didn't have that awful smell to it...when making royal for cookies, you don't need top of the line meringue b/c it's for flooding anyways...so i use the bulk one and i don't get that smell...i like it better..so it could be your meringue...

if you want to try something different, try using egg whites in your royal...

Thank you everyone!! Since it was the middle of the night when I posted, in desperation I iced two cookies to see how they would taste in the morning. It was totally fine on the cookies!! I can't believe that it doesn't taste good by itself though. Weird. Hubby ate one of the cookies I left to try in the morning and thought they were great! I used the No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe. I made really thick cookies on sticks, so I only got two dozen out of the recipe that says you could make up to five dozen!! Wow!! Maybe mine are too thick. They look great though. Hopefully my icing comes out okay since I've never done royal icing/flooding before. Wish me luck!!!

Michelle

i figured...that's what happened to me

When I first posted my Royal Icing for Decorated Cookies, I didn't realize that meringue powder could be purchased without flavouring. The only brand I buy in bulk has an amazing vanilla flavour built right in. It tastes amazing!

Sorry you are having so much trouble flavouring yours everyone. Guess all brands aren't the same

Well heck, where can I get flavored meringue powder?!?! I don't know the brand of mine, was in a bag re-packaged by the local cake store. No flavor to it though.

I feel so bad for saying that I tried your icing and didn't like it, like it's a personal thing. I hope you don't take it that way!! I'm glad it tastes fine on the cookies since I was up until 4:00a.m. baking them!! I love that recipe for the cookies. I've never tasted sugar cookies like that before. Maybe it's the four sticks of butter!! YUM!!

You're "allowed" to not like it and to state your opinion! I'm a big girl, I can take it.

I just didn't realize that meringue powder could be purchased unflavoured. I've never had the Wilton brand. I guess it ranks up there as delicious as their fondant. Bleh!!

I googled and couldn't find any flavored meringue powder. Are we going to have to import it from Canada? LOL!!!

I've never tasted Wilton's fondant, but I had fondant on my wedding cake and didn't notice a flavor either way. It had Italian buttercream underneath, so maybe that lovely flavor masked the fondant, but I don't think my cake lady used Wilton's either!!

A little almond extract makes it even better. It's not great on it's own (but it beats Wilton's recipe, that's for sure), but it is pretty tasty on the cookie. I'm glad you tried it that way!

Yes, almond extract is my favorite, too. It gives the icing a very nice scent. I have also used the mccormick's strawberry, lemon, orange, banana and pineapple extracts in my royal icings. They have just come out with a new raspberry extract so I'm trying to find it in the stores.

Thanks for the tips on flavorings. I'm not sure I will use that recipe again though. My family said they were good, one person said the icing was really sweet, and when I ate a cookie I had to scrape the icing off because I could taste the funny taste that I tasted when I first made it! LOL!!

I'm going to try a few more recipes and see which one I like the best.

Oh, I did have one disaster and it's my own fault....Since this was my first time baking/icing cookies, I was a little off on the timing. I also work a late second shift, so staying up until 4:00am was getting a little tiring when I had to be up at 7:00am to put kiddo on the bus!! Anyway.....I iced them Sunday morning for a Sunday dinner! OOPS! They would have been okay in a bouquet, I think, but I put them in a container and yes....I stacked them!! The horror!! I salvaged about 10 okay cookies and put them in the bouquet. The other ones went into a container to take along. I have a great family, so we made a joke out of it and drank some wine.

So lots of learning was done on Easter morning. I can't wait to try another batch of cookies! I had so much fun decorating them. I am going to pick a few bottles and see if I can make a little less of a mess in the kitchen than with the bags! LOL!!

Michelle