I use Antonias Royal cookie icing and like it very much but was wondering how I can get my icing to be shiny....thoughts? Would adding corn syrup instead of the water when thinning out the icing be a way?

I use Wilton Color flow powder instead of meringue powder. It drys shiney.

I always use corn syrup instead of water and my cookies are always shiny

Or, if you're lazy like I can be , and you don't have a giantic bunch of cookies to do ('cuz it gets expensive this way), buy the Wilton pre-made royal icing in a squeeze bottle. Looks like a big glue bottle. Comes in white, and at various times of the year, red, pink, and I think, green.

Carlachef,
Do you use the Wilton Colorflow powder instead of meringue powder in ANY royal icing recipe...or do you use it in a particular recipe?
And does the color flow powder alter the taste?
Thanks.

The recipe I use is on the Wilton Web site. I was going to type it in but I got lazy. I use the full strenth recipe for outlining and Thin the colorflow for fill in. It works great for cookies and the colorflow pieces that you can make are really nice. Some cool examples are in Wilton's new Cookie Exchange book. I also have a comment about the Wilton bottled icing that was mentioned in another comment. It is not royal icing. It cannot be used for building gingerbread houses or making sugar flowers that harden. They havent come out with a ready made Royal just yet. That being said the bottled cookie icing is nice and will dry shiney enough for stacking. It can also be put in piping bags for more accurate piping.

Thanks!

corn syrup to thin instead of water or milk.

I add about 6 drops of glycerine to my RI recipe. Too much will keep the RI soft, but just a little gives it a slight sheen.