How do I make my RI shiny?

I'm not a professional, so I may be wrong, but I think that royal icing is not shiny - it's more matte. I think that some similar icings (made with corn syrup, I think) are the ones that dry shiny.

But I'm not certain, so maybe someone else can help....

Anyone have a recipe with corn syrup?!
Does the corn syrup keep the icing from setting up as hard?

Doesn't the color flow dry shiny? I've only used it once, in the Wilton classes so I'm not sure....

Depends on what you want to do with it. I have a recipe that I use on cookies that dries with a real glossy finish. I don't know if that will help you or not though....

Heres a thread i found here:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-1950-247-Poured-Cookie-Icing.html

I'm making wedding cake cookies to be placed in a cello bag and used as table favors. The background will be white with white and RED decorations.
The design is a 3 letter monogram with the date written in script and some additional areas of scroll type design. This is the med. size wedding cake cutter (about 3 x 3 1/2 inches), so I need the icng to be fairly stiff & not spread.
The samples I made gave me 2 problems:
1)the red started to bleed into the white- but the white probably didn't dry long enough- only about 2 hours;
2)my biggest concern was that the icing dried to a dull matte finish- not a pretty gloss like I'd hoped.
Anything I can do to correct this? I posted a question in the cookies section, but didn't really get a solution yet. I'm running out of time!

Royal dries to a matte finish, color flow is a little shinier, and if you use a glaze icing w/ corn syrup, it dries pretty shiny too (but it takes a long time and is mostly used on cookies).

Here is the recipe I use. It is Toba Garrett's glace icing recipe. It dries very glossy. I used it on the baby shower cookies in my photos if you want to look (the stars and moons). I didn't think it took that long to dry, but I would imagine weather and humidity would affect the drying time. I can't help you with the bleeding part from the red. HTH!

1 pound (454 g) powdered sugar
3/8 cup (90 ml) whole milk
3/8 cup (4.5 oz or 126 g) light corn syrup

Flavor Options: 1 tsp concentrated extract, I Tbsp alcohol or liqueur, or 2 to 3 drops concentrated candy oil

In a mixing bowl, thoroughly mix the sugar and the milk first. The icing should be very soft and have a heavy-cream texture before you add the corn syrup. Add the corn syrup and mix just until combined.

Divide the icing into several bowls. Flavor each bowl with extracts, alcohol or candy oils. Color each bowl of icing as desired. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent drying until you're ready to use it.

Actually I just read on the Wilton Website today that if you add Colorflow to your RI mix it will make it shiny. I'll have to find the article.

I didn't think you could eat color flow.

I don't remember color flow as non-edible- maybe non-tastey! I just don't remember what it did to the icing. Haven't used it since class!

Color flow is edible. I would try mixing royal and color flow.

katy625-
I just went to the Wilton site and did a search for color flow- thanks for the idea! Looks like color flow is used on its own - not added to the RI, but it does dry shiny. It also says it dries even harder than RI! I don't want to sacrifice taste that much. I may try to find a heat lamp though to speed dry my RI- maybe this will help with the shine.
I used the recipe with cream of tartar in it- wonder if that detracts from the shine? What does the cream of tartar do in the recipe?

i always add corn syrup to my royal if i want it shiny and it's never affected it yet. i also add lemon juice to reduce the smell of the eggs

Hi! You can add extract to the color flow. Just decrease the water by the amount of flavoring.

Thanks everyone!
I think I'll use the regular RI recipe (no cream of tartar), add almond extract (that's the flavor in the cookies too), and thin the RI with corn syrup.
Hope it works!

RI stays shiny if its dried under a lamp. Here is a great thread from someone who's a real artist
HTH
http://www.ladycakes.com/color_flow_cookie.htm

Thanks Riana!
Now I just need to find a lamp!