My Secret Weapon for Perfect Royal Icing
I was making royal icing over the weekend and somehow got distracted while adding the meringue powder. I couldn’t remember if I added 4 or 5 tablespoons to the 3/4 cup of water in my jar. Now what? How in the world do I fix this without ruining some ingredients? Time to get my secret weapon for my perfect royal icing!
If you have been around this blog for any amount of time you already know how much I love my food scale. Once I purchased one my royal icing didn’t seem like a mystery anymore. Things started working like a well-oiled machine and my cookies started looking more consistent. That is because my royal icing was finally consistent. It turns out almost the same every time I make it. Sometimes it might be slightly different due to humidity but it is still pretty much the same. Let’s take a look.
My Secret Weapon for Perfect Royal Icing:
As you can see from the list below I try to make tutorials and share tips, tricks, and recipes that will help you master this wonderful icing. I will continue to share so we all look at the icing with love instead of becoming frustrated when you make it.
Royal Icing Recipe
Half a Batch of Royal Icing
How to Make Royal Icing with a Hand Mixer
How to Make Royal Icing
My food scale is one of the most used tools in my kitchen. I don’t make cookies or icing without it, but I don’t always measure everything. Normally I measure the 3/4 cup of water, vanilla extract or the meringue powder because I have measuring cups and spoons I use for that.
But what happens when I lose focus? This weekend I was making a batch of icing and got distracted while adding the meringue powder. I hate when that happens because I add it directly to the water so pouring it back in the container wasn’t an option. How in the world would I know if I added 4 or 5 tablespoons?
Easy! Grab the scale and weigh it. But how do you know what it should weigh? This jar has 4 tablespoons meringue powder and I know that because I made a cheat sheet a long time ago and I use the same containers for mixing and measuring! But if you don’t have a cheat sheet, you can still fix this problem.
Grab another jar, add the water and meringue powder and measure it. Yes, you will have to make 2 batches of royal icing today but both will be perfect royal icing. If you only need one batch today, place the second batch in the fridge for a few days until you need it.
Just don’t forget how much it weighs. The 468 grams in the picture include the weight of the Mason jar. You can place your container on the scale then press the tare button so you will know the weight of just the ingredients and not the container. I write the weight on the bottom of my scale with a Sharpie so I will always have it.
So now you know my secret weapon for perfect royal icing. Don’t just weigh the powdered sugar, weigh everything at least once so you will know in case you get distracted while making a batch!
Bear hugs,
I have this same scale and LOVE it, especially because I can switch from US to metric measurements, depending on which type a recipe uses. I even found that our local Hobby Lobby sells the batteries for it …YAAAY. Maybe you’ve already shared these 2 tips, but just in case… TIP #1: If you can’t see the display because your pan is too big (ie. 48 cavity mini cupcake pan), set something taller on the scale, then the pan on top of that. This was my setup: 8″ round pan on the scale, 1/4 sheet cake cardboard, 1/4 sheet pan, anothr cardboard, then my mini cupcake pan :). TIP #2: I had to make 96 mini cupcakes last week and didn’t have time for them NOT to be all the same size or end up with the ugly “mufin-top” effect. Using my scale, make-shift raised platform, and WONDERFUL less-mess-batter dispenser, I filled 2 mini cupcake liners with batter, one with .4 oz and other with .5 oz. (approx. 1/2 full to start), and baked (less time than reg. size cupcakes obviously). Now I could see which measurement produced the best shape. I set my cooled pan, filled with liners, back on my raised platform, tared the scale, and started filling the liners, using my batter dispenser, while watching the numbers on the scale increase by 4, before filling the next liner :). They all turned out PERFECT so YESSSS, I agree… a digital kitchen scale is your BEST tool!
What a great tip Delynn! Thanks so much for sharing it with us. I love how you raised the muffin tin so you could see the numbers on the scale! AWESOME!
I actually did a tutorial a long time ago about how to make the perfect cupcakes every time: http://thebearfootbaker.com/2012/01/picture-perfect-cupcakes/
I seriously love this little scale and for about $20 its a great deal!
Bear hugs!
Lisa and Delynn Tracy, thanks to both of you! These tips are great! I also love my kitchen scale – in fact, I can’t imagine my kitchen without it! I think it was one of the very first things I bought for my new apartment when I was moving out from my parents’ house 😀 I use it for EVERY cake and cookies I make. For me it’s also much easier to measure the ingredients on a scale than with cups – much faster, much less mess, much less dishes :). If I get a recipe in cups and spoons, I usually turn it into grams the first time I bake the cake 🙂
I have a food scale and it looks like it could be a life savor (or RI savor) in the future! Thanks for sharing your great tips!
Thank you for sharing your secret weapon with us! I purchased a scale last year but don’t use it as it’s not very accurate. And this was after doing research to find the best one. I clicked on your link but could you tell me the exact scale you use? Thanks so much, Karen. 🙂
I like using my scale too, but now I can definitely see more uses for it. :)Thanks for the tips!