Follow this easy step by step guide on How to Make Royal Icing to make sugar cookie icing and to decorate gingerbread houses!
If you are looking for the perfect frosting to glue your gingerbread house together, then you’re going to want to use Royal Icing.
Royal Icing is also the perfect icing for decorating sugar cookies!
So I’m going to teach you how to make Royal Icing right here, right now!
Ingredients Needed to Make Royal Icing
This icing is super duper easy and only has 3 ingredients:
- Egg whites
- Powdered Sugar
- Vanilla extract
You can make this in the bowl of your stand mixer or using a hand mixer.
How To Make Royal Icing
First thing you need to do is beat your egg whites until they are frothy (as pictured above).
Then you will gradually add powdered sugar. Anywhere between 3-4 cups of powdered sugar depending on how big your egg whites are.
Add the vanilla extract to give it a nice flavor. You could use lemon juice, almond extract, or any other extract you prefer (in place of the vanilla) to flavor the icing, just make sure you’re using clear extracts to keep the color of the icing white.
Once it’s reached a thick and smooth consistency you can place it directly into a zip close bag for storing, or into a frosting bag fitted with tip for immediate use.
If you are wanting to add color to your frosting you would simply beat in your color choice (gel colors work best) at the end, just a drop or two at a time, then decide if the color is to your liking, add more if necessary.
Gingerbread House Glue Recipe
When making a gingerbread house, plain white works for me!
This frosting holds together wonderfully. That little teepee was solid within less than two minutes!
I actually built the remainder of the gingerbread house last night with my kids, and that little teepee was the covering to our porch. The Royal Icing held up so strong that we built a two story house and didn’t have any cave-ins! So if you’re looking for the perfect glue to build your gingerbread house…
This is it!
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How to make Royal Icing
Instructions
- In a large bowl beat the egg whites until frothy.
- Gradually add the powdered sugar, half of a cup at a time, making sure to scrap down the sides of the bowl if necessary, until the icing becomes thick.
- Add the vanilla extract and beat until soft peaks form.
- Place the prepared frosting into an air tight container and leave at room temperature until ready to use. Or place directly in to a frosting bag fitted with a tip and use immediately.
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So… can I use it to make flowers and other things to use in cakes later? Eyes, flowers, starts, balloons, hearts etc?
I haven’t tried that, but if you give it enough time to harden, I don’t see why not?
How much Meringue powder do you put in if you aren’t using egg whites?
Ive made this several times to decorate cookies but find when using dark colors, after setting out drying for a day, they ‘crystalize’ What sm i doing wrong???
It could have a lot to do with the type of icing color you’re using. Try using the gel type of icing color, I find those give the best consistency.
I’m worried about it being “raw” egg whites. Is it safe to use raw egg whites, especially if it won’t be refrigerated? I don’t want to make everyone sick.
If you’re concerned, you can definitely use pasteurized egg whites, but I’ve never had an issue with just regular egg whites.
HI! I worked with an orphanage in a developing nation to try to mix up a batch of Royal Icing in the past year. I wrote a blog post about the experience, however — we are missing a recipe. May we advertise your blog post and recipe for Royal Icing on this page? http://pinterestingagainstpoverty.org/index.php/2017/04/05/cookies-2/
(The blog post is more about the first time we ever made a cookie, but the picture is a recent picture of one of our first attempts at Royal Icing, using only village ingredients.) We’d like to add more recipes for our readers to try.
Feel free to share or reference our blog pinterestingagainstpoverty.org if you’d like. Both the village and the author are benefitted from the visitors.
-Ada Nicole — international human right’s worker — pinterestingagainstpoverty.org
That’s not the right way to make Meringue Frosting. These are just raw egg whites.
This is not meringue frosting, it’s Royal Icing. 🙂
Lovely! It’s really amazing 🙂
I bought a gingerbread house kit that came with terrible icing, so I used this recipe to make our own. It worked really well, it took a few hours to dry solid, but it did the trick. I also used it to make little houses with graham crackers.
Glad it worked out for you! 🙂
Can the egg whites be cold or do they need to be room temperature?
Worked great & made 4 little girls happy. Thanks!
I used this recipe and found that it was really thick to the point that the egg whites didn’t absorb the icing sugar so I added a smidge of water and it was perfect!
If I wanted to make it peach royal icing how would I do that?
i just wanted to add that when I took cake decorating and we used royal icing we had to make sure all utensils were clean and didn’t have any oily residue on them as this would ruin the icing (ie spatulas, bowls, rubber shapers, etc)
Thanks for the tips Diana! 🙂
I am using this recipe for my classrooms annual gingerbread house making party. Do you think I can make this and put into baggies for the next days use? I need 22 baggies and see its about 4 cups a serving. Is this enough for only one house? Thank you very much in advance! Sorry so many questions , but don’t want 22 crying children if houses fall apart hehe
Yes, I would just make sure that you squeeze all the air out of the baggies so they do not harden. There is enough frosting to make a few houses, I’m not sure about 22 small houses, especially since children LOVE to use LOTS of frosting. I would make two batches to be on the safe side and divide the frosting out and just let them know when it’s gone, it’s gone. Hope that helps!
Can I make this the night before or will it harden? I need to bring icing to school for my daughters class to make gingerbread houses.
You can definitely make this ahead of time. Make sure to cover it completely (put a sheet of plastic wrap on the surface of the icing if storing in a tupperware), so it will not harden. Hope that helps! 🙂
looking forward to using this to glue my fondant Palm tree together. How far in advance can I make this recipe and how long does leftovers last? Thanks so much!
Hi Jocelyn, if you keep the royal icing in an air tight container (place a piece of plastic wrap on top of the icing to prevent crusting), in the fridge, it could last for a week. I wouldn’t make it too far in advance though, as you’ll most likely have to remix the icing to get it back to proper consistency. Fresh is always best, but I hope this answers your question! 🙂
So for a school project I am gluing together chocolate chip cookies. The only way I could think to make this chocolate though is coco powder, and I think that would throw off the proportions with the powdered sugar. What do you think?
Hi Dena, I’m not sure how the two would react, but I think since cocoa powder and powdered sugar are similar in consistency that it might work if you throw in a 1/4 cup of cocoa powder with the powdered sugar. Just use a little less powdered sugar than what the recipe calls for. Good luck!
I used this recipe last night for my daughter’s birthday party and it worked great! I even made mine in my vitamix to save some dishes. 🙂 Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
I’ve always been too terrified to try and make Royal Icing. Your photos and tutorials make it seem so much simpler. Thanks! Now I’m making it for my gingerbread house and other treats this season.
Thanks for sharing! This will definitely save me from another gingerbread house disaster.
I am so glad that I came across this post because I plan on making gingerbread houses with my kids very soon!