Royal icing tips needed please!

[lucysmam]

My dad prefers royal icing on his Christmas cake. The last time I attempted it, the icing sort of slid off the cake down the sides

Any top tips to stop it doing this? Or any other advice? I'd like to get it done today if I can.

Tia

Make sure it's stuff. One egg white then lots of icing sugar. You need to beat it. It should be thick and creamy and stand in a peak. Don't add any water. If it's very hard then maybe a teaspoon or so.

Good luck! I like royal icing too but tend to use fondant these days (the kids like it).

I buy the 'royal icing sugar' which already has powdered egg white in I think, so you just add water. Worked well for our Christmas cake last year, and I use it for icing gingerbread men etc with my son as it sets hard to hold the buttons etc in place and is less messy.

I tried to buy that Custard, it was oos when my tesco shop arrived last night :(

I've done the marzipan...just psyching myself up to actually shift and ice the cake . Fingers crossed it goes well!

Oh dear! I remember it was tricky to get hold of last year - you'd think they'd get plenty in stock just before Christmas! I've got enough in to do our gingerbread men, but not for the cake, so I hope I can find some. The idea of making it from scratch terrifies me! Good luck!!

If it slid down the cake then it was too soft - not enough icing sugar.

Royal icing really needs a stand mixer or hand held electric whisk - it can be back breaking to do by hand because it needs a lot of whisking. You need about 200g of icing sugar per 1 medium egg white (3 egg whites is usually enough for a 20cm cake, so scale up or down as needed).

Whisk the egg whites well (until frothy) then add the sugar a few spoons at a time. Keep whisking until it stands up in peaks. At this stage add a teaspoon of lemon juice and a teaspoon of glycerine (to stop it setting rock hard). Check it still stands in peaks (pull up with a wooden spoon, just the very top of the peak should flop over when you let go). If not, add another spoon of sugar and keep checking consistency until it is right. Leave for 20 mins or so before putting on the cake, then leave the cake for 24 hours before you cut.

Well, it's done. With help from dd2 to make the top look like snow.

I think I over-did the icing sugar a bit this time; it was quite hard to spread. I'll pass the sides off as dd2's help too

I've misplaced the box I bought for it though & none of my tins are big enough

Came onto this thread to see if anyone knows WHY Royal Icing sugar is out of stock absolutely everywhere, and boxes going for stupid money on eBay? It's not rocket science to make in factories, it's just dried egg white powder and the normal icing sugar plus an anti-caking agent. Well, clearly one of those things is in short supply.

I'm going to DIY with regular icing sugar and egg white, but as well as the Christmas cake, I use it for Christmas gingerbread biscuits and a gingerbread house, and I haven't seen it in the shops for months!

Lucysmam, your cake looks great!

I've been looking everywhere for royal icing sugar for weeks too. Never had this ptoblem before...going to have to do my own egg whites for first time ever

I've not been able to get the smaller sized boxes of normal icing sugar either; I've got a monster sized box in my pantry to use for dd2's birthday cake in a couple of weeks when the smaller one would have been plenty.