Home > Recipes > Basic royal icing

Basic royal icing

Learn how to make a basic royal icing with this easy recipe, then use to decorate anything from Christmas cakes to birthday and celebration cakes.

Find out how to decorate a Christmas cake with our step-by-step guide.

Learn how to make a basic royal icing with this easy recipe, then use to decorate anything from Christmas cakes to birthday and celebration cakes.

Find out how to decorate a Christmas cake with our step-by-step guide.

Per serving of iced 23cm round christmas cake (based on 30 slices)

Ingredients

Cook Mode Sticky screen? No thanks! Tap to prevent your screen from going off while cooking.

Put the egg whites in a bowl and add the icing sugar bit by bit, stirring until you get a thick dropping consistency.
Use a whisk to beat the mixture until it starts to form peaks, then stir in the glycerine. If you like, stir in a tiny drop of food colouring.
Smooth the icing all over the cake with a palette knife. Once it’s covered, wet the cleaned knife in a jug of hot water and use it to give the icing a smooth surface. Stick any edible decorations around the base or onto the cake. Leave the icing to dry overnight before attempting to decorate it with other icings.

Per serving of iced 23cm round christmas cake (based on 30 slices)

Nutrition: per serving

Fancy getting a copy in print?

Subscribe to our magazine

Rate

Reviews

Read what others say...

Tonja Aguiar says:

8th Sep 2018 at 3:39 pm

Written recipe says 1.5 TSP glycerin but the video says 1.5 TBLS – which is right or does it not matter?

Log in to Reply
1. Ellie Donnell says:
  
  11th Sep 2018 at 3:37 pm
  
  Hi Kiki – apologies for the confusion! This recipe requires 1.5 tsp of glycerine. Thanks for getting in touch and happy cooking, Ellie