Learn to make Royal Icing Flowers with this simple, easy-to-follow tutorial!
Have you ever wanted to make a gorgeous professional looking cake or dessert but feel like your decoration needs improvement?
Making these flowers is a fun and rewarding way to add a touch of elegance and beauty to your baked goods. With just a few simple ingredients and a little bit of practice, you can create delicate, intricate flowers that will impress and delight your friends and family.
One of the best things about making flowers with royal icing is the endless possibilities for creativity and personalization.
You can experiment with different colors and shapes to create your own unique floral designs, or you can follow tried-and-true recipes and techniques to create classic flower shapes like roses, daisies, and lilies.
So why not give it a try? With a little bit of time and patience, you can create beautiful royal icing flowers that will add a special touch to any occasion.
And who knows? You may even discover a hidden talent for flower-making in the process!
History of Royal Icing
Royal icing is a type of icing that is commonly used in the construction and decoration of gingerbread houses, cookies, and other baked goods. It is made from a mixture of powdered sugar, egg whites, and sometimes other ingredients like cream of tartar or lemon juice.
The origins of royal icing are not well-documented, but it is thought to have originated in Europe, possibly in England or France.
In the past, royal icing was often used to decorate elaborate cakes and pastries for royalty and other high-society events. It was prized for its ability to create smooth, glossy surfaces and delicate decorations that could withstand the rigors of transportation and storage.
Today, royal icing is still a popular choice for decorating baked goods, particularly during the holiday season. It is easy to make and can be tinted with food coloring to create a wide range of colors and effects.
Many bakers and pastry chefs enjoy working with royal icing because of its versatility and the beautiful finished products it produces.
What You’ll Need
I’ve made similar style edible flowers out of buttercream also! You can watch me making them in this video (it might help you understand the technique) although the buttercream is softer, so I definitely recommend the Royal Icing Flowers, especially if you are a beginner!
To make the Royal Icing:
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 Tablespoons meringue powder
- 6-9 Tablespoons room temperature water
- Wilton gel coloring (yellow for center of flowers + any other colors you want)
- A stand mixer with whisk attachment
- Bowls
- Toothpicks
To create the flowers:
- Disposable piping bags
- Wilton #1M tip
- Wilton #4 tip
- Wilton small star tip like #18
- Wilton #104 tip
- Flower Nail, optional
- Royal icing (see recipe)
- Wax paper
- Flat surface
Instructions
Prepping your work area:
- Cut off the tips of your disposable bags and place the piping tips inside.
- Fill the Wilton #4 tip bag with the yellow icing.
- Fill the #1M tip bags with the other colors.
- Place a large piece of wax paper on a flat surface. (If you have something to hold the corners of the paper down, do so.)
Creating the flowers:
(Read these instructions before trying them! It’s hard to make the flowers with one eye on your phone, laptop, or a piece of paper!)
- Hold the #1M tip bag at a 90 degree angle to the wax paper, directly above but not touching the wax paper.
- Apply firm pressure to the bag so that the icing flows out.
- Immediately begin to rotate the bag, keeping it straight and continually pressing icing out.
- After the bag has been rotated about a quarter turn, release pressure and pull the bag straight up.
- Repeat this process with each color of icing.
- Using the yellow icing bag with the #4 tip, pipe a small yellow dot in the center of each flower.
- Let flowers set out overnight to dry.
- After the flowers have set out to dry overnight, store them in an airtight container. If stored properly, they will keep for up to a year.
Any size tip can be used to create the royal icing flowers, so you can get creative.
The purple flowers were made with a small star tip like #18. The large purple flowers were made with a petal tip #104 and using a flower nail.
Royal Icing Flowers – FAQs
Though this is a pretty straightforward recipe and tutorial, there are a few things I’ve been asked about it, and that I’d like to clarify!
Are there any ingredient substitutions you can recommend for dietary purposes?
I haven’t tried anything else with this recipe besides what I listed – I’m sorry!
I’ve set the flowers out for over a day, but they are still wet. What do I do?
It’s probably the humidity in your area making things all messy! Let a fan blow on your flowers and they should harden right up, and use less liquid next time in the icing recipe.
Do these flowers soften when you put them on a cake or anything else?
Nope! They stay hard!
More Decorating Ideas
I hope this tutorial was fun and easy for you to follow!
You like what you see but want to try something slightly more tropical? Check out my buttercream succulents for a fun take on flower decoration.
If you’re looking for something slightly more challenging, have a look at these awesome rose shaped cookies by one of my own favorite bloggers, I am Baker.
Royal Icing Flowers
Royal Icing Recipe for piping beautiful Sugar Flowers. You can use it to decorate cakes, cupcakes, cookies, whatever you can dream of!
Ingredients
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 Tbsp meringue powder
- 6-9 Tbsp room temperature water
- Wilton gel coloring (yellow for center of flowers + any other colors you want)
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment, combine the powdered sugar and meringue powder. Mix on low for 30 seconds.
- Add 6 Tbsp of the water to the sugar and mix on low until it becomes clumpy and all the sugar is wet.
- 1/2 a Tbsp at a time, add water until the mixture becomes smooth. GO SLOW and be sure not to add too much water. You want a stiff frosting. I added about 2 Tbsp more water at this point, but depending on the temperature and humidity of where you're at, you may need less or more water.
- Beat on high for 7 minutes. Lift the whisk out, scrape the sides of the bowl and test the texture and consistency of the royal icing. You want a thick icing - but not so thick that you can't push it through a piping bag & tip. Add 1/2 Tbsp of water if necessary to loosen it up.
- Beat on high for 2 more minutes.
- Separate icing into the # of bowls you are coloring. For example, if you are making pink and purple flowers, you'll need three bowls of icing. Two for the flowers and one for the center dots in yellow.
- Using a toothpick, add a very small dollop of gel coloring into each bowl and mix in with a spoon until uniform in color.
Notes
I watched these videos before I made this royal icing to help familiarize myself with the technique.
Royal Icing Basics: http://youtu.be/ux5hfEn2o7Q
How to make Royal Icing: http://youtu.be/RnxHBne-uVo
Nutrition Information
Amount Per Serving Calories 0Total Fat 0g
Haysan
Thursday 8th of July 2021
I like royal icing flower 🌹🌹🌹
Susan
Saturday 22nd of May 2021
Your recipe is good and your flowers are well done, however you didn’t show us how to make the ones on the thumbnail photo!
Michele
Wednesday 6th of May 2020
great recipe! I needed flowers for unicorn cupcakes and this recipe worked perfect. I was able to use several different tips to make various sizes and shapes. Thank you for sharing!! The flowers hardened overnight. I did only add an additional 1.5 Tbsp in step 3. It piped beautifully and it was fun to play with the tips and try different shapes.
M. King
Wednesday 25th of September 2019
This is a great recipe. I have started making it last night and was able to make intricate icing details. I am so impressed I found this recipe.
Dana T.
Monday 9th of September 2019
Hi! Can I make this ahead of time and use to make the flowers later? If so, do you have any storage tips, or know how long it will keep?
Thank you!