Secrets Revealed! How To make Puffy Royal Icing!

Hey Besties! If there is one question I receive more than all others, it is how to achieve the coveted PUFFY royal icing! It’s something every cookier is after, makes us swoon and is just so satisfying! But Bestie, you can have stunning puffy royal icing too! I’m breaking it all down, including some truth bombs, and revealing everything you need to know on how to make puffy royal icing. No gatekeeping or sorcery here; the PUFF is real. Let’s go!

Let’s Talk Royal Icing

Alright Besties, I always give it to you straight! And I hope I don’t ruffle too many feathers here, but we need to get real about royal icing. I know when we’re all talking about decorating with royal icing, it comes across like all royal icing is the same. But cookiers have to remember that everyone’s royal icing is slightly different. Which leads to different results, issues and more. There are SO many recipe variations out there, SO many methods of making royal icing and SO many different ingredients! While the list of ingredients in royal icing may be pretty short, the brands of ingredients you use and HOW you make your icing makes a world of difference!

And for whatever reason, some cookiers commonly have some kind of emotional attachment to their recipe. Bestie, if you LOVE your recipe and it gives you the results and flavor you love, I LOVE that for you! Keep using it!!! But far too often, I have cookiers come to me wanting the results I get, but with reluctance to try anything different. As with anything in life, if you want a different result, you have to be open and willing to do something different. I’m not saying my recipe is the holy grail that everyone should use. But we do get amazing results effortlessly, without any of the common issues that plague a lot of cookiers. And cookie decorating is a whole lot more fun when you don’t have to deal with icing issues.

I tell you this for two reasons. 1. If you are having any issues with your current royal icing, please be open to trying THIS method. The magic truly is in the method, and I want all cookiers to enjoy the fun of decorating. 2. If you aren’t using the same recipe and ingredients as me, your icing may not behave exactly the same as mine. I’m happy to share exactly how we achieve beautiful, puffy icing for our cookies. If your icing isn’t letting you achieve beautiful PUFF, you may want to try the recipe we use. It may just be the perfect icing you’re after!

Royal Icing Recipe

If you’re looking a great recipe or want to try the one we use for all of our cookiers, you’ll find it HERE. It’s very simple to make, with only a few steps, but the steps are critical. By following this method, you will properly activate your meringue powder and give your royal icing the structure it needs for puffy royal icing. We only use Genie’s Dream meringue powder, which also contributes to our results and fabulous flavor.

A delicious Canvas

Before we can lay down the PUFF, let’s make sure you’ve got a delicious canvas to work with! If you need a delicious cutout cookie recipe, you’ll find MANY different fun flavors HERE. Many of them are more seasonal but there are also some year-round favorites, such as salted caramel, funfetti and red velvet. For these shamrock cookies, I chose to use our peppermint cutout cookie recipe! It’s perfect during the holidays and St. Patrick’s Day! Bottom line…you’ve got options…lots of them. Enjoy!

Once you’ve got your cookies made, you will want a beautiful flood base of royal icing. If you haven’t mastered a great flood base yet, THIS tutorial will help.

How To Make Puffy Royal Icing

Alright Besties, we’ve laid all the groundwork and we’re ready to get our PUFF on. One thing I want to point out is that the way I achieve puffy icing is with all one consistency. I don’t have a thicker outline and simply fill it up; I love a seamless look. If this is what you are after as well, here are my tips!

• You MUST start with a properly made royal icing that has the correct structure. This includes activating your meringue powder and mixing to medium/stiff peaks when making your icing. If you’re not already doing this, scroll back up to the previous sections about royal icing and the recipe we use.
• Fresh icing offers the best puff!
• While you can add puffy icing onto a fully dried flood base, I achieve the best results on top of a good, crusted base. What’s the difference? A crusted flood base still contains a lot of moisture, whereas the completely dried flood base is well…drier. A moister base won’t need to pull any moisture from the puffy icing you’re about to add, so it will remain puffier.
• You have to use a thicker consistency that you’re used to. Think of the “glob and ribbon” consistency but with little to no ribboning. If your icing is ribboning off the spoon into the bowl, it’s too thin and won’t hold the shape for puffy royal icing.
• When playing with your icing in the bowl, you should have soft peaks that don’t heal themselves back into the icing without a good jiggle.
• Have your scribe handy! It will require light scribe work to perfect your puffy icing!
• Don’t be afraid to FILL your sections! By using this thicker consistency, you can really fill up each area to the max to get great puff and dimension.
• And the real secret weapon to puffy icing is quick setting your icing. Every cookie we may goes into the dehydrator to lock in the puff, avoid any craters and get great shine. If you don’t have a dehydrator, a fan works better than air drying. And some cookiers put their cookies in their oven with just the light on. I can’t speak highly enough of how a dehydrator makes a difference in cookie decorating. You can learn all about that HERE!

So when someone simply asks, “What consistency do you use?” or “How do you get the puff?” There’s really not one answer. It’s a combination of our royal icing recipe, consistency, quick setting the icing and practice to master it. But you can do this too! I challenge you to set aside some time to try it, play with it, and you will be able to nail it!

Puffy Icing Tutorial Video

And of course, I made a video for you! See exactly the consistency I use, and how I decorate these pretty shamrock cookies with the PUFF! You can find it HERE or by clicking on the “Got PUFF?” photo below.

Are you Ready?

I hope this post and tutorial all about how to make puffy royal icing has been helpful for you! I can’t wait to hear about, and see, your results! And Bestie, if you’re not already receiving our weekly newsletter, you are missing out! Subscribe below so you never miss a new recipe, technique, tutorial, product recommendation and free printables! Happy Baking, Bestie!