Hey Besties! If there’s one thing that make cookiers swoon, it’s the coveted PUFFY royal icing! Today I’m featuring some sweet puffy Valentine’s cookies and how you can achieve the puff you’re looking for! It all comes down to your icing, your consistency and how you can lock in the puff! Let’s get our puff on!
A word about royal icing
Alright Besties, I always give it to you straight! This is not talked about enough, or really at all and can lead to frustration among cookiers or those just starting to decorate cookies. I know when we’re all talking about decorating with royal icing, it comes across like all royal icing is the same. But we 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! If you made 5 different recipes, you’d actually see that they yield different results.
Is your royal icing loving you back?
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 I do get amazing results consistently, without any of the common issues that plague a lot of cookiers. So it may be worth giving it a try so you can see, taste and feel the difference. And cookie decorating is a whole lot more fun when you don’t have to deal with icing issues.
Does the royal icing recipe make a difference?
I started this post this way for important 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 I achieve beautiful, puffy icing for my cookies. If your icing isn’t letting you achieve beautiful PUFF, you may want to try the recipe I use. It may just be the perfect icing you’re after!
My go-to 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.
I have tried many different royal icing recipes, and will continue to do so, but for now, this is the recipe that gives me the silky, puffy, beautiful icing I want.
What is puffy royal icing?
True puffy royal icing is very dimensional on your cookie. Plump, round icing that still holds its shape is very appealing. 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, you’ll find my tips below!
Or, if you have more success outlining with a thicker consistency and then filling with puffy consistency, do what works best for you! If you work quickly, you may be able to get the outline and puff to meld together.
Puff 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 I 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!
Designs for Puffy Valentine’s Cookies
I specifically wanted to create a few different designs to highlight how you can use puffy icing for all kinds of details and lettering. And remember, your cookies don’t have to “be” anything…they can just be a design you create, like cookie covered in kisses!
You’ll also find a cute puffy heart cookie design I created last year and see how I made it in the quick video HERE!
Video – Let’s decorate some puffy valentine’s cookies!
Alright Besties, we’ve covered all the fundamentals, let’s get decorating! You’ll see exactly how I created four different Valentine’s cookie designs, HERE! I hope this inspired you and helps you to recreate your own stunning cookies!
It can take some practice, like in all of cookie decorating, to master a consistency or technique. But once you nail it, you’re golden! And if you ever need live help, feedback or want to share your work, make sure you’re in our Bestie community HERE! That’s where we all hang out and help and celebrate each other’s work!
And make sure you’ve subscribed to receive my free weekly newsletter! Never miss out on a new recipe, technique, tutorial and tons of free printables! Fellow besties say it’s their favorite email every week! Happy Baking, Bestie!