Halloween Cookies With Royal Icing

Holiday (hol·i·day):  A day or season during which one must bake. 

Happy Halloween!

What?  No one accused me of being a Merriam or a Webster.  I have been accused of spending way too much time in the kitchen, though.  Usually around holidays.  Easter and Christmas are the givens, at least on this blog, but I LOVE having some Halloween fun too.  A little goblin birdie told me it would be fun to play with royal icing for cookies, so I thought I'd give it a go.  Be gentle, I'm not a pro!

I ventured out into the intarwebz to find a royal icing recipe to whip up at home.  Annie's Eats is where I landed. Before I dashed out for powdered sugar, I may or may not have spent a solid 30 minutes browsing the site.  Annie, I'd eat everything (EVERYTHING) on there. You can view Annie's royal icing recipe here.

Side note:  venturing out into the intarwebz caused me to venture out to my local Publix three times in one day - two times more than normal in a given day. They don't think I'm weird at all​. 

Royal icing, thin consistency.

As you can see, I didn't nail the consistency right away.  It should be much thicker, matte, and not so drippy.  Perfect icing never happens on the first try, that's what I say.  Thankfully, it was still thick enough to pipe outlines with, so I forged on.

​First, I piped outlines on the cookies.  Why I didn't take more pictures of that part, I don't know. These photos are from the white "bloody" cookies, so the icing is white - but if you're using color,  be sure to add it before putting the icing in a piping bag.  If you want to see more of the outlining process, check out Annie's awesome autumn cookies.  In any case, you do this for two reasons:  One, to give yourself a predetermined area to work within and, two, so the filler icing ("flooding," but we'll get to that in a moment) doesn't leak off the sides of the cookie. 

Royal icing borders piped on cookies.

Next up, you need to flood the area of your cookies inside the border. To be on the safe side, I let my borders dry for up to an hour before I mess around with flooding.  Royal icing is pretty thick, so you'll need to thin it out a bit before attempting this step. Add in just a teeny bit of water (less than a teaspoon at a time) and mix in thoroughly.  If you're adding color (liquid or gel), be sure to get that in there so it doesn't screw up the consistency you're going for.  You want it to run off the back of a spoon with ease.  Once you've got that down, pour your royal icing into a squeeze bottle.  You could also use a plastic zip top bag with the corner snipped off if you're feeling brave.  I wasn't in the mood to wear my icing.

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