Well… it seems like my post category isn’t always accurate because this isn’t a kitchen mishap. No, this is most probably a success! *cue celebratory noises*
While I’ve not been on Instagram as much recently, it still managed to work its magic on me as for the first time ever, I was influenced by an Instagram ad to sign up for this royal icing cookie class. The last time I went for a royal icing class was probably more than six years ago, because I remember going for exactly one class while still living in Fukuoka (ETA: FRIENDS! I have found the post thanks to the “related posts” section of this blog. Enjoy my past blogging style). So when I saw this ‘Whimsical Theme Royal Icing Cookies Masterclass’, my dormant dreams of learning to properly use royal icing were revived.
This was a half-day class, officially lasting from 2 pm to 6.30 pm, though to be honest I finished closer to 7 pm. The class started with a demonstration of how to make the sugar cookies (not too sweet, yet very addictive) and royal icing from scratch. Although we were provided with a printed copy of the recipe, I found myself taking many notes on how to make the cookies and icing. This demonstration lasted for around one hour, and then it was time for the hands-on portion!
The hands-on section alternated with a tutorial by teacher Irene and time allocated for us to decorate and dry the cookies. Although there were only 5 cookies to decorate and we started the hands-on segment around 3 pm, it still took a long time for us to finish! Luckily, Irene was always walking around the class and she provided advice whenever we needed it, else I think we probably would have taken even longer to remember how to pipe everything.
The nice thing about these cookies are that because they are baked with a mould, we can work with an outline of the pattern we’re supposed to be drawing (also, it means that even without the icing, you know what shape the cookie is supposed to be). The moulded cookies also helped us to use the flood consistency icing straight off the back, without needing to use piping/stiff consistency icing to first draw an outline.
Given how difficult some of the patterns were, it’s probably no surprise that the easiest and thus my favourite cookies were the rainbow and the shooting star. They were pretty and fairly easy to create. Incidentally, the ‘gold’ on the star and the unicorn horns are made using a base of yellow icing sugar, and then brushing on a ‘paint’ of gold dust mixed with 96% alcohol. The alcohol evaporates fairly quickly, so you can brush on the gold dust without damaging the icing underneath.
By the way, I’ve realised that to make royal icing cookies in Singapore, you’ll need a dehydrator of some sort or your cookies may never dry. I’m not going to lie, I’m now tempted to get a cheap one even though I don’t know how often I’ll be making these!
At the end of the class, I was feeling very proud of myself. Sure, the piping on my castle is wonky and my unicorn is looking a bit too thin (I had issues with whether to pipe inside the lines at first) but overall, the cookies looked great! And I now have a set of these moulds so theoretically, I can do these again.