Royal Icing and Young Women Cakes

Welcome back to The Daisy Cake! I would like to say sorry for being away on such a long absence. I hope you all still enjoy my posts and continue following my progress on baking fun new creations. With introductions out of the way I have fun news.

I got my first gig!

I made four cakes for the young women in my ward in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each cake was a different flavor and on the top I put the name and symbol for each class in the young women.

The first cake was trimmed with yellow and topped with a beehive symbol for the Beehive class. This cake was pumpkin spice. This was my only cake not made from scratch. I used a Krusteaz bread mix. I used a basket weave tip (#48) and just did a single strip for the border.

The second cake was trimmed in pink and topped with a rose symbol for the Mia Maid class. This was a devil's food cake. I used a large star tip (#21) making rosettes for the border.

The third cake was trimmed with green and topped with a laurel wreath to represent the Laurel class. This was a white cake. I used a leaf tip (#352) for the border.

The fourth cake was tripped with a white frosting and topped with the theme of the young women. This is a chocolate fudge cake. I used a round tip (#9 or #10) with a bead border.

On the top of each cake I decided to make a sugar tile design. These are very simple to make and they last a long time if one of your guests wants to take one home.

Each tile is made out of fondant and left to harden. Once the tiles were hard I made a small batch of royal icing and pipped it on. Royal icing is usually used on gingerbread houses becuase it gets hard and keeps it's form. You can make royal icing from scratch or with a mix. Here are two recipes for royal icing.

Homemade Royal Icing:

3 egg whites at room temperature
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 lb. powdered sugar

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high for 7 to 8 minutes until egg whites are stiff.
Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until combined and smooth.
While using it keep a wet cloth over top of the bowl.

Wilton Royal Icing:
This is WIlton's recipe but I'm sure it can be used with any meringue powder mix you find.

6 Tablespoons water
3 level Tablespoons of meringue powder
4 cups sifted powdered sugar

Beat the water and meringue powder together till it starts to foam.
Gradually add your sifted powdered sugar and beat until icing forms peaks. I sift the sugar into the bowl as I run the mixer.

Having a meringue powder on hand makes your royal icing easy and safe so you're not using raw eggs. But using egg whites is still a great way to make royal icing if you know you won't use a whole can of meringue powder.

Feel free to leave comments about your experiences with royal icing and sugar decorations!