Icing (“Royal Icing”) is a sugar-protein drawing mass that is used to make voluminous decorations for confectionery products. This mass can be white or colored when food coloring is added to it.
Icing is a fairly thick plastic mass obtained by grinding fresh egg whites with sifted powdered sugar with the addition of some acidifier for plasticity - lemon juice, dry citric acid, cream tartare, etc.

Sometimes for greater plasticity they add to the mass glucose syrup or a little glycerin, but adding glycerin can make the mass too sticky, which will make it difficult to peel it off from the polyethylene backing. When depositing the mass directly onto the surface of the gingerbread to be decorated, i.e. when subsequent detachment of the icing lace is not expected, the addition of glycerin can significantly facilitate the work.

The correct consistency of icing for jigging it with a cornet.
To create icing decorations, there are drawing masses with a different composition - for example, based on albumin (1 kg of albumin replaces 316 proteins chicken eggs) and some others that are more convenient not at home, but in industrial conditions.
NOTE: Cremortartar is a tartaric salt of potassium acid C4H5O6K (name from the Latin cremor - thick juice and lat. tartarum - cream of tartar).
Formed naturally from long-term storage wine on the walls of barrels in the form of hard crystalline crusts that are deposited as a result of fermentation grape juice; obtained in mass quantities by chemical synthesis.
When combined with water, milk or vegetable juices, i.e. with any liquid mixed into the dough, cremortartar turns into a solution of tartaric acid and thereby promotes the germination of the dough. Therefore, cremortartar is an important component baking powder(backpulver), and can also be used independently, regardless of other lifting agents (yeast or soda), in those types of dough where it is necessary to achieve particularly strong germination, for example in puff pastry. Cremortartar can be replaced by other types food acids: lemon, apple, vinegar. Procedure for working with icing:
1) Draw future patterns on paper or print them out ready-made templates. It is very convenient to use children's coloring books as templates.
2) Place a drawn paper template under plastic film or place it in a plastic “file” (thin transparent bag for documents). Here we use the property of polyethylene that it does not stick to anything. Products may stick “tightly” to tracing paper, parchment or wax paper, especially if the icing mass is too liquid.
For better subsequent unsticking of icing products, a thin layer of olive oil is applied to the plastic film (it is non-drying, i.e. non-polymerizing). Sunflower oil is extremely undesirable (!), because... upon contact with air, it polymerizes by combining with oxygen and hardens (as Oil paint), therefore it can additionally glue the product, especially during prolonged drying of large parts. USEFUL NOTE. It is the property of the applied layer of sunflower oil to polymerize by combining with atmospheric oxygen and harden into an impenetrable insoluble film that is used when impregnating new wooden wood with sunflower oil kitchen boards, which makes the impregnated boards non-hygroscopic, easy to clean and almost eternal. To impregnate with oil, new boards are allowed to dry additionally in a dry room, then generously greased on all sides with sunflower oil, which can be heated, allow the oil to soak in for 1 hour, then generously grease again and leave for 3-4 days for final drying.3) Freshly prepared protein drawing mass(icing) is placed in a cornet with a suitable attachment or in a plastic bag with a corner cut off (for example, in a document file). The mass should be prepared each time in the quantity needed for the work now. Storing the mass can cause undesirable changes in its plasticity, which will have to be corrected by adding either powdered sugar or a few drops of water and thoroughly rubbing again.
The icing mass should not be too liquid - so that it does not spread out and lose its shape during jigging, and not too thick - so that it is squeezed out of the root without unnecessary effort and does not tear during jigging.
If you prepare a thicker icing mixture, you can use it to sculpt jewelry with your hands, like using plasticine. You should not sculpt too thick decorations, because... they will take too long to dry.
4) Squeeze out the icing onto the plastic film according to the pattern placed underneath it. If you have sufficient artistic skills, you can do without templates, freely drawing in bulk according to your imagination.
When drawing, you can sequentially use colored icings food coloring V different colors, which will allow you to get multi-colored decorations.
Icing can be deposited directly onto the surface of a finished (baked and cooled) sufficiently dry dough confectionery product (gingerbread, including glazed, shortbread), as well as chocolate and other things that can be stored outside the refrigerator.
Icing is under no circumstances placed on pastry cream, on biscuits and other wet surfaces, as well as on products that must be stored only in the refrigerator. Icing decorations are placed on such products immediately before serving.
5) The film with the deposited pattern (or the decorated confectionery product) is left to dry at room temperature(but not higher than +40 degrees C) for 1-2-3 days until the mass dries completely.
Icing dries differently depending on the size of the part and the humidity in the room. 1-2 days of drying is enough for an ordinary small flower. Large parts can take up to 5-6 days to dry. To speed up drying, products can be placed in a warm, dry place with a temperature no higher than +40°C.
If you want to get a three-dimensional decoration, a film with a deposited pattern is placed for drying on some curved surface - for example, on the side surface of a cylindrical pan, in the spread of an open book, etc.
Properly prepared icing mixture (not too liquid) does not flow down on inclined surfaces. If the deposited mass is watery, you should first let it dry a little until the desired thickening (but not brittle) is achieved. horizontal position and only then place it on a curved surface.
To obtain openwork spherical products, the protein mass is applied to lubricated vegetable oil little pouts air balloons. After the icing has dried, the balloons are pierced and the deflated shells are carefully removed from the resulting decorations.
6) The dried icing decorations are carefully removed from the backing.
It is better to remove products from the backing at the edge of the table, starting from the corner of the backing, which you carefully pull down, bending the backing over the edge of the edge of the table.
Since products made from icing are very fragile, they must be prepared with some reserve in quantity.
Icing decorations can be glued together with egg white mixed with powdered sugar and then allowed to dry.
To make large volumetric icing decorations, individual parts are made according to drawings, which, after complete drying, are glued into a single product (for example, into an Eiffel Tower - see below).
Broken products are tasty on their own and can be successfully served with tea. It often happens that icing decorations are eaten by family members, especially children, much before they dry out. So a solid supply of ready-made icing decorations never hurts.
The resulting sweet edible lace is used to decorate various confectionery products. Decorations made from icing can be stored for a long time in boxes at room temperature, provided there is no high humidity.
Decorations made from icing cannot be stored in the refrigerator, because... After exposure to the cold, they liquefy. Therefore, pre-prepared icing decorations are placed on cakes only immediately before serving. Preparing icing
Royal Icing
Ingredients:
– 1 fresh egg white, carefully separated from the yolk;
– about 250 g of powdered sugar until the desired thickness is obtained; Be sure to sift the powder first to loosen it;
– about 0.5 tsp. lemon juice or dry citric acid on the tip of a knife, maybe a little more if you want the icing to taste more sour; add lemon juice towards the end of cooking, otherwise finished goods will turn out too fragile;
– for greater plasticity, you can add 1 teaspoon of a strong (saturated) glucose solution to the mass.
NOTE. If powdered sugar is not available, it can be obtained by sifting granulated sugar through a fine sieve, because V granulated sugar There is always some fine powdered sugar.
Preparation

Carefully separate the egg white from the yolk.
Even traces of yolk are unacceptable.

Beat the whites with a fork until a light foam forms.
The goal of this procedure is not to beat the protein, but only to sufficiently destroy its structure until it liquefies.
There is no need for air bubbles in the finished icing mixture.

Then we begin to gradually add to the protein in portions. powdered sugar, each time thoroughly rubbing until smooth.

Halfway through cooking, add dry citric acid or almost at the very end - lemon juice.
Toward the end of cooking, you can add the desired food coloring.
Adding powdered sugar in portions, grind and knead until a homogeneous, stable, viscous plastic mass of the desired consistency is formed.
Our icing is ready for making jewelry by jigging from cornet.
NOTE. For jigging with a cornet, the mass is made more liquid, and for sculpting with your hands, it is thicker, easily kneaded with your fingers.
When sculpting by hand, the icing can be dusted with powdered sugar.
Icing snowflake

1. Begin depositing the icing from the cornet onto a plastic film lightly greased with olive (not sunflower! - see above) oil over a stencil from a children's coloring book placed underneath.

2. Completion of jigging the icing for the snowflake.

3. Shift the placed stencil and deposit another snowflake.

4. Drying deposited icing products at room temperature for 1-2 days.

5. The finished dried snowflake becomes quite hard.

Drawing a multi-colored product using sequential jigging from cornetic icing different colors.
First, the contours were stenciled with white icing, then they were filled with colored icing.

Drying a multi-colored icing product on a flat surface.

Drying multi-colored butterflies from icing on the curved surface of a book spread to obtain three-dimensional products.

Drying deposited products on cylindrical surfaces.

Dried pink icing decorations.
The crown is dried on a film laid on a cylindrical jar lying on its side. Decorating sugar beads are placed on the icing immediately after it is deposited. After drying the crown shortly before serving it, you can deposit “diamonds” on it from droplets of thickly cooked transparent colorless jelly.

Multi-colored icing decorations waiting to dry.

A voluminous butterfly and white icing patterns on a layered gingerbread with layers of jam, covered with confectionery fondant.

Volumetric butterflies and openwork decorations made of white icing on a cake covered with confectionery fondant.

White icing decorations on a cake covered chocolate icing.

Decorations made of colored and white icing.
The carriage is glued together from prepared and dried flat parts.

Icing decorations for glazed gingerbread or cake.

Decoration of wine glasses for newlyweds with icing.
Icing is applied in beautiful lace patterns to washed glass glasses.
The glasses are placed on gift cake and are served to the newlyweds, who immediately drink champagne from them.
After using the glasses, the icing is washed off with water.

Products made from icing can be served as an independent dessert.

Small crafts made from colored icing for decorating confectionery products.

Miniature icing decorations turn even sugar cubes into attractive candies.
Christmas trees made from icing

We plant these pieces of different diameters from the cornet. We dry them for about a day.

Then we glue the parts into a Christmas tree using icing. After assembly, we dry the Christmas tree for another day.

The result is a Christmas tree for decoration: New Year's composition with a gingerbread house or for a New Year's cake.

Christmas trees made of green icing.

New Year's composition.
Christmas tree made of green icing, planted from cornet on a vertically installed conical gingerbread base, glued together thick jam from two baked gingerbread dough half-cones.
The snowman is molded from thick icing of different colors, dusted with powdered sugar during modeling so that it does not stick to your hands.
The star on the Christmas tree is molded from icing.
Rectangular candies with red bows - chocolate candies, covered with multi-colored icing and dried for 24 hours.
Icing balls

Let's take:
- icing, ground to the consistency of peaks,
- small balloons,
- a little olive oil,
- threads for tying balls,
- cream injector with nozzle number 1 or 2.
And we prepare in advance the place where we will hang the balls for drying. We inflate the balloons to the desired size and tie them with longer threads, so that we can then hang them to dry. Lightly grease each ball olive oil so that after drying the icing will come off the rubber surface more easily.
To do this, use a brush to drip oil onto the inflated balloon, and then rub it over the entire surface with your hands.
We take the ball by the tied end and start from a pastry bag, using a nozzle (preferably number 1 for greater elegance) we pipe a pattern with icing, while scrolling the ball.
Then we hang it to dry for 10-24 hours, and take the next ball to work.
We carefully take the dried icing ball into the palm of our hand and gently poke it into the holes of the pattern with something blunt (for example, a blunt brush handle) to completely unstick the icing from the walls of the ball. To make the ball easier to separate from the icing, it is advisable not to inflate it too much.
Then we puncture the balloon.
ATTENTION! If you pierce the inflated balloon immediately, without separating its walls, then there is a very high probability that our icing balloon may break.

Carefully remove the shell of the burst balloon from the product by the thread.
Our ball is ready to be used for decoration.

By applying icing mixture to a large balloon, we can make a decoration like this.
The entire procedure is the same as described above.
Volumetric icing decorations,
glued together from flat parts.
1. BABY STROLLER

We use a CD as a circle template.
PARTS (see photo below, make spare parts in case of breakdowns):
2 sidewalls of the stroller (sectors of 3/4 circles) - we plant the outline, and inside it - a rectangular mesh; 1 strip, 3/4 of a circle long (as the length of the perimeter of the sidewall) and as wide as the width of the future stroller - part of the stroller body connecting the two sidewalls; after depositing, this part must be bent along a radius equal to the radius of the sidewall and dried in this position; those. dry on a template made of CD; 4 wheels (the design inside the wheels is any according to the home artist's design); 1 rectangle, approximately 4x6 cm (it is attached under the bottom of the stroller, and the wheels will be attached to it); 2 beautiful decorative curls on the sides of the stroller; 2 handles for the stroller; you can also make a “tulle” curtain; 1 lace circle with a diameter of about 8 cm as the base of the entire structure - we will install our stroller on it.

The essence of manufacturing parts is clear from the photo. We dry all the parts thoroughly on a flat surface, and after depositing the round part of the body connecting the two sidewalls, we dry it on a round template.
ASSEMBLY OF THE STROLLER:
We glue the bent part of the body with icing or simply powdered sugar ground with protein to one of the sides of the stroller, smearing both glued surfaces with a thin layer, and let it dry.

Then glue the second side panel.
When everything is dry, glue a curl to one side of the stroller, and a small rectangle to the bottom of the stroller on the outside. leave to dry.

Turn the stroller over and glue the curl on the other side. The stroller lies on its side, glue the wheels to the rectangle and to the stroller. We put everything we can to hold the parts in place until the glue sets. When it dries well (you need to wait 20-30 minutes), we try to place the stroller vertically on the wheels. Glue the wheels to the patterned circle. Let's dry it.

Then we glue the handles of the stroller and install the tyling (if it was made).
That's it! Carefully store in a suitable box until the hour of donation. The main thing is not to break the product ahead of time.

2. EIFFEL TOWER

We prepare flat parts, as shown in the photo, dry them thoroughly for 1-2 days, then slowly glue them into a complete structure. Products glued from three-dimensional parts

Icing drawings
The technique of drawing with icing is clear from what is stated above on this page.
When drawing with icing, you can use cornets with multi-colored icing, fingers, various stacks, as well as brushes lightly moistened with water.

Angel.

A miniature that can become an original gift. Icing moldings
The icing for sculpting by hand is prepared thicker than for jigging from a cornet.
To prevent the icing from sticking to your hands when sculpting, your hands are lubricated with a thin layer of vegetable oil, and the icing is dusted with powdered sugar.

Moldings made of icing of different colors with a butterfly sitting on them.

Gingerbread - special holiday treat not because it cannot be eaten on other days, but because they are very beautiful and tasty. The sight alone creates a festive mood. How to store gingerbread cookies if they were bought before the holiday?

Nuances of conservation

Due to their composition, gingerbread can be stored long time. Honey and ginger are natural preservatives that protect the delicacy from spoilage. However, there is a significant nuance: gingerbread products are covered with glaze, giving them exclusive beauty. But it is capricious and persists under certain conditions.

Icing destruction factors

Icing – gingerbread icing is subject to destruction if it is affected by:

1. Cold . Therefore, there is no need to store it in the refrigerator.

Heat . Should be stored away from sunlight, heat kitchen appliances, otherwise it will simply melt.
Moisture . Even a drop is enough to damage the glaze.
Dryness . The figures themselves become stale, and the glaze, when dry, cracks and flies off.

It follows that gingerbread cookies are best stored at room temperature. If gingerbread is released from packaging, you should wrap it in cling film.

Advice: you don’t need to store these sweets for a long time. In sealed packaging, conditions are created so that they are stored for no more than three weeks. At the same time, it was noticed that self-made honey gingerbread They gain flavor and aroma over the course of a week and only become tastier. It is recommended to reveal the aroma and add softness in an original way: the gingerbreads are placed in a ziplock package, where a napkin soaked in alcohol is placed (you can use brandy, liqueur, etc.).

How to prevent gingerbread from going stale

Figured gingerbread products made from honey and ginger are never soft. If we compare them with regular gingerbread cookies, gingerbread ones are much denser and tougher than the cookie type. This is due to the peculiarity of the dough preparation recipe. It must certainly be elastic so that the curly shape of the gingerbread souvenir does not get lost during baking. The protein-sugar glaze on the surface of the gingerbread is also hard. Gingerbread is softened by adding more honey to the dough. As a rule, gingerbread remains in its normal state for a long time when important conditions are met.

Advice: if the gingerbread cookies have dried out and therefore seem stale, then there is an opportunity to make them softer. To do this, you need to put the figures in a jar, closing the lid tightly or in a plastic bag. Add a couple of slices of apple or banana to the gingerbread, or a piece of bread with orange peels. If the delicacy is left in this way during the night, then in the morning the gingerbread cookies will become fragrant and soft.

How to store roe deer

Gingerbread of the Pomors - the peoples of the north - is called roe. Honey is usually not added to goat dough, or it is used minimally (2-3 tablespoons) as a spice and not the main ingredient. A lot of spices give these roe deer a special taste and aroma. Due to the low moisture content, fat and abundance of spices that protect against the effects of bacteria, roe deer can be stored for up to a year. Although there are cases when the taste of such gingerbreads has remained unchanged even after almost three years. To maintain their softness initially when self-production It is better to choose a thickness of about 3–4 mm for the figures. They need to be placed in plastic bag with a zipper type fastener. With such protection from excess moisture, they will not get wet. You can put it on a kitchen table or buffet, but not next to heating or heating appliances, otherwise they will dry out. If they get hit Sun rays, this will destroy the glaze and fade the colors of the painting.

Terms of storage

- No direct sun exposure.
- Lack of proximity of specific, sharp aromas.

Stable temperature regime- 18°C, with a minimum increase of no more than 5 degrees.
Room humidity is not less than and not more than 75 percent.
Packaging is sealed and undamaged.

Sometimes there is a need to preserve sweet souvenirs longer. How long can products be stored if storage conditions are met?

Elegant, tasty and useful souvenirs will bring joy to children and adults. By following the conditions of how gingerbread is stored, you can create it yourself magical gifts and a state of celebration every day.

Bake fragrant gingerbread and painting them with the whole family is a great activity for children and adults, because there is nothing more interesting than making something with your own hands, especially when it comes to handmade gifts for friends and family!

We received so many letters asking us to tell them how we prepare gingerbread and teach us how to do it the same way, that we wanted to put together all the knowledge we had acquired over a long period of work.
Therefore, we announce the launch of our online school and invite you to take part in the first course, detailed information .

Gingerbread cookies can be prepared not only on the eve New Year's holidays, but also for almost any reason, because diversity gingerbread shapes limitless.Recipe gingerbread can be found at on our blog. A assembly instructions gingerbread house you will find .

In our online store you can buy icing from the “do it yourself” series, as well as .

So first some basic information:

The glaze can be made from fresh eggs and from albumin (dry protein). Below we provide the relevant instructions. This glaze is usually called icing(from English Icing), or royal icing . It is used not only for painting gingerbread cookies, but also for creating designs on cakes and other confectionery products. The icing is very sweet and dries quite hard.
To prepare the glaze, you will need a mixer (preferably one with a “spatula” attachment, but if you don’t have one, then a “whisk” will also work). Beat frosting at lowest speed to avoid “over-beating” (the glaze will then be brittle after drying). Some people prefer to beat the royal icing by hand, but that's also possible.
Sugar is added to the icing finely ground powder(it is also called finely dispersed). Do not take risks by making powder yourself from sugar; it is better to purchase it in advance at a specialized store. If you bought regular powdered sugar, sift it several times before using it.
It is better to do the glaze immediately before painting, but it can be stored in the refrigerator several days in a tightly closed container.
Once you have prepared the frosting, cover the mixer bowl with a damp cloth and let stand for about 10-15 minutes- during this time, the powdered sugar will completely dissolve, and the air bubbles formed during whipping will come out.
Glaze drying time depends on its consistency, as well as on the temperature and humidity in the room. Allow at least 20-30 minutes for contoured gingerbreads to dry and up to 1-2 hours for gingerbreads completely covered in glaze.
You can help the glaze dry by placing the baking sheet with the decorated gingerbread cookies in the oven (preferably with convection), preheated to a temperature no higher than 50C, for 10-30 minutes. Make sure that the glaze does not change color! The drying principle is approximately the same as for meringue.

A method for preparing glaze (icing) from fresh eggs.

You will need Ingredients in the following proportions:

3 chilled egg whites (should yield about 90 g)
400-500 g very fine powdered sugar (depending on the size of the egg and the desired consistency of the glaze)
Half a teaspoon of lemon juice to stabilize the protein structure (lemon concentrate will also work).

Place the egg whites in the mixer bowl (make sure it is clean and without traces of fat), and begin beating at the lowest speed.

As soon as the whites bubble evenly, add lemon juice and gradually begin to add powdered sugar.

Beat until the mixture becomes white and shiny (soft peaks). This should take about 5 minutes. Depending on the desired consistency, add more powdered sugar or dilute the icing boiled water room temperature (we write about the types of icing according to consistency below).

Method for preparing icing from dry protein (albumin).

Ingredients:

15 g dry protein
85 ml cold boiled water
400-500 g very fine powdered sugar

First, you need to thoroughly dissolve the dry protein in water and let the resulting mixture stand for about 15 minutes. Then place the egg white in the mixer bowl, start beating at the lowest speed and gradually add powdered sugar until soft peaks form. The glaze is ready when the mass reaches White color and becomes shiny.

Three degrees of glaze consistency.

Contour glaze - basic consistency of icing, in which the glaze forms soft peaks and does not spread when applied to the surface of the gingerbread. Using this glaze, inscriptions and outlines of the design are made.
Fill - essentially this is contour glaze diluted to the consistency of liquid sour cream. Liquid glaze is necessary to evenly fill the surface of the gingerbread.
Bonding (or "cement") - a very thick frosting for squeezing, which is obtained by adding powdered sugar to the base consistency (forms hard peaks), necessary for gluing gingerbread house parts and 3D designs, as well as for creating relief patterns using confectionery nozzles.

Coloring glaze with food coloring

To color the icing, use water-soluble food coloring (gel or dry). If the icing becomes too runny after adding the coloring, add a little powdered sugar.

Transfer the finished glaze to pastry bag or ziplock (don't be greedy! First, put a few teaspoons), release all the air and carefully close the top with a clamp. Using scissors, cut the corner of the bag - do not overdo it, the hole should be very small. Gently squeeze the glaze out of the bag, gradually moving your hand in the right direction. You need to work at a distance of 1-2 mm from the surface of the gingerbread so that the glaze spreads evenly.

In order to paint a gingerbread, you must first draw an outline of the future drawing, let it dry and then carefully fill in more liquid glaze. After the filling has completely dried, you can make inscriptions or patterns on it using contour glaze or edible markers. If you are using confectionery decorations, remember - they will only stick if they are glued to the glaze that has not yet dried.

Go for it! You will succeed!

Your Cookie Craft

Icing (“Royal Icing”) is a sugar-protein drawing mass that is used to make voluminous decorations for confectionery products. This mass can be white or colored when food coloring is added to it.

Icing is a fairly thick plastic mass obtained by grinding fresh egg whites with sifted powdered sugar with the addition of some acidifier for plasticity - lemon juice, dry citric acid, cream tartare, etc.

Icing is a protein drawing mass.

Sometimes, for greater plasticity, glucose syrup or a little glycerin is added to the mass, but the addition of glycerin can make the mass too sticky, which will complicate its subsequent detachment from the polyethylene backing. When depositing the mass directly onto the surface of the gingerbread to be decorated, i.e. when subsequent detachment of the icing lace is not expected, the addition of glycerin can significantly facilitate the work.

The correct consistency of icing for jigging it with a cornet.

To create icing decorations, there are drawing masses with a different composition - for example, based on albumin (1 kg of albumin replaces 316 chicken egg whites) and some others, which are more convenient not at home, but in industrial conditions.

Procedure for working with icing:

1) Draw future patterns on paper or print ready-made templates. It is very convenient to use children's coloring books as templates.

2) Place a drawn paper template under plastic wrap or place it in a plastic “file” (a thin transparent bag for documents). Here we use the property of polyethylene that it does not stick to anything. Products may stick “tightly” to tracing paper, parchment or wax paper, especially if the icing mass is too liquid.

For better subsequent unsticking of icing products, a thin layer of olive oil is applied to the plastic film (it is non-drying, i.e. non-polymerizing). Sunflower oil is extremely undesirable (!), because... upon contact with air, it polymerizes by combining with oxygen and hardens (like oil paint), therefore it can additionally glue the product, especially during prolonged drying of large parts.

HELPFUL NOTE: It is the property of the applied layer of sunflower oil to polymerize by combining with atmospheric oxygen and harden into an impenetrable insoluble film that is used when impregnating new wooden kitchen boards with sunflower oil, which makes the impregnated boards non-hygroscopic, easy to clean and almost eternal. To impregnate with oil, new boards are allowed to dry additionally in a dry room, then they are generously lubricated on all sides with sunflower oil, which can be heated, the oil is allowed to soak in for 1 hour, then they are generously lubricated again and left for 3-4 days for final drying. 3) Freshly prepared protein rice mass (icing) is placed in a cornet with a suitable attachment or in a plastic bag with a cut corner (for example, in a document file). The mass should be prepared each time in the quantity needed for the work now. Storing the mass can cause undesirable changes in its plasticity, which will have to be corrected by adding either powdered sugar or a few drops of water and thoroughly rubbing again.

The icing mass should not be too liquid - so that it does not spread out and lose its shape during jigging, and not too thick - so that it is squeezed out of the root without unnecessary effort and does not tear during jigging.

If you prepare a thicker icing mixture, you can use it to sculpt jewelry with your hands, like using plasticine. You should not sculpt too thick decorations, because... they will take too long to dry.

4) Squeeze out the icing onto the plastic film according to the pattern placed underneath it. If you have sufficient artistic skills, you can do without templates, freely drawing in bulk according to your imagination.

When drawing, you can successively use icings colored with food dyes in different colors, which will allow you to get multi-colored decorations.

Icing can be deposited directly on the surface of a finished (baked and cooled) sufficiently dry dough confectionery product (gingerbread, including glazed, shortbread), as well as on chocolate and other things that can be stored outside the refrigerator.

In no case should icing be applied to pastry cream, biscuits or other wet surfaces, as well as to products that require storage only in the refrigerator. Icing decorations are placed on such products immediately before serving.

5) The film with a deposited pattern (or a decorated confectionery product) is left to dry at room temperature (but not higher than +40 degrees C) for 1-2-3 days until the mass is completely dry.

Icing dries differently depending on the size of the part and the humidity in the room. 1-2 days of drying is enough for an ordinary small flower. Large parts can take up to 5-6 days to dry. To speed up drying, products can be placed in a warm, dry place with a temperature no higher than +40°C.

If you want to get a three-dimensional decoration, a film with a deposited pattern is placed for drying on some curved surface - for example, on the side surface of a cylindrical pan, in the spread of an open book, etc.

Properly prepared icing mixture (not too liquid) does not flow down on inclined surfaces. If the deposited mass is a little liquid, you should first let it dry a little until the desired thickening (but not brittle) in a horizontal position and only then place it on a curved surface.

To obtain openwork spherical products, the protein mass is applied to small inflated balloons greased with vegetable oil. After the icing has dried, the balloons are pierced and the deflated shells are carefully removed from the resulting decorations.

6) The dried icing decorations are carefully removed from the backing.

It is better to remove products from the backing at the edge of the table, starting from the corner of the backing, which you carefully pull down, bending the backing over the edge of the edge of the table.

Since products made from icing are very fragile, they must be prepared with some reserve in quantity.

Icing decorations can be glued together with egg white mixed with powdered sugar and then allowed to dry.

To make large volumetric icing decorations, individual parts are made according to drawings, which, after complete drying, are glued into a single product (for example, into an Eiffel Tower - see below).

Broken products are tasty on their own and can be successfully served with tea. It often happens that icing decorations are eaten by family members, especially children, much before they dry out. So a solid supply of ready-made icing decorations never hurts.

The resulting sweet edible lace is used to decorate various confectionery products. Decorations made from icing can be stored for a long time in boxes at room temperature, provided there is no high humidity.

Decorations made from icing cannot be stored in the refrigerator, because... After exposure to the cold, they liquefy. Therefore, pre-prepared icing decorations are placed on cakes only immediately before serving.

Preparing icing
Royal Icing

Ingredients :
- 1 fresh egg white, carefully separated from the yolk;
- about 250 g of powdered sugar until the desired thickness is obtained; Be sure to sift the powder first to loosen it;
- about 0.5 tsp. lemon juice or dry citric acid on the tip of a knife, maybe a little more if you want the icing to taste more sour; add lemon juice towards the end of cooking, otherwise the finished products will be too fragile;
- for greater plasticity, you can add 1 teaspoon of a strong (saturated) glucose solution to the mass.
NOTE. If powdered sugar is not available, it can be obtained by sifting granulated sugar through a fine sieve, because Granulated sugar always contains some fine powdered sugar.

		Carefully separate the egg white from the yolk. Even traces of yolk are unacceptable.
		Beat the whites with a fork until a light foam forms. The goal of this procedure is not to beat the protein, but only to sufficiently destroy its structure until it liquefies. There is no need for air bubbles in the finished icing mixture.
		Then we begin to gradually add powdered sugar to the protein in portions, each time thoroughly rubbing until smooth.
		In the middle of cooking, add dry citric acid or almost at the very end - lemon juice. Toward the end of cooking, you can add the desired food coloring.
		Adding powdered sugar in portions, grind and knead until a homogeneous, stable, viscous plastic mass of the desired consistency is formed. Our icing is ready for making jewelry by jigging from cornet. NOTE. For jigging with a cornet, the mass is made more liquid, and for sculpting with your hands, it is thicker, easily kneaded with your fingers. When sculpting by hand, the icing can be dusted with powdered sugar.

Icing snowflake

1. Begin depositing the icing from the cornet onto a plastic film lightly greased with olive (not sunflower! - see above) oil over a stencil from a children's coloring book placed underneath.

2. Completion of jigging the icing for the snowflake.

3. Shift the placed stencil and deposit another snowflake.

4. Drying deposited icing products at room temperature for 1-2 days.

5. The finished dried snowflake becomes quite hard.

Drawing a multi-colored product by successively depositing cornetic icing of different colors.
First, the contours were stenciled with white icing, then they were filled with colored icing.

Drying a multi-colored icing product on a flat surface.

Drying multi-colored butterflies from icing on the curved surface of a book spread to obtain three-dimensional products.

Drying deposited products on cylindrical surfaces.

Dried pink icing decorations.
The crown is dried on a film laid on a cylindrical jar lying on its side. Decorating sugar beads are placed on the icing immediately after it is deposited. After drying the crown shortly before serving it, you can deposit “diamonds” from droplets of thickly cooked transparent colorless jelly onto it.

The carriage is glued together from prepared and dried flat parts.

Icing decorations for glazed gingerbread or cake.

Decoration of wine glasses for newlyweds with icing.
Icing is applied in beautiful lace patterns to washed glass glasses.
The glasses are placed on the gift cake and served to the newlyweds, who immediately drink champagne from them.
After using the glasses, the icing is washed off with water.

Small crafts made from colored icing for decorating confectionery products.

Miniature icing decorations turn even sugar cubes into attractive candies.

Christmas trees made from icing

We plant these pieces of different diameters from the cornet. We dry them for about a day.

Everyone loves it. Cookies, cupcakes, gingerbread - all this improves your mood. And when they are also beautifully decorated, they look doubly appetizing. Professional confectioners create works of art that are sometimes painful to even eat. Housewives today are also not far behind them in their desire to do a real holiday for relatives.

Decorating sweets

And other baked goods are very varied. They have been decorated since ancient times different creams, fruits, chocolate chips, nuts and coconut flakes. A more complex option - filling with jelly, coating fudge sugar, chocolate glaze (ganache). Foreign ideas also came to us: mastic and icing. It's more complex options baking coverings, including a variety of figures and decorative elements. Icing decoration is considered top confectionery art. Some masters create masterpieces that simply take your breath away. However, knowing some secrets, every housewife, with a certain skill and a bit of patience, will be able to amaze her guests.

Icing - what is it?

From English this word is translated as “glaze”, the full name is “royal icing” (Royal Icing). Icing came to us from England, where pastry chefs at the court of royalty decorated cakes in this way. This is a mixture for painting and creating edible decorations based on protein and sugar. Icing can be different in composition and consistency depending on the purpose: contour decoration, airy decorations or modeling of products.

Plastic - used for sculpting jewelry and creating lace. They will be your assistants here silicone mat for icing and shape). The mass is placed in the base, slightly dried, carefully removed and decoratively placed on the cake. Plastic icing is somewhat different from classic icing - its composition is closer to mastic.
Classic - a more liquid mass, which is applied directly to the confectionery product, or the decor is made on a stencil, and after hardening the parts are folded into figures. It has a very fragile structure.

We'll tell you how to make classic icing for gingerbread, cookies, cakes and other baked goods.

Cooking process

The icing recipe is actually incredibly simple. You will need:

powdered sugar - 150 g,
raw egg white - 1 piece,
lemon juice - 1 tsp.

This composition produces a fairly large volume of mass, which is enough for decoration. small cake or a kilogram of gingerbread. Any baked goods look much more appetizing with decor such as icing. How to cook it? Let's look at this process step by step.

Separate the white from the yolk. Make sure not a drop of yolk gets into the bowl with the white. If this happens, it is better to take another egg.
Beat the egg whites with a whisk or mixer at low speed. There is no need to whip it into a fluffy foam - just stir until smooth.
Add sifted powdered sugar in small portions, constantly whisking.
Finally, add lemon juice to add shine to the glaze.

The perfect decoration for confectionery products is ready. Nothing complicated, right?

Consistency

The amount of powdered sugar and beating time may vary slightly depending on what your frosting is for. Icing is usually distinguished by density:

Mass consistency thick sour cream. It is obtained by using a slightly smaller volume of powder. Reminiscent of our regular sugar icing used to decorate Easter cakes. This type of icing is used for gingerbread and cookies, the top of which is poured into a uniform, even layer. You can check the readiness of the mass by running a knife over it. For some time, a mark from the cut remains, which gradually smoothes out, and the glaze again becomes homogeneous and perfectly smooth. If this does not happen, it means you beat the mixture too much, and this icing will no longer be suitable for filling - the top of the cookies will be ribbed and uneven. However, don’t be upset, because you just prepared the next version of the glaze.
Soft peaks. This icing is ideal for inscriptions and linear decoration, which is applied directly to the confectionery product. Readiness is checked very simply: remove the spoon or whisk from the protein mass - the glaze should hang from it in soft peaks, slightly bending depending on the rotation of the spoon.
Hard peaks. This is a denser mass. When you take out a spoon, the glaze follows it and remains on the surface in stable, hard peaks. This icing is ideal for squeezing patterns from a pastry bag with different nozzles directly onto a cake or cookie. This glaze is also suitable for complex decorations, which are first squeezed onto a stencil and, after hardening, assembled into shapes.

Little secrets

Royal icing seems incredible and you're scared to even try making it? Don't worry, use it classic recipe, pay attention to some nuances, and you will see that preparing icing will be easy. You will definitely succeed!

Color

The glaze can be colored using food coloring. To do this, divide the mixture into several parts and add the desired shade to each. Dyes come with different properties and degree of intensity, so add color little by little, kneading the mass well. Follow the instructions printed on the package.

Powdered sugar

Preparing icing is only possible with powder - sugar will not work here, as it will not have time to dissolve and will make the mass heavy. Moreover, it is advisable to sift the powdered sugar before saturating it with oxygen. If you have a good electric mill, you can grind your own powdered sugar.

Consistency

You can adjust the density of the mass. If you beat it too hard and it turns out too liquid, just add powdered sugar. If the icing is very thick, it will be difficult to squeeze out of the pastry bag. In this case, add egg white to it.

Storage

If you didn't use it all at once, you can store it in a tightly closed container for 3-5 days. Remember that the glaze hardens quickly when exposed to air. You can use the leftover icing for cookies. The recipe can be anything, with the exception of wet, too porous baked goods.

Lemon acid

If desired, a glaze component such as lemon juice can be replaced with citric acid.

Creating figures

If you are creating three-dimensional figures When squeezing the mixture onto the stencil, first grease it with a little olive oil to make it easier to separate the dried parts. Normal sunflower oil won't work here.

To create three-dimensional flowers and other figures, apply glaze to the stencil, and then place it on any curved surface. For example, a flower can be placed in a cup with the leaves facing out; butterflies - on the fold of the book (when they dry, you get a fluttering effect).

Large volumetric icing decorations are incredibly beautiful: shoes, carriages, houses, towers and more. It seems that this is impossible to do, but in reality everything is not so scary. These figures are made up of many individual parts, which are first applied to a stencil and dried, and then joined together with cream.

Remember that the average drying time for glaze is 12 hours, so apply ready cake it is needed in advance. Cookie icing also requires time to dry, otherwise the cakes will simply stick together. It is better to start preparing three-dimensional or prefabricated figures that are pre-applied onto a stencil a day before, so that they have time to dry well and are easy to assemble. Make them with reserve, because the parts are very fragile and can break during the assembly process.

Common mistakes

It seems like everything was done according to the recipe, but the icing didn’t work out? Here are the most common mistakes that can completely ruin the glaze:

Lemon juice must be added exactly according to the recipe - one teaspoon per white from one egg and 150 grams of powder. If you add too much egg white, the frosting will be too brittle.
Gently add powdered sugar depending on the desired consistency. A mixture that is too liquid will spread over the baked goods; a mixture that is too dense will be difficult to squeeze out of the pastry bag. Adjust the density of the icing using protein and powder.
The glaze requires air to dry. Do not place the decorated product or the drying parts of future figures in the refrigerator - the icing will become limp and flow.
For the same reason, do not apply the mixture to cream or wet biscuits. Ideal for application to dry cookies and cakes, pre-coated with a base - mastic, marzipan, ganache.

Accessories

You cannot do without auxiliary accessories if you prepare icing. What it is? First of all, a pastry bag. It is impossible to work with classic royal icing of any thickness by hand, so you cannot do without a pastry bag or syringe. Using various nozzles, you can create beautiful patterns, but more often the glaze is drawn in straight lines. Real helpers will be icing pencils, which act like a syringe, but with their help you create especially thin lines.

Stencils, silicone mats and molds help create complex patterned decorations that are difficult to make by hand. You can apply a pattern or its details on a simple baking paper, having previously placed the drawn outlines of the future product under it.

Decorations

Professional confectioners create real works of art from icing. No wonder they call it royal icing - decorated with it confectionery truly worthy of kings. Let's reveal some secrets of the masters, using which you can cook at home beautiful jewelry from icing.

Cookie

Glazing of cookies and gingerbreads - great start for training. Drawings can be both simple and complex big amount small details. Icing for cookies, the recipe of which can be any (shortbread and ginger are good), can be of two types: soft peaks (for contours and designs) and the consistency of thick sour cream (for filling).

If you want to completely fill the surface of the cookie with icing, apply an outline along the edges, let it dry a little and fill the rest of the area with the soft mixture. The circuit will hold it back, preventing it from settling. Use fine line tips or icing pencils to create fine lines and patterns.

Lace of kings

The thin lace used to decorate cakes using icing looks incredibly beautiful. edible decoration made of very fine workmanship glaze. There are three options for creating it:

Applying plastic glaze to a silicone mat. After drying, this lace can be bent and styled as you like. It is quite convenient to use, but from classic glaze it can't be cooked.
Apply a lace design directly to the surface of the cake using a piping bag fitted with a fine tip or icing pencils.
Applying lace to a stencil. After drying, they are carefully transferred to baking.

Icing: master class

Airy lace covering the cake with a dome or decoration with balloons looks very beautiful, and it seems that it is impossible to do it by hand. However, having learned a couple of secrets, every housewife will be able to perform such a miracle. Of course, icing will help with this. How to cook it? We present step-by-step instructions:

Take a regular inflatable ball. Wash it well and inflate it to the size you want the final decor to be.
Prepare the frosting until it reaches the consistency of stiff peaks. The softer mass will simply drain and the pattern will not come out.
Fill a piping bag fitted with a thin tip or an icing pencil with the mixture.
Squeeze the icing with a thin branched thread over the ball, imitating lace, braiding the ball completely or halfway.
Leave to dry for at least 12 hours. After this, pierce the ball and carefully pull out the remains.

Just a magical cake decoration is ready!

Conclusion

From this article you learned everything about icing: what it is and how to prepare it. By adhering to simple rules, even at home you can create incomparable culinary masterpieces worthy of the highest praise.