Make Your Royal Icing Shine: comparing drying techniques

A question that comes up again and again about cookie decorating is,

"How can I get royal icing to dry shiny?"

When royal icing is wet, it's super shiny, glossy, and vibrant.  So, when it dries to an almost matte finish, it can be disappointing.

I've air-dried my royal icing-decorated cookies for years (and years and years).  Usually they dried with just a bit of sheen, not totally matte.  If you were comparing them to paint finishes...somewhere between and flat and an eggshell.

Lately though, I've been trying a couple of new drying techniques.  One is placing an oscillating fan near the table where the cookies are drying (thank you, Sweet Sugarbelle).  The other is using a food dehydrator on the lowest setting (thank you, LilaLoa).

The difference was difficult to capture on camera until I glanced at the cookies backlit from the window.
Can you see the difference?

The cookies that were air-dried (no fan, no ceiling fan, but yes air-conditioner) dried almost totally matte.  The cookies dried with the oscillating fan and dehydrator dried with a definite sheen.

Again, if we were using the paint finish comparison, I'd say the fan and dehydrator cookies were somewhere between a satin and semi-gloss finish.  Still not the glossy look, but definitely shinier.

Also, can you see that the air-dried icing dried darker than the other cookies? 

I think the fan and dehydrator cookies dried with the icing a bit "poofier," too. (But, I may be making that up.)

The cookies dried with the fan and dehydrator don't differ much in the finish.  As a matter of fact, I was having to really concentrate when taking the pictures to remember which was which.  A couple of bonuses to the dehydrator...1. the cookies dry faster. 2. I feel more confident filling in a dark outline with light flood icing after an hour or so in the dehydrator.

The cons to the dehydrator? Moving the cookies with wet icing onto the trays...and then off again if you are doing more decorating. I have smudged a few outlines transferring, and there's always that fear that you'll drop one. *knocks wood*

This is the dehydrator I bought.  I thought the rectangular trays would hold more cookies than circular ones.  I have no idea if that's true.  I haven't loaded it completely, but I think it would hold 7 dozen or more 3"-4" cookies.

Be sure to look for one that has variable temperature settings and use the lowest setting.  You don't want to re-bake your cookies.  (Hey, biscotti?  Hmm...)  Oh, and don't worry about the cookies drying out...they don't. Yay!

I use a little clip-on fan like this one. I love that it's small and I can toss it in a closet when I'm not drying cookies. I may even buy a few more for larger cookies quantities.

Tips for drying all cookies:

• place the iced cookies on cookie sheet and leave uncovered to dry,
• if it's warm outside, run the A/C,
• do not open the windows if at all humid, or if you've just run the sprinklers (just ask Mr. E),

Air-drying:

• give the cookies a full 6-8 hours or overnight to dry,

Oscillating fan:

• rotate the cookie sheets during drying (or have several fans for large projects),
• still allow 6-8 for drying, using the fan for at least the first 2 hours,

 Dehydrator:

• place the temperature on the lowest setting,
• use caution when moving cookies from the cookie sheets to the dehydrator (this is the part I like the least about moving them),
• to lock in the shine, run the dehydrator for about 4 hours or so, then let them dry the remainder of the way without the machine running,
• the cookies will dry sooner, but to be on the safe side, I still allow a full 6-8 hours to dry completely.

Bottom line: 
If you want your royal icing to dry with more shine, use a fan or a dehydrator!  Shiny or not, though, decorated cookies are always cute.  ♥

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Brusha, brusha, brusha: Brush Embroidery Cookie Tutorial

First, for all of you who thought immediately of Jan in Grease when you read that post title, I love you.
Here's a clip.

{Brush embroidery cookies look so romantic, almost like they belong in Victoria Magazine.}

Over the last couple of weeks, my dining room and kitchen tables have been covered in cookies.  Pint glasses filled with piping bags have collected on the kitchen counter.  We were eating a lot of take-out...and ice cream. (That has absolutely nothing to do with cookie decorating, but it happened.)

This is how things typically run at the end of a school year.  I even tried the ol', "I bet your teachers would like gift cards instead of cookies this year."  Kiddo was having none of it.

So, in my mad rush to make and package cookies, I neglected to photograph any tutorials.  I popped a quick picture onto Instagram and, well, the masses spoke.  OK...3 people spoke, but I decided to take some quick how-to pics.

Here's what you need to know about brush embroidery: IT'S SUPER DUPER EASY!!!  I think the first time I ever saw it was a Ali Bee's beautiful blog.  I used a method almost exactly like hers except, I used a damp brush.

To make brush embroidery cookies, you'll need:

• sugar cookies that have been outlined and filled with royal icing, and have dried overnight (I used a mix of AmeriColor Dusty Rose + Lemon Yellow for the base color.)
• royal icing for the embroidery, I used AmeriColor Ivory (piping consistency) 
• disposable icing bag
• coupler and tip (#2)
• clean, flat paintbrush
• cup of water
• paper towels

{Please note that I had already decorated all of the cookies BEFORE taking pictures for this tutorial. I scraped all of the brush embroidery off of one cookie to show you. Hence, the weird finish on the base.}

Use a #2 tip to pipe squiggly lines as an outer layer of petals.

Dampen the brush with water, then blot very well on a paper towel.  Place the brush right into the icing and pull towards the center.

Make another layer,

and then another.

In the center, pipe some dots for the flower center.

Done.  See?  EASY!

And, who says brush embroidery has to be soft and pastel?

Who wants to try it?!?

{Some of the links above are Amazon Associates links.}

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Shades of...Pink! (Works for Me Wednesday)

Pink!  Pink, pink, pink!  PINK!!!

Forget Fifty Shades of Grey; we're talking PINK, people.  {PS...having not read FSoG, but having *heard* about it, it totally creeps me out to sit next to someone on an airplane who is reading it.  I rather NOT know that about you, total stranger.  Airplanes are for John Grisham or Michael Crichton. The end.}

OK.  Pink.  Did you know that you had so many choices?  I'm showing you here four pinks.  All AmeriColor brand. I love, love, love AmeriColor.

• soft pink
• dusty rose
• deep pink
• electric pink

Most often when I'm making pink cookies, I'll reach for Deep Pink.  It's vibrant, bright, and perfect for almost everything.  I think it has a little bit of a blue undertone. (But what do I know?)

Soft Pink is, well, softer.  In the pictures, I'm showing it pretty saturated, but I use it when I want a light, not to vibrant pink. It looks to have more yellow in it than the Deep Pink.

Dusty Rose.  Just those words remind me of tea time and wallpaper from the 1980's.  Shown here, it's really saturated, but a little lighter and is makes a *perfect* ballet slipper color.  And...roses.

Electric Pink.  This is a really fun color.  I use it when I want my cookies to SCREAM pink.  Not neon, but definitely bright.  It's Deep Pink kicked up a notch.

Of course, the colors will vary depending on the amount of icing and the amount of color you use. I never measure out icing and food coloring, but the colors you see here are a heaping 1/4 cup of royal icing mixed with about 1/8 teaspoon food coloring.  Give or take. :)

Pink...works for me!