A Long Bakes Knight

In the previous post I posted some baseballs that I had made for my Dad (happy birthday and happy Father’s Day, Dad!) but I didn’t post the recipe for the frosting I used.  I used a poured fondant for the white on the baseballs and then tinted royal icing red (using Wilton paste food colors, although I think I’m going to switch to Americolor or Ateco because they come in squeeze bottles) for the stitches and the writing.  You can find the recipe for the poured fondant here (take a few minutes to read through the blog, it’s great if you like baking and science).  While reheating the fondant base, I only used enough of the sugar syrup to make the fondant a bit more liquid (instead of really runny) because I didn’t want it to run over the sides of the cookies…so don’t use the amount he uses, just use enough that you can dip the top of your cookie in and it won’t run over the side.  It takes some practice, but it’s worth it to get a perfect finish on the cookies.

The royal icing I used for the stitches is from Peggy Porschen’s Pretty Party Cakes.  I seriously want to make all the cakes and cookies in this book, so if you need a custom cake or cookies for an event (or just for the fun of it), let me know.  I thinned the royal icing out with a touch of water just until it was thin enough to use with a parchment paper triangle (or a decorating bag with a small round tip).  You want to thin it out enough that it will pass through the tip, but you don’t want it to be runny.  Here’s something else I did with that royal icing recipe:

Pretty, right?  I outlined the butterflies with stiff royal icing, then flooded them with runny royal icing.  Click “read more” for the icing recipe!

Royal Icing
Adapted from Pretty Party Cakes by Peggy Porschen
The original recipe make 2 1/2 lbs. of royal icing.  I didn’t need nearly that much, so what I have below makes just over a pound.

Ingredients:
1 Tbs. egg white powder (you can find this at the grocery store, or get the Wilton Meringue Powder from Michael’s or another craft store)
1 1/8 lb. confectioners’ sugar
1/2 Tbs. lemon juice (yes, I used the juice from the bottle…again)

Instructions:
1. With a fork, whisk the egg white powder with 1/3 c. water.
2. In your mixer bowl, mix the powdered sugar with about 3/4 of the egg white mixture, and all of the lemon juice on low speed.
3. Once the sugar and liquid is well combined, check the consistency.  If the stuff on the sides of the bowl still looks a bit dry and crumbly, add some more of the egg white mixture.  You want smooth, but not wet.  I didn’t have to add any additional liquid to mine.
4. Mix for about 4 or 5 minutes until you get stiff peaks.
5. Put it in a plastic container, cover it with a damp cloth, and then snap on the lid.  You can keep it at room temperature, but I keep mine in the fridge.