Figure Skate Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

I'm talking about Royal Icing again today! I made figure skates and I was so happy with the end result! Before I get into how I made these, I should mention my current thoughts towards royal icing... It's a lot of work! I spent about 3 hours on the skates and a similar amount of time on the pineapples that I shared last week! I'm guessing this time will go down when I become more familiar with the whole royal icing process (at least, I hope it does!).

So, it was so much fun to experiment with and the end result is really beautiful. I just cannot imagine myself doing this on a regular basis. I will definitely use royal icing when I am decorating cookies for themed parties or theme specific events. But otherwise I will likely just be sticking cookies that are easier to put together and just as delicious!

I used the same royal icing recipe that I used last time (for the Pineapples) and it worked just as well!! The recipe is from Follow the Ruels and I love how simple it is!

Whisk 1 tablespoon of meringue powder and 2 tablespoons of water together in a medium mixing bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and once the vanilla is whisked in mix 2 cups of icing sugar in. I continue to use the whisk until the powdered sugar is completely incorporated then I use the electric mixer. Use an electric mixer to mix the icing until it is light and fluffy - it will be really think at this point. I recommend waiting to add water.

When you are not mixing the icing (i.e. when it is just sitting on the counter) make sure it is completely covered with plastic wrap, with the edges sealed all around the ball of icing. When the icing is sealed with plastic wrap, place a damp cloth over the plastic wrap and then it is good to sit on the counter while you are cleaning up/prepping cookies to decorate.

When you are ready to decorate, separate some of the icing. I just estimate how much I'll need to ice with that particular color. So this was for the white part of the figure skate. Start by thinning out the icing a little bit to create a good piping consistency. The consistency that is best for detailed piping is when the icing will fall off the spatula and hold it's shape for a while before slowly combining (it looks like melting) with the rest of the icing. I recommend adding water with a spray bottle to insure that you're not adding too much at once.

Transfer a scoop of that icing into a plastic bag or a piping bag with a very small tip attached. Then, thin out the icing a little more so that it is at an appropriate flooding consistency. Icing is at a good flooding consistency when you draw a line in it with a knife and the line disappears within 10 seconds.

Load the icing for flooding into separate plastic bag or piping bag. The bottom bag in the picture is for piping and the top bag is for flooding. Once you are ready to start decorating cut a very small hole in the bottom corner of each bag and start icing!

I followed the same process that I used for the Pineapples - Use the icing at piping consistency to outline the shape you want flooded that color. So you can see that I did the outline of the boot with white piping icing. Then use the icing at flooding consistency to fill the inside of the outlined shape. You won't need to cover the whole surface area with flooding icing. Just drizzle some around and use a toothpick or a sharp baking tool to smooth the icing out until the shape is completely covered. I recommend starting with minimal icing because you can always add more but you can't take any away!

Then, I continued with the rest of the skates. I did the heel and the sole of the skate next - by following the same process that I used with the white icing. I just added a little bit of brown food coloring. Next, I did the blade with grey icing. I used the same process that is detailed above but added a tiny drop of black gel food coloring (I mean, really tiny! It went so dark so quickly!!). Finally, I made the tiniest little bit of pink icing to make some aces on each skate!

I wrapped up some pineapples and some figure skates to bring to my skating coaches and skating friends! It was such a fun treat to bring to the arena!!

Let me know if you have any questions (or if you have any suggestions for me)! See you tomorrow!