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Stiff Royal Icing

"Gingerbread house icing you can eat. It holds together really well! To use, place in piping bag or use spatula to spread onto the gingerbread house pieces to stick them together. This icing can also be used to decorate the tops of cookies."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 43,437 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

6 cups
Prep15 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Put both portions of the meringue powder and the cream of tartar into a large mixing bowl.

  2. Add the warm water and beat on low speed until the powder dissolves and the mixture looks foamy.

  3. Add the confectioners' sugar a little at a time on low speed until fully incorporated.

  4. Beat on high speed for about 5 minutes until the icing is smooth, glossy and holds stiff peaks.

  5. If the icing is too stiff to spread or pipe, add the extra warm water a few drops at a time, beating after each addition, until the right consistency is reached.

  6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel so the icing does not dry out before use.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cream + sugartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs