Attempt 2

 Attempt 2

This time around, I started by watching videos to answer some of my questions, such as how to save the icing after decorating the cookies, how to prevent the unused icing from hardening while decorating, and what consistency I should be aiming for. After watching a bunch of videos and reading a bit, I baked the cookies. As they were cooling, I found a recipe for storing the icing and followed it, because now I had a plan to save it for another day.

I got all my ingredients out, my measuring cups ready, and played music over my speaker. This time, I sifted the powdered sugar and meringue powder, then added vanilla extract and mixed it together. Then mixed in the water. Surprisingly, I got the consistency I was looking for on the first try. I filled a piping bag with the thicker icing, and covered the rest of the icing in the bowl with a damp paper towel to prevent it from drying out.

I started piping the outline on my first cookie, and here’s where I ran into my first problem: I had cut the hole in the piping bag way too small, causing the icing to come out very thin and wiggly. Luckily, this was an easy fix. I cut the piping bag a little higher up to make the opening wider. Then tried it on the next cookie, and it was much better. However, I realized my hand was shaking.

So, I took a step back, ripped off a piece of parchment paper, and started to practice on it. I began with straight lines, then moved on to circles. While watching videos, I learned that you should pipe toward yourself and hold the piping bag so the seam is against the palm of your hand, as this affects the flow of the icing. This was helpful when trying to make a circle, and I could seem the  difference when I followed these tips versus when I didn’t.

Once I was comfortable with how the shapes were turning out, I went back to decorating the cookies. I noticed the improvement right away.

I started drawing little circles in the center of some cookies while leaving others blank. I was planning to try a few different methods for creating the design of the cookies to see which one worked best. I wanted to follow what I was told was the "right" way, but I also wanted to explore what would happen if I tried other approaches.

With the first set of cookies, I did things properly: outlining the cookies, letting the outline solidify, and then flooding the cookies. After that, I experimented by only outlining the outside of the cookies and using the flooding icing to create the holes in the design. I found that this method might be possible, but I would need to make bigger holes since the icing settles.

Lastly, I tried drawing the holes in the design without letting the outline dry, to see if the icings would combine better while still holding their shape. With this method, I found no real difference from doing things the proper way.

Here's what I learned for next time.

The way you hold the piping bag matters

Direction
When piping you should be going toward yourself

Placing the piping
When trying to make a straight line it's easier to pipe it in the air and place it down, rather than trying to draw a straight line yourself

The shape of the design matters
Teardrop shape works better than the circles

The Different consistencies 
Royal Icing has many different consistencies all used for different end goals. 

Making peaks with the icing in the bowl and on the spatula is the easiest way to measure what stage your icing is in.

Stiff peak

Medium peak

Soft peak

Thick flood

Thin flood