Royal icing is a pure white icing made from egg whites and powdered sugar (also known as icing sugar or confectioners sugar). This cake covering was popularised by Queen Victoria, whose 1840 wedding featured a highly ornate cake covered in white icing and decorated using intricate and lavish designs. It also gave rise to the name royal icing.
Over the last 20 years or so royal icing had become less popular with the introduction of sugar paste or "fondant". This is powdered sugar combined with glucose and glycerine to produce a malleable paste that can be rolled and moulded. The ease with which fondant can be rolled and applied to a cake compared to royal icing has helped to drive the trend away from royal icing. With off-the-shelf sugar paste readily available it has spawned a generation of cake decorators and innovators able to achieve stunning and creative results and allowed brides to be to break with tradition in their choice and style of cakes.
It is probably true to say that for a wedding cake anything goes - cupcake towers, flapjack or even cheese. But with the trend for many brides towards a stunning centrepiece with sleek, clean lines and styling, now is the perfect time to consider royal icing as the perfect choice to create that dream wedding cake.
Royal icing applied professionally will give a smooth sharp edges and a canvas for your decorations. You can go retro and add swags, tails and Victorian style embellishments but a stripped back minimalist approach and bold use of colour can give a truly contemporary cake with the wow factor that today's bride is looking for. It also means that you can keep a tier of your cake without freezing it to celebrate the next milestone in your relationship.
Traditional doesn't immediately mean out-dated or old-fashioned.
So I am looking forward to this season's creations as I take up the challenge of creating royal icing designs suitable for the modern bride.
Flat-iced cake. Pressure piped royal icing fleur de lys and cameo decorations. Dorret Conway February 2016.
