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  • in reply to: No white colour gel in royal icing #25855
    HLBInstructor
    Keymaster

    Hi there!

    Adding white gel to your master batch is just a matter of preference (and something many decorators like to do). I’m not sure how much a dab would do though for a whole batch. To be effective at really brightening your icing, you’d probably need to add a decent amount.

    I personally skip the white gel unless I feel I really need it. Since I tend to use clear vanilla extract, my icing is usually a pretty bright white coming out of the mixer. If you prefer regular over clear vanilla then adding white gel could be a good option to brighten your icing.

    I find my general philosophy with coloring icing is “try to get to your colors with as little gel coloring as possible”. That’s a big part of the reason that I color my icing and let it sit for a bit (often overnight) to darken and develop. The less coloring you add the more gel you conserve (i.e. money saved) and the less risk you have of adding bitterness to your icing (a complication of inadvertently adding too much gel). If I’m going to need white icing and I know it’s at risk of color bleed since it’ll be touching a darker color, then I will add white gel to just the icing that I need to remain white.

    Again, coloring your master batch is certainly fine to do. And something that many others do as a general practice. I just tend to make it my aim to only use as much gel coloring as I absolutely need.

    Hope that makes sense.

    Thanks for your question!
    Eileen

    in reply to: royal icing #25833
    HLBInstructor
    Keymaster

    Hi Christine!

    If you’re following my recipe from the lesson, then the 6 minutes on low followed by about 3 minutes on medium should result in “Stiff Consistency” icing. This is the “out of the mixer” consistency and what you could use for creating thick flowers (refer to the consistency guide for more info about stiff icing). But every mixer is a little different, so it’s also about keeping an eye on the consistency itself and not just the clock. If you follow the timing exactly on my recipe and the icing isn’t forming stiff peaks then you might want to whip it for another 30-60 seconds. You just don’t want to get to a place of seeing stiff peaks and then whip for a few more minutes. Overmixing can cause some issues with the icing properly drying/setting.

    With your stiff (out-of-mixer) icing, you’ll mix all of your colors and then bag up anything you need for stiff flowers etc (note: there’s no need to bag stiff icing for this Easter set). You get to piping consistency icing by gradually adding small amounts of water to your stiff icing and checking for soft (toothpaste-like) peaks. Then you’d bag up what you need of piping icing and, as a last step, add water to the original icing to get down to your thinnest/flood consistency.

    I hope that all makes sense!

    Just let me know if you have any other questions.
    Eileen

    in reply to: Where is the Appendex/Table of Contents? #25824
    HLBInstructor
    Keymaster

    Hi there!

    The table of contents is on the left side of the screen (or is a pull-out menu from the upper left corner on a smaller device). At the bottom of the content menu it will say either “1 of 2” or “2 of 2”. You actually have to click through to the second (2 of 2) menu to see the appendix. Alternately, you can just keep clicking “next lesson” at the bottom of each screen until you get to the final screen for the Appendix.

    I hope that helps! Let me know if you’re still having any trouble.

    Thanks!
    Eileen

    in reply to: Projector #25436
    HLBInstructor
    Keymaster

    Hi Stasia!

    So, as an example, I have a pocket (pico) projector that I mount onto a tripod and point down toward my working surface. The projector is connected to my iphone or ipad where I have my working image loaded onto the screen. Basically, whatever is on my device’s screen gets sent through the projector and projected onto my working surface. That allows me to trace any image or lettering that I want onto my cookie using the projected image as my guide.

    I hope that makes a little bit of sense. I’ll have to do a future class on projector use.

    Let me know if you have any other questions!
    Eileen

    in reply to: making icing ahead of time #25322
    HLBInstructor
    Keymaster

    Hi Christine!

    Thank you for asking that important question! You can leave it out on the counter for 7-10 days. It’ll just take more massaging the longer you keep it out as the separation will be substantial after several days of sitting.

    No need to put it in your fridge. But, any icing you have leftover you can freeze for use on another project! Just dump the piping bags (as is) right into a ziploc bag and toss them in your freezer. I think I have about 85lbs of icing in my freezer as we speak 😉

    I’ll be sure to update the lesson with all of this info!

    Thanks,
    Eileen

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