Royal Icing Mummy Face

There sure are a lot of variations on the mummy cupcake; do a Google image search and see what you come up with! Here's how to make a tiny mummy face, suitable for petits fours, flat-sided cake pops, mini cupcakes, whatever; you could even pipe them directly on Nilla Wafers. You'll need stiff consistency royal icing in white, black, and whatever color you want for the eyes, round tips #3, #8, and #12, ribbon tip #44, a flower nail, a Styrofoam block to rest the nail in, a glue stick, parchment paper squares, and a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 mix of powdered sugar and cornstarch. Start by sticking a parchment square to the flower nail with a dab from the glue stick. 

 Hold the #12 tip just above and at a right angle to the surface and pipe a ring with the black icing. Touch a fingertip to the dusting pouch and tap the icing into a disc. Allow it to firm up for a few minutes.

 Pipe two dots of yellow (or whatever color) icing with the #8 tip. Flatten them slightly with a dusted fingertip.

 Switch to the #3 tip on the black icing and pipe two dots for pupils. Piping the bandages with the #44 tip requires no instruction; pipe them any way you like. I figured I'd start around the eyes, slightly overlapping them.

 Continue piping strips of white icing until the black is covered. Don't worry too much about asymmetry, ragged edges, etc. When the icing is dry, peel away the parchment and stick this spooky face on any ghoulish dessert you can come up with!

Royal Icing Sagebrush

The official state flower of Nevada is the sagebrush, which can grow to an astonishing 12 feet in height. The closest I can come realistically with royal icing is a handful of sprigs, which would make a cute garnish on any desert-themed dessert. All you'll need are stiff-consistency royal icing in yellow and green, round tip #4, a flower nail, a Styrofoam block, a glue stick, parchment paper squares, and a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 mix of powdered sugar and cornstarch. Start by sticking a parchment square to the flower nail with a dab from the glue stick. 

 Pipe a cluster of stems, half an inch long or so.

 Pipe another layer of stems on top of these first few. There should be plenty of room to pipe at least another couple of sprigs on the same parchment square.

 Pipe a little dab of yellow icing at the end of each stem. You may need to touch your fingertip to the dusting pouch and tap the yellow peaks down a bit. Another project that uses these same colors is the royal icing rattlesnake; a good companion animal for the sagebrush!

Striped Meringue Stars

I sure have been throwing a lot of royal icing at you lately, huh? It's high time I piped something a bit softer, so here you go: striped meringue stars. The colors are in honor of the 4th of July (which we're planning to celebrate the following weekend since it fell mid-week), but you could pipe these in any color for any occasion. You'll need a large open star tip, like the Ateco #825…

…and, for this color scheme, Royal Blue and Super Red Soft Gel Paste by AmeriColor. 

The ingredients are easy. Set out six egg whites until they reach room temperature (separate the eggs when they're cold). 

Beat the six egg whites in a stand mixer until they are very stiff and dry, like this:

 Keep beating them and add a cup plus 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar, 1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Stop the mixer occasionally to scrape the sides of the bowl. Add 3 teaspoons of clear vanilla extract (or any flavors you like), and 6 more tablespoons of sugar. Keep beating until the consistency is very thick and smooth, like this:

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees, and lay out parchment paper on three large cookie sheets. You can temporarily anchor down the corners with bottles of AmeriColor if you like:

Prepare an 18" pastry bag. Drop in the star tip and cuff the bag a good part of the way up your arm. 

 When you look in the bag, it should look like this.

 Using a cheap craft store paintbrush, paint three 5" lines equidistant to each other inside the bag.

Start to fill the bag by putting a large ball of meringue from a spatula into the open hole; it will act as a sort of placeholder to keep the stripes from touching each other or other parts of the bag…

 …while you uncuff the bag. Make a smaller cuff (a couple of inches) and fill the bag up with half of the meringue (as we're going to make the meringues in two different colors, red and blue).

 Use the side of your thumb to slide the meringue down toward the tip (and to push out as much air as possible).

 Holding the tip at a 90 degree angle and half an inch above the surface, pipe out as many stars as you can fit on the parchment. You can pipe them close together; they don't spread much, if at all. Bake them for at least 45 minutes, but the time will vary depending on their size, your oven, the humidity, etc. They might need much longer. I look in on them every five minutes or so. The ones along the edges may get done first. When I can pluck one right off the paper and the paper doesn't lift with it, it's done.

 When they pop easily off the paper, they'll leave behind this stunning pattern. I'm having a hard time throwing away this piece of paper.

They'll look just as beautiful on the underside…

 

…as they do from above. This recipe made about 120 meringues, or roughly 2 servings (I'm only slightly kidding about that last part).