Sorry I'm no help, but that is adorable!

Olychick found the perfect word: adorable! Your lines are gorgeous too. I don't know anything besides royal icing that'll do that.

When I was a little kid, I'd pick the royal icing off the cookies. It was a big chore, but worth it. As I got older, I came to terms with it.

So, this bloggist claims to have a good tasting icing that dries hard. I haven't read the recipe, and it doesn't look as precise as royal icing in the pictures, but it might work for you on the hardened scale. https://www.theslowroasteditalian.com/2013/12/best-tasting-sugar-cookie-icing-recipe.html

Thanks, guys! I love all things corgi and those cookie cutters were too cute to pass up!

Plllog, that icing recipe is very similar to the one I tried previously (cookiecrazie.com); my husband said it tasted weird and was sickly sweet. I thought it at least tasted better than royal icing! It did dry hard, bit it took far longer to dry and wasn't as easy to work with as royal icing (not that royal icing is easy either!).

I'll keep experimenting with other flavorings, maybe. I wonder if instead of adding all water to the royal icing, adding a bit of heavy cream might improve the flavor?

It took me an embarassing amount of time to decorate twenty of these corgi cookies, even after watching the pros on youtube. No wonder the cookie bouquets cost so much money!

Maybe instead of vanilla or almond flavoring, try lemon or lime? Totally cute cookie!

Putting cream in royal icing will defeat the purpose.

Have you read the thread about the off flavor of current powdered sugar? You might try using organic, or the kind that doesn't have any starch in it, if you can find it, or maybe see if you can find it shipped in waxed paper rather than plastic film or plastic lined can.

Are you using meringue powder or real eggwhites? If the latter are you doing the cooked version? The reason for the cooking is about melting the sugar, I think, rather than pasteurizing the eggs, but you can do both. I like (hate-like) the cooked better, but I have royal icing issues and don't do the shortcut versions well at all.

Royal icing has always tasted weird. OTOH, in recent years, I've encountered fussed up versions that weren't as hard or beautiful, and they tasted weirder because they weren't yummy like buttercream, but didn't have that classic, almost metallic (I assume from the protein) flavor of real royal icing.

To a certain extent, I think it's the push pull of frosted cookies that taste lovely, and iced cookies that look exquisite. Sometimes it's worth accepting things as they are.

ETA, If you make the cooked kind, in theory you could use superfine granulated sugar rather than powdered, and that might make the difference in flavor...

Well, I'm not much help since I use royal icing, but those cookies are too darn CUTE! As nickel mentioned, I occasionally add a few drops of lemon juice. Maybe try edie's suggestion with the buttercream and meringue powder, and see if it hardens to your liking. I make my royal icing with meringue powder.

Royal icing is _not_ made with cream but with egg white, as has been pointed out. You could try a few drops of clear vanilla for the taste, but if you use regular vanilla it will turn the icing beige.

Those are really cute, I love them.

I agree, royal icing doesn't taste all that good. I lump it in the category with fondant, which can also be beautiful but just doesn't taste good. (sigh) I want everything, the good tasting frosting, the beautiful results and something that's not terrible to work with. Yeah, I want it all!

That said, I just frosted a batch of "pupcakes" with buttercream, not nearly as pretty as fondant but so much more delicious.

Annie

I think a pinch of salt improves icing, and I make my own vanilla with bourbon - bourbon makes a nice flavoring all by itself.

I just use icing sugar and lemon juice. Is there something in your sugar that's making it taste funny?

Thanks, all, for the comments and suggestions!

I use meringue powder to make my royal icing, plus warm water, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. I may try different flavorings next time, lemon sounds good! I did read the post on powdered sugar tasting odd, but it seems to taste the same to me as always, I use my grocery store brand. I might try a different brand of meringue powder, as I use Wilton and I've read that other brands taste better.

Using meringue powder with a buttercream icing sounds intriguing and definitely worth a try. My husband and teen sons never get tired of eating my experiments!

I want it all also - easy, pipes well, dries hard, and tastes good! Surely that's not too much to ask?

I hear you! If you find a way to make a good-tasting royal icing, do share! I never use it because it always just tastes so bland to me.

I might try a different brand of meringue powder, as I use Wilton and I've read that other brands taste better.

Bingo! Wilton is awful, in my opinion. This is the only brand I buy:

Ateco Meringue Powder

You might also give a try to real royal icing made with actual eggs. ;)

This thread sent me back a few years. I used to take my brothers children for a week when they were younger, give them some rural experiences different from their big city life and feed them all kinds of goodies including decorated cookies. One year my nephew said, Auntie M, can we have frosting some time that is different than that one...It tastes like egg white to me.

ETA Those corgi cookies are adorable. A woman up the hill has three corgi. One followed me into the driveway one afternoon. We had a friend here and he asked, where did that dog come from that ran behind your car just now driving in. I hadn't seen it. Opened the garage door and there it was, patiently waiting for an invitation into the house.

Corgi lover here too! Those cookies are adorable. I squeeze fresh lemon juice into my royal icing to thin and I don't think it has that awful taste that most royal icings do -- but that is my opinion.

Years ago I used Wilton's since that was all I could find. Then I started buying meringue powder at a cake and candy supply business we have here.

That Corgi cookie is my idea of a therapy dog. Adorable! ♥

Have you considered Poured Fondant?

I'm specifically referring to fondant made by cooking granulated sugar, water and corn syrup. Poured fondant is often used as covering for Petit Fours, candies and fillings. The recipe requires a candy thermometer, but it's not difficult at all to make.

I've used it to ice cookies, mint candies, etc. And Poured Fondant tastes pretty darn good---much better than anything made with confectioner's sugar.

The recipe I like is analogous to the following:

Poured Fondant

Sol

You would think that keeping the fondant over a bowl of warm water while you are dipping/spooning would be better than having to keep microwaving it. But it sure sounds like experimentation with this will be in my future! I love petit fours.

Why buy meringue mix? Meringue is egg white and sugar. Bet the real thing is cheaper than a mix? And check for nasty additives.

I don't, but I think there are a number of ways of using a spoonful of meringue powder to improve other things. Also, for royal icing as well as other cold applications, it's a substitute for pasteurizing eggs. With a sous vide circulator pasteurizing eggs is dead simple, but I use the old fashioned cooked royal icing, anyway. I don't know if it's sufficient to kill the bacteria, though. I just assumed.

Wow, thank you all so much for sharing your suggestions and considerable knowledge, it is so helpful to me!

I use meringue powder instead of egg whites because one of my kiddos had a salmonella infection a few years ago and it was quite an awful experience. We never determined exactly where he came in contact with it; it could have been from handling the reptiles/turtles at school, or from a local restaurant where he was the only one to eat spinach with his dinner salad. Regardless, since that experience, I have become extremely cautious - no bagged lettuce/spinach, no reptilian pets, and no eating anything with uncooked/undercooked eggs, including spoonfuls of raw cookie dough (which I had done my entire life without incident!).

Poured fondant sounds like an interesting solution! But could that be piped, or would royal icing need to be used for detail work? Not sure I could handle two different icings..my kitchen was a disaster just using one icing, with the piping bags and bowls for coloring, etc. I am not a neat cook.

I'll try adding lemon juice and using Ateco meringue powder next time! I also found another recipe online for a crusting buttercream (with meringue powder) so I may try that as well some other time. So many great ideas here....thank you all so much!

Did you ever land on the magical recipe that actually tastes good? i think the meringue powders are the culprit, but I haven't proven that yet. I've thrown out many batches and now I'm discouraged. I can't sell something that doesn't taste good.

@Ashley Lathrop , I eventually landed on this recipe and it’s pretty good! I omit the cream cheese emulsion and usually use vanilla or butter/vanilla flavoring. I also use Genie’s Dream meringue powder, it tastes best. This recipe gives a softer bite to the icing and also doesn’t leach all the moisture from the cookies like regular royal icing does. I does dry hard, but not as hard as regular royal icing, so not sure how that would work for packaging and selling; I just make them for my family and friends.

https://sugaredsentiments.com/soft-royal-icing-recipe/

It's so easy to make fresh meringue, add your icing sugar, lemon juice and hey presto!

It’s definitely on my list to try. I make macarons so I’ve made meringue lots of times. No concern about raw egg whites?

My youngest son had salmonella when he was in middle school. It was an awful week, waiting for the culture results. Because of that, I would never eat anything with raw eggs in it nor will my family eat bagged lettuce/spinach ever again. I haven’t eaten raw cookie dough since, after seeing what he went through. Better safe than sorry!

You can home pasteurize eggs easily if you have a sous vide circulator, and with a little more effort with a regular steamer basket and a pot of simmering water.

It's such a rare occurrence here. Is it more prevalent in the US? I understand people being wary ..... I've never met anyone who has had salmonella.

@Islay Corbel , I have no idea the actual prevalence, but the news reports a couple of times a year of people getting salmonella, e-coli, or listeria from bagged lettuce/spinach or lunchmeat. My son is still the only person I know who’s had salmonella, and we really don’t know where he got it - it could’ve been from the reptiles and turtles in his middle school, but we just don’t know. So now I’m hyper-vigilant. I’ve probably eaten pounds of raw cookie dough since I was a teenager without incident, but I just don’t take that chance anymore with myself or my family.