pure icing sugar

[chocolatek]

Hi,
I need powdered sugar without corn starch. I can't find any kind of powdered sugar without corn starch. I used food processor to powder the cane sugar but it still is not completely powder. Do you know of any brand of sugar without the corn starch? I need this sugar for fine extension works in Royal Icing. Thanks for your help

[cookieguy]

You'll have a tough time finding. I have seen it over the years but you can't keep it for any length of time as it will lump in no time. Unopened units will even harden and lump. Powdered sugar is made in hammer mills; available as 6, 10 even now 12X. Usual starch addition is 1.5 or 3%. The blender or chopper won't make the particle size fine enough. The 1.5% should work for royal icing?

[LotusCakeStudio]

I think I may have seen icing sugar in an old King Arthur catalog. Just curious: exactly what is it about the cornstarch that doesn't allow you to do extension work? Toba Garrett does a lot of fine extension work and when I saw a demo of hers, she didn't say anything about using icing sugar. I also took a class with Scott Clark Woolley (piping with royal icing) and he didn't mention it either. I did some extension work on my dummy with no problems.

[chocolatek]

Hi,
Australian method of extension works uses royal icing without any additives sinec the corn starch will block the very fine tips like 00 tips and disrupt the flow of icing. Thanks for your email.

[auzzi]

Isn't that amazing! I have been decorated cakes for years in Aust. As a member of various cake decorating boards, I though I had worked out the numerous international sugar products - but it seems not.

Tubes for extension work go down to 000 [local brands - extremely fine - nothing like Wiltons!] and we use "Pure Icing Sugar" which has no additives. Our "Icing Sugar Mixture" has 3-5% cornflour[starch] anti-caking agent. At this percentage, the Royal Icing has a waxy teture that doesn't set correctly, besides blocking the tubes.

I really thought powdered sugar was just that, and confectioner's sugar had the cornstarch.....

To stop the lumps, keep the icing sugar in it's original bag [plastic], tightly seal it with a strong rubber band, and keep it in the refrigerator. A fine bronze sieve is useful. We have acess to Royal Icing Dry mix - saves time when you only need a tablespoon.....