Miritsa crafts house lanterns from nothing but royal icing: “People have thought my sugar lantern was crocheted”
Creativity and a steady hand were essential when baking enthusiast Miritsa Niemi figured out how to pipe edible lanterns from royal icing. The lace-like lantern continues to delight long after Christmas.
How did you come up with the royal icing lantern?
I made my first lantern during the coronavirus pandemic, when I got sick and had to isolate at home. I still felt energetic and wanted something to do. With Christmas coming, I started wondering if I could make something beautiful from royal icing. I saw a photo of a royal icing house online and began drawing its templates with a ruler on parchment paper. To my surprise, the house came together on the very first try! Since then, I’ve made two more houses. This fall, alongside the house lantern, I made a reindeer-shaped lantern.
When I posted a photo of the house lantern on social media, someone thought it was crocheted. That made me smile, because I’m really not good at needlework.
How does the house lantern come together?
The parts of the house are piped onto parchment paper with royal icing, which is also used to assemble it. The icing needs to be quite thick: I mixed almost a whole package of powdered sugar into two egg whites. If the icing starts to spread as you pipe, it’s too loose.
Piping the parts for my latest house lantern took six hours, and my hands were aching! Even so, I find it the best and most relaxing stage, because I don’t enjoy drawing templates.
I set the finished pieces in a display cabinet to dry for two weeks. Then I peeled them off the paper and glued them together onto a piece of cardboard—first the walls, and after letting them set for fifteen minutes, the roof. I keep the lanterns in a display cabinet, where they glow beautifully.
”Piping the parts for my latest house lantern took six hours, and my hands were aching! Even so, I find it the best and most relaxing stage.”
What tricks did you learn while making the house?
I piped thin decorative patterns on the walls, and that took a lot of time. I think, for example, a thicker grid would be just as sturdy. I piped the edges of the walls and roof thicker than the decorative parts so the house would be durable. I made the walls larger than the roof, because a heavy roof might have caused the lantern to collapse.
Before assembling the lantern, it’s worth checking that all the pieces release from the parchment paper. A sharp fillet knife is a good tool for that.
In my opinion, royal icing is the best glue. Hot sugar melts the pieces—I learned that the hard way.
