I too have been experimenting with royal icing. I have also made my icing with sugar, corn syrup, and flavoring in the past, which tastes great but I feel that using a recipe with meringue gives my cookies a better (less shiny) look. However, I feel like there is a bit of an aftertaste with this ( a little bitter). The recipe calls for sugar, cream of tartar, corn syrup, meringue and flavoring ( I use almond flavor). I tried adding butter flavor and really hated the taste and smell. What could be causing the bitter flavor? Any thoughts? Maybe I just need more flavoring too but I added a lot already.
Mandy