Okay, let’s explore the details of these royal icing marigolds. Everything you see is royal icing, either individually piped or hand-shaped to create the various flower parts. Wait – hand-shaped? How can that be? Isn’t royal icing only piped? No, no, no, not in Julia-land! She’s always striving to use cookies and royal icing in creative ways, and this cookie is another example of her innovation. For the “pods” at the bottom of the budding marigolds, she used royal icing “putty”, a term she coined for royal icing that is so thick it can be modeled without sticking to hands. It can also be textured and shaped with various tools. Here, Julia used a paring knife to score the lines into it. So cool!