Gingerbread Exchange Community

Hello!  And thanks for providing this wonderful forum.  I have been an avid follower of Ultimate Gingerbread for a few years now and am enjoying discovering the new format.  Great job 

I am a self-taught (thank you Google and Teresa Layman!) gingerbreader and I have a question about royal icing - I have been using Antonia74's recipe for the last three years (it seems quite similar to the one you posted with regard to ingredients, but the technique is quite different).  In general I like it's taste and it is easy to work with, it is forgiving in small and large batches, but no matter what I do I can't seem to get microbubbles out of it.

These are the sort that when you do flood filling, no amount of pin-pricking will get rid of them, they are so tiny that their surface tension resists all popping.  When I look at professional sugar-cookies decorated with royal I don't see these bubbles, but I ALWAYS get them.  I also don't like these microbubbles because when used in a stiffer consistency for wall support or exterior siding they seem to affect the integrity of my icing and make it much more prone to a crumble rather than a crack sort of breakage.

Am I making it too dry? Too moist? Is the heat in Australian summer messing with my work (during Christmas gingerbread season my kitchen would be between 75 and 90F most of the time)?  Should I leave the air conditioning off or on?  It's is driving me nuts, nothing I seem to do will eradicate the microbubbles. 

I have also tried working with the icing fresh, and tried resting it overnight or for a couple of days to let the bubble rise and pop of their own accord and then gently folding it again before use (this yielded a small improvement, but was still not wonderful).

Anyone got any suggestions??  Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Kate