There are so few ingredients in the recipe for Royal that I shouldn't be able to mess it up - however - I have to my credit only succeeded in making a usable batch once and even then it wasn't beautiful.
I want to be able to make roses. Hundreds of beautiful roses to have on hand whenever I need them... but no. I'm cursed.
I bet you are thinking... she has oil or grease somewhere. I assure you I do everything but pressure wash everything before I use it. I use parchment bags... (not that it would help seeing as the icing is goo before it's out of the bowl) I mix in a metal bowl, with a stand up mixer. I have tried meringue powder, egg white, cream of tarter. Every single time it starts out looking stiff enough to use but by the time I have the beater out of the bowl it's starting to melt. I beat the stuff for a short time... or sometimes up to 10 minutes. I use luke warm water. I just don't know what I am doing wrong! ? I tell you I am so frustrated with this I am ready to throw in my apron... Someone PLEASE HELP!

Royal icing is what I learned to decorate cakes with and I much prefer it to using buttercream. The recipe I have always used is simply 1 egg white to 1 lb icing sugar. Make your batch of icing, run a fork through it from one side of the bowl to the other. If the fork marks are still in it after 10 or 15 seconds, and haven't run together at all, it's ready. If they change shape at all, add more icing sugar. I must admit, I haven't tried any RI recipes from here on CC, so I don't know what would be causing your problem!! Hope you can sort it out!!

I recently had trouble but haven't tried making much. I found when I switched to a good quality meringue powder I had much better luck...

Is it possible to over-beat?? 10 minutes on a kitchen aid seems like a long time. Last time I made some I went 6 minutes (8 cups sugar, 6 tablspoons meringe and about 11 tablespoons warm water)

HTH, I hope you get it figured out!!

What brand of sugar are you using? that could be the culprit.. use only C & H or Dominos... and I know you said you mixed it for 10 mins.. but if it started to melt as soon as you stopped beating it.. it couldn't have been beaten long enough. It does not need to be on high, medium is ok. How old is your meringue powder?

You still may not be beating it long enough! I beat my sugar+meringue powder+water recipe a MINIMUM of 10 minutes. In high humidity, it has taken as long as 20 minutes.

Other than that, I can't think of what else could be going wrong.

Adding to the all the above advice:
Remember that you can add more sugar to your basic Royal Icing recipe till you get the consistency you want.
You mention you'd like to make RI roses, I believe it would be hard for your hands. Try them with buttercream.

jazzyjenni, you must be cursed...I can't imagine what problem you are having if you have done it many ways, with the same result. I have used fresh egg whites, pwd egg whites and different pwd sugars and always have good luck with royal. Parchment bags, no grease, different mixing times....I wish I could give you the magic answer but I don't know what you are doing wrong. Maybe there is a cake club in your area and you could hook up with someone to show you what they do and something will click. It might even be worth the investment to do a Wilton class just for that purpose. (do they do that? show you how to make it?, I don't know)

It is great to have a ton of roses ready if you use that many.
Good luck!

Thanks everyone. I will give it all a try. As for the sugar - I don't doubt it may be the culprit because the rogers sugar has corn starch added. Does anyone know where to find pure cane sugar in canada??

I have NEVER used 'pure' powdered sugar. ALL powdered sugar in the US has cornstarch in it.

I'll dig out the recipe I use often. Before I found it I had much the same record yoiu have. It might take me awhile to find it but I'll come back and edit this post w/the recipe.

I use a ratio of 454g (1 lb.) powdered sugar, 3 Tbsp. meringue powder, and 5 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of water, beaten for 7 minutes on speed 4 of my Kitchenaid mixer with the beater paddle. It always comes out perfect.

The only thing I would think for you to do is to start with a fresh can of meringue powder.

Making royal icing roses is very easy if your royal icing consistency is nice and stiff.

Sherri