Does humidity cause royal icing to melt or soften? I'm a new WMI & teaching Course 2 - it has been very hot & humid here & our classroom is warm w/no air flow. Everyone's royal icing - even mine - just seemed to melt - our first flowers seemed to do ok, but then they kind of melted. I know that grease will cause this to happen . . I had warned them all to pre-wash bowls, mixers, tips, couplers, etc in hot water w/Dawn, but we still experienced a melt down LOL

So, just wondered if heat/humidity could cause this.
Thanks!

Absolutely, humidity definitely affects both the runniness of this icing AND the drying time. Sometimes the air is so humid in the summer months that I hardly have to thin the thick icing out with water at the end when using it to flood cookies! It can also change my drying time for larger iced cookies from the usual 16-18 or so in normal weather to 24-30 hours in humid weather! To fix that, I try to only do cookies in the cooler evening hours and then I run a dehumidifier in that room until the cookies are dried and ready to package.

Just keep an eye on it when you're mixing a batch in the mixer and judge accordingly whether you need to add a few drops of water OR a few more spoonfulls of icing sugar.

In really humid areas, it's best to work in a lightly air-conditioned room if you can, even when drying....or just give items extra hours to dry more solidly.

Thanks! Our classroom is not air conditioned - just vented - ugh - But at least I can let them know that they were on the right track, the humidity just won out that time LOL

thanks,