Ok, Last night I was watching Cake Boss and Buddy was decorating the Easter Bunny cake. He put it in the cooler and the fur came off. When he discovered it he said it was because the Royal Icing does not dry properly in the fridge. I have only used Royal Icing as glue to hold things together or as decoration on a gingerbread house and not olly was it rock hard but it tasted like crap. I would never eat it. SO my question is what is different about a Royal icing you would eat? I can see it for piping on decor you would not necessarily eat but to cover an entire cake??!

When royal icing is in direct contact with a moist/higher fat surface like a pound cake/Bundt cake/fruit cake/buttercream, it doesn't dry rock-hard like it does when you use it for glue or gingerbread construction.

For example, in the UK, it's pretty common to actually ice marzipan-covered fruitcakes with royal icing. It crusts and dries hard to the touch on the exterior, but when you slice into it it's softer inside and doesn't dry solid in the interior due to the contact with the moist cake's surface.

LOL - I pick the royal icing off of gingerbread houses to eat by itself! It's just like candy to me!

RI doesn't have to taste bad. Many recipes don't have you put in any flavoring, but you can easily replace some of the water with flavoring extracts, like clear vanilla, almond, or coconut. People always rave about my sugar cookies with flavored RI.

I wonderd about that too and thought he mis~spoke perhaps? I cannot imagine usong royal icing like that.....maybe he has a different kind that is appropriate to use in that fashion, I know he is a cake genius.

You can add glycerin to royal icing to keep it from drying rock hard.

I think I will stick to my trusted cream cheese be. Thanks for the info!