Another question for y'all!!

I have a bride who has asked me for pricing on frosting some premade cakes..she wants them frosted in royal icing (she said it was a tradition)
Is there a softer royal icing I should use? (I would think regular royal icing would get too hard) Also have no idea how much to charge her for just frosting and decorating a cake! (they are normal sizes she said..)

Thanks again guys!

Something to consider. When you frost and decorate cakes baked by someone else, you get 'credit' for it all. If the cake isn't good, people will think you baked it.

You want your reputation based on the work that you do.

I'd pass, too.

Premade cakes? Royal icing? strange.....

the only "softer" icing I can think of is Alice's cookie icing, in the recipe section.....contains butter and I guess if thinned enough, can pour over the cake.

deb

I think I've seen information on this posted by MissBaritone - I believe it's a tradition in England, where she's located. She has mentioned using glycerine to "soften" the royal icing.

Might want to try to PM her or do a search for her posts to see what you can find out.

I'm with the others, though, about decorating somebody else's cakes - not sure I'd be willing to do that, as a poorly prepared cake may reflect badly on you.

Good luck!

Laura.

Royal icing or fonadnt is the traditional icing used to ice wedding cakes where I'm from. There are one of two methods you can use to apply the royal and yes it does dry hard. You can either mix the royal icing to soft peak stage and spread it on much like buttercream except that you use about 3 or 4 layers of royal icing each one being a bit thinner than the last. Let each layer dry for a few hours in between applications. The other way, which I much prefer is to knead the royal icing to a consistency much like fondant roll it out just like fondant and apply it to the cake. It does have the tendency to tear if you arent careful though but flaws are easily repaired using a bit of egg white or water if you prefer. I actually learned to decorate with royal. Using buttercream for weddings here is akin to insanity.

this lady surely has fruit cake that she is wanting covered with royal? if thats the case, the cake needs to be covered in mazipan first then iced in royal and decorated. you can add glycerine to the royal so it is cutable, and wont dry a crisp hard. either way its a pretty big expense for the mazipan and time consuming with the royal.

Yes in England although we use a lot of fondant now, the traditional way here is to cover a rich fruit cake in royal icing. You apply marzipan then several thin layers of royal icing. The top and the sides are iced seperately and it is a very time consuming process as every coat has to dry for at least 24 hours before the next can be applied. We do add glycerine to stop the icing setting quite so hard (1 teaspoon to every 1lb of icing sugar). If you need any help do pm me for advice

Toba Garrett has a book out, She is either from Australia or learned the Australian method, and she talks about covering cakes in Royal Icing in the book. I have the book if you are interested in more info, just let me know. I would be happy to help.

Wow, thanks for all the information! I never thought about that people would think I baked the cakes...and it sounds like a lot of work! I wonder if I should price it very high and maybe she won't use me! haha

let us know if you did it and how it turned out if you did.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions! I have decided to turn down the cake...I never thought about it being a reflection of my cakes, which I take great pride in the taste (still have a ways to go on how they look! hahaha!)

I found all this discussion about royal icing in other countries fasinating though!! I would love a recipe on the English Style Royal Icing...

btw, I have found alot of brides here afraid of Fondant, because they only fondant they have ever tasted is Wilton. Sigh.