I was asking to do a small, feed 8-10, wedding cake for a friend. She doesn't want fondant - but would like decorations. Can I use royal icing on crusting buttercream? And can I put it in the fridge?

Thanks

I never use royal on any of my cakes. I use BC for everything. What kind of decorations are you doing? I mean, are they especially intricate or something?

Yes, you can put RI decorations on BC without problems, but you shouldn't refrigerate the RI decorations, lest they melt when condensation forms on them when they return to room temperature.

I piped royal icing onto buttercream once...it never hardened and actually "melted" until the shapes were just blobs.

However, I have had much success putting premade, dried royal icing pieces onto crusted buttercream.

HTH

How about on non-crusted buttercream? I'm in the process of piping a RI tiara to put on non crusted buttercream...will it melt??

Nah...the tiara will be fine. Some grease might eventually seep into the tiara, but it will be fine for several hours on the cake.

Oh yay! Thank you Cakepro!!

I piped royal icing on fondant that was coated in crisco (for the shine and to clean off the powder sugar) and it dried hard and nothing bad happened to it.

Grease is an enemy when making royal icing. Once it is made you can pipe it on buttercream (have also done this) and it will be fine. Moisture is an enemy of dried royal and the mosture from icing can soft royal after a while or if you get water/condesation on it it can melt.

I just got done piping scroll details on a buttercream cake, and it has set all night and it is fine! Good Luck!

Wow....I have made royal icing flowers, let them dry for a few days then put them on a buttercream cake and I have never had a problem with it.

Question - I am learning how to make roses. I went to Youtube and watched a couple of videos on making buttercream roses. My problem is that the BC got so soft that the rose kinda flattened out. It didn't look bad considering it was my first attempt ever, but I am trying to get something firmer that can stand up more. I have attached a pix so you can see what I mean. Any suggestios would be appreciated.

My daughter (who is going to Johnson and Wales next year) said I need to use Royal Icing with extra PS?

You don't have to use royal, but you do need to add more PS to make the icing stiffer. I use BC for everything ... icing, roses, drop flowers, borders, string work, etc. THen let the rose air dry (don't freeze them .... air dry). Air drying removes the moisture and leaves you a stiff, lightweight rose. Freezing just solidifies the moisture in the rose and then when it's moved to room temp, it tends to "melt", just like ice cream and ice cubes.

0h, Barb! I'm one of those "until it looks right" cooks. I rarely use any measuring cups/spoons for anything I do, so I'm no help.

What recipe did you start with?

You can freeze BC flowers of all kinds and put them on the cake without them melting or changing texture. Freezing them just allows you to move a flower ordinarily done best in RI from the nail to the cake. The flowers thaw really quickly, so working with 1 to 3 frozen flowers at a time is best.

You would want to freeze them if you want them to return to a buttercream state. Air-drying flowers creates dry flower mummies that are crunchy. LOL Choose your method according to how you want them to taste.

Whatever method you choose, as the others have said, your BC was too soft. Excellent start, though!

Hello, 

I have a non crusting butter cream cake due, and i need to do a drip all the way round the edge. Can i use royal icing? instead of candy melts or white chocolate ganache. As i find the candy melts too thick.

Thank you 

I haven't done much w/royal.  Not sure if it will work for what you want to do.  If your candy melts/white choco ganache is too thick thin it w/a few drops of oil.  Just standard salad oil.