What is the advantage of using royal icing over BC? I've seen several cakes with small dots on the side and they were done in royal and I was wondering what the benefit was. Also, are these royal decorations too hard to eat later??? I've never really done anything in royal icing but I would like to try.
Thanks!!

I certainly find royal icing easier to control than buttercream. The decorations are fine to eat. I don't have any problems with them being to hard, but if you are worried you can add glycerine to royal icing, This allows the outside to crust but the inside stays soft

Thanks MissBaritone!! How much glycerine should I add to a batch of Royal?? I always avoided it b/c I thought it got really hard!

Add 1 teaspoon of glycerine to every 1lb of icing sugar. It will set hard on the outside but the underside stays soft. However glycerine must never be used on the coating of a traditional wedding cake if you want to use pillars to support the next tier as it has to set solid to support the weight