I had planed to spend this whole weekend working on learning different styles of cake decorating; I have never done any of this before. Saturday I got dragged in to watching my 2 infant nieces and 1 nephew. After spending all day and not the 2 or three hours I had planned (plus getting puked on 3 times) Saturday was a waste. I thought ok fine I won't get to practice as much as I want to but at least I can test out one method. I chose to give this royal Icing a try they had this nice "simple" purple cake with butterflies. I thought this is the best first cake. I spent all day getting all the icing mixed and the cake baked, and tracing the out lines of butterfly parts so they would be 3D. I thought I would use my pan as a weight to flatten my kind of rounded pan and when I lifted it off the top 1/2 inch came with it! After carefully pealing it off the pan and putting it back on the cake I decide to frost the cake, the icing was rough but it went on ok. Than time to peal the butterfly wings off the sheet provided for that purpose, I made 4 so that I would have enough to be safe...the first one crumbled to touch, great... So I freeze them and after an hour I try again the second wing falls apart but no so easily, so I bend the sheet and likely save one set. As I place the wing on the cake the tip breaks off! I try the other because it could be ok that way and the second wing just crumbles... ... Ok ok breath, I try to make small flowers but my icing that I made fresh is runny and they turn out as small blobs, I give up I am going to pull out the pre made stuff! I try to make a rose, how on earth does the nail help? In the end I made a flat blob strawberry with jelly beans around the boarder. How did something that looked so easy go so wrong? I know I should have looked up some of the things I was doing past this book I have, since it really explained nothing but my computer is so far from the kitchen and I was eager to get my hands wet. Maybe I should just give up on the royal icing all togather.

Please...please... some one help me feel better about this disaster!

I will post a pic if I find my digital camera but it is kind of painful to look upon.

At least this is better than my no bake 3 day finger nail polish cookies

I have days like this too. You are just coming off a high from a cake that turned out great, when you make something that just won't do what you want it to do! Its disheartening, but you gotta keep trying. I will say that something that really worked for me was to make a batch of little cakes. I baked (2) 8" square cakes, cut each into 4 pieces and stuck em in the freezer. When I wanted to try out some new techniques, I pulled 2 pieces of cake out of the freezer and I had a cute little 3.75" 2 layer cake to practice on. It saved me from having to bake a big cake every time I wanted to practice.
Keep on practicing..you'll get there!!

Cindy

We have ALL been there..... it will calm down....... I got my first "thank you" from a clilent this week..... It felt SOOO good ! It's times like this that make the "BAD" days go away.........
CINDY........ WHAT A GREAT IDEA !! I'm going to freeze a couple today.....

Sorry to hear you had a lousy experience. One thing I do to "flatten" my cakes is as soon as they come out of the oven, apply even pressure with a pot holder. It will take most of the "dome" off. Royal icing can be a bit challenging to work with at times, but here are a few tips that might help. If your icing was runny you either didn't beat it long enough, didn't add enough sugar (or too much liquid) or it bad been left sitting for too long after you beat it and needed to be re-beat so it would hold its shape again. Also, it's very important that there not be any grease in your bowl or on anything that you use with the icing.

the rose nail definitely helps with rose formation, sounds like maybe your turning technique wasn't right...it takes some practice...and having the right consistency icing definitely helps too.

It will get better. Keep working at it...read some of the tutorials on this site and keep trying!!

Good luck!
Angela

Thanks for the support I needed it. The next cake I will have planned out a bit more than just in my head. I brought the bad one to work so maybe my co workers will like it. It is a strawberry cake with purple icing, taste like crunch berries.

The idea about the small cakes is great, I will try that memorial weekend, but first I am going to practice my roses. I think if I can do a rose I will be able to cover any mistake

I really like the small cake idea. I am just learning how to do this stuff also but without having to take any classes, no babysitters. I mainly just want to make "nice" cakes for my kids b-days and family. I just hate having to bake up a big cake and half go to waste. Thanks.

It really sounds like your royal icing was just off. Next time your try it make sure everything is grease free. Run everything you can through the dishwasher and everything else use a vinegar water rinse and really hot water. Start out with less water, it's easier to add a teaspoon of water that a cup of powdered sugar, and just amke sure you mix it long enough.

I bought some Texas sized muffin pans at Walmart (that's really what they're called) because I wanted something for my kids to be able to decorate. I have four kids, three who are old enough to want to decorate a cake and that would leave me with WAY too much cake. These are a great little size for them each to have enough room to "play" and not have too much cake to eat.

The recipe I had didn't call for water; it was two egg whites, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp glycerin, 1 lb powder sugar. It said to mix till it formed stiff peaks but that never happen I stopped when the mixer started smelling like it was about to catch on fire and the blades were moving so slow I could stick my finger in and out while it was at top speed. I think I may move away from royal icing since it is just so sweet anyways.

i don't use an egg white recipe for royal. i use the wilton royal icing recipe (you can look it up on line) w/ no adjustments for altitude and have had luck w/ it. If you didn't get the peaks it definately is missing something. Don't get discouraged, keep plugging away it will come along. Also with our high alt. here in CO i find that I have to mix it longer to get it to my liking. I have also learned that it is best to let royal icing flowers etc. dry overnight to avoid the breakage.

I will try that next time if I do butterflies again. I was afraid that it was the eggs making the stuff like thick glue; I will have to look up this other recipe.

I too use the Wilton Royal recipe now, but I have also used a different recipe that yields a hard product, just not rock hard, so it's good for things that are going to be eaten and not just admired. It uses egg white unstead of the meringue powder, as well as shortening, vanilla, sugar and I think water. PM if you want the recipe. I actually have used it decorate the whole cake as well as make decorations.

I have plenty of room for any recipes you can throw at me.