I am going to be making hibiscus flowers out of royal icing, I've never done this before but I'm ambitious! However, I have a few questions about royal icing: how do I store it between uses? will it dry out? do I pop the finished flowers out of the lily nail right away before they are dry? thanks in advance, I need to start tonight for a cake for next weekend.
kym

Save it in an airtight container, it will keep about 2 weeks. I tack a piece of wax paper on the nail to do the flower on and then take them off to air dry.

When using Royal, whatever isn't in your icing bag should be in a tupperware container with a piece of plastic wrap right on top of the icing and the cover on it. YOu can keep it out on the counter until you're done with the project. Store leftovers in the fridge.

What I do with my royal that is in the icing bag while not in use is to put it tip-down in a glass with a wet paper towel at the bottom of the glass. Make sure the other end is twisted shut. This keeps it from drying out.

As for when to take it out of the lilly nail. I don't know. I have a lilly nail set that I still have nevr taken out of the package!

Do not use grease with royal icing!

This thread will help:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-38091.html

You are using a foil lined lily nail for these flowers, so you need to take each one out, still in the foil, so that you can continue to make more.

Rae