Oh, goody my first post!

Hi All!

I'm getting ready to start decorating a cake in about an hour. My question is if I could possibly add meringue powder or even gum-tex to my already prepared buttercream to make royal icing.......

Can I? I'm just curious because I don't feel like making ANYmore frosting tonight. Any ideas would be great. I may not even need any royal, but just incase my "painting" doesn't turn out then I have a back up so I can pipe instead. So help me out if you have any suggestions. Thanks!!!

p.s. you may also hear from me later if I end up hating MMF. I'm using that for the first time.

nope...royal icing by definition has NO grease in it. adding meringue powder to buttercream will just give you a crusting buttercream, i think. definitely not royal though. sorry. i've used buttercream to pipe on fondant though and it works fine, you don't necessarily need royal (depending on what you're doing, really).

oh, i forgot...welcome to CC! prepare to be addicted.

Welcome to CC! To answer your question, you can not make royal icing from buttercream. Grease actually breaks down royal icing keeping it from settng properly. So the shortening in buttercream just wont do. I make royal icing with powder sugar and egg whites only. Nothing more. If I want it thicker I add more sugar, thinner add more egg white. Refrigerate and it will last two weeks. You cant go by the date on the eggs. Once they are cracked they only have the two week shelf life in the sugar. Oh, I dont like mmf either. I use Toba Garretts receipe every week and love the stuff.

Oh my God!

I am working on the cake from hell! Nevermind the royal icing. But thanks for answering. I was just reeeally hoping I could cheat my way out of making any. And yes, I hate MMF. I had an inkling this wouldn't work out. We're just not meant to have a working relationship. I now appreciate my scratch fondant so much more!!

My cake literally looks like a big turd. There will be no pictures. At total loss on the visual side, however, it tases soooo good. What a shame.

Thanks again