My Wilton instructor told me that you should never put royal icing down your drain because it will coat the pipes and "cement" just as it does so well on cakes and cookies. Is this common knowledge? Have any of you ever had any plumbing issues due to cake stuff?

I cant imagine that its true. 1stly RI will melt away when it comes into contact with water, I have soaked a dummy covered in rock hard RI and it all melted. 2nd RI wont dry if its even slighly humid, and my drains are constantly wet . Afterall its just sugar and eggwhites

So maybe if you dump a truckload doen ur drain and not used it for a couple of weeks it might turn into "cement"

I wouldnt think so either, maybe they've had problems with all the students dumping their leftover icing in the sink and it caused a back up? But at home how much are you really dumping? If you're worried just be sure to run plenty of hot water afterwards.

I would think BC would be a much worse problem. RI is water-soluble, whereas BC is not.

Buttercream is definitely worse for plumbing than royal....

I don't have a problem w/excess buttercream going down the sink drain - but I don't put shortening in my BC. Real butter buttercream dissolves. I can see where shortening-based frosting might glom up the pipes.

I clean my tips which have rock hard RI by running water through it until it dissolves. To me, there is just no logical way that it could set the way your instructor believes. Maybe she just confused herself? If you learn something and it's wrong, your brain never seems to forget it. I think your brain processes that there's something funny about the info then makes a conscious effort to remember this strange new info which is why you repeat it to everyone.

I think you have to consider the volume. There's a reason commercial ktichens are required to have grease traps. Home kitchens are not designed for that kind of volume.

I would think that if you have a habit of putting everything down your drain, you should have a regular pipe maintenance habit in place, too (bleach or heavy duty drain-o once a month or something). You'd be amazed how "oh, it's just a little bit!" can build up.

the mom who does a birthday cake once or twice a year for her kids is not going to have the same issues that a home-baker, who does cakes 2-3 times a WEEK is going to have.

Personally, i try to put nothing down my drain. OF course you have a small amount in your tips, but everything else get thrown in the trash.

And watch those toothpicks, they can get stuck in the drain and cause you problems.

I do agree with regular pipe maintenance its much cheaper then having to have pipes replaced or having to hear your husband bitch at you cause you messed the drain up again.

OK, so I made myself laugh. When I saw the topic "Royal Icing and Plumbing" I was thinking - "personal" plumbing, not sink plumbing. And my first thought was, "Oh wow - royal icing is making some people constipated???"

Yes, it's Sunday morning and I'm only on cup #2 of coffee so I'm a little slow!!!

newmansmom2004...
I too was confuse, I was thinking " oh gosh there is a new technique to learn"...
Oh well, Lmao!

Thanks for your comments. I thought this was strange, and have never seen anyone on here post about it. If none of you are having problems, it must not be a fact. I won't bother being so careful anymore...and that's really why I posted...sheer laziness!

Nah, I wouldn't worry about it clogging your pipes. I just dump leftover RI in the garbage, but I've certainly sent some down the garbage disposal as I rinsed out the bowl and I haven't had any problems with it.

Now...I will send a warning to everyone NOT to put cinnamon sticks down the garbage disposal! I had boiled some cinnamon sticks with several other berries and spices to make the house smell good and when I was finished with it I just threw the whole mess down the disposal. Heck, the cinnamon sticks were waterlogged and softened from the boiling and I figured, what the heck. Several hours and a new garbage disposal later, hubby says, "Um....I think in the future it would be best NOT to put sticks of any kind down the garbage disposal." Fortunately he saw the humor in the whole thing and I got to give him a little razzing later on when he forgot to take the plug out of the bottom of the new disposal that allows the dishwasher to drain back into the sink drain and we ended up with a small flood under the sink when I ran the dishwasher.

I once taught a class at a shop and we used RI.....after the class they ran hot water thru the coffee maker and poured it down the drain but it was a very old building. I guess they had had some problems.
But as everyone said, for the m0ost part the occasional baker probably uses more grease than RI. Also if you do dishes (dishwasher or by hand the water used would be enough to clear out ordinary plumbing I'm sure.

I am here to tell you first hand DO NOT PUT BUTTERCREAM DOWN THE KITCHEN SINK!

Be it hi ratio based or crisco based, even butter based... don't.

Don't ask how I know just trust me.