Hello everyone! Last night was my first attempt at making Royal Icing. I used the Wilton recipe with the meringue powder. My question is, if you are making flowers ahead of time that you want to add to the cookie once it's iced, how long do you need to let the flower dry before handling? i made some last night and let them sit overnight and by morning they still didn't seem ready. They were stiff to the touch but when I tried to move them off the paper they completely smushed. Also, where do you put them to set?

I put my flowers on a little piece of wadded up paper towel in an egg carton (without the eggs). It probably takes 2 - 4 days for the flowers to dry, depending on the thickness of them. Hope this helps.

A few possibilities...

Your flowers may be rather thick in the center. In that case, it may take 24 hours or more for them to dry completely

If it's exceptionally humid, it may take a lot longer for your RI to dry. (Keep this in mind when you decorate your cookies!)

You may not have beaten your RI long enough. If your flowers have held their shape overnight, then this problem is not likely. Underbeaten RI flowers usually droop as they sit.

Depending on the shape of the flower, I either let them dry in an egg carton, as cylstrial mentioned, or a flower former or just on a flat surface. Wax paper is under the flowers in most cases. In the case of deep flowers such as daffodils, I use Reynolds no-stick foil.

Good luck!

Thank you so much! I am thinking I just didn't wait long enough....it was only about 12 hours. And it has been humid here. I just didn't realize it took that long for them to dry. This helps A LOT!!!