I can't seem to get my royal icing to go right. I follow the recipe and nothing seems to work. It is ok for the first couple minutes then it goes soft. I make sure my equipment is clean and free of any type of shortening. I have tried and tried but it still goes soft. Am I not mixing it enough or what. I made some yesterday and the white was fine, but I needed to make some flowers so I colored some with paste color and after I got it mixed it started to go soft. Please someone help me lol thank you

If i'm understanding you correctly, you want it stiff for piping, right?

It sounds as if you have too much liquid added to your royal. I would cut back some and see if that helps. It sounds like your paste color is thinning it even more. Reduce water and see if that improves.

Make sure you are mixing it for 7 to 10 minutes. (10 minutes with a hand style mixer for sure) If you don't it won't get the texture you need for piping. Royal icing can also react to heat from a person's hands making it soften as you pipe. Parchment bags can help reduce this problem. If you are trying for a really dark color your paste color may have thinned the royal and you could try adding more icing sugar to stiffen it back up.