I am making my first ever tiered wedding cake. and my first serious cake in over 20 years. i used to work with just RI but have lost a lot of my skill through lack of practice.

the theme for the cake is roses and butterflies. the sugarpaste roses i found easy but i have tried to do a RI run-out for the futterflies so that i can make them delecate but they are so brittle

the recipe for the RI was egg white lemon and sugar.

I managed to remove them from the sheet but the just crumbled what am i doing wrong.

Are the butterflies solid or lacy? If they are solid, I would use Color Flow (use it the same way as RI but it is stronger when it dries). If they are lacy, I would use flexible royal icing.

Flexible Royal (I use Wilton Gum Paste mix):
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-676017-flexible.html+royal+icing
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=691099&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=flexible&&start=15

they are lacy. but i don't think I can get color flow in the UK. perhaps i need to rethink how to do them and find an alternate method.

the cake is for nov 2012 so i have plenty of time to practice and get better acquainted with modern methods so any suggestion would be most welcome.

how about making them with gum paste using cutters to make the lacy.

I have tried looking for tutorials but not had any success.

I make my RI with egg whites, sugar and lemon and it is fragile. But, I have done butterflies and a whole carriage without breaking them (it's in my pictures). First, make them on some nonstick paper (i use paper for baking). It will be much easier to pick them when they are dry. Second, let them dry for a several days. That's it.
Sorry on my bad english, I hope I helped.

Can you get gum paste mix in the UK? That is what you need to make the flexible royal icing, which is what I would use for a lacy butterfly rather than color flow anyway.

There are lots of butterfly molds and cutters available on the internet. You could use those with gumpaste and have a very solid result.

I found this website with a tutorial for making the butterflies HTH.
http://vanillalila.blogspot.com

we can get ready made gumpaste but not a packet mix. i think i have a recipe for gum paste.

I have been checking out the gallery and some of the butterflies are great.

So much has changed in cake decorating techniques since i used to do that i am having to start from scratch.