I'm About To Bawl And Need Help W/ Royal Icing And Mmf.
Decorating By KimAZ Updated 30 Sep 2005 , 1:48pm by susgene
Ok Ladies (and gents),
Please help if you can! I am about to bawl my head off. I sat for 4 1/2 hours yesterday making royal icing flowers and now they are STUCK IN THE TIN FOIL! 
When I tried to take them out, they're cracking right and left!! What the heck???
I have over 100 flowers! Do I just need to let them sit and dry longer? I've done them before and didn't have this problem. Could I freeze them to help peel off the tin foil for the cakes I need right away? UGH!! I am having one HECK of a time lately with all my cake decorating. Nothing and I mean nothing is going right!!!
I made MMF and cut out all the loops for a bow, let it set up for 3 days and now realize the loops are way too wide for the cake I was planning on using them for! So I made another batch, made smaller loops and now that's sitting here drying. But then I realize since they are MMF and not store bought fondant, they probably won't get hard enough and will probably be limp and/or crack when I'm ready to use them. Can I cry yet?!?!? 
Then....I'm working so hard on a cake for the upcoming state fair. I've practiced it twice now and HATE IT! I think I'm trying to do more than my skill level will allow. It's SO frustrating!! I swear I almost threw the entire cake across the kitchen yesterday. 
If anyone would be so kind to help, I'd greatly appreciate it. 
A very frustrated,
KimAZ
(((HUGS))) I have been there too.. I wish I could be more help.
Try to let the royal icing flowers dry another day. Wax paper or parchment paper is an alternate choice. Haven't had any problems with that. As for the MMF--It should dry. I haven't tried mmf for bows but I know I have seen others post that their bows are MMF (I think).
I used the store-bought fondant and made a bow. I let it dry 1 day, thinking that was long enough and by the time I got the cake to the party , the bow wilted and cracked. Should have let it dry longer.
Please don't get discouraged, this happens to all of us at some time or the other. This is what makes a better decorator. And how can you improve your skills, if you don't make a few mistakes. Take a deep breath--say a little prayer and go for it again. I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!!!
Hang in there! I've used MF for bows on cakes and it will work, it just has to get dry! I use MMF for all my cakes, but I keep a box of the wilton fondant around to make decorations. It just seems to work a little better!
We all have days like that, don't worry it WILL get better.
The royal icing flowers are best left to dry on parchment or wax paper. Try using an angled spatula and kinda slide it under each one, they may pop right off.
The MMF will dry out enough for the bows, I've done it before with no problems.
on a nother forum topic, someone had mentioned putting the box loops infront of a fan to help them dry quicker. Maybe you could try that.
Please don't freeze the royal icing that will completely ruin it. Royal icing has to dry out. I would give it another day make sure the flowers are somewhere warm and dry
Kim, When I make royal icing flowers I lightly spray the tin foil with cooking spray and it helps to realease them when they are dry... If you spray very lightly it will not break down the royal icing. What type of flowers did you make?? If they are thick flowers they will take more than a day to completely dry.. Let them dry overnight and try again tomorrow, if you can.
As far as the bow goes... I always make my bows out of either gumpaste or a mix of half gumpast and half fondant or I'll add some tylose to the fondant to help dry faster. When do you need the bow?? I tried making a bow out of all fondant and had nothing but trouble because the loops kept collapsing on me... Never again!!!
Is there anyway you could revise your cake for the fair so you don't get so frustrated?? Maybe use those techniques your comfortable with.
Hang in there...Everything will work out ok!!
I can sympathize! The royal icing decorations that I made for a cake for Saturday cracked when I tried removing them from the parchment paper. Thank goodness the cake is for a 5 year old and it's still salvageable. I mix my fondant with gum paste (or you could just use gum paste) for my bows because I was having problems with wilting/sagging. It made a huge difference. I think that you have awesome talent! I go through the same spurts of wanting to kick cake decorating to the curb but after a few days I'm back on the wagon! I tend to want things to be perfect and forget sometimes that I'm supposed to be enjoying it as well.
Sorry you have had such troubles but I agree with Kim....Lightly spray or rub a tiny bit of shortening on the foil before you pipe the flowers.I'm not sure you are going to be able to salvage the 100 flowers.Uggghhhhh ...We learned that little tip from our instructor in class 3!! Cheer up!!!
seems like everyone covered everything....just hope things start to look up..
when that happens to me I walk away....gather myself drink a soda andwhen Im realxed go back in and look at it in a new light....
Looks like everyone Covered Everything Except
This,,
IF you THROW it YOU will have to CLEAN it UP! hahaha..
I am so sorry everything seems to be Going South, Chin Up and SMILE & LAUGH, I Laugh a LOT I know it seems Crazy, but If I hurt myself I Laugh,, if you hurt yourself, I laugh,, it seems like it makes it easier to Cope with. Everything will come together soon.
Good Luck!
~Sweet~=0)
Hey KimAZ,
I freeze my RI flowers after they are dry. Never had any problem with them being frozen. That's how I store them. It's too humid in LA & they have grown mold if I don't store them in the freezer. Always works for me. IMHO I wouldn't put any grease on them. They will break down, maybe not fast but they will. I have tried putting my flowers on tinfoil before to save money. Learned not to do it again. All I could do to get the tinfoil off was to just peel it off of each flower. Time consuming but at least you can salvage most of the flowers.
About the bow? Do you put tissue between each bow while it is drying? Tissue or cotton balls helps keep the shape. I figure that's what you did but thought I'd mention it. 
Please don't get discouraged! Nothing is too advanced to you or any of us decorators!!! Skies the limit!! Practice will make it easier!! So keep a smile on your face & keep baking!!!!!!!!!!
Good luck Kim. I don't have any helpful tips, but I've sure felt like you're feeling before! My daughter's birthday cake this past weekend kept me up all night and had me in tears! I literally banged my head on the table in frustration at one point (you should have seen the look on my dh's face!). You will make a beautiful cake--your photos are wonderful.
Thank you all for your kind words. I'm still mad as heck at this whole mess with the royal icing flowers though.
I didn't mention, but the reason they are on tin foil is because they are lilly's and petunia's which are made in the lilly nail. And they are quite thick. So it's too late to spray the foil with anything and there just isn't anyway to gently pull them off the foil. I did try to freeze a few to see if that would help but like Miss B said, it won't. They need to dry more so I'm going to give it a few more days before I toss the whole lot. When you all make lillies or petunias, don't you make them in foil too?
I didn't put tissue paper in the bow loops but that is a good idea. They don't seem to be wilting just yet so hopefully with them sitting under the A/C unit in my kitchen they'll be good and dry by tomorrow. Ugh!
Thank you all again for helping. I know everyone had one of those days...or two, or three. Sometimes it just helps to vent to people who understand. And thank you SweetCreations...the only reason I didn't throw that blanekety blank cake across the kitchen was because then I'd have had an even bigger mess to clean up.
KimAZ
Hey Kim,
I do use tinfoil for the lilly, petunia's, poinsetta's & I think it morning glory. The tinfoil you should use is sold by Wilton. It's in a small bag. I can't remember what they are called. Maybe candy wrappers or something like that. The royal icing flowers come off very easy with that foil. They are costly but worth it. There might be other wrappers out there that is the same but I've never seen any. Good luck! You'll get it!!
Kim, those petunias take forever to dry.... I'll bet you have better luck once they dry more. Do try spraying the foil with a tiny bit of cooking spray next time.. It really does work. I know it's frustrating when you put a lot of work into something and then it doesn't come out as planned.
I always use the new Reynolds Release foil for the royal icing flowers... they slip right off with absolutely no sticking. I've had a huge batch of lilies destroyed using regular foil due to the sticking. It may take just a bit longer for them to dry on the Release.
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