My son is entering a kids cake decorating competition for the first time. He wants to use meringues (the little cookies, not what you put on pies) as a decoration but they would have to sit uncovered, in a possibly humid building, at room temperature, on a cupcake for 2-3 days.  The cake will not be eaten so they don’t have taste good but everything used has to be made from edible materials. Is there something that the meringues could be dipped in or painted with that will help them hold their shape and keep them looking good?

idk -- but my best suggestion is to make a batch and test them -- hopefully some others will pipe up with what kinds of things to test with -- or i will chime in later -- because your atmosphere is the best judge of the conditions --

I've never made meringues in  my life, so I have no idea what effect heat and humidity will have on them.

do you mean macarons or meringues? when you said cookies i though of macarons -- 

i think once they are fully dried meringues are pretty sturdy but test it --

They can always be dipped in chocolate:)    There are choco covered meringue cookies (to be purchaced) that I've used for Thanksgiving turkey cookies - https://www.cakecentral.com/u/37/kakeladi/gallery?page=16      I know exactly what you are going through as I have often entered my county fair with the exact problems.   Just know that the judging is done before the fair actually opens to the public so any damage that does happen is not seen. 

y’know since it’s not to be eaten — why not just make a similar shape out of marzipan — fondant could also be used if you work in a lot of cornstarch so it sets up and dries for a long time in advance — so it stays very firm/hard as a rock

if you need to respond please start a new thread because new members cannot reply to threads for a while

I have made meringues but never kept them more than 24 hours and never placed them on buttercream. Meringues don't  keep well and they don't like grease or high humidity. I would wonder if they would "melt " into the buttercream. I think your best bet is to use meringues that have the bottoms dipped in chocolate as was suggested or test out a few on the counter on some icing or even on top of a bit of butter at room temperature for 2 or 3 days.  I test everything I am not sure of because I don't like surprises...lol well not bad ones. Good luck to your son.

I agree that meringues will probably not hold up to heat and humidity for days.  Let me share my one and only entry in the cake division at our state fair.  I have no idea what happened.  The flower were made with Nicholas Lodge's gum paste recipe, the strongest I've ever seen, and usually stands up to anything.  These were some of my first ever flowers, so the petals were very thick and clumsy, but they still melted like candle wax.  

This is such a common problem at county & state fairs you would think someone would come up with a solution 

I have no idea what happened to it.  There were other cakes covered in fondant and gum past flowers and they showed no damage at all.

Sandra Smiley - that cake was incredible. The flowers were so realistic that they ended up drooping just like the real thing out of water?...lol? 

Haha, SquirrellyCakes, that is one way to looks at it!  I'll take it.  Thanks!