I asked before about covering cake with Cruchy icing..I did determine that my friend from Trinidad would like Royal icing on the cake. Now I have a few questions about how to execute this. Thank you in advance for your help..

1. I have a recipe form the Nicolas lodge book 1 for Royal icing on cake...but my friend is taking the cake to her sister that was recently diagnosed and began treatment for breast cance. So I do not want to use egg whites (immuno compromised). So can I use the meriguw powder recipe (10x, meringue powder, wtr)? Or is there a better one. The Lodge book says allbulem..but what is that and where do I get it and...is it safe for immuno compromised people?

2. I know you need to do several layers and let them dry. But what about the filling in the middle? i do not know if this is traditional, but she requested vanillla cake with strawberry filling. So Normally I would make a BC dam, but shoul dI do this with Royal too? I do not plan on putting much since she will be traveling by plane from MD to Fl.

3. Any other hints?

Thanks again!
Julia

IIRC, there is a layer of marzipan or something under the royal icing.

You might want to send a PM to MissBaritone, she's the one who has posted in the past about this, and she might be able to help.

Good luck!
Laura.

I don't know about using royal icing for frosting a cake or for a filling. It gets rock hard and you won't be able to even cut the cake, let alone eat it.

I agree, I would never frost or fill a cake with royal icing! It drys very hard!

Are you sure you're not looking for a crusting buttercream?

royal covered cakes are traditional style amoung the British and those influeneced by them as in those from Trinidad.

albumen is the fancy name for egg whites.

correct on not using raw whites due to compromised immune system.

pasturzied fresh whites (carton) or merangue powder should be ok, but a call to the cancer center where she is getting treatment might be in order.

I use royal on my dummies.... it is a PITA. I thin it out and use it almost in a color flow pattern. After it gets tacky I trim off the excess from the sides and go from there.

Funny this thread should pop up... I am scraping the sides of a dummy that I just frosted with RI because it hardened before I could get my bench scraper out...lol

I don't know the specific amount but you can add glycerin to the royal icing so it's easier to cut if you're frosting with it.

Hi thanks for the responses....

I am sure that I need Royal icing....I was confused a first but few of our S African posters confirmed that they would use Royal for anyone who wanted Crunchy icing...apparently my friend has never had that here in the US only in Trinidad.

So my goal should be to put the Royal on thinned and quickly?

I plan on putting cornelli lace on it so I guess if it is too bumpy I will just do that everywhere maybe to hide the imprefections.

Here I finally figure out the smoothing with BC and now I am out of luck on this cake....

Thanks agianf or all the help.


Julia

I've wondered about covering a cake with royal icing after seeing it on the dec videos I have. Is it always thinned out like the color flow or used full strength?

Well I am done with the cake now.

I ended up covering the cake with Apricot wash, then marzipan, then Royal icing (with glycerin added). I used 4 layers of Royal icing...what a pain waiting fo rit to dry. I was so fed up with it by the end that I have to say I am not liking the decoration much. It is a little too busy for me. But hopefully my friend likes it and it brings cheer to her sister (recently Breact cancer diagnosis).

Thank you all for your help.......

From what I've read, each coat of royal icing should be thinner than the last one, with a minimum of 3 coatings. They have to be bone-dry between coatings. I've never tried it, though.

In England Royal icing is the traditional way to cover cakes. We normally use it for rich fruit cake as this doesn't go stale the way sponge cake might. The cake should be iced in several thin layers allowing at least 12 hours drying time in between each layer. The last layer should be very thin so it just skims the cake filling in any holes or imperfections. Adding glycerine does prevent the icing from setting quite so hard you use 1 teaspoon to every 1lb of icing sugar.

Unless you're doing a spiky snow effect for Crimbo - then you can just put a thick layer on and spike it up - or at least that's what I and Saint Delia Smith have done for years

For satin smooth wedding cakes etc though the several thin layers is the way to go.