Hi,

will royal icing decorations soften on top of buttercream?  can i place them ahead of time?  how much ahead of time ;)?

Thank you!

i have used royal icing to pipe directly on IMBC and with layons, that i created with RI. In fact, the first time I made RI butterflies, I covered one with IMBC and left it over night just to see. The layon was just as hard in the morning as it was when I made it. 

jen

I have used royal decorations on b'cream w/o problems.  It depends on what the piece it - how thick is it & such.  The bigger/thicker the better.  Also be *very* sure the piece is completely dry.

You want to place those decos as close to the p/u time as possible.  They might soften some but I've not have any melt into a puddle :)

Depending on what the deco is you can put it on top of a sugar cube or pipe a spike of royal on the back that you push into the cake allowing the décor to not actually touch the b'cream but be just above it.  Other people have said they make the royal piece on a backing of wax paper or plastic wrap.

well, i stuck them on straight ;)

the cake is due in 2 days, i suppose i'll find out the hard way ;)