Royal'icing Flowers On Buttercream Cake? Will That Work?
Decorating By AngelWendy Updated 31 Mar 2005 , 5:37am by tcturtleshell
We've been repeatedly told in our Wilton Course II class not to get any grease on the tools for the royal icing because it will break the icing down.. sooo... What do you do when you want to put royal icing flowers on a buttercream or cream cheese icing frosted cake? Does that break down the flowers? How quickly? How do you keep the grease in those frostings from breaking down the royal icing flowers??? There must be a trick in there that I'm missing or just some piece of info. that's missing for me.
(I asked this in a recipe post in the comments, but this is probably where I should ask.. My apologies if it's already been addressed. I have gone back aways and didn't find it._
Thank you!
~AngelWendy
Ok I can just speak from a recent experiance. I just posted the lemon lovers white chocolate cake and the horse head is royal icing that I let sit for 48 hrs before I put it on the cake. I placed it on top of both buttercream and cream cheese icing. The horse is a light brown, the buttercream is a dark brown and some spots on the horse where it is touching the brown buttercream is becoming apparently darker. It will be interesting to see what happens by the time I serve it tomorrow afternoon, I'll let you know.
I have put royal icing flowers on a buttercream frosted cake several times
and my flowers softed about two days later. I mean they didn't melt and they held their shape but they crumbled easier. My purple flowers slightly colored my white buttercream but only underneath where they laid. Hope this helps.
AMY
Royal icing is the icing that turns really hard??? Sorry, I am just trying to get all these in order in my mind.
Yes. It's one of them that gets really hard. You're right! Colorflow turns hard, too, but royal is more likely used for flowers. The royal icing I make is made with just confectioner's sugar, meringue powder, and water.
~AngelWendy
Cool... color flow was another one I wasnt sure of... gee I guess I am not as dingy as I thought! 
Is royal icing, and color flow expensive? Just wondering. I wont buy any until I am back in the states...heck I am trying to use as much as I can so if it gets ruined, or tipped upside down its not enough for me to have heart palpitations.....
So I ended up placing my cake in the freezer because the royal icing was kind of starting to melt and I didn't want it to break and look yucky before I showed my friend. I took the cake out about 1 hour before I gave it to here and it wasn't any worse than before I placed it in the freezer. Next time I am going to use an exacto knife to cut the wax paper around the image before placing it on the cake and then it will be protected. They can also remove the item and keep it!
I never have a problem with royal icing on BC unless I put the cake in the frig. If you do that the moisture makes the royal icing get damp. The BC will start to absorb into the royal icing. So when you use royal icing jut keep the cake on the counter top. Works just fine~
My cake was on the couter top but I am wondering since the royal icing was really thin - flow technique that it is why it was dissolving. No one really knew but me since they didn't see the design to begin with but I KNEW and that is what was bothering me.
We always beat ourselves up over things we notice don't we!! I do that all the time!
sgirvan, did you make the flowers a day or so ahead of time before placing them on the cake? They do need to be made far enough in advance to harden up before putting them on a cake with buttercream. I made a huge mistake last year on my daughter's cake...I had leftover royal icing, iced the cake with whipped icing and thought I'd just add a few roses and leaves with the royal...sure! When I got to my daughter's, close to half of the top where I placed the roses made of whipped icing onto the cake with "globs" of royal icing and beautiful geen leaves had started to run off the cake down the sides! The royal turned to liquid wherever it had touched the whipped icing. Sort of like a cascading of green and mauve on white!
Thanks for that info, JSCakes. I wouldn't have known that they had to be completely dried and hardened before putting them on the cake with buttercream or whipped icing. I appreciate your sharing your experience so that others may learn from it. 
Blessings,
~AngelWendy
Hi JS, The Royal icing item I am talking about is not a flower so it is not as think, it is my flooded royal icing horse head. I am thinking that it is too thin to be placed on top of buttercream icing too soon before serving it. I made it 3 days ahead of time so it had plenty of time to dry.
When placing royal icing flowers on my cakes I just pile a bit of leaf green buttercream frosting and then place my flowers and then add leaves. I do make sure my royal icing flowers are hardened but don't place them until right before the cake it to be served. If placing a color flow piece on a cake I push sugar cubes into the cake and place the color flow piece on them so it doesn't touch the frosting at all.
Hope this helps!!!
Amy
Cheating!!!!! No way! It comes in handy especially for those last minute cakes. It saves soooooooo much time having them premade. It takes forever to make flowers out of royal icing so when you do make them make a bunch and a variety just for those last minute cakes. Better to be prepared with backups I say!!!
Amy
I agree with cakemommy! I pick a day when I have nothing else to do & I make royal icing flowers as long as I have the time. I freeze them & when I need them I just pull them out of the freezer & put them on my cake! It is so much work to do them when your doing your cake. Saves me so much time & helps keep me off my feet!!
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