If Royal Icing Dries Hard, How Can You Use It On Cake?
Decorating By CakeDiva73 Updated 20 Aug 2006 , 12:12pm by Doug
I am so confused by this... I have seen people/pictures where they say they have used Royal Icing to cover the cake and I don't understand how this is edible? Doesn't it dry hard as a rock?
Can't you use buttercream to cover and attach RI flowers or will the grease in the BC 'eat' away at the flowers?
Tx...
Royal icing is used a lot to cover rich fruit cakes in the UK, and I believe Australia too. Yes, it does get hard, but you use such a thick layer, that it would have to dry for a very long time for it to dry out entirely! We also add a touch of glycerine to it which prevents it going completely rock-like. In saying that, there have been times when a hammer and chisle was used at my house when I was young to get into the Christmas cake 
!
I have this book that I am reading (and LOVE it) and they first cover the cake in marzipan and then they do a coat of royal icing.
I have been trying since I came on this forum to convince everyone that royal icing isn't as hard as you all seem to think it is. You add 1 teaspoon of glycerine to every 1lb of icing sugar. It is still crunchy but isn't teeth breaking rock hard as everyone seems to think. British Celebration cakes are traditionally a rich dark fruit cake, covered in marzipan then royal icing. It does take a long time to ice in thin layers but as rich fruit cake gets better the longer it is kept we can take our time in decorating. This means we can do much more intricate designs than can be done on a sponge cake covered in fondant or butterceam. It also means we have an advantage when doing wedding cakes as we can decorate well in advance so on the day all we have to do is dress the table and lift the cake onto it's stand
The other thing to consider here is that when royal is exposed to oil, it stays/gets softer.
If you write with royal icing on a buttercream cake, it never gets totally dry.
If you put completely dry royal flowers on buttercream and if they're very thin flowers, grease spots will appear within several hours. The flowers will soften up so that when you eat them they're not as hard as they were originally.
If you're putting royal on top of marzipan (almond paste+sugar+glucose), you're covering a substance that is made from an oily nut. This certainly keeps the royal from becoming rock hard, and the addition of glycerin would retard the drying even more.
Rae
I have been trying since I came on this forum to convince everyone that royal icing isn't as hard as you all seem to think it is. You add 1 teaspoon of glycerine to every 1lb of icing sugar. It is still crunchy but isn't teeth breaking rock hard as everyone seems to think. British Celebration cakes are traditionally a rich dark fruit cake, covered in marzipan then royal icing. It does take a long time to ice in thin layers but as rich fruit cake gets better the longer it is kept we can take our time in decorating. This means we can do much more intricate designs than can be done on a sponge cake covered in fondant or butterceam. It also means we have an advantage when doing wedding cakes as we can decorate well in advance so on the day all we have to do is dress the table and lift the cake onto it's stand
Didn't know about the glycerine....when I think of Royal Icing I think of the stuff I used to make gingerbread houses with..that stuff was like cement.
Forgive us Americans Miss B...we are used to our BCream...think of how long it has taken for fondant to catch on here. 
...I never liked Marzipan but the DH loves his Battenburg cakes and gets them from the UK...so I've gotten used to it.
although the fruit cakes are heavy and rich they certainly aren't tasteless. They're flavoured with spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg and they usually have copious amounts of alcohol (traditionally Brandy or sherry)in them. They're fed with the alcohol over several weeks then marzipanned and iced. As I've already mentioned the longer they're kept the better they are as the falvours have time to develop and mature. The other thing to bear in mind is that we don't serve the cakes as a dessert as you seem to do in the US. As they are such a rich heavy cake we only serve a small finger usually with a glass of wine after the meal.
Small finger 
, are you mad Miss Baritone???!!! . I like a chunk of Christmas cake myself, the richer and boozier the better! . I think I'd give up trying to convince anyone here of the delights of a well-made boozy rich fruit cake, you have to know them to love them IMO!
I made a small rich-fruit cake for my American friends/neighbours last Christmas (yes. decorated with marzipan and royal icing), and the husband fell in love with it immediately. He said that it was unlike anything he'd ever been given as fruit cake back home in the US (and this man could eat cake for the USA in the Olympics!), so there really must be a huge difference in quality and taste between what they have and what we make 
!
The joke in the States was/is fruitcake.
They would come in these tacky tins and were horrible!!! Probably made during the second world war and still in a warehouse somewhere. You usually got one of those beauties holiday time from Aunt Gertrude or Uncle Claude. To be polite it might be sliced and served with dessert but anyone rarely touched it and it was thrown out. Nasty stuff!!!
I've wanted to make the DH a true fruitcake and have finally gotten a tin of mixed spice so may give it a go.
To my knowledge in Australia we cover our rich fruit cakes with fondant and there is more than one way to make fondant a soft one (which is boiled- this also goes hard but not that hard that you break any teeth) and the normal type you you have in America - Satin Ice has a similar texture. Another way to soften Royal Icing is to use a hot knife when cutting. If you add water to royal icing you can flood pictures on to a cake. Not sure you can do that with buttercream. Royal Icing and Fondant don't have that greasy texture that buttercream has. I recently made a wedding cake and took the top tier made here in Australia to the States it was for the groom as he loves his granny's fruit cake. The fruit cake was cut and the Americans' that ate it went back for more. Maybe you need to get a good recipe for fruit cake. Mind you as far as I was concerned the cake was a disaster but not the cake itself just the decorating part it was done under duress and sickness and did not turn out the way it was intended but the Bride liked it or so she said.
Kerrie
I have been trying since I came on this forum to convince everyone that royal icing isn't as hard as you all seem to think it is. You add 1 teaspoon of glycerine to every 1lb of icing sugar. It is still crunchy but isn't teeth breaking rock hard as everyone seems to think. British Celebration cakes are traditionally a rich dark fruit cake, covered in marzipan then royal icing. It does take a long time to ice in thin layers but as rich fruit cake gets better the longer it is kept we can take our time in decorating. This means we can do much more intricate designs than can be done on a sponge cake covered in fondant or butterceam. It also means we have an advantage when doing wedding cakes as we can decorate well in advance so on the day all we have to do is dress the table and lift the cake onto it's stand
Do you use the royal icing with glycerine for making flowers also?
although the fruit cakes are heavy and rich they certainly aren't tasteless. They're flavoured with spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg and they usually have copious amounts of alcohol (traditionally Brandy or sherry)in them. They're fed with the alcohol over several weeks then marzipanned and iced. As I've already mentioned the longer they're kept the better they are as the falvours have time to develop and mature. The other thing to bear in mind is that we don't serve the cakes as a dessert as you seem to do in the US. As they are such a rich heavy cake we only serve a small finger usually with a glass of wine after the meal.
It would be wonderful if we all could get together and bring all of our traiditional from our country cakes for tasting and comparing...
Wouldn't that be something!
In my book by Carol Deacon, it says you must use a tsp of glycerine and a tsp of lemon juice if you are covering a cake with royal.
But, I agree that BC would most likely be more appealing to eat. Nice and thick like frosting should be!
I agree with bonjovibabe a big chunk of fruitcake with royal icing...... yummy. BTW I'm from South Africa and we also like our fruitcake here. With marzipan and fondant or marizapan and royal icing. (Ok I can't speak for all the South Africans but it is kind of a tradition here for wedding cakes and christmas cakes)
I was born and raised in the Caribbean Grenada (Known as The Isle Of Spice) But currently living int he US. and there our cakes are covered in royal icing mostly fruit cakes which are soaked in some type of wine like black wine or ruby Rich. but we do cover other cakes with it too.
Similar to England I think it was that we were colonised by the british hence the trait.
And Royal Icing doesn't dry that hard at all as you think.. it is kneaded with egg whites and flavored with lemon juice and tastes pretty great you can't eat a lot at a time cause it's kinda sweet. the outside part is hard and won't smudge or anything it cuts easily and is nice and soft and edible on the inside. they hated BC back home and wedding cakes are never covered in buttercream cause traditionally wedding cakes are very very rich fruit cakes which lasts years upon years upon years..
so don't get the roal Icing thingy wrong..
Small finger
, are you mad Miss Baritone???!!! . I like a chunk of Christmas cake myself, the richer and boozier the better! . I think I'd give up trying to convince anyone here of the delights of a well-made boozy rich fruit cake, you have to know them to love them IMO!
I didn't say thats how I eat it. I just said this is how it's traditionally served. In the uk the tradition is to serve the bottom tier at the wedding. The middle tier is to send pieces to people who were unable to make the wedding and the top tier is to be kept for the 1st childs christening. My theory is that the top 2 tiers are taken home and eaten in huge chunks usually for breakfast
[/quote]
I didn't say thats how I eat it. I just said this is how it's traditionally served. In the uk the tradition is to serve the bottom tier at the wedding. The middle tier is to send pieces to people who were unable to make the wedding and the top tier is to be kept for the 1st childs christening. My theory is that the top 2 tiers are taken home and eaten in huge chunks usually for breakfast[/quote]
Hope you didn't take the 'mad' thing seriously (hence the laughing smilies!), but I have to disagree with the traditional thing in this day and age. I know lots of modern couples who don't choose fruitcake as their wedding cake (or feel bullied into it by their baker if they do - seriously!), and in these times of already having kids uopn marriage, waiting a long time after marriage to have kids, or choosing not to have kids at all, the saving of the top tier is very rare for the purpose you mentioned (christenings) - much more likely saved for a pig-out later at home as you suggested!.
Can any of you share a recipe for a good fruitcake. I have a daughter who is thirteen that is begging to go to England one day. There is a slight problem. I can't drive there, so we will not be going. 
I would like to "try" to make one & have eereyone taste it.
Maybe someone from the UK can clarify this for me.
I have heard there a different kind of cake called a Nirvana Cake that is actually served with a small silver hammer to crack the exterior and serve the cake inside.
I have also been told that is a tradition for English Wedding cakes to be cracked with a hammer, then sliced. But obviously if the Royal Icing is not completely hardened, then it can cut easily with a knife...
Also, when it comes to portion sizes, I think we Americans forget that the English had to suffer rationing for many, many years after WWII. I would imagine that sugar may have been a precious commodity.
BonJovi Babe no I didn't take the mad seriously. I agree in modern times the cakes don't usually get used as traditionally as they used to be. Now a lot of couples seem to ask for a sponge cake for the top tier. Hence a lot of fondant is now being used.
couturiere
sorry I've never heard of a nirvana cake and i've never heard of a hammer being supplied to break icing. Way way back it was a tradition to use a sword to make the first cut of a wedding cake but as long as I can remember knifes have been used for cutting cakes. When royal icing was the norm for all wedding cakes (before dowels were introduced as well) a lot of decorators didn't use glycerine as the cake and icing had to be strong enough to take the weight of the pillars and top tiers and certainly several jokes were made about how a hammer would be needed to break the icing so perhaps it's one of these myths that has managed to filter its way over to the states.
dl5crew
I'll post my recipe later this evening
Can any of you share a recipe for a good fruitcake. I have a daughter who is thirteen that is begging to go to England one day. There is a slight problem. I can't drive there, so we will not be going.
I would like to "try" to make one & have eereyone taste it.
don't be so sure about not driving there >>>
http://www.terrawind.com/
get a load of the RV!! and the Spyder!
and another little sporty model: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3077508.stm
-------
of course finding a gas station could be a problem! I wonder, do supertankers have gas pumps?!
This is the fruitcake recipe I've used for 18 years. I make it at least 6 weeks ahead and 'feed' it every week - no dryness here!
To clarify a few things in the recipe:
You can use golden raisins in the place of sultanas (they are the same thing)
Black treacle = blackstrap molasses
Silcone paper = parchment.
Enjoy!:
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/the-classic-christmas-cake,1293,RC.html
Miss Baritone,
After reading that you have never heard of using a hammer, I began to wonder if this is a "cake myth" floating around.
I have searched the internet for any reference to using a hammer to crack the outer shell of the cake and have found nothing.
The only thing I have found that might remotely explain how the "hammer story" started was that in WWII, sugar was very scarce resulting in a very, very small cake being served for weddings. So to compensate for the small size, a cake made of plaster of paris was built as a box to disguise the real cake. Maybe the hammer story started as a joke during this time period.
If anyone knows whether the "cake hammer" is history or myth, I would love to know!
kjgjam22 wrote:
"hi guys, in jamaica we make fresh royal icing with egg whites not merinue powder. we also put lime juice in it and its quite tastey"
That sounds wonderful 
Do you ever worry about the fresh eggs? Perhaps it is just an old wives tale here, but my mother always warned me about using un-cooked eggs. 
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