Royal Frosting hardening when dry.

I've only attempted royal frosting a few times. The first time was perfect. Ever since, I've had a hard time getting the right consistency so that it flows nicely from a squeeze bottle, so I try to thin it a little with either water or light corn syrup. However when it dries, it dries REALLY hard. And it doesn't taste so great either. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for your advice!

chelleb
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8 Comments

innoabrd
innoabrd July 3, 2011
The only time I ever use it is for gingerbread houses. It's just edible glue as far as I'm concerned!
 
Bevi
Bevi July 2, 2011
Perhaps you intended to use royal icing, but if you want a softer icing that you can still use to decorate, use a buttercream frosting:

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream or half and half

Directions
In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.

If you refrigerate it the frosting with harden, but you can let it sit at room temp for about 10 minutes and all will be well, and you can also add 1 or 2 more TBLs. of liquid.
 
boulangere
boulangere July 2, 2011
OK, the long answer. There are several consistencies of royal icing. There's icing for "embroidiery", there's icing for outlining, which is quite stiff, "flow" icing which is very soft and fills in the lines of outlining icing. And so on. It is traditionally flavored with rose water to give it some taste, but its function is generally to look good. Does all this help you?
 
boulangere
boulangere July 1, 2011
Yes, agree with all of the above. It's job is to dry hard. But you can add some flavor to it with rose water. To taste and consistency.
 
Greenstuff
Greenstuff July 1, 2011
Yes--always hard and truly, not very tasty. That's why it's used to "glue" gingerbread houses together. Very stable, great to look at, not so amazing to eat.
 
mrslarkin
mrslarkin July 1, 2011
I agree with Tammy and spiffypaws. Royal frosting/icing is supposed to dry hard. Let us know what you are decorating.

I sometimes add a little flavoring, like lemon extract, or almond extract, to make it tastier.
 
spiffypaws
spiffypaws July 1, 2011
Royal icing is supposed to dry, and dry fairly hard. As for taste, I've never thought that it tastes great because it's (primarily) egg whites and sugar. It's more decorative, and not (in my opinion) a flavor enhancer. I've never used a squeeze bottle for royal icing as I prefer a bag, but that's probably because I've iced thousands of cookies w/ a bag.

I think Tammy is right-you don't sound pleased w/ the icing itself and maybe something else would be better, dep on what you're doing.
 
Tammy
Tammy July 1, 2011
Glycerin might help?

That said, I've never seen royal frosting *not* dry really hard, as that is the whole point of it. Maybe a different kind of frosting is more suitable -- what are you decorating?
 
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