Can you soften a hard lump of royal icing?

EssexGirl

I'm doing a cake decorating course and had some royal icing left over. I popped it in a food bag and tied it shut. But the icing has gone hard. Is there any way of softening it so I can use it on a cake?

Sambucus_Nigra

Same as any sugar; pop it in a bowl with a moist tea towel should do it. Someone might mention microwaves; but I don't have one so just do it the old fashioned way.

EssexGirl

Thank you. I'll give that a go.

lowesy

Essex, I've not had that problem myself (assume you're talking about royal icing for piping purposes?) because of a tip I was given at my cake decorating course - when you store it, put it in an airtight container, but before you put the lid on, put a layer of cling film flat down on the top of the icing. It won't stick to it too much, but it will keep fresh for ages that way.

Hope the teatowel works, but thought this might help for future reference

xx

Jazsko

Have just successfully re-softened a nearly 12 month old piece of Royal icing (had packed it very carefully but it still went hard ) 10 second stints in the microwave at half power and then a few drops of lemon juice, took some kneading and working but its quite usable for adding to our biscuits for the Christmas party at playgroup tomorrow, don't know I'd want to do this for a wedding cake or other special cake as it does have a few hard lumps in it but fine for our simple use.