Shoutout to the person who told me royal icing would set in an hour

Honestly, I had to decorate 200 gingerbread houses for a school event last week. The recipe said the icing would be ready to stack pieces in 60 minutes. Tbh, it took a full 8 hours before those little roofs would stay on without sliding. My kitchen looked like a gingerbread crime scene for a whole afternoon. Has anyone else had royal icing just refuse to harden like that? What's your go-to fix?

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hugowells6mo ago

Man, I used to just follow the recipe times too. After my own gingerbread roof slide disaster, I started adding way more powdered sugar than it calls for, like almost a quarter cup extra. The humidity in my kitchen was totally working against me.

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patchen6mo ago

Read somewhere that powdered sugar has cornstarch in it, which soaks up moisture. So that extra quarter cup you're adding, @hugowells, is basically a humidity shield for the icing. Makes total sense why it would stop a slide.

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