Ask Nancy

If you freeze royal icing in a container (before you make decorations), it will separate and won't mix together properly when you thaw it to use. Because of this, icing won't color correctly and the icing decorations won't harden as well.

When you defrost a buttercream iced cake that has royal icing decorations on it, the colors from the decorations will bleed into the buttercream and, depending on the size of the decorations, they will soften when the cake is defrosted.

If you need to freeze a cake, don't add the royal icing decorations until after the cake has been defrosted.