Keeping border and flood icing from hardening when making ahead of time

[lljc00]

I have girls coming over for a girl scout meeting after school on Friday and we will be decorating Christmas cookies. I'll make colored icing that day, but I need to make it at least a couple of hours ahead of time since I cant do it on the spot (we have other things we need to do and don't have that much time, plus I lose my audience quickly - they are 7 and 8 year olds after all!)

How can I keep the icing flow consistency? I'm planning to color it and put it in my squeeze bottles. Can I keep them on some sort of warmer (or like in a pan of warm water)?

And if they do harden up, about how long should it take to "remelt" it? The cookies wont be the first thing we do - maybe about 20 minutes into the meeting. So should I get all that going when we make it to my house (I have to pick a couple of them up), or have it all simmering before I leave to go get them?

TIA!

 

[ChesterV]

Hmmm.

Seems terms are changing since I've been in baking. Never heard the term "flood icing" before.
We just called it Royal Icing when I was a baker.

If you are keeping it in bottles where it wont dry out, then yes, you can keep it in a pan of warm (to medium hot) water.

If they are at room temperature when the meeting starts, and you put them in the warm water then.....they should be ready by the time you start using them. Just be sure to shake them up a bit.

 

[lljc00]

Thanks!

I think flood icing is a term used for the royal icing that's of somewhat runny consistency. As opposed to border icing, which is same ingredients, but less liquid so it will build a dam for the flood icing to be used in a later step.

I made a small batch today so I can give a demonstration tomorrow, and I have some left over, so I will get a chance to experiment with how it sets overnight (it's capped, though probably not airtight.)