Cookies

Black royal bleeding problem.

I am by no means a cookie decorator, nor am I very experienced with royal icing but last week I decided to tinker around with some sugar cookies and I was itching to try my hand at some simple decorating. At first I did some light pink and green cookies with no problems, they turned out pretty cute (for a beginner lol) and then I helped my sister with a school project, decorating cookies in the shape of Maine. We did the states purple and used black royal to write “Maine” across them. They looked great! I was so proud of her! I used the rest of the leftover purple and black to tinker around with a few extra cookies. We let them dry overnight and the next morning I came in to find that the black icing had bled into the purple sometime during the night (they were fine for hours after we finished them).

Here some photos to show how they bled:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=442135982482689&set=a.399818480047773.110601.173785889317701&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=441558572540430&set=a.188113867884903.53879.173785889317701&type=1

Does anyone know why they did this? Or how to prevent it for future decorating? Thank you!

Nikki, So Cal, www.Facebook.com/nikkibelleperchecakes

4 Replies

You might need to make sure your base color is dry before you layer your next color on top. Otherwise you are doing a wet into wet look….meaning the top color will sink into bottom color.

That was something I was going for, the wet on wet technique I mean. I love the look of those smooth decorated cookies. Is black a color that doesnt work well with that technique? Are there special ways of doing it with black?

What confused me is that for hours after we finished they looked really great! there was no bleeding. It wasnt until the next morning when I came in that I saw the black had bled. The royal seemed pretty well set before it bled.

Nikki, So Cal, www.Facebook.com/nikkibelleperchecakes

Black is a very unpredictable color. In my experience, sometimes it bleeds, sometimes it doesn’t. Waiting for the base color to dry is a very good suggestion. When I make black to decorate cookies, I make it dark gray instead. This has worked for me. It still looks black next to the other colors, but it’s less likely to bleed. I hope that helps.

Kathy, Ohio, http://www.CakesOnTheLane.com

Thank you Kathy. I guess I will just need to tinker with it a little more! I did try and color the icing a dark gray cause I told myself that it will darken as it sets and compared to the other colors it will look black but I still may have added a little too much.

Nikki, So Cal, www.Facebook.com/nikkibelleperchecakes