# Royal icing colors that "bleed"



## cookie lady (Apr 6, 2005)

Hi everyone!

Please oh please let there be some knowledgable soul out there who can tell me what I am doing wrong. I own a home based cookie business specializing in decorated cookies for all occasions. Sometimes I experience color "bleeding" with my royal icing that I decorate the cookies with and I cannot for the life of me find a way to make it stop. My recipe for royal icing is 10x sugar, meringue powder, water and Wilton food coloring paste. I mix the colors up a week in advance to let them blend. I let the first coat of icing dry completely before piping a second color on top and that icing is usually stiff. I have the most trouble with light colors on dark colors but not all colors. It's been very frustrating and I'm seriously considering throwing in the towel. I've asked all of the top mail order cookie businesses for help but no one will. Have any of you run into this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cookie Lady (


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

What kind of colors are you using. I would try a very concentrated paste, or better yet, a powder. I don't know that this will work for sure, but it's worth a try.


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## cookie lady (Apr 6, 2005)

I use Wilton paste colors. Are there more concentrated pastes than this? I've never tried the powders before but have heard they are harder to mix together. This weekend I may have stumbled upon the solution( fingers and toes crossed ! ). I used egg whites instead of meringue powder to make the icing with and piped white onto a Navy Blue background with no bleeding. Hopefully this willl work from now on. I'm experimenting with my problem colors. Maybe real egg whites dry faster than meringue powder? I'll keep everyone posted on my progress. Thanks for your input!

Suzanne)


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## m brown (May 29, 1999)

make sure you are cooking your whites (over double boiler) or using pasturized!!!!
Please do not use fresh uncooked whites for anything!
Ateco has great colors, in paste and Country Kitchen has some good powders.
Albert Uster has imported powders.
Best!


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

Ditto mbrown. Do need serve anything that contains raw egg white!!  

Let us know how things work out.


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## baking mom (Oct 30, 2011)

Did you ever get an answer to your question?  I have the same problem!!!  I really need an answer.  I am doing cookies too.  Usually orange bleeding into white and black bleeding into white and orange.   I would LOVE to hear if you solved the problem.


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