I just sent a cake out the door today with a dark brown royal icing chinese symbol standing on the top - but had to send 2 extras with her just in case one crumbled. I have a wedding coming up where the sides are covered in royal icing decals - and they are rather large - how do I get dark brown royal icing to firm up - it always seems the dark colors never harden enough. Is there a special brand of color or a trick to get the dark colors get firm???

how about adding tylose? Anyone heard of doing that? I know you can add it to fondant to make it hard. Tylose is also known as polident denture powder. Might try it out and see

Good luck

Crumbling can be a result of adding too much air to the royal. You want to mix it long & slow--by hand is the best, but it's a real test of endurance.

If you have access to Wilton Color Flow mix, I'd use that for things that require extra strength & size.

You can add gum arabic to your royal to make it stronger, too. This is done to strengthen royal for stringwork.

Adding liquid colors to royal can really mess with the texture. For dark colors like brown & black, try using powdered colors.

HTH
Rae

I seem to harp on this, but it's for good reason. Dark colors in any form (fondant, buttercream, g-paste, royal) are best when painted or airbrushed. Maybe I should say easiest?

While too much air or excessive grease can cause royal to crumble, I have noticed that some colors dry more easily than others. Reds and oranges and brown (which is dark orange) seem to be problematic. Get yourself a cheap airbrush and avoid the issue altogether.

Don't forget that paste colors contain glycerin... adding large amounts of color to royal means you are adding large amounts of glycerin.

Well, airbrushes are great, but they're not for everyone or for every application. Good airbrushing is an art and bad airbrushing can ruin a lot of good work.

I wouldn't be inclined to pipe scrollwork or stringwork in white and then try to airbrush it black or brown. I'd want to start with the brown or black.

Sometimes, you just have to color the royal. Powdered colors will do the job without changing the consistency very much.

Rae

Thanks so much - I'm going to search for powdered colors right now!!!

Tylose is my vote.

I don't think tylose, or any other gum agent is the answer here. You add tylose, cmc, or gum-tex to fondant to make gum paste. It adds stretch and helps it to dry, but it's the stretch factor that is most important in that application.

Yes, I've too been told that tylose (or the generic of it, cmc --a methyl cellulose gum) is in denture powder fixatives. I've heard of people using it in a pinch. The powdered denture stuff is getting harder to find (I was looking in Wal-Mart a few days ago because I wanted to check the ingredients panel) and couldn't find any. Wilton's Gum-Tex would be my choice, if I needed cmc & didn't have tylose.

If you use powdered colors and find that it doesn't all dissolve to your liking, you can get a clean, unused nylon stocking, put about a cup of icing in it, twist it off, and force the icing thru (it will gather on the back of your hand) and then use it--works beautifully to take out any type of tiny clump.

See, I've used my brain No DUHS, or airbrushin' about it!

HTH
Rae

Powdered colors work best if you sift them directly into your sugar before adding to your batter, icing, or sugarpaste.

Theresa

Tylose makes things dry faster and firmer, I believe its gum tragacanth that gives it more stretch (could be wrong). Faster and firmer is what she is looking for, tylose will work fine.