Ok so this is not too bad (hopefully) since it is for family. My problem is they wanted a 50th BD cake. One niece specificly (spelling?) told me ..white icing with black border and black writing and red Happy Birthday. I finished the 11 x 15 and it looked good. This morning I look at it and the black has a slight red bleed around the letters. They should be here anytime to pick it up. Is there anything I can do other than an apology? It is for another niece. Any advice for the future other than no black.

I don't know how to fix the problem know, but I have learned that if I'm not useing a very large amout of black then I buy the pre-made tubes, like Wilton. As you can tell I've had that happen to me. I once bought like 12 tubes to do a cake it was for a giant sheet cake for my work that had a big black letter "R" as a logo. I decided for get it I'm buying the black made.

I did this cake on a Saturday night for a Sunday afternoon pick up.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1260235.html
I didn't put it in the fridge, no bleeding problems. The only time I've ever had a bleeding problem was when someone picked a cake up and didn't serve it until the next day. She put it in the fridge and some of the blue ran onto the white.

Jibbies

I find that if I don't make my black fresh everytime I need it..by that I mean not saving the extra icing and letting it sit out etc..The color doesn't bleed.It's only when I keep a container and take it out and in and out that it begins to break down with the butter in my recipe and sort of gets soupy.Time to throw out!!