Just looking for different methods on how everyone mixes their colors in royal incing. I make a batch of Antonia74. then store it in tupperware till I need it. When I do need it I mix the portion I need with water to the desired consistency for flooding, add color and put in piping bag. Does anyone get ALL the icing to the flooding consistency before they store it and then only add PS to thicken? Interested to hear other method, if you have them

I made my batch of RI, then divide and color what I need, put in the decorating bags; outline; than what is left from the bags I thin up with a water and put to a small containers (as from yogurt), and I am using brush method to flood my cookies. I don't like waste, so sometimes I do 2 or 3 trips to thin my icing, just how much I need. What is left in my decorating bags, after all is done, I squeeze to an empty tubes (from Wilton decorating icing) and store in the fridge. Next time I decorate first from the tubes, than from new batch. So this is my way.

I seldom use royal. When I do I make as small a batch as I can hoping I won't have any leftover
The other day I used the couple of Tablespoons I needed, then added Tylose to the remaining for gumpaste.

I color the same way you do amisfud.

Zlatka...may I ask what is the brush method? I don't really do cookies often but I've been practicing lately to get my skills up to par in the cookie area.

OOhhh, ok, thanks Zlatka. Which do you think is easier...flooding or brushing. All of the cookies in your photos look GREAT btw.

I pretty much do the same as amisfud. I make antonia's RI, keeping it quite thick, and store it in a tupperware in the fridge. For some reason, it does not seem to separate in it's thick state as it does thinned with water.
Anyway, when i'm ready, i take out smaller containers and mix small amounts of icing with color and water. Anything extra is stored in that same small container (this does separate in storage in the fridge so it must be mixed thoroughly).

I mix mine till it's thick and then thin as needed usually right away as I have cookies that need to be done.

I always keep a portion of the thick stuff out for the stenciling I really like doing on my cookies lately.

I store all my icing in glass containers with tight lids (Pyrex ect).
I keep it at room temp for only a few days and if I have leftovers I toss it .(I usually don't have to do this often)

I did get quite the surprise the other day as I walked into my craft room and took a look at the turntable I keep my icing on.

This is what I found, what a mess. I remember I had this one container very full. Well I had my own personal volcano to clean up after. It was like hard lava rock! Good thing it didnt go on the floor.
This icing was only there for 6 days. It was my black outline icing too, I hate doing black and red.

I think the moral of this story is dont fill your containers up to the top if it will sit a few days. I bet it was trying to separate and didnt have enough room and blew the top off slightly resulting in my mess!

OMG, what a mess. That's so interesting that icing will do that! Thanks for the warning.

I'd love to know how you do the stencils. I've tried doing it with thick RI and it was still a mess. So i just stick to painting the designs. But i love the raised look of the RI.

I do the same as most of you: big batch of thick and take out and mix as needed.

You do know that you can freeze little bits of leftover RI? Keeps really well, just give it a smoosh in the freezer bag and it's good to go.

Oh, my goodness, Cookiemookie! SO glad that did not make it onto the carpet! Thanks for the warning!

I mix my RI to a thick and creamy consistency - a full batch or half, depending on how much I need. Usually I flavor it all with pure van. extract and then pull out what I need per color, saving the remainder (if any) in a glass Pyrex container. From there I add PS or water to what I have pulled out, depending upon the use. However, I am doing things a bit differently as of the last few days as I am making a full batch without adding flavoring, separating it into smaller portions to color and then adding a different flavor to each color (Lime with green, Cherry with pink/red, Orange, etc, etc.) while I am testing some new flavors I got. I find that I like doing this and have now weighed a full batch of RI so I can easily and accurately divide it up with correct flavoring proportions. I am finding that I am using it all up, but if I ever do have any RI left, I store it in Pyrex in a cool place. Antonia74 said it is good to go as long as it does have an alcohol or ammonia scent (I can't remember which she said, but I immediately recognized it when I came across some older RI in a litle container). Like Cookiemookie, I don't like to let it sit around though. Sometimes it is tempting to hold on to black though as it takes a while for the really great deep black to develop, but I keep an eye on how it is doing.