Discolouration Of Royal Icing On Cookies...why??

Decorating By Snowflakebunny23 Updated 9 Jun 2015 , 6:25pm by -K8memphis

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Snowflakebunny23 Posted 9 Jun 2015 , 12:56pm
post #1 of 10

Morning/Afternoon all,


I made some cookies a few days ago to go on my website.  They were a vanilla butter biscuit with royal iced decoration.  The Royal Icing was Whitworths Royal Icing, made up according to pack instructions by using water and mixed. All was well for a day or two but then I noticed they started to go a funny colour - creamy/brown, especially around the edges.

(hope this link works...should take you to my gallery):

http://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/3342912/photo-for-thread


I don't make many cookies (and thankfully, these were for experimentation only!) but I do need to know what went wrong as I have to make more in a few months!  All ideas gratefully appreciated!

:-)

9 replies
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TicTac521 Posted 9 Jun 2015 , 2:36pm
post #2 of 10

Perhaps the butter in the cookie?  Are they a greasy cookie?  I've only decorated sugar cookies so I'm not sure

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-K8memphis Posted 9 Jun 2015 , 2:46pm
post #3 of 10

idk i was thinking if the royal was applied thicker it might not do that?

is it a thin application? both the flooding consistency and the overall thickness- 

I use a buttermilk glaze - powd sugar + buttermilk + flavoring  -- it's not as firm as royal though-- sometimes i add a little butter but they are more for eating although I did make decor for some of them --

what is in your cookies?

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Snowflakebunny23 Posted 9 Jun 2015 , 3:00pm
post #4 of 10

I was pretty generous on the Royal Icing (I love the stuff!) so there was a good 2mm on there depth wise.  I was thinking maybe I could try two coats but then the drying time gets a bit unreasonable.


The cookies are vanilla flavoured...140g icing sugar, egg yolk, 250 butter and 375g flour + flavouring.  The biscuits come out delicious - very soft and buttery, almost like a shortbread - but this is the first time I've tried to ice them.  Structurally they hold up fine but it's just this bleeding issue!

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-K8memphis Posted 9 Jun 2015 , 3:00pm
post #5 of 10

thought of something else -- did you mix it long enough

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lndyhpgrl Posted 9 Jun 2015 , 3:39pm
post #6 of 10

Yep, it's butter bleed. There's not much you can do about it once it happens, unfortunately. Your best bet is to try and keep the cookies cool to avoid it.

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imagenthatnj Posted 9 Jun 2015 , 3:42pm
post #7 of 10

I've heard it's the butter in the cookie. You might want to try a sugar cookie recipe with the same icing to see how it behaves. I also once heard of someone who melted white chocolate and brushed a very thin layer on the cookie, letting it dry,  before applying the royal icing, to create a barrier.

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ypierce82 Posted 9 Jun 2015 , 4:37pm
post #8 of 10

It has happened to me twice before I could figure out what it was. Now what I do is lay my cookies in single layers between paper towels and that helps to dry out the tops of the cookies so that there is no butter bleed or splotches in the icing; I was really surprised at the look of the paper towel once I removed the cookies. I also try not to decorate on the same day that I have baked the cookies. 

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-K8memphis Posted 9 Jun 2015 , 6:24pm
post #9 of 10

what a severe pia -- omg what a detail to avoid -- 

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-K8memphis Posted 9 Jun 2015 , 6:25pm
post #10 of 10

just one more thing to think about -- say it ain't so 

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