I'm making cookies for a friend who just got her black belt in karate. The cookie will be a white karate uniform outlined with black and a black belt across the waist.

Here's my concern. In the past, when I have outlined cookies in black and filled with white, the black color runs into the white. This happened even though I let the black icing dry completely.

Any helpful advice would be appreciated.

I do a TON of black outlining with royal icing on my cookies. I let the outline dry at least 24 hours before flooding and use Americolor gel. The results have been very, very minimal to no bleeding.

JUST LEAVE THE LINING TO DRY FOR A FEW HOURS. i USE AMERICOLOR BLACK NOW AFTER THROWING AWAY ALOT OF COOKIES USING WILTONS BLACK!!

I've found that I have less of a problem with bleeding if I do the darker color first, then the lighter. Also, it helps to color your icing a bit less intense than you think it needs to be, and let it sit overnight. It will darken on its own.

I outline with the color that i am going to flood with. After 24 hours, I go back and outline with black. It makes a nice clean finish.

Thanks for all of your help. I outlined the cookies in black let them dry overnight and then flooded in white. They turned out perfect! I posted a picture of them.

Excellent job!!