Soooooo, While I'm Waiting For More Cookie Dough To Chill...
Baking By NancysFancy Updated 30 May 2007 , 9:22pm by NancysFancy
Has this ROYAL pain in the @#$ problem ever happen to anyones royal icing?
ONE stinkin' color ( light navy mixed with a touch of black) dried and formed greasy looking stains!!!! NOT the light green--it dried perfectly, and not the darker blue. ( See photo below) Just that one inch of blue 
So it must be something about THAT color or color combo, right?????
Anyway, 75 cookies, yes, 75 completed cookies---GARBAGE 
( Well, I'll foist 'em on my poor neighbors. " Geeeeee,uuuuummmm, thanks, Nancy")
This is a job of 200 cookies for an important caterer so they have to look decent. BTW, my fellow cookie decorators, you might have seen that I like to do funny, detailed, original cookies, but THIS is the boring, no brainer kind of job that comes much more often than the "fancy" stuff. I'm not complaining--- well, yes I am, but back to the royal.....
So, even though steam is still coming out of my ears, I actually FIXED the problem and wanted to share the solution---in case I'm not the only cursed cookie decorator today. I just mixed a few tablespoons of corn syrup into my royal and WUUMP- There it is!!!!! That light blue dried to a perfect finish 
So I guess my new royal recipe will always contain corn syrup. I don't understand why this happened but I'm relieved!!! Can't waste that much time and $$ again.
Do you think it's the black being mixed with another color???? I did this with orange last fall...added a bit of black to "dirty" the orange and got the grease spots??? Had to throw them away and ended up adding green and brown to the orange with no problems. So glad you found a solution...and don't worry, I'm sure the caterer will be very impressed 
I just finished 75 cookies for a wedding this weekend and I can't imagine having to dump them and start over. UGH. So you didn't have any trouble getting the royal to dry when you added the corn syrup? I had real trouble with mine the last time I used it but Louisiana has real high humidity and that could be part of the problem.
Nancy I know we've shared some royal icing complaints but that's a new one for me! WOW! So glad you found a solution to the problem and thanks for sharing it 
. Your neighbors are friends for LIFE 
Back at the computer still waitin' on that new dough.
Thanks for the replies.
alysmom09, good question!!?? I'll experiment to see if black is the culprit. To confuse this matter even more though, I recently did 3 cookies with blue sky. ( A different blue)
( My sheep entry in the May cookie club here) After I photographed them, I saw that the sky area had turned all blotchy. But a day later the stains all disappeared!!! ( There was no black in that blue, btw.) No such luck with the stains in these other JOB cookies I'm so confused!!! 
sunnigirll ( Welcome to CC ) No, I'm shocked too but the royal with corn syrup dried in exactly the same rate of time my old recipe took!! I sure have noticed though that humidity plays a nasty part in drying. Two weeks ago I had to write on royaled cookies with my edible pens. They were dry to the touch and dry enough to bag but my pen tip sank right in. ( More cookies in the dumper--oh the agony!!!) I put a small fan on the next batch for hours. That did the trick.
cookiecreations, thanks, yes, the irritations and oddities of royal continue...... And yeah, my neighbors are not complaining, but I'll bet they're insulted receiving all my rejects!!
I have no doubt your neighbors are praying to the cookie gods for some of your cookies; experiments, rejects, extras, and/or broken ones, doesn't matter !!
Post your experiment results if you can! AAAGH royal icing!!!!
Hi Ursula,
Well that's bizarre!!!!! I only put a few tablespoons in the whole recipe of royal so maybe that's why they dried????? How much did you use?
And cookiecreations, THAT'S why my cookies got all splotchy on me---I forgot to pray to the cookie gods!!!!!!!@#%!!!!! 
i have had this happen with white and some of my other colored ri. i was thinking it could be the grease from the butter in the cookies, i know that when i put ri flowers on cakes i do it at the last minute because it dosent take too long before the buttercream starts to soften the ri up. i have been watching my butter, making sure it just gets to room temp softness. if i keep it out for long periods of time i have noticed oil separating from the butter. that might be the culprit.
Good thought, lacie, but what would explain the other colors drying perfectly????
Thank you for the response.
breelaura, Thanks for your input. You raise an interesting thought.
ejeepgrl, I'm very happy this applies to you and will help!!
I'm still wondering what the heck is going on since this seems to be an occasional problem---not every time
Whatever-------I'm buying a gallon of corn syrup!!
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