i finished a cupcake cake last night for my daughter and when i woke up (only 5 hours later) it has spots everywhere.
what happened?
i used to different colors, the pink is covered and the darker pink is even worse but the purple just has a few. any ideas as to what happened?
I had this very thing happen to me a couple times with pink and blue. The first time it happened was with pink and it was during my Wilton Course 1 class. The instructor said she had seen it before but didn't know what caused it. The next time I used that same bottle of pink paste color, it was happening again. I determined, in my case at least, that the colors were old and needed replacing. Could that be for you too?
I've had it happen with an old bottle of brown Wilton color. I think its the age.
I also had that happen. I, too, attributed it to old gel colors. They were lumpy, not smooth like a new bottle is, but I used them anyway and had the same results as you describe.
Did you add salt to your icing? This was happening to me also years ago and I really think it was because I was adding salt ( sodium chloride) and then coloring and decorating right away. It was making white bleached spots. I think if you add salt maybe you should wait 24 hours to color the icing and mix it a few times between to make sure the salt disolves. I stopped using the salt and haven't had this problem since.
Purple is bad about doing this, but pink and other colors do it too.
The first thought and question is always salt. As a WMI when my students have this happen I always ask about the salt first. But there are other causes for it because not everyone uses salt in their buttercream.
It could be caused by lumps in the crisco or icing, but I really believe it is caused by water or the chemicals in tap water. Try bottled water next time and see if that helps with it.
Another thing is if you notice this happening with certain colors (like purple, pink and blue), just mix those colors up early. With in an hour or so they should spot. Once spotted just stir the spots in. They don't keep reappearing so once you stir it you shouldn't have any more problems.
I had this happen to my purple alligator, no salt in buttercream, new color. I had someone suggest is I use water in my buttercream it could be minerals in the water. Now when I do anything with a darker color I use a bottled water to the frosting and I havent had a problem since.
update:
OK so i officially hate wilton.
the women told me that she asked everyone and the test kitchen and they have never heard of anything like this. And that my cake faded form light.
OK I made the cake at 1 am and it was covered and had spots by 7.
So i tried to fix the spots by spreading it, and now the cake is white.
At least it is just for my daughter at school and no moms will be there.
They might have to deal with that if they use the same water in the test kitchen.
I can have 6 students and only have one come in with the spot issue. Or it can go months before I see another student that has the problem.
I've seen purple fading in light, and pink fondant after time. I've read that milk will help with the fading. It should also help with the spotting since it doesn't have the chemicals tap water does.
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