I have iced several different batches of heart shaped cookies with thinned Antonias 74 and the only color I am having trouble with is the red. As it dries, it has dark black spots throughout. Some as large as a pencil eraser. I have used both Wilton and Americolor gels, with the same results. Does anyone know how to prevent this?
I asked my cake decorating class teacher about this, and she said that especially red, you have to mix extra extra more than any other color. I haven't tried this yet, but I had planned on using my hand blender next time I make red as opposed to hand mixing with a fork which is what I usually do. I may be way off the mark though, hope somebody else answers too!
I have had that probem with the red colors as well. I find it helps to beat the icing, then let it rest a while and rebeat well.
It's not fool-proof, bet it helps me alot.
Hazel
I have the same problem too. I happens sometimes but not always. But it turns dull when it dries.
I will have to try mixing it with a mixer, versus just stirring the coloring in. My family is starting to think that I am crazy, because I am obsessed with finding a solution and just keep baking and decorating cookies. I can tell from this forum that I am not the only baker with such an addiction.
I just finished several small cookie bouquets in mugs for Valentine's Day. Some of the red cookies developed dark splotches as they dried. This has happened to me once or twice before, but can't remember if it was red those times or another color. Anyway, the other colors that I mixed from this same batch of icing were fine. I'm trying to figure out what caused it so it doesn't happen again -- doesn't make for the prettiest cookie. Does anyone know if this is a humidity problem or what it could be? The only other thing I can think of is I used a hat pin on some of the cookies to pop bubbles (I do this all the time) and to move the icing around in a few spots. Could it be that I scratched the cookie enough to kick up some of the butter into the royal? The cookies dried hard as usual, just some had splotches. Any ideas?
Hi Lisa!
My experience with dark spots in red have also been a problem - in the past. I believe it is from the butter in the cookie leaching thru. I modified my original cookie recipe and dont have that problen anymore - I hated those dark spots - I found the only thing you can do is put some kind of decoration over the spot. I dont believe the spots danger the cookie or make it taste any diff. just cosmeticaly looks bad -
HTH - Happy Baking!
Gaye
PS My red always gets dull too ... I HATE THIS - on a mission to find out WHY and fix this prob. too!
A light bulb just went off! When you said to hide it w/a decoration, it reminded me that awhile back I was decorating microphone cookies. The black ball of the microphone turned waaaay dark and splotchy and the only thing I could do to salvage it was to spread gel over the cookie and then sprinkle black sanding sugar on top. I was afraid the cookies would taste gritty, but since I always make a couple extras, I was able to try it before I sent them out and it was DELICIOUS. I didn't think to use sanding sugar this time. Where is my head? Still need to get to the bottom of this problem though b/c sanding sugar is not always going to be an option. Duh. Thanks for lighting my bulb!
Cathy - Glad I could help! Problem solving - Just ONE of MANY things associated with cookies!! Math .. English (nobodie wants things speled wrong on there cookie!) See? I could go on n on!
Hopefully someone else can tell you a better way than just "hiding" them durn spots! Until then - Happy Hide-ing!
I posted a similar problem earlier this week as well. My color was a dark maroon that I had used lots of red in to make it ...more reddish! They looked great for the first 10-12 hours, and then started to get darker around the periphery of the cookie and spreading inwards, with a splotchiness....if they had just dried darker and solidly, i would have been fine with it...but it wasn't uniform and I ended up putting a lot of decoration on the cookie. Truth to tell, I had planned on all the decoration, so in hindsight I didn't need to worry or go to all the trouble I did to cover up the splotchiness - I painted a leaf stencil in luster dust in copper color to camoflauge the spottiness...a huge amount of time and really wasn't necessary once I put all the other decoration on....live and learn. But still, this doesn't solve my problem and what happens when I want a dark red color and not a lot of decoration? I also freaked out cause it was a big order for a VERY finicky, change-her-mind, high maintenance customer...lost a lot of sleep over these...
i remember that happening over the christmas holidays too-most of my red turned splotchy after a while-i still don't understand it and i'm going to try beating the heack out of the icing next time i try. thanks for posting this problem-i'll be watching for more solutions
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