Help!!! The Colour Keeps Seperating From My Bc!?!

Decorating By CanadianCakin Updated 25 Jun 2009 , 11:30pm by KrisD13

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CanadianCakin Posted 24 Jun 2009 , 8:56pm
post #1 of 13

What am I doing wrong this has never happened before! I am making blue BC using the Wilton gel colour Royal Blue and the colour is seperating from the BC?? WTH!?! I don't understand It did it last night too so I made a fresh batch of bc....half crisco half butter recipe and it is stll seperatign why would this happen??
Has this happened to anyone elsee is it the BC or the colour...it's not hot today it's raining!! HELP PLEASE!!!
(I guess this is what I get for not using indydebi's recipe, which I usually do!)

TIA!
Ashley

12 replies
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bamberc Posted 24 Jun 2009 , 9:48pm
post #2 of 13

This has happened to me before, too. I always use the same recipe, and don't know why it only does it every now and then. Very frustrating!

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drakegore Posted 24 Jun 2009 , 10:39pm
post #3 of 13

crisco does not always accept gel colors very well, especially the dark ones. if you cannot find high-ratio shortening, then using oil-based candy colors will work well with crisco to make sure you color distributes evenly and richly.
diane

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bamberc Posted 24 Jun 2009 , 11:19pm
post #4 of 13

I use mostly butter in mine, is this causing the problem?

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Sarah824 Posted 24 Jun 2009 , 11:28pm
post #5 of 13

I agree--high ratio shortening is the only way to go esp. when using dark colors.

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drakegore Posted 24 Jun 2009 , 11:28pm
post #6 of 13

hmmm icon_confused.gif
i've never had it happen with butter and i have not read of this problem occuring with butter. perhaps something else is going on there.

i use two buttercream recipes, one is crisco and butter, and the other is all butter. without a doubt, the candy color gives much deeper (richer) colors, but the wilton and americolor gels work beautifully in the all butter.

what color were you using when it seperated? was it a dark color?

diane

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CanadianCakin Posted 25 Jun 2009 , 12:15am
post #7 of 13

Yes the colour I was using was the Royal Blue....I did Orange from the same bc batch and it was fine so I dunno.....i have made all butter bc, all shortening bc and half and hald before and this has never happened....could there be something wrong with the gel colour itself? It's not that old it's the same one i used for the my Pablo cak in the end of may?!

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jammjenks Posted 25 Jun 2009 , 12:20am
post #8 of 13

When does it separate? When you've been holding it for a while?

I have hot hands and my dark colors will separate if I hold it long. BTW-I use 1/2 butter 1/2 crisco too.

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SugarFrosted Posted 25 Jun 2009 , 12:57am
post #9 of 13

The first time I made a deep red, I was making a birthday cake for my son, whose birthday is December 21.
I made a Santa face with his red hat and big beard. I mixed the red just before I decorated and I used a ton of color to get the shade I needed. The next day when we cut the cake, Santa was bleeding...oozing red color. Quite a shock, but a good lesson!

How much color are you actually using? If you are trying to get a very, very dark color just before you need to use it, you will be using a lot more color than really necessary. I usually mix my colors (except pastels/light colors) at least 2 days before I need them. The colors will deepen/darker when they have time to "rest"and if you need to, you can always add more if needed. It's pretty hard to take extra color out after you've added it. I make a big container of some colors (red, royal, black) and use only what I need when I need it. They keep great in the refrigerator. By the time I use the last in those containers, the color is much much darker than the first portion I used. Colors like to "rest" so they can get strong icon_smile.gif

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drakegore Posted 25 Jun 2009 , 1:18am
post #10 of 13

two weeks ago, i made a bakugan birthday cake where the bottom tier was royal blue. my bc was all butter and the wilton royal blue was so grainy; i was really unhappy with it. i ended up using my blue candy color and it looked so much better. maybe there is something different (and not in a good way) about wilton's royal blue.

i too make all my dark colors a day or so in advance to give them time to darken.

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CanadianCakin Posted 25 Jun 2009 , 1:24am
post #11 of 13

I always make them ahead of time and it was while the bc was 'resting' in the airtight bowl that this happened.
It must be something with the blue!

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jammjenks Posted 25 Jun 2009 , 2:24pm
post #12 of 13
Quote:
Originally Posted by momma_ash

I always make them ahead of time and it was while the bc was 'resting' in the airtight bowl that this happened.
It must be something with the blue!




Well that just blows my theory out of the water. Oh well, maybe it was a bad batch of coloring??

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KrisD13 Posted 25 Jun 2009 , 11:30pm
post #13 of 13

What I've noticed is that before Crisco changed to 0% Trans fats, none of us had this problem. There was no mention of it in these forums.

I think that even with their transfat crisco, the formula has changed.

I never had it happen with any veg shortening before they changed. Since then, I check the label on all shortening...it still says there are trans fats, but I am getting the lumpy, color separating effect no matter what color I use. Finally, the other night I decided to add a bit of melted butter and a few extra tablespoons of icing sugar. It worked, and it's what I'll be doing every time in the future.

Or there's IndyDebbie's addition of the whipped cream powder that I'm going to try next time......

Food for thought, and HTH

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