Hello cc community,

I hope you can help me. I am new to decorating cookies so still getting to grips with how long things will stay fresh etc. I made a batch of plain cookies and iced them with royal icing in various colours about 1 week ago. I intended to give them as gifts so I wrapped them in cellophane. I noticed today that the the ones decorated in white royal icing or pale pink have become discoloured - turning slightly yellow first at the edges and then creeping towards the middle. The cookies I decorated in red and green are fine but the pale colours are becoming gradually more and more discoloured. I used a packet of silver spoon royal icing which is a UK brand. Can anyone tell me what might of happened to my pale coloured cookies? is it perhaps that the icing was too thin? Or could it be something else? Is there anyway to avoid this in the future? Also how long will an iced cookie last for until it starts to go bad? the book i have states the cookies will last for 1 month if wrapped well but I am not sure if this means just plain cookies or decorated?

I very much look forward to any advise you can give as I am so disappointed that the colours are changing. It took a lot of time and patience for me to do the cookies so any help would be wonderful

All best wishes

Lucycoo

The colour change is probably due to the butter seeping through. As for how long they will last, it depends on the recipe you are using, but most cookies will never go 'bad' as sugar acts as a preservative but they will go stale after a while.

I go by the "5 day rule" for cookies... 5 days maximum from the time I make the dough to the time I give it/deliver it. I hope that after that they will be eaten within the next few days.

I know that a lot of people keep them for longer than that, but for me, after a week, I think they loose their freshness, and I start to get concerned about food safety....