I have never had this happen before with various royal recipes.  This time I just did the regular Wilton recipe.  The cookies took a long time to dry and some of them have a weird orange peel texture to the surface.  Anyone? 

AThey usually take longer to dry if it is humid in your house. I know that mine take forever to dry if it has rained. Try drying them in front of a fan or in the oven with just the light on. The orange peel texture I have no idea about, sorry.

No...I live in dry as dust Southern CA.  I think I made it way too runny. I just wish I had a "go to" recipe that worked every time. I have tried Wiltons, Antonias, glace, etc.  I don't do them often enough to get good but get disappointed that they don't look better.  Another odd thing... my Americolors seem to have gone "off". I have had some of them a very long time but I never heard of them going bad per se.

AHave you tried Sugarbelle's icing recipe? I've been using it exclusively for a very long time and have not experienced any issues whatsoever.

I don't dry my cookies in front of a fan, but I have heard that's a great way to go about it. Can you explain the "orange peel" texture a bit more in detail?

AAbout the Americolor gels, I have had a few get really thick and chunky, like they've dried out a bit. I just toss those in the trash, they don't mix in smoothly for me once they get like that.

I will check out Sugarbelle's recipe. I think it was her video I was watching.  Re the orange peel...just that.  Surface was not smooth and shiny.  More like the skin of an orange.  I think it was just too wet.  Seems it is too thick and then I am trying the 10 second thing and next thing I know it's too thin.  If I did it more I would get better.  The Americolor was odd.  I added so much super black to get black and it looked more like Hunter Green.  Sometimes if a Wilton would get thick and chunky I would add some glycerin and mix it up and it would be fine but didn't seem to work with the Americolor. I love them otherwise.  Just didn't use up fast enough I guess.  Thank you for your support! Some of these people's cookies look so neat and professional. I would love to be able to get control of the icing issue and make mine look much nicer....

AA good tip to remember is that the colors will deepen with time. I learned that the hard way once when I had the perfect shade of red turn into a dark burgundy/maroon as it dried on the cookie. When I need black, I'll get the royal icing to a dark gray and let it sit. You'll be surprised how the color really does continue to develop.

I use the Sugarbelle recipe, too. Try it, I think you'll like it. Regarding the black, try adding some cocoa powder to the white icing, stir, and then a drop or 2 of the black. I do it this way and it works like a charm. It is much easier to go from brown to black than it is white to black, and if I leave it sit for a few hours, its a really nice, rich black. If I need a brown, I don't use gel color at all, I use the cocoa powder and it tastes wonderful! Good luck!