This happened on my cookies and I've heard people describe the same issue as butter bleed. This didn't make sense though because my cookie recipe isn't high fat and they sit on paper towels for 24 hours after baking.
I did an experiment and put the same red icing on wax paper and, as I suspected, the same thing happened. So it is not the cookies, but the icing itself. This whole time, I thought this strange fading was due to butter bleed, but I don't think it has ever been that.
Why is this happening? First picture is the day I put it on the wax paper and second picture is three days later. This same thing has also happened to icing dried on a spatula.
by Fluffysleepypanda
10 Comments
I personally only had this when it was butter bleed and the paper towels worked for me. Was it extra hot in your home? That could have caused extra bleed
Possibly some oil in the icing? That might cause this too
What is your icing recipe and what brand of food coloring are you using?
I’m not sure if mine was the same issue, but I think it was parts of the gel colour not being mixed in fully and then it developed overnight. I had to scrap an entire order and restart from scratch 🙃. But I think it was also somewhat old gel, so that might have affected it too in terms of mixing in properly.
How long do you mix your recipe?
I love your experiment and I don’t have an answer but I’m so curious, did you or can you peel it off of the wax paper and see if the colour settled to the bottom? I’m wondering if somehow the suspension isn’t stable or thick enough to keep the colour particles in place over time. If that’s the case I would be inclined to try to dry it faster (dehydrator) or omit the corn syrup or something to try to keep it denser?
The other commenter’s idea about a reaction sounds interesting too. I’m just wondering if we can find out where the colour is going! Away because of a reaction, or down because of gravity!
I’ve had this too! It happened on a batch where I had undermixed the food coloring (everything dried solid like your first picture, but then those swirls appeared on my floods and I got some blotches like this.)
Coincidentally (?) it was on a week with really high humidity, and I’m convinced that contributed to it. I run a dehumidifier along with the AC now and put everything into the dehydrator a little longer. I’m also careful about whisking the meringue powder with warm water until it’s nice and fluffy before adding the powdered sugar and white coloring. Fingers crossed because this icing has a mind of its own!!
Do you have a dehydrator? Also, is there a reason you use aquafaba instead of meringue powder? Just curious.
After reading through the comments, yeah this is odd. I read where you were gonna try your original recipe but this time in the stand mixer. Have you been able to do that?
It’s sugar crystallization. Royal icing is mostly sugar, and if it dries slowly, the sugars can crystallize. It can happen with jams and other preserves, if you’ve ever seen small sugar crystals forming in a jar. It’s not dangerous to eat, it just looks a bit weird.
Most people believe the whitish spots to be butter bleed, but each problem looks distinct: butter bleed looks like roundish, yellowish spotting (when it’s affecting a light color) or or dark spots (when the icing is a darker shade). Crystallization looks like whitish spots with jagged edges.
I’ve been in the cookie business for 8+ years and my best advice would be: use a dehydrator or a fan so that the icing dries quickly, and seal cookies in an airtight container or plastic bag as soon as they’re fully dry.
I’ve also learned that adding a small amount of white coloring to every color helps. It makes the icing less transparent, which won’t prevent crystallization but will make it much harder to detect. I add 2 drops of white per 100g of colored icing, or 1 drop in the case of blacks and reds.
I’m happy to answer more questions if you think I could help!
Over saturation / not enough white in the base icing