Royal Icing Troubleshooting
Does your royal icing bleed? Break? Twist? Dimple? Crack? Crater? I’ve experienced all of these and needed to learn how to do royal icing troubleshooting.
Read the tips below to help you fix your icing so your cookies will turn out great!
#1 How to Stop Royal Icing From Bleeding
Why does icing bleed?
- Not letting your layers dry in-between piping
- Humidity
- Oversaturated icing color from adding too much food dye
Let your layers dry before you put pipe the next color. If you pipe a yellow base of icing, like the emoji cookies above, and then add black right away, the black is likely to bleed into the yellow. This is because the first layer has not set. Darker colors will bleed into lighter colors because of their higher saturation.
Let each layer dry for ten minutes or more before adding the next one. These strawberry cookies are an example:
Humidity can be hard to control depending on where you live. Icing that takes a long time to form a crust has more chances of bleeding. After decorating, use an oven or dehydrator to dry the layers of cookies faster. Set the oven to its lowest temperature and place the cookies in for 5-10 minutes to speed up drying times. (Smaller cookies need less time in the oven.)
If you leave your decorated cookies in the oven too long, they will crack and explode as shown below.
Oversaturated icing happens when we add too much food dye when mixing colors. Use a gel based food dye which gives bold colors and eliminates the need to add too many drops to achieve a vibrant color. *Also* some dark colors like blue, green, and purple will deepen over time. Make your icings the day before to let the colors develop overnight. This means you won’t have to add as much food gel dye.
My favorite food gel is AmeriColor. The colors are rich and a little goes a long way.
#2 Stop Your Icing From Breaking or Twisting
When you want your lines to look straight and even, the last thing we want is for the icing to break mid pipe.
Icing that breaks is due to pushing the icing out of the piping bag without consistent pressure. Make sure to use your hand to apply even, steady pressure and kept the tip as close to the cookie as possible. Don’t “drag” the icing behind your piping bag tip, let the icing flow out of the bag evenly.
Breaking or twisting also happens when you lift the piping bag up in the middle of piping. Keep the piping bag tip low to the cookie, to really push the icing onto the cookie.
Watch the video!
#3 Why Your Details Lack Definition
Sloppy lines? Details blending into each other? This could be due to the wrong consistency icing. Let’s do some royal icing troubleshooting.
If your details are melting into each other, look very thick or choppy, you’re probably using a flooding consistency. Thinner icing does not hold its shape and will spread.
To fix this, make sure to use the right consistency for your details, like pipe-able or stiff icing.
#4 Use the Right Royal Icing Consistency
This is similar to the last royal icing troubleshooting tip except it applies to more than just piping the details.
- Icing that’s running off the cookie means your flooding icing is too thin! Make sure not to water down your royal icing too much.
- Don’t pipe your entire cookie with stiff icing because not only is it going to make the icing look bumpy, but it can hurt your hand! (This bumpy icing shown in the watermelon rind above)
When your consistencies are all off, the final cookie isn’t going to look flawless. There are four icing consistencies that are generally used:
Flood: Used to cover large surfaces of a cookie i.e. base icing
Medium: To fill in spaces that are detailed but not precise
Pipe-able: Used for lettering, certain detail work, outlines
Stiff: This is icing that can hold its shape and created defined details
I have a video about icing consistencies here. Basically, you need to make the stiffest consistency first, then slowly thin down the icing with water. I use liquid egg whites but meringue powder works too because what it comes down to is adding the right amount of water.
Why is my royal icing not drying hard?
You’ve added too much water to icing! Cut back and add water slowly, 1 teaspoon at a time or with a spray bottle.
It’s important not to rush when making your icing. This is where a lot of mistakes stem from! If you take your time to make the icing consistency just right, the final cookies will look great!
#5 How to Fix Royal Icing Craters
This one is frustrating because these usually appear after your icing has dried. So why does this happen? Let’s do more royal icing troubleshooting! Yay!
Air bubbles happen to us all and they’re a simple fix. This could be because the icing was over whipped. When you see them on the surface of your cookie, use a toothpick or a scribe tool to gently pop them. You can also gently drop the cookie onto the table to even out the icing.
Also-
Skimping on the icing can cause craters because when you try to get away with using less icing, the surface won’t be even. Don’t skimp!
#6 Layer Your Icing Correctly
This tip requires you to think ahead about your cookie design. For example, let’s say you want to make lightning bugs in a jar cookies as shown below. There are multiple layers and design techniques that you must do in the correct order so the final cookie appears like lightning bugs are glowing in a jar.
Let’s break this down.
If coming up with designs is overwhelming, take a few minutes to draw or write out the design and color theme. This way you can check off the icing colors you need to prepare. Then, write what order you need to add each icing layer and detail. Checking things off a list can help! If it didn’t turn out how you wanted, remember that royal icing cookies are all about practice!
For this design the colors we need are:
- Sky blue
- Grey
- Yellow
- Black
Extra details:
- Edible glitter
- Powdered food dye
- Edible black marker
- To make these cookies, you need to add your blue base layer icing and let it dry.
- Then add the grey lid.
- Next, we add the outlines to make the jar and lid slightly more realistic.
- Then we paint some yellow food powder where we want our lightning bugs to glow.
- Then we start adding the lightning bug body by piping the yellow, then black, then finally the grey details.
- Add the little yellow dots for some added detail.
- Add the bug trail using an edible food marker.
- Finally some edible glitter.
While it seems like a lot, when you practice enough you get used to understanding what details have to be added first and what is added last.
#7 Practice Designs Before You Pipe on Cookies
This is my big tip. MAKE EXTRA COOKIES. This way you can practice and if one turns out not exactly what you have in mind, you have more cookies.
Home Baking Business Tip: If you are decorating an order with a design you’ve never done, MAKE EXTRA COOKIES. This is just good practice in case one falls or breaks (it does happen).
When it comes to lettering and making faces and characters, it is hard. I cannot stress this enough. Sometimes you need one or two cookies to practice on. You can also practice on a paper-towel or plate. Above, I practiced Thomas the train faces on parchment.
Character cookies are very hard because we want to try to get the same likeness and using icing is a tough medium.
Home Baking Business Tip: I avoided character cookies as much as I could. Instead I’d make designs that relate to the theme. i.e. Minnie Mouse bows instead of the Minnie Mouse face
Lettering is also very hard. Practice makes perfect when it comes to royal icing. The royal icing troubleshooting for this one is that…you have to practice.
There are different techniques for lettering. You can lightly draw on the cookie with an edible pen to outline where to place letters.
When adding letters, you will also need to understand how to “push” the right amount of icing out of a piping bag. I recommend printing out a cursive workbook sheet. Place this under parchment paper and practice piping the words.
Take your time when piping letters for better precision.
Everything takes practice. I believe in you!
If you recreate any of my designs, tag me on Instagram #alissasbakeshop – I’d love to see!
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