Bleeding? Yikes!

I use glace, and it works best for me to start with the darkest color icing and end with the lightest. Wet icing seems to want to leach into the dry icing, so if the dry icing is darker than the wet, bleeding isn't as noticeable.

I live in a very humid climate in spring and summer and dealt with this for years. Still do from time to time. I use a fan and lower my temp in my shop to very cool at night. This helps a bunch!! I also, try to make my icing a little thicker when worried about bleeding especially with dark colors next to very light colors. I think when I make my icing too thin it does not have enough air incorporated into it, more wet .. as the thicker icing would.. More air, thicker, drys faster and less bleeding. Hope that makes sense?? And I start with darker colors first and let dry then go back with lighter colors after several hours or all night. 

I don't really have any proof of this, but I feel like I have experienced way less bleeding when I use bright white food coloring in all my icing. I add it when the icing is being made, so it is in all my colors, not just the icing that I keep white. 

I've almost completely eliminated bleeding by pushing my royal icing to the thickest possible consistency for the task at hand (the thicker the icing, the faster it dries) and allowing lots of dry time (if the technique allows) when laying light and dark icing next to each other. NOTE: Even if you've let a dark outline dry overnight, it will still bleed into a light color placed next to it if that light icing is very loose and takes a long time to dry. 

So, when doing wet-on-wet or marbling (aka pull-through) techniques where colors go down wet next to each other, I use the thickest possible consistency that will still allow a smooth marble without leaving any tracks. Immediate dehydrating of the cookie can also help to set the colors faster.

I also live in an extremely humid climate . . . but bleeding is pretty controllable even so with royal icing.

Hi. I've decorated some cookies with wet-on-wet technique and I've put them quickly in the dehydrator for trying to avoid bleeding. Everything was fine until I switched off my dehydrator (after two hours) and, minutes later, bleeding started… How can that be possible? The consistency of the icing was pretty thick and I put cookies in the dehydrator asap.

So frustrating.

Thanks for helping!

Sorry, I'm confused - did you have them in there "quickly" or for two hours? If quickly, then perhaps it was too quickly and/or your icing was still too thin. It's slow drying and loose icing (which takes longer to dry) which are the primary reasons for bleeding, so it must be one of these things.

This thread could not have come at a better time and I just learned so much from all of you! I just made some cookies where I did a chocolate brown first, let it dry completely, and then did a white outline around it. The brown totally bled into the white! :-(  

I guess, from what I am reading here, that I should have made my white icing thicker? Or should I have made both my chocolate brown AND my white icing thicker? I am almost positive the brown was totally dry when I outlined with the white. 

The white was probably too loose and did not dry fast enough.

I put them in the dehydrator for 2 hours. I switched off the dehydrator, opened it and, minutes later, the bleeding started. Too weird… 

Yeah, weird, Though 2 hours is a long time in the dehydrator . . . who knows what all that heat did??