When I use red coloring or darker colors, I sometimes get these "pitted" dark spots after it dries. Is my icing too thin ? Or does this happen when you use too much coloring. I try to get all my air bubbles out that I see while the icing is wet. Any advice? Have to make more Falcon cookies for the playoffs and don't want this look again! 
Attached are some pictures. The pictures don't show it as much, but you can really see them in real life more.
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Are they actually sunken areas or just dark spots?
Is you food color older, I was wondering if you have little specks of dried color in your icing that is making little dark spots that have dissolved after you mixed in the color?
This may sound like an odd question, but do you put your cookies in a container the first 24 hours after icing it? I have had trouble with dark areas. The problem went away when I didn't cover them. I can't even loosely cover them.
Deena all of the above are very much possible but I have learned from experience that this happens to me when I use too much water and I have watched this happen with my own eyes if I used too much water I can see the icing and the water separating and the water is pooling in the crevices of the cookie and when I see this happening I just scrape off the icing before it dries and start over I hope this helps
Could they be grease spots from the cookies? Perhaps if the butter isn't thoroughly incorporated there may be 'buttery-er' spots on the cookies.
The same happens to me and it is very frustrating. Early December there is Sinterklaas with a red robe, then Christmas with its red and green, and then Valentine in red!!! I am avoiding red this valentine's as much as possible. Am trying Econlady's advise about letting them sit out of a box for a night. Will let you know! L
Liesbet posted:The same happens to me and it is very frustrating. Early December there is Sinterklaas with a red robe, then Christmas with its red and green, and then Valentine in red!!! I am avoiding red this valentine's as much as possible. Am trying Econlady's advise about letting them sit out of a box for a night. Will let you know! L
@Econlady @Deena I tried it with leaving the cookies uncovered and it worked!!!! One cookie had one spot, but that was easily covered up I am so happy to have found a way to make red cookies! Thank you so much!
Liesbet posted:Liesbet posted:The same happens to me and it is very frustrating. Early December there is Sinterklaas with a red robe, then Christmas with its red and green, and then Valentine in red!!! I am avoiding red this valentine's as much as possible. Am trying Econlady's advise about letting them sit out of a box for a night. Will let you know! L
@Econlady @Deena I tried it with leaving the cookies uncovered and it worked!!!! One cookie had one spot, but that was easily covered up
Glad to hear it worked!
Julia M. Usher posted:Are they actually sunken areas or just dark spots?
Not sunken in --just dark spots. Almost like maybe there was a large air bubble? I pull a scribe through it all several time making sure I get the majority of the air bubbles. I did these again for the Super Bowl and made the icing thicker. It did help, but I still had those dark spot show up on a few cookies! I might be done with red for awhile! 
Econlady posted:This may sound like an odd question, but do you put your cookies in a container the first 24 hours after icing it? I have had trouble with dark areas. The problem went away when I didn't cover them. I can't even loosely cover them.
No--I usually let them dry all day or over night if I make them at night to make sure they are completely dry.
Deena posted:Econlady posted:This may sound like an odd question, but do you put your cookies in a container the first 24 hours after icing it? I have had trouble with dark areas. The problem went away when I didn't cover them. I can't even loosely cover them.
No--I usually let them dry all day or over night if I make them at night to make sure they are completely dry.
The woman who taught me how to make decorated cookies told me that the icing color wasn't mixed enough.
Sounds like butter bleed. LilaLoa did a great blog post on cookie troubleshooting and this topic came up a lot. Humidity is a big factor, so letting them dry sealed in a container would definitely cause this as the water in the icing has no where to go. I have battled butter bleed since I've been decorating, and have been able to fix it by not thinning my icing too much, putting a paper towel over the cookies for about 15 minutes before icing to soak up and excess butter, using a table fan to dry, don't let them dry near the dishwasher, and some meringue powders gave me more trouble than others. I now use dried egg whites using Lila Loa's RI recipe with much better results. Good luck!
Same thing happened to me last night 🤦🏻♀️ I live in FL so part of me says it has to be humidity but here’s one key issue...it only happens with red! I am in the process of switching over to americolor but this batch was made with wilton’s red. Crossing my fingers that once I switch to the americolor true red I won’t experience this anymore. Until then lol my valentines cookie this year will be pink 😅🙈😂
I have had the same thing happen to me with both light and dark colors, the dark colors are more obvious. I researched, and researched and came up with humidity and butter bleed. That said, I changed my sugar cookie recipe to one with less butter and invested in a quality dehydrator. I haven't seen the issue since. If you can't afford to invest in a quality dehydrator, a cheap alternative is to place your cookies in a cold oven with the oven light on for a few hours. Place your cookies a few racks down from the light. As a previous poster noted, avoid placing your cookies in a covered container immediately after icing. I don't pretend to be an expert, but it seems reasonable that covering your cookies before the icing has completely dried may trap moisture within the container possibly contributing to the spotting if it is indeed caused by humidity? I hope these tips help.
