I have been using Wilton gel coloring with my royal icing recipe (powdered sugar, meringue powder, water) and I've noticed that when making a large batch of one color of icing (dark/bold color), the texture changes. Last night I needed a large batch of orange, and it took FOREVER to get the right flooding texture. I know when you add gel, it changes the consistency, but does anyone else have this problem? Or am I just very impatient?
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I'm not sure what you mean by "texture changes". When I add a lot of coloring to get a deep color, the icing, of course, gets looser, but it maintains its smooth texture. I just have to add a little powdered sugar to thicken it back up. I use Chefmaster coloring most often.
Can you be a little more specific about the texture issue you are experiencing, so that we can possibly provide better help? Thanks!
I don't know if this is anything to do with the problem you're experiencing, but I notice that the more I mix my icing, the thicker it gets (presumably just whipping more air in making it stiffer). This means that icing that is already at one consistency, but if I need to do a lot of mixing to get the colour right (or really saturated), it will end up thicker than it was before - depending also on how wet the colouring is.
If I'm not careful, then when I go to add water to get it to flood consistency, I need to add more, but then after stirring, perhaps to use it again the next day, it can be too thin.
So now I tend to whip up my icing to start with to a stiff consistency, and now I am fairly careful to stir, rather than whip up the icing again, when mixing in colour - if it needs to be diluted to a softer consistency, I tend to keep adding a little water spray over the colour as I add it.
I use Silver Spoon ready mixed royal icing powder, and mostly Sugarflair colour gels (which are usually, though not always, very stiff), and sometimes Americolor.
