Adventures In Icing Dye

Well, well, well!!  I'm sure you knew this was going to happen.  My record when it comes to dying things isn't the best.  My fingers are still red from the red velvet cupcakes and here I am again, handling frosting coloring ... DYE ... that comes in hard to open containers.

Decorated cookies require royal icing, something you can make with pasteurized egg whites and powdered sugar.  I'm pretty sure those egg whites aren't available around here, but on a quick trip to Walmart for macrame cord (which I haven't found yet), I discovered they sell Wilton Cake Decorating products.  Yahoo!!!

They even have royal icing in a box ... just add water.  I put this off for many hours since I have absolutely no idea how thin or thick to make the frosting.  If too thin, I have no powdered sugar to thicken it again.  And AWAY WE GO!!!

I started out with only four cookies, but that increased quickly when I ended up with enough white frosting to cover my house.  I kept adding teaspoon after teaspoon of water, but afraid I would go overboard, I stopped and tried to pipe the cookies.  

In an attempt to save my expensive disposable bags, I tried folding a piece of parchment paper first.  That pretty much ended in getting white frosting all over everything.  Back with the disposable bag, I piped the borders.  Not too bad, but when I filled them in, it was pretty obvious the frosting was too thick.  It didn't flow well and therefore didn't smooth out.  Oh well ... on to the colors.

What a mess THAT turned out to be!!  The Wilton Icing Colors had foil under the lid that needed to be removed with a knife before use.  In no time I had black dye all over my yellow hand towel, my white shirt and across my entire counter.  I added a couple more teaspoons of water so it would flow better and it worked!!  I'm pretty sure my tip is way too big, because the frosting is almost as thick as the cookie!!

I kept going and mixed up the blue.  It worked even better, although now my hands are black and blue!!  I let the cookies sit to dry ... but apparently not long enough!!  That's when I made the biggest mistake of all.  

I took the black with a too-big tip and made the eyes.  Cute!!!  Until the black goop started to run together.  I should have saved some of the stiffer frosting for decorating details.  They not only have crooked mouths, but they are cross-eyed to boot!!

I've got a bunch of noses to pipe and a whole lot of Mr. and Mrs. Claus to complete, adding to my already colorful hands.  

In the meantime, wonderful Miss Terry called to give me her remedy for the almond flavored cookie and I can't wait to try it!!  She also told me about a secret pie crust recipe.  I'm so excited!!!  If I can get these cookies finished today, I'll donate them to the Challenged Children's Bingo group lunch tomorrow.  They will LOVE them and I don't have to eat these hot messes!!  

There's one problem with all this ... when you look back, you think "that wasn't so hard after all" ... maybe I'll get a few snowflake cookie cutters and try it again!!!  And THAT my friends is how you end up with a dozen boxes of cookie cutters!!!