One good thing about summer coming to a close is that cooler and dryer weather is on the way, which is perfect for cookie decorating. Warm weather during the summer can bring on butter bleed, which happens when the butter from the cookie stains the royal icing and leaves it looking blotchy. It doesn't have to be humid for it to happen, just hot (humidity brings on its own set of issues) I was even struck by butter bleed in the winter at one point, when I had my cookies sitting directly under one of the heat vents in my bake shop. Lesson learned!
While butter bleed is preventable for the most part, there are still times when it's just beyond our control. There's more information about preventing and covering butter bleed in this post about royal icing.
These brush embroidered swan cookies were a personal gift from me to a family member, so fortunately I had complete control over how they were decorated. My original design just included the swans, but when butter bleed struck, I had to change my plan.
For products used in this and other tutorials, visit the recommended products page.
This cookie was made using my Orange Vanilla Spice recipe and measures 2x4". My cookie recipe is available in my tutorial shop. Begin by icing the cookie in flood consistency royal icing and a tip 3. The pink color shown here is Wilton aster mauve and the blue is delphinium blue, both from the garden tone set (you can find these colors on the recommended products page).
Once the cookie is completely dry (8-12 hours of drying time), use a scribe tool to trace a heart template onto the icing. I traced a small heart cookie cutter onto card stock to make this template.
Using a tip 1 and flood consistency royal icing, outline and fill in the swans.
Use the scribe tool to help shape the icing.
Let the swans dry for about 4 hours, preferably in front of a fan. Notice the dark areas on the edges of the pink icing. That's what butter bleed looks like.
Once the swans are dry, add the wings using the brush embroidery technique.
Make a beak with a little bit of orange icing and shape it with the scribe tool. A piping bag isn't really necessary for this step. You could apply a drop of icing using the tip of the scribe tool or with a toothpick.
This is where I started to improvise. I used the scribe tool to draw some swags and then added a lacy brush embroidered decoration.
This is similar to how I added the curtains in the baby bassinet tutorial.
I added a bead border with a tip 1 and a medium shade of brown royal icing. I also painted these beads using a mixture of gold luster dust and alcohol, which you can learn all about in this post on painting with gold.
I finished the detail on the swans using an edible ink marker.
Have you ever encountered butter bleed? How did you deal with the situation? Let me know in the comments!
Click on the images below for more cookie decorating tutorials 
This cookie was made using my Orange Vanilla Spice recipe and measures 2x4". My cookie recipe is available in my tutorial shop. Begin by icing the cookie in flood consistency royal icing and a tip 3. The pink color shown here is Wilton aster mauve and the blue is delphinium blue, both from the garden tone set (you can find these colors on the recommended products page).
Once the cookie is completely dry (8-12 hours of drying time), use a scribe tool to trace a heart template onto the icing. I traced a small heart cookie cutter onto card stock to make this template.
Using a tip 1 and flood consistency royal icing, outline and fill in the swans.
Use the scribe tool to help shape the icing.
Let the swans dry for about 4 hours, preferably in front of a fan. Notice the dark areas on the edges of the pink icing. That's what butter bleed looks like.
Once the swans are dry, add the wings using the brush embroidery technique.
Make a beak with a little bit of orange icing and shape it with the scribe tool. A piping bag isn't really necessary for this step. You could apply a drop of icing using the tip of the scribe tool or with a toothpick.
This is where I started to improvise. I used the scribe tool to draw some swags and then added a lacy brush embroidered decoration.
This is similar to how I added the curtains in the baby bassinet tutorial.
I added a bead border with a tip 1 and a medium shade of brown royal icing. I also painted these beads using a mixture of gold luster dust and alcohol, which you can learn all about in this post on painting with gold.
I finished the detail on the swans using an edible ink marker.
Have you ever encountered butter bleed? How did you deal with the situation? Let me know in the comments!
Click on the images below for more cookie decorating tutorials
So I've noticed just now that my apples are showing butterbleed. I placed them on kitchen paper. Hopefully it will stop the bleed?!
I always come to you first to get inspiration before I start any cookie order. What a joy to be a cookie artist!
I so much love ❤️ your cookie art work. Your swan cookies do look so vintage. There so beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your tips on how to make cookies that will keep there shape after there cooked. I'm new at baking cookies. Actually new at baking. Anyway since you put out how to make the swan cookies you've inspired me so much. Thank you. When I do I will send you a pic if I can. ?
Thank you so much!! I look forward to seeing the photo!
I found your site because I was looking for information on the brush embroidery technique to use on a Twelfth Night/Birthday Cake. I'm so glad I did! These are so beautiful and do full justice to the delicate elegance of the live swan. I also love how your cookies look as if they come from another century, 18th maybe. They have a artistry and craftsmanship which is hardly seen nowadays in cookery or in fact in anything. All the very best from Normandie, Sue
I'm so glad you found me, Sue! Thank you very much!!
I have an idea, not sure if it will work but am going to try this on 1 of 2 to see if there is a difference. What if you flood your cookie with a very thin layer (VERY thin), let dry, then do the outline and flooding on top. Would the first layer not lock in the butter bleeds, preventing the layer you see to also butter bleed? Worth a try.
It's worth a shot! Please let me know what happens if you try it.
I actually like the way the butter bleed makes your cookie look! It gives it a vintage feel.
Butter bleed happened to me once with light blue baptism cookies. It had never happened to me before, and because I am a new cookie business, I was absolutely horrified! I didn't have time to make any more, so I just gave her a partial refund. At least now I know what it is, and that the experts have issues with it too!
That was nice of you to offer a partial refund! I hope it doesn't happen again, but if it does, see if you can find a clever way to cover it up 😉
hey im new on your amazing cookie art webpage. You are very good
Thank you so much!
Muito linda esta bolacha, parabens, e obrigada por me presentear com estes modelos de cooks
I don't know if it's butter bleed, but I had splotches all over my cookies when I switched meringue powder. I used wilton, switched to CK and had major issues. Could it be the powder?
I have heard that some meringue powders do better than others when it comes to butter bleed. I pretty much always use Wilton MP, so I can't say for sure whether or not this is true.
These swans are the most beautiful and amazing cookies I have ever seen. They are absolutely gorgeous!
After allowing iced cookies to dry during the day, I noticed discoloration in the evening. I placed them in a 350 degree oven for 2-3 minutes. The next morning the discoloration was gone. Please let me know if this works for you.
That's great!! Thank you for sharing this tip.
I used to have a huge problem with "butter bleed". It's so frustrating!
About 2 years ago I switched to Henry and Henry brand meringue powder and haven't had the problem at all (knock on wood). I actually recently tried Americolor MP and they all started bleeding, so immediately ordered more H&H.
When I was having the bleeding problem, I would put my cookies in a cool oven with the light on. The heat from the light would make them all turn the darker shade after about 8 hours.
I made some chalkboard back-to-school cookies last august (in Phoenix) that got some terrible butter-bleed splotches. It looked awful, and it was right on the "chalkboard" surface where I couldn't add embellishments to hide it. I ended up popping the decorated cookies in the oven on very low heat for about an hour to melt the butter and make the butter bleed spread over the whole cookie, so at least it looked uniform and good, though darker than I originally intended!
maravilhoso
Thank you &so nice
Beautiful and great. !!! Thank you !!
A cookie friend of mine told me to put the cookies (after decorating) in a Tupperware and the bleed goes away! (Or the bags they are packaged in) and it worked for me! 🙂
Thank you to do that you are so kind and help me a lot my project
Thank you for the great tutorial! Lately I've been interested in which sugar people use for royal icing, powdered sugar with starch or pure powdered sugar without starch. I recently used putr sugar without starch for RI for the first time. I was surprised it is much easier to handle with than RI made of sugar with starch, because it takes much longer to get dry. I asked this question at Cookie Connection and Julia said she uses powdered sugar with starch. How about you?
That's interesting! I use powdered sugar with starch. I've never tried using pure powdered sugar! Thanks for bringing that up. Something to think about!
Divine cookies and touch wood I have never had butter bleed. Probably because we live in a cool/temperate climate.
Thank you!! Good thing you've never had to deal with butter bleed! 🙂
Gorgeous cookies as always! I have a huge butter bleed problem. I live in Fl and it's so hot and humid here. Yes, sometimes the cookies look great the first 24 hours and then the trouble starts.
How frustrating!!
I thought these were Beautiful thank you so much for sharing your fantastic cookies Dx
Thank you!!
I had some butter bleed on some cookies I did awhile back. Once I saw it happening (it was a warm wknd), I just put them on a table right in the sunlight until it spread completely over the whole cookie. A little darker than what I had intended, but they looked better.
Good thinking!
Beautiful cookies, as usual!
Butter bleed is driving me crazy! I thought I had solved the problem by adding more egg white powder to my royal icing, but I still get batches of cookies with butter bleeds and batches without, with no apparent reason.
Eu amo você pela sua generosidade em mostrar e repartir suas técnicas de decoração de biscoitos. Será sempre feliz, pois a mesma energia boa que despende quando reparte seus conhecimentos, você a recebe de volta em dobro. Um beijo.
Translation: I love you for your generosity in showing and sharing their techniques for decorating cookies. Will always be happy because the same good energy you spend when allocating their knowledge, you get it back double. A kiss.
Thank you so much!!
The swans are great! I too improvise some extra decoration when butter bleed strikes. I tend to reach for sprinkles when possible 🙂
Sprinkles!! Good idea 🙂
I tuoi lavori sono bellissimi.
Ciao Francesca
Dislike butter bleed. I tend to have less trouble with this if I use a high quality butter. And I have also found that *sometimes* within a 24 hour period, the cookie will be a uniform color. Much darker than originally planned but uniform!