Hi everyone,

This is my first post. Love this site! My mother has handed her cake decorating supplies over to me. She hasn`t been able to decorate a cake in over ten years. I haven`t done much cake decorating myself as she enjoyed making the cake for the grandchildren. In her basket of goodies are several Wilton paste icing colors that have never been open. There is a copyright date of 1994 on the side of the jar. Would you use them or toss them? I have picked up a few basic things on decorating and so much more from this site. We are getting a Michaels here next year and I plan on taking the course.

Mindy

wow this is a good question. i have never had an old jar of color so i can not give you a good answer but i would love to know too.

I'm not sure what the shelf life for the colors is. You might look on the Wilton site for info. I used to use Wilton colors but have discovered Americolor gels. They are fantastic! Don't need nearly as much as the Wilton to achieve the color. You won't find them in a Micheal's though. I found mine in a cake decorating supply store but you can also get them on line at places like sugarcraft.com.

Welcome and enjoy your new toys!!

Dori

ps-don't ever worry about asking a question here-everyone is very helpful and friendly and usually you get your answer almost immediately!!

Welcome Mindy! You can still use them as long as they aren't dried up or gummy. I just bought a jar of black straight from the hobby store and it's dated 1998.

i have old stuff of my own.. they work okay.. some are dry and had to add this gel to it... for the life of me, i cant remember what its called... i;ve only had to add more color from time to time..

did this even make sense>>>

My MIL handed down some old Wilton paste to me that was probably about the same age. The ones that were open were very gummy so I didn't use those, but the unopened ones were just slightly gummy so I used those on an experiment cake. The color looked fine and they didn't leave a taste or make us sick!

Better safe than sorry...after all, you're talking about colors that are $1.24 each at Wal-Mart.

Welcome to Cake Central! I know you'll really enjoy it here.

~ Sherri

All you need to do to dry or gummy colors is add a few drops of glycerin and it is good as new.

If it were me, I probably wouldn't. The thought of something that I'm going to be eating sitting around for over 10 years kinda grosses me out. Of course,that's just me.

So, I agree with Cake Pro--toss em and get new. They aren't that expensive.

Lisa

..I vote for tossing out the gel colors! Maybe it's just a mental thing with me but I couldn't use them!

BTW...Welcome to Cakecental!!

I once e-mailed Wilton regarding the paste colors. They advised once opened it should be kept for no longer than 1 year, but I don't know how long it is good if the container has never been opened.

I wouldn't use them. I'm with MrsMissey and llj68, I couldn't bring myself to put a 10-year old product on something I'm planning on eating!

Well then...show's how much I pay attention to my colors!

Puts a new spin on things now.

I thought it might just be where I'm shopping but I've bought from Walmart, Hobby Lobby and Pottery Barn. Anyone else's date from the 90's or am I just getting old stuff? Never thought to check the dates when buying them new so I was actually kind of surprised.

Where do you check the date? Is it the copyright? If so, it's 1998 on mine. I also see a bunch of numbers. I buy most of mine from the Wilton Tent Sale.

That made me think and the copyright year on the label probably doesn't have anything to do with when they were made (© 1994 or © 1998 ones could have been made later). The date is probably encoded in those stamped numbers. Here's how some of the codes can be read.

http://www.a1usa.net/gary/expire.html

I don't know how to read the Wilton code. Does anyone else?

Thank you everyone for your thoughts. I bought new coloring and then opened the old to compare the contents and I had to be careful not to mix them up as they were identical so I probably could have used them but the age factor was kinda grossing me out. The only place near me to buy cake decorating supplies is the Bulk Barn and they only carry Wilton, so I`m making a list of other brand names and when I do some cross border shopping in the spring I`ll look them up.

Thanks again,
Mindy