I was looking at Antonia74's cookies and they're amazing! My questions are:

How do you flood one color beside another properly, so that one color doesn't run into another (like Antonia's hot dog or hamburger design)? Do you do one color, then let it dry and then do another? Or do you do all colors at the same time with a bit of space in between, so colors don't touch and bleed? What if you can't have spaces in between the colors?Do you flood all the colors at the same time and then try to dry them really quickly?

Next, for those who have shops, what is the most efficient way of drying iced cookies quickly? Do you let them air dry? Do you have any special fans or heat lamps (like at a restaurant, where they put the food under those lamps in the service aisle, to keep it warm). Here at home, I don't have consistent temp/humidity control, but would it be different in a bakery? I'm thinking of opening a shop, but drying efficiency is the one thing that stumps me. Perhaps it's just normal to wait 24 or 36 hours for a single batch of cookies to be ready for sale?

I hope someone "in the trenches', can kindly offer some words of wisdom.

Thank you,
Marina

Hi,

For colors next to one another, try using a slightly thicker border (dam, I think it's called) before flooding. The dam should keep the colors from running together. Just to help try to keep myself sane ( ) I usually try to do as much with one color as I can before moving onto the next color (other than accent work). That icing recipe begins to harden/dry pretty quickly - I've never had a problem with the colors running together. I dont' leave any spaces between colors.

Thank you bonniebakes. Colors bleeding seem to be my biggest frustration, and yet so many others say that they don't have this problem. I think my house is too humid - the windows are almost always fogged up. I'll try your tips, and then stick the iced cookies in barely warm oven for a bit, and see if this helps keep the humidity at bay.
Thanks again.