Do you use this the same way as Antonia's icing...ie thin down to flood? And do you have to use whole milk...would like to try these one of these days...maybe during the holidays.

This icing is almost opposite of Antonia's. It's more of a glaze so you have to take a 1/2 cup out of the mix and add powder sugar to stiffen it up to pipe or outline. Because of the corn syrup, it tends to be a bit sticky. It's a very good tasting icing. I usually use whole milk, I suppose you could use 2% or what have you. Lately, I add 1-2 T. of soft butter too.

kos

I use Toba's glace icing recipe all of the time. In her book, Creative Cookies, it even says you can use water instead of milk. I have made it with whole milk, skim milk, and water and they all taste the same to me. I like to use the water because then you can store your leftover icing longer.

thanks you guys...i'll keep this tips in mind when i try these...i want to this weekend but i doubt it... i have so many things on my "i want to try this list" , but i really want to try to no fail cookies...well thanks so much...this site is great.

ok I have a question abou this icing. It says use 3/8 cup milk well how much is that I don't have a measuring cup that has it. If someone could tell me how many oz that is I would appriate it.

I just used 2 batches of this wonderful icing, but I learned a few things.

Don't spread it on the cookie with a toothpick (like to fill in small gaps) because that makes it lose it's shine. I have no idea why.

Make a large batch of your desired color. It's better to have too much rather than too little.

Allow plenty of time for drying, I tried to package them up too soon. They can't even be slightly tacky feeling or they will stick.

Some thoughts on thickening it: I wonder if it would work to make the whole batch with a thicker consistency (like start with 2 T corn syrup), tint it to the desired shade to do your outline, then thin the amount needed with corn syrup for flooding. I found that adding powdered sugar lightened the color a little bit.

I guess practice just makes perfect for getting my piping straight. I need to work on that.

What do you do with the leftovers if you're sick of baking sugar cookies? Does it freeze well?

Thanks!

to texassugar thank you for your reply. I made the icing and kind of guessed at the measurment. I could not find the answer anywhere and no one in my household could answer it. I think I need to go back to school and pay attention in math LOL.

Mpitrelli, don't feel bad. I didn't know either. I'm glad you asked. Now I'll know for when I try this glaze.
Thanks for the answer, TexasSugar.

Can someone please email me Antonia's icing recipe? (email address below) I'm new to cookie decorating and I have yet to try that one. I tried Toba Garrett's recipe over Christmas and it worked nicely. When my icing dried though, it had some slight cracks in it. What causes that? I always look at the cookie gallery on this website and I am sooo envious of the incredible cookies and cakes that people make. Such talent! I live in the seattle area and do not know of any cookie decorating classes. Does anyone?

[email protected]

Thanks
Heidi

Hi Heidi,

Welcome to CakeCentral. I'm not sure about the cracks in the icing. I haven't had that happen yet. I use Toba's icing pretty much exclusively. I find though that after the second day, sometimes the coloring looks like it's starting to fade. I'm wondering if I add a little melted butter (2T maybe) if that would help. Anyone else have that problem?

Here's Antonia's icing recipe...
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-1983-1-Royal-Icing-for-Decorated-Cookies.html It's called Royal Icing for Decorated Cookies. Antonia (aka Helen) has a cookie decorating tutorial as well which is very helpful. Go to the "home" page and under the the pink box is the purple oblong box titled "New Articles". It's the third one down.

kos

I use Toba's Glace recipe and her butter cookie recipe almost exclusively. The cookies hold their shape so well.

The only thing I do different is use 1 tsp Creme Bouquet instead of vanilla in the cookies, and 1 teaspoon also in the glace - plus three drops of Lorann Orange oil.

Taste is out of this world.

I use Toba's icing all the time, too. I noticed that I had trouble with it cracking in dry weather, especially during the winter. To fix that, I use heavy cream instead of milk or water. You need more cream to get it to the right consistency and it takes longer to dry, but it dosen't crack. I'm guessing it's the fat in the cream that does it. In warmer weather, I usually switch back to milk.

My problem with toba's icing is white patches like little crystals kind of, I was guessing maybe I didn't stir it well enough maybe. Once I added a little more water and iced the cookies a second time it didn't happen, Did this ever happen to anyone?

I think that the white spots happen if you add too much water.

Tanya
Really! because the first batch I did had the white spots after it dried. I was very upset when I saw the results and decided to pipe over that batch and redo it but I couldn't make a new icing batch (I wouldn't get the color right) so I just took the left over icing and added more water to it and redid my cookies and they came out perfect.