I've read about this before, and i really hate having 3 different bowls of RI of the same colour all different consistancies....
how would do i paint on the cookies, just RI and a paint brush?? what is the consistancy??? i find my thinned RI always like to leak of the sides even when I damm it.

tips would be great!!!
thanks

I'm still new at this, but am learning there are all sorts of options. You can paint BEFORE BAKING with either egg yoke mixed with food coloring or some of the same cookie dough thinned and tinted. AFTER baking you can paint directly on the cookie with the food coloring, or paint on top of most any icing -royal, fondant, or whatever.

Painting is my medium of choice, because I too get fed up with having 300 bowls of icing out!! Another option that I find the best is coating cookies in white icing so they're completely covered and then painting with powdered food coloring. It's a lot like watercolors, and you can change the hue of the colors a lot easier than regular RI.

Not to mention it's cheaper, as you wont have to spend so much on ingredients and blow through them.

Just make sure you have a nylon brush set...

Jasmine.

I always paint my cookies . I got tired of the decorating bags of icing and the decorating seems to go faster when your doing a lot of cookies. Also the icing dries faster because you do not have to use so much icing. I have paint brushes just for food and I mix my royal then I thin smaller containers of the icing until they are like craft paint . The brushes help with the different thicknesses of the icing lines and the coverage of the cookie. Sometime I don't even mix royal I just use a powdwered sugar, water what ever color I need and creme bouquet to make them smell really good.

Is there a method in getting your icing to the consitency of acrylic paints? If so, what is it? I am looking to start painting my cookies too.

I usaually start with a full strength icing and add water to it a little at a time, I have a dropper that I use to make sure I don't add too much , but if you do you can add more icing to make it thick again. The most important thing is to try it . You will get a feel for it as you go. Also some times if you see through your icing (usually when I don't start with royal)you may need white food coloring to your base before you add the color. Let me know if this makes sense to you.

Another option would be cocoa painting:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-1769201.html

HTH

OK- I'm confused (not hard to do these days!)...you're painitng on cookies with RI?? I've use gel colors before, but never RI!...anyone have pics that shows this technique being used?? Curious of the final result....Thanks!

I don't have any pictures of the process , but all the cookies in my photos were done this way. I have to do some snakes soon so maybe I can take some photos.

This is what the consistency should look like.

Fairytale, those cookies are beautiful. I am never thought of painting on cookies. I have always used RI and a piping bag. I will have to try this next time.