I have to make and decorate 7 dozen sugar cookies for a baby shower. The lady I am making them for wants buttercream on them. Has anyone every tried premade buttercream you can buy in a tub or bucket. If so how did you like it and where do you get it.

No advice for you. I've never used buttercream on my cookies before.

But here's a BUMP for ya.

Its cheaper to make your own. plus you can flavor it the way you want to and get the consistancy that you want. I spoon some directly on to the cookie and smoothe it to the edges and then srape what is extra off the sides. then i decorate and let dry for a day or two.

prior to discovering CC and MMF on cookies, we always glazed our sugar cookies with a simple sugar, milk, butter, vanilla glaze prior to decorating. I have no recipe or measurements, as I just threw everything in a bowl and whisked until I got the right consistency. Not too much butter though. Mix butter w/ powdered sugar until crumbly and add milk a little at a time until thin enough to spread. Add some vanilla to taste. Might take awhile to dry. We just color canned frosting and put in pastry bags to decorate, so you could use whatever for that. We always decorate cookies this way for christmas, showers, etc.

not sure if that's what you're looking for...

I guess it depends on the hardness you want for the frosting... i wouldn't think that buttercream would lend itself very well to use on a sugar cookie as it will crust, but won't totally harden.
The royal icing described in Antonia74's tutorial on how to bake and decorate cookies has worked really well, tastes good and hardens up nicely.
HTH

Have you thought about icing rolled BC. Then decorating details in regular BC? OR even decorating them with MMF. Just roll it out, cut with same shape cutter as cookie lay on top (1. You could lay the Rolled BC or MMF on top of the cookie before it cools and it will melt a little for smoother edges. 2. OR you just brush the cooled cookie with a LITTLE corn syrup and then lay the cut out on top.) Decorate the rest with food markers, Wilton's fondant Icing, or with the RBC or MMF.

Wilton sells a 5lb bucket of BC and it tastes pretty good. You can buy it at Hobby Lobby or Michaels =/- $14.00. Wal-Mart might even carry it. I know they carry the smaller cans. They even have chocolate. It is alot easier then making your own, if you want to make the expense.

Have you tried Alice's Cookie Icing? It has butter in it and that "flavor" I think you may be looking for, yet you can outline and flood with it. The other option may be to glaze the cookie and decorate with butter cream over that so you are not having to ice with buttercream but it is on the cookie and provides the flavor.

I started making decorated cookies about 3 years ago, long before I found CC. I started out using buttercream because it was different from others I had seen before and I love the flavor of my almond bc. I also use stars to decorate because it is different. I have heard nothing but great things about Antonia's so I guess it depends on your personal preference. You can see my cookies in my pics.

aggiedecorator...does your BC dry hard?

Thank you everyone for your input. It has really helped. I will try some of the things you guys have suggested. Again thank you so much.