Ok, so I've never made decorated cookies.. I should preface with that.

Have an incredible opportunity, would definitely like to do it... but what are the odds of doing 500 decorated cookies in 3 or 4 days? They don't have to be anything really super fancy, just halloweeny.

I have 2 people to package them, so I only really need to worry about actual baking/decorating time. How long should I estimate this would take?

What is the best hardening cookie icing to use? Something idiot proof would be excellent.

Any tips or advice would really help, in general!

I can't speak from experience but I would say it's not impossible as long as you aren't doing anything else. Pick a very, very simple design with one color or maybe at the most two colors. I like Toba's Glace icing and I use a squeeze bottle to apply my icing. You may wind up with a very sore hand.

You had better get off the computer and start baking.

Antonia's icing with NFSC
Make up all the dough and portion it into manageable rolls. Roll out and bake
Afetr cooling start with outlines, keep them simple, then flood. Think production line. If you don't have to worry about bagging, as you have people to help, maybe they can help with the flooding as well, definately doable, but you have to get cracking on it NOW

That's a LOT of cookies to do in 3 or 4 days. Remember that even with Antonia's icing recips (which dries hard enough to bag and stack) you should still allow 24 hours for it to dry before stacking or bagging the cookies.

Ya know, I'm starting to think more along the lines of good ol chocolate chip cookies, with more halloweeny chips if I can find them. Thanks!

Fondant is a super fast way to decorate. And it dries very quickly. You could do ghosts. Lay a piece of white fondant that you've cut with the same cutter on top of the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. The fondant will melt right into the cookie. Then, you can use Antonia's or any royal icing to pipe the face.

Now THAT is an awesome idea!!

I am working on my second order of 650 cookies over the past few months and although it is a TON of work, it is definately manageable. Utilize the extra help and make sure to keep your decorations to a minimum and you will be fine.

Good luck

You can see the ones I did this weekend with Antonia's RI. They turned out really cute, but took about 24 hours to dry. In my pictures, they were practice for a confirmation I have next weekend to do.

I did about 400 cookies for a business's event and did it in 3 days. My mom baked them during the day while I worked my other job (I would guess 10 hours of baking time because I can only do one tray at a time) and then I decorated with fondant in the evening, probably another 10-12 hours. I'm not that fast though, and tend to get distracted easily. She also helped me bag and seal, which was the fastest part of the whole thing. I would definitely go with fondant if you can (I use Satin Ice on my cookies). It will shave off hours of sitting around waiting for RI to dry. I decorate my cookies with RI details on the fondant and can bag within 4-6 hours on a good day.

You can do it! Have fun!

do it esembley style if you can.use roule icing let them dry overnight hen use siff royle to outline and make the stem of pumkin another good trick for the outline to dry fast is to use sanding sugar you will be able to make them dry very fast and only use a couple of colars. good luck boooooooooooo