Is there such a thing as a dummy cookie, like you have fake display cakes? What would you use as your base?

i've had some cookies for over a year, and they still look pretty good. the cookie isn't what you have to worry about, it's the icing

What about using that salt dough recipe from waaaaaaaay back. I made CHRISTmas ornaments with it back in the 70's and they lasted over 25 years!

Salt dough - that is genius! That never crossed my mind. I am sure there are some dusty ornaments in my parents loft from my childhood too. Remember always trying to eat the dough even though I knew it would be gross, just on the off-chance that my mum had put sugar instead of salt in it.

Kneadacookie - what would happen to the icing over time? I was thinking about using RI.

my icing tends to get splotchy and fades

I have had splotchy icing, but that has been on freshly decorated cookies so that was not due to time. I agree fading is a problem. Maybe I should use fake icing too.

I may have an opportunity to collaborate with a new cupcake shop which is due to open where I live, so I would need cake and cookie displays. It is all just "if and maybe" so I may never need it, but still got to think about these things.

Maybe you could spray it with varnish.

Do not spray the cookies with varnish as one member did that before and got a huge mess when they checked on it. I don't know what kind of icing you use, but I have had luck with royal icing not fading or getting spots. If I add too much corn syrup to my icing it will show signs of age. If you think about how long royal icing flowers last, simple royal should last on your cookies. I have a bouquet that is 5 months old and it looks ready to eat. Each cookie is bagged and no signs of age or mold.

thanks for posting this question. I have a customer that wants to put some type of varnish or clear coating on their baby cookie bouquet so they can display it.

At christmas time, I made all my friends kids cookie ornaments and sprayed clear polyurethane on them. it left a slight brownish residue on the icing, but cleared after it was dry. I remember reading a post on CC saying that they've put modge podge (sp?) on their cookies, but don't recall if it worked or not.

So far, for every order i've done, i always make an extra one for me and wrap it in cello bag and store them in an airtight container and place it in the back of my pantry where there's no light.

on a funny note, last July, I made party favor cookies for my daughter's birthday. Really cute tiara with her name on it. Anyway, last month I found it on top of my mom trash. I was kind of upset that my mom was throwing it away, but more disappointed that she didn't eat it. However, it still looked good and the colors still looked vibrant. So now it's part of my collection.