To make your cookies. I feel like it takes me forever. I make the cookies one day(about 3 hours) Then the next day I mix the RI and decorate. At that takes at least 5 hours. Will I get faster as I get better? Or do you have some tricks to make it faster. I'm almost ready to give up b/c I feel like it takes me way too long.

I have the same problem, I am going to try to do some cookies with the mmf or rbc and only do royal icing accents and see if that helps with time. Good luck, I will be watching to see if anyone has tips.

So much depends on the design and how many colors are needed. I can crank out simple shapes pretty quickly. The 3D cookies in my photos, not so quickly! They take about 10-15 minutes each to decorate (though you do end up with 2 cookies, not one, for each design when you're finished). Try to do assembly line work whenever possible, and have all your supplies in front of you before you begin.

Yes, sometimes it takes me hours too. It depends on the design. One thing that helps, if you aren't already doing this, is to put a minimum on the number of each design, so you aren't decorating 24 cookies that are each different in design. Say someone wants 4 dozen cookies, then put either a dozen or a two dozen minimum on design. It makes doing the production line decorating easier and faster.

I also use fondant as my base so I don't have to wait for that to dry before I can pipe my designs/accents. Others use RBC or MMF too. I like the look of RI bases and the designs you can get that way, but I just don't have the patience to wait for the RI to dry! I need to work on that.

could I mix all of my colors and put them into bags one day and then decorate the next day.Or will the RI get too hard.I have a order for 100 cookies in a few weeks and I have to figure out how to do it faster.

You can mix up all your colors the day before, and seal them up tightly. It's not a bad idea anyway, since that will allow all the air bubbles to pop. I wouldn't put them in the bags though. I'd end up with puddles of royal frosting all over my counters, either leaking out of the tops, or out of the tips. Maybe if you use disposable bags and just didn't snip the tips you could pre-bag and just put your bags upright in a glass overnight. I'm in the same boat - make cookies one day, decorate the next, usually at least half a day on each stage.

It depends on what kind of time line I have, if they have to be done tomorrow then i use rolled buttercream as base and royal icing for accents, if I have time to spare then I will do all royal. It also depends on the customer, which icing they like best. I don't like the "chewyness" of r/b but it is alot quicker!

DEFINITELY do it assembly line fashion! You wouldn't believe how much time that will save you

Totally depends on design and size of cookie. The dog-bone shaped cookies I made for wedding favors ... about 2.5 inches long, one color ... 100 of them decorated in under 2 hours. It took me an hour just to bag 'n tag 'em!

The Hello Kitty cookies (they were HUGE cookies!) .... 50 cookies took me about 5 hours to decorate! Geesh did my back hurt!!

Assembly line is the best method. If you have the same design with multiple colors, do all one color on all of them at the same time, so you're not switching bags all the time.

Mix your royal icing but store in a glass bowl or jar with a tight cover. I find that the icing sometime seperates a little and needs a good stir with a spatula before you put it in bags. I premix all my colors and store them in pyrex bowls that have a tight fitting plastic lid that I only use for this purpose. I leave them on the counter and just give them a quick stir before I bag them. Hope this helps..