So, I must say that I hold a new appreciation for all you cookie decorators out there. I have been dabbling in decorating cakes for a while now and I must admit, I always thought..."Cookies? Big friggin' deal!!!". Bot WOW....WOW....WOW. They aren't as easy as they look!

I made NFSC, rolled, cut and baked. They were wonderful, although not the best tasting cookies I've ever had. I made the Antonia's roal icing. No problem. Then the disaster started. My flooding wasn't drying smooth and shiny...it was drying all cracked and brittle. My black color was drying as more of a silver-ish purple, instead of a rich black. My bagged royal icing got way too soft and didn't hold shape for longer than a half hour.

*Sigh*

I spent 2 days making dough, rolling and cutting, baking, etc....50 cookies for a work halloween party...and I ended up trashing them all at 2am when I reached a boiling point of frustration.

What did I do wrong????????

I don't use Antonia's, so I can't tell you what went wrong, but I can certainly understand your frustration! I know that Antonia's is a favorite icing for many cookie decorators, so I would imagine someone will give you some tips. I like to use a slight variation of Toba's (3 cups sifted powdered sugar, 3 T. skim milk, 3T. light corn syrup, 15 drops brite white food color). It has been a consistent winner for me, so I stick with it!

I use Antonia's, but only for piping on MMF. I guess I've never put enough on a cookie to notice if it was milky or not. But if it doesn't hold it's shape - I would guess it's either too watery or the cookie was too hot? Maybe moisture on the cookie?

As far as your black, if you've ever cleaned it off a counter? You'll notice it has a purple stain base. I bet you didn't add enough black to the white icing. I've done that and had the same result... just too lazy to start with a darker color then dye black.

I do know that if you don't mix Antonia's long enough at each step - it will not be shiny... and don't ever let a drop of grease near the stuff. But for me? It's the only RI I will use!

Not much help, I know - but PLEASE DON"T give up! It gets easier every time you do it!

My best advice - do a batch for fun. Try all sorts of things with no stressful deadline. You will find your niche - mine is MMF. I am too scared to even attempt to flood a cookie. LOL

I've used GeminiRJ's recipe and it comes out great. I've never done cookies before and I had no problems at all.