Tomorrow I'm making NFSC. I have used glace's before but now I hear about Toba's glace and also Antonia's Royal icing.
I want something that looks nice but also tastes well. I don't want something that will crumble/crack or make my cookie hard.. Any advice or input about these two choices would be greatly appreciated! I'm open to any suggestions

I like them both, but I absolutely love the taste and feel of Toba's Glace, I am addicted to it, so yummy. It dries nice for stacking/packing, but is soft when you bite into it.

I'm with andpotts, I love them both too. I've just recently tried Antonia's icing and I'm liking it a lot, but Toba's is what I've used the few times that I've made cookies. It's true it does dry nice but I found with my last batch of cookies that after it dried it formed white patches. Fortunately, on the darker colors people actually liked the way the white patches looked, but for the lighter colors it doesn't look so good.

I read on another thread that if you add Bright White to Toba's glace you wont get the white spots. I haven't tried it yet but I plan to on my next batch.

I REALLY like Antonia74's icing. It tastes great and I don't think that it is too hard. I've never had anyone complain about them to me. The best part about it is that it also looks great! It dries very smooth and even. It also colors well and it is very easy to decorate with.
The only other cookie icing I have tried is Alice's cookie icing. It has a stick of butter in it, so not technically a royal icing. It tastes very good, but it does not go on very smooth. If you thin it enough for a smooth finish, the butter seems to separate a little. Also, it doesn't dry had enough to stack IMHO.
Hope this helps.

You can find Bright White at Michael's or any cake decorating store. You add it to buttercream to whiten or brighten white or color icing. I've never used it, but I did buy some for my next attempt. In my gallery I have some cookies with both Antonia's and Toba's icings, it's the cookies with the xoxo. The pink one in the middle with the white sprinkles is Antonia's icing and the others have Toba's.

From my first try with Antonia's, it's very nice to work with, and it tastes really good too. I'll be using her's on my next batch as well.

Courtnchris: yes, you should put white into your entire batch of TG before mixing your colors. Or you will get patchy. It's just sort of transparent, so it needs the white. Just like RI is white without coloring when it's mixed. I would say, if you're going to use RI, use Antonia's, it's a better taste than others I've tired, and I did put vanilla in my old RI recipe, but Antonia's is much superior. All this talk about TG, it's been a while since I've used TG, I think I'm gonna give it a try again tonight! I remember folks really loved the taste! But don't forget to put some almond or vanilla in it. I have also flavored it with cherry, strawberry, orange extracts.

Yup, I'm a glace fan. Can't wait to get back to the world where I can buy Brite White. Although, I've done dark colors several times and not had it splotch on me (knock wood). It tastes, to me, better that royal. I don't like the meringuey taste of royal, never have.

I will say though, glace is not as versatile as royal. You just won't be able to make 3d stars and things like that with it. But all you need to do is look at kneadacookies album to see thats not a killer issue.

You can also use fondant. It makes a nice smooth base and you don't have to flood. You then add the details with royal and I like Antonia's recipe... it never fails me.

Cut the cookies out and while they are baking roll out the fondant and use the same cutter you used to cut out the cookies to cut out a piece of fondant. Then when they come out of the oven just lay the fondant on the cookie while it's hot and the fondant melts right onto the cookie. It doesn't get rock hard and you can stack them with no problems.

It doesn't work for all designs... but for basic cookies it can't be beat IMHO.. I have cookies in my pics.. the heart ones.. and they have fondant on them. The baby cookies are flooded.