ok last year out of quickness and desparation i bought the bags of betty crocker frosting they have a little tip already sealed onto the bag. I liked the consistancy and the shine to it and it wasnt a pure sugar taste. Well this year i hope to make my own for the fact i will have time and i want more than red white green blue . I see alot of people use royal icing and im not sure if its pregnant taste buds but holy crap it tastes blah, i wouldnt want to be enjoying a cookie with that bitter sugar taste. So is there any other options that can go threw a bag and i guess taste good while giving me that hardening ability? Am i asking too much ?

Have you tried Toba Garretts glace ? Its all I use.

I make RI, but I doctor it up with one TBL of butter and one TSP of butter flavoring and one TSP of vanilla. The butter softens the RI a little tiny bit so that you don't get that rock hard coating, but still firm enough to stack your cookies easily.
The flavoring helps get rid of that blah sugar/bitter flavor.

Good luck and happy baking!

I was never a big fan of royal icing until I started putting just a little pure lemon flavoring in it. Since I also add a little lemon flavor to my sugar cookie recipe, they go together really well. Not overwhelmingly lemony, but just a slight hint that's fresh and clean tasting.

I add vanilla to my RI (the recipe I use doesn't list any flavoring at all! bleck!). The MP adds a slight bitter taste ... is that maybe what you're tasting?

I am devoted to Toba's Glace, it is easy to make and use and it taste good. I don't know if most corn syurp comes with flavoring, but the one I buy had vanilla already added and the glace is so good on the NFSC.

If you do decide to try the glace just make sure to add about 20 drops of white food coloring to the big batch before you seperate and color and make sure your cookies dry in a not cold place, I do those things after learning them here and I have great results every time!
Andrea

I had an awful time with Toba's glace. I couldn't get it right so it wasn't so runny/messy. I would welcome any tips or ideas how to make it work. Thanks.

Seriously Gemini? The owls, the movie tickets, ...? Your cookies are amazing! You get that kind of detail with Toba's glace? Do you use a different consistency for outlining and details than the flooding consistency? Squeeze bottles with different tips? Maybe I will try again but I really wanted to try and get some of my Halloween cookies to look nice... Do you do the same 10 second rule for flooding? Thanks!!!

Would you mind sharing your RI recipe indydebi?

TIA

I agree, i think your cookies are incredible and you are truly an inspiration!

I havent had much luck with glace either. No matter how much conf sugar i add, it still seems too runny. (i stopped after adding quite a bit, thinking i was going to change the recipe too much to work properly)