Hi,

My daughter's birthday party is tomorrow. Which type of icing would you recommend for the girls to use? They will be spending the night, so they will have time to dry -- but I am certain they will be giggled around and not kept still.

Thanks, Jane

My sister had a cookie decorating party for her daughter years ago and this is what she did. We baked up large flower cookies, and actually flooded each cookie and let them dry. Then when the kids come they are provided with candies, sprinkles and numerous small bags of royal icing in baggies to pick from. This way they are able to decorate the cookies pretty easily. Now if the girls are older, you may be able to provide them with special icing tips et.c. How old are they?
Also don't forget to lay down freezer paper on the table so that cleanup will be a breeze for ya.

The kids are 11. I had thought about flooding the cookies first (like tonight) but thought maybe the girls would like decorating them start to finish. I have enough flooding bottles for everyone to have one, them they can switch for the different colors. I thought I would make several bags with outlining tips 4 colors and they can "go for it".

I just can't decide if I should flood them first.... If the girls are just doing the outlining, seems like it wouldn't take to long to do 6 cookies.

Jane

Me personally, I would leave the flooding for the girls. You can make some very pretty work "wet in wet" - no needing to let the flooded icing dry. Check this blog for an example.
And it is usually easier for newbies to do this kind of work.

I agree with ^^^^ let them flood it. Age 11yrs is more than capable of doing this part. If they were younger i would say do it for them, but at this age they can follow directions and have a better attention span than a younger child would.
You could do wet on wet decorating or let them flood it...eat...play...come back to cookies and do top decorations. Just instruct them to not push too hard on the top or it'll crack.. The colors my bleed a bit but i doubt they'd care about that.