I just purchased the Wilton snowflake cookie cutters which have the directions for the cookies and icing but don't contain any other information. This is my first attempt at these cookies. Can someone tell me:

1. How long does it take for the icing to dry?
2. Can the decorated cookies be frozen? If so, how do they need packaged and how long can they be frozen?
3. Does anyone have suggestions for other icings that have worked well and taste good?
4. Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks!!!

Regardless which icing i use, i let the cookies dry overnight (18-24 hours) before i detail them.

Yes, they can be frozen iced or blank. I've frozen un-iced cookies for a few months in ziplocs and then into airtight containers. I'm not sure how long iced cookies can be frozen, but i've got some in the freezer for a few days now.

Icings spoken about here are royal icing and glace. There's also fondant.

I would highly recommend you reading through some of the threads here. There is so much valuable information for you in them.
Good luck to you

1. A lot will depend on the type of icing you use. I believe royal dries faster than glace, but both need to sit quite a bit before they can be bagged or stacked. Fondant is going to be the quickest way to go, as I don't think it needs to sit and dry at all. Personally, I love glace. It's easy to make, use, and tastes great.

2. Again, depends on the icing. If you use glace, and you don't add some brite white food coloring to the icing, I would not recommend refrigeration, let alone freezing. Royal and fondant both freeze pretty good. Place them in airtight containers, with a sheet of waxed paper between layers, and don't stack too many layers.

3. As luv2bake6 mentioned, reading some previous threads will introduce you to just about any icing out there you'd like to try! And no one here is shy about giving you their opinions on what they like best.

4. For large quantities of cookies, plan to decorate them in assembly line fashion. Add one color at a time to every cookie before moving on to the next color. I like to decorate with the lightest colors first, and darker colors last. Let light colors set before adding dark colors in order to reduce bleeding of the colors. Have all your colors in bags, ready to go. It takes forever to constantly stop to fill bags. Have lots of tips on hand, so you don't have to spend all your time cleaning tips in order to re-use them.

Have fun! Cookie decorating is a great stress-reliever for me, and I LOVE it!

luv2bake and Gemini gave great advice...

1/3. I use a slightly modified version of Antonia74's royal icing (in the recipe section). It's great - easy to make, great to work with, tastes good (I add clear vanilla extract or other flavoring). I do allow 12-24 hours for it to completely dry.

2. Both decorated and undecorated cookies can be frozen. I don't do it often, but I have experimented. In my experience, freezing the cookies makes them a bit crispier, but doesn't alter the taste, if wrapped well. If you are going to freeze decorated cookies, be sure to put wax paper between each layer.

here are some threads you might find interesting...

Antonia74s article
http://www.cakecentral.com/article54-How-To-Bake--Decorate-Cookies.html


glace & royal
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-623143.html

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-623816.html


freezing cookies
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-633905.html

freezing & using RI
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-632656.html