Just the decorating...flooding and details...using 6 colors max...with royal or similar...8 different shapes, approximately 4" in size...baby themed
200 cookies...
in hours...
approximately, how long would it take you to complete them without hussling to get them done?
I know I won't be able to complete them in the same time as those who decorate them more frequently. I do believe it'd give me a better idea as to what to prepare for and what to expect if I knew.
Many thanks to any who respond!
Depends on the detail .....
For example:
I did 100 dog bone shaped cookies (bride and groom were dog lovers). About 2.5" long and 1" wide. One color. Flooded in less than an hour plus another hour to bag-n-tag.
50 Hello Kitty cookies. About 4x5" (this is a big honkin' cookie!). Only about 3 colors but the bulk of the work was the flooding. Took me five ... yes FIVE!! ... freakin' hours!!! Just to decorate! No bagging. They were bulk packed.
So I say it just depends on the detail.
I strongly recommend assembly line decorating.
I thought I was being clear enough when I said baby themed...
baby bottle
baby pacifier
baby bib
baby rattle
baby onesie
baby face (on round cookie)
crawling baby
flesh
dark pink
white
black
brown
green (maybe)
light pink
blue (maybe)
whatever details are necessary to complete the cookie in basic form...without going into plaid and dots and swirls.
It'll definitely be set up and everything prepped in advance....I hate stopping to mix/fix/dawdle once I start.
2 daughters...due within a week of each other...2 separate showers on the same day...just deciding what I'm gonna do (may opt for choc chip in a bag with a bow on it)
I thought I was being clear enough when I said baby themed...
I offered my experiences with the cookies I've made just to give examples of how detail and size can make a difference. I didn't realize you were looking for exact times on an exact cookie. My apology for not understanding your request.
I made baby bottle cookies for my daughter's baby shower. Made 50 of them and it took me and one other person about 30 minutes. Assembly line decorating. I did the big bottle part flooding, she did the nipple, then we both filled in the screw-on part (between the nipple and the bottle).
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1466522 (without the sailboats)
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1338209 (without the foot)
not too many details...
I can relate. A few months ago i needed to make 150 wedding themed cookies. (wedding cake, engagement ring, double hearts, single hearts, shell). It's so much harder to do 150 different cookies than just doing 150 of the same kind.
The first thing i'd suggest is to bake all the shapes at one time so you have them ready. The fastest decorating technique i can think of is to flood them all in white and then use all the colors you mentioned above to detail. Or use fondant for quick decorating.
no no...I just realized after reading your reply and reading my initial question that other information might be beneficial...not that your examples weren't...just realized that certain cookies might take more time than others...like butterflies...and that there are so many baby themes that me putting baby themed might not have been enough to clarify should that information be necessary to give a guesstimate of time...it could've been bears, frogs, sailboats, snails, princess...I was just clearing it up...
One never knows what information is needed to give an answer...KWIM?
If you're not a "regular" cookie decorator I would give yourself at least 15-20 min. time allotment per cookie. So you're talking upwards of 65 hrs. total! That is just decorating!
It seems as though my clearing up of my own information has caused some misunderstanding...I was not attacking Indy for her response LaBellaFlor...I was only adding more information and typed out loud that "I thought I was being clear enough when I said baby themed"...I had a doi moment is all
Here is a link to Christmas cookies that I did. I do not decorate cookies frequently so I am kind of slow. I think these had a little more detail than you are talking about so you can shave some time off but it took me three hours to do 30 cookies (I'm seriously slow ). So 200 cookies without as much detail would probably take me 12 hours. Hope that is helpful!
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1529040
The way I do mine is definately a one person assembly line. Bake them all one day and stack them in tins after they've cooled. Next day I start the first layer of flooding. During the month of december, i had 64 dozen cookies to do and the quickest way I found to do them Is to do as much as one color as you can before moving onto the next color. meaning, I had trees, dresses, themed shaped cookies, that all needed green flooding so i did all those then moved onto the next stack of cookies that needed a different color flooding. then after a few hours, could go back and do all the decorations on top of the flooding.
here's a link to the page of some of the ones I did in Dec.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alycakes/page2/
the rest of them are on the next page.
I could flood a dozen in just under an hour. most of my cookies are 4". The decoration part of them took about 20 to 30 min per dozen. some less time just depending on the details.
here's one of my techniques don't know if anyone else uses them. I found it a pain to have one color with two different consistancies, one for outlining the flooding area and one for flooding. saw that on here somewhere when i started cookies. I make a medium flooding consistancy, outline what i'm flooding and use a paint brush to "pull in" the icing to the middle. just keep it in a little cup of water. just make sure that you don't add too much water with your brush or you'll get white streaks on them. for round cookies, a spoon works great.
hope this helps.
Aimee
nah, I do them pretty quickly..........like indy said I do them assembly line fashion.......flood one, flood two, etc. go back pipe 1 color of details one one, then the next, etc. each cookie is done step by step. Generally I'll make 1 cookie start to finish (that one always takes the longest because I'm swapping bags of colors, etc.) so that I have an example to refer to as I decorate each individual step on the rest!
Depending on how much piping is involved (with this many different colors, it will obviously take longer.........I limit mine to 3 colors, after that the price goes up because it can be a pain, not to mention all the extra dirty bowls/spoons, etc. it causes) I usually give myself around 5 min. total for each cookie. So that mean I should be able to flood in a min. and pipe 3 different colors in 4 minutes tops! Even then 200 cookies would take 1,000 minutes which is nearly 17 hrs. This doesn't count having to refill your icing bag, stop and stretch your back, get a drink, and all the other things I do while decorating lol
I can tell you though, the first couple orders of cookies I did I think I spent at least 30 min. on each cookie and that doesn't count bagging them.........you don't even wanna know how LONG that took!!
Thanks! Ya'll have been most helpful!
Have any of ya'll done flooded decorations...as if there was a cookie there...in advance then, attached the flooded decorations to the cookies? I've got a few free days between now and the showers. I use a dough that has minimal spreading at its' thickest rollings ( I'm confident it'll hold its' shape...not overly...just confident).
I just don't want to be caught, the week of, with a way out amount on my plate....
I've flooded cookie tops off the cookies as an experiment. I never put them onto the cookies though. The underside is what was not smooth...but if I blobbed on a bit of icing to seat it with onto the cookie....
would they be secure ya think?
i've never tried attaching RI "preflooded" before so i'm not sure if that would stick and stay or not. have you thought about using fondant? that would save flooding time.
i stick my cookies in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes before i put them on the cookie sheet. and they hold their shape really well. you may want to try that. i use the NFSC recipe i got off of here.
I agree that fondant is faster than flooding. And, somebody on this site suggested placing the pre-cut fondant on the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. She said that the heat of the cookie sort of melts the fondant right into place without having to brush the cookies or the reverse side of the fondant to get it to stick. So, you could give that a try as the base color and then just have the piping to do after...
I agree that fondant is faster than flooding. And, somebody on this site suggested placing the pre-cut fondant on the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. She said that the heat of the cookie sort of melts the fondant right into place without having to brush the cookies or the reverse side of the fondant to get it to stick. So, you could give that a try as the base color and then just have the piping to do after...
that's a good idea to put it on while they're still hot. never thought about that. when i'm baking, then i'm in that mind set and not the decorating set. always counting in my head to make sure i've gotten the right amount baked.
I also use fondant much easier than royal icing to dry anyways. While the cookies are baking I am cutting the fondant and I also put the top layer on when the cookies are still warm. I have sample of few cookies I have done. HTH
I did these cookies with chocolate transfers.......mad the baby in the pea pod a few days ahead and then peeled them off the wax paper, flooded the cookie and left a bit of a hole just in the center and pushed the chocolate baby onto the cookie, sinking it down so it was flush with the rest of the white chocolate......simple and quick!
Those are wonderful ideas...love the sweet pea babies! It was the guesstimated time frame I was curious about to determine if I was going to be able to do them in royal (general preference of those they'd be for as well as myself...although, I never thought of chocolate...I bet they'd opt for that!). I'll try a pre-flooded piece to see how well it does.
the chocolate is awesome because it sets up SO quickly.......no waiting hours before you can stack or bag them!! Not good when it's warm out though!
I'm the slowest decorator on the planet! But then, I tend to gravitate towards intricate designs that doom me to spending way-y-y more time per cookie than is probably reasonable. The flower cookies I just recently posted took me nine hours to decorate 22 cookies. (Outlining is a real time killer!)
My husband asked me to do some cookies for the Elks Club annual Easter egg hunt later this month. He assured me that they could be simple cookies. I responded, "I don't DO simple."
Those are stunning! I would love to do more detailed ones...I'd be pushing it though...
The last thing you want to do is rush the process, when you finish the last of the 200 cookies you want to be able to sit back and be happy with what you've made, not sit them and feel ho hum because you were rushed and didn't do your best.
When I first started out and I had a dilemma like this, I would sit down and decorate 1 cookie, start to finish and then X's that by 200...that was the time alottment I used in figuring up my price!
Then when it came time to actually do the decorating, I would set it up assembly line fashion and I always finished under my "estimated time" but I was still paid what I estimated.......better to high ball the time needed, than to cut yourself short in the end!
if you work production line it shouldn't take 15 minutes per cookie. susan(gemini) was mistaken...i am the slowest decorator...lol the other day i did 3 dozen cookies that i think took me 6 hours. the longest part for me is mixing all the icing colors. if i have 4 colors i make a fill and an outline for each color. that usually takes me at least an hour.
i have also found that the more cookies i do the less time it takes. outline and fill all one color. then the next... i could do 6 dozen cookies in the same time as 4 dozen.
"better to high ball the time needed"
No doubt! These are for my daughters so the desire to make them highly decorative is on my list but not hiiiiiiiiigh on my list...getting them done and done neatly and plain would make me a happy camper.
I was just thinking, if it took the cookie masters X amount of time, I'd have a goal to look toward but also I could adjust that to my experience level (like, multiply their time X 4 or something) to give me an approximate time allotment for doing them.
When I did the angel cookies (they're not the best but anyway), I had 31 bags of icing colors...some of the colors had 2 different consistencies(black, white...). I wasn't timing myself though.
Last night, I ventured into Flickr....OMG!!!!!!!!! Ya'll are AMAAAAAAAAAAZING! For hours, I looked at them in total awe....yeah, I'd love to do some of the techniques used on those cookies for my daughters' cookies....
I think if we all set a timer we'd be shocked at just how much TIME is actually spent on the cookies! There is a reason they cost more per serving than cake!
I ordered cutters on ebay Friday. They came yesterday! They're in the bubbles now. I need to collect the others from the cutter bin to wash. Butter is on the counter. I think I'll make the dough today, cut them out and freeze them on parchment sheets tomorrow, make a batch of icing to play around with the pre-flooded idea today along with timing myself (don't know why I didn't think of that before...)
if you work production line it shouldn't take 15 minutes per cookie. susan(gemini) was mistaken...i am the slowest decorator...lol the other day i did 3 dozen cookies that i think took me 6 hours. the longest part for me is mixing all the icing colors. if i have 4 colors i make a fill and an outline for each color. that usually takes me at least an hour.
i have also found that the more cookies i do the less time it takes. outline and fill all one color. then the next... i could do 6 dozen cookies in the same time as 4 dozen.
If you do the math, it took me 24.5 minutes per cookie to your 10 minutes per cookie, making me s-l-o-w-e-r! I agree that doing mass quantities results in less-time-per-cookie than smaller quantities. It's often the prep work that takes the most time!
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