I usually hand pipe buttercream onto my sugar cookies but I'm doing a freebie of sugar cookies this week (just a dozen) I have no theme and I don't want to invest a lot of time decorating them I've browsed loads of pictures and just can't seem to find any ideas of how to ice them to look professional without spending the amount of time I normally do on them . Here is an example of how I usually decorate  but with no theme being on the cusp of seasons not summer not fall I just don't know what to do.  I know that sounds silly but I'm at a loss. I want them to be nice and put together with the least amount of effort. Please any suggestions welcome :)

Please excuse the green plate I made these for my son's basketball team awhile back  

You could do modeling chocolate decorations for them and have them ready for when the cookies come out of the oven...You just put them on the warm cookie and they'll melt onto the surface. MORE LINKS!!! : http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2014/12/tutorial-day-december-decorating_11.html

Obviously, use a cookie cutter for the shapes on this if you're trying to save time: http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2012/07/applying-shapes-to-decorated-cookies.html

I really love both those ideas and will definitely try them!! I should have clarified that I am using buttercream though. I gave a choice of cupcakes or my buttercream iced cookies and her response was "I have to have your iced sugar cookies everyone raves about" I've seen cookies iced with the 1M tip but I'm on the fence about doing that. I've used an exacto knife before we bought one with several different blades just for fondant and I love it. I found it much easier to use than any of our other fondant cutting tools. Thanks for sharing I'll save the links I appreciate the handiness of links I can click and save for reading later and don't have hunt on google lol. 

i don't think it's too early for changing leaves -- more on the green side at this time of year but they are already starting to fall -- mums would be so pretty -- back to schoolish theme -- umm cowgirl boots are always in season --

for me changing leaves would be the fastest/easiest --

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Whimsy-Cookie-Co/72367093135

i like the sun and the slice of cake -- just scroll a little

i had a whole post for you that disappeared when i hit some wrong key somewhere -- but suffice it to say you have to stop star-ing your cookies -- you only have the one set of hands and star-ing cookies is one way to blow them up fast --

cookie ideas for you -- 

• i use a flavorful cookie dough so i don't have to ice them -- i can then paint/airbrush on some color and use edible ink markers -- americolor gourmet work great for this -- i'll post a picture later --
• another is to learn to pipe buttercream on for the design then take a brand new and clean smooth weave towel or smooth paper towel and pat out the piping lines so it's all smooth -- then outline -- backwards of using royal but works for crusting bc -- 
• use rolled buttercream like costumeczar suggested for candy clay/modeling choco -- put the tray of cut out icing pieces in the freezer when the cookies go into the oven so the icing freezes and can be placed onto the hot cookies -- rb can be textured or you can fill silicone molds with it -- works great -- just get them frozen hard -- no worries
• one of my favorites is -- take a dollop of cookie dough and thin it with water or milk to piping consistency, color it as you need -- and pipe the decor on the cookie before baking -- like if it's simple for ex. the basketball -- use orange cookie dough and pipe the lines on there with the thinned out cookie dough -- bake, cool, no waiting to package them up -- you can dip the bottom of the cookie in choco if icing is needed -- or even paint some warm buttercream on the bottom -- but then you have to wait a bit for it to set up but still less than with royal and tastes much better  --
• here's one other way --bake the plain round cookie -- paint with orange color and use edible ink markers

I late K8's idea, like the viva paper towel method, only on a cookie.  @Webake2gether  do you share your cookie icing recipe by any chance? if you would share it or guide us to where we can find it, I would appreciate it. I have been wanting to decorate cookies with BC for a while, but as I use IMBC on my cakes, I do not have a good crusting BC to use on cookies.

Just thinking outloud. No matter where my products are going, I bake & package to my standards.  The reasons are: 1. any product that leaves my kitchen should represent my very best work – – always.  2.  I don't know where my product will eventually end up, who will see it, who will eat it.  All potential customer who see & sample my work should always see my best.  3. home-based bakery businesses depend on word of mouth, this includes actual customers, guests of customers who see & eat your products, and even other home based baking businesses. A friend of mine who exclusively bakes and decorates sugar cookies picks up business from other local bakers who have a full bake calendar. They recognize each other's skill, and support each other because doing so promotes the industry as a whole. 4. Everything I do, I view as an investment in my business, whether from an education perspective or marketing perspective, all expended resources and funds are applied with the goal to add value to my business. 

K8 is absolutely right about you're needing to stop with the stars!  That must take forever.  You could probably flood a few cookies in the time it would take you to star one.  I'd like to see how the Viva method works on cookies!

don't make us come down there :)

i'm just being silly but you do definitely need new methods

How about something like these?   I made them with royal but you could easily do them with buttercream and sprinkles.

Ok so I'm experiencing some technical difficulties today I don't know what happened but my response vanished into thin air :(

anyway I really enjoy decorating cookies that way it's therapeutic for me  I can be over obsessive and nobody judges me lol  it really takes my mind to a calm place. I'm naturally a busy bee and my mind is always going a million miles an hour so cookies allow me some zoned in time that rarely happens. I think I know what I'm going to do with these cookies fingers crossed they turn out like i want them to. 

I love the look of flooded cookies they are truly a work of art and I've done some (beginner work for sure) I was pleased with how they looked but I really dislike the royal icing. I used a glaze recipe and my husband and kids liked it but for me no thanks I like my sugar cookies plain or with a little buttercream so that tells you my preference. I'll sell what people want and if flooded is what they want then I'll make a good flooded cookie but my gut says people will want the buttercream. I'm the only one here that will offer them and I stayed busy around the holidays enough to know there is a market for them and I wasn't taking orders then either. 

As far as sharing my recipe you know I've been asked and I'm not sure how to share something that I've never even wrote down and have no reference recipe that I used. I know that shows my newness to baking but  I make it from memory and when it's the right consistency I know it. I've made other recipes for icing and always kind of adapt my buttercream to allow the new ingredients bc I don't like how other icings turn out. for the crusting buttercream I do use shortening but no where near what the recipes I just looked at called for wow that's a lot of shortening and it's not necessary. I've made smbc ,buttercream with and without shortening, royal icing, flooding glaze and adapted my buttercream to make cream cheese icing and peanut butter icing without shortening and they both hold up nicely and the peanut butter even crusted. I've actually tried to flood with my buttercream but didn't work as well as I would've like lol. i am by no means an expert and I know a lot of what I know based on good old trial and error but for me it was finding the right amount of shortening, a good butter, using more vanilla,  less milk and more powdered sugar to reach the desire consistency that I know will crust. i hoped I don't get crucified on here for showing just how new I am to this lol I swear that I'm just as surprised when things turn out great and taste good bc I'm seriously still learning and have no formal baking skills or training. I read that buttercream doesn't crust good enough for cookies and mine does and it's still soft when you bite into them and I can stack them and it doesn't really bother the icing too much. Here's how I packaged the final basketball cookies for each player  the plate was just for a detailed picture.my old phone took awful pictures just poor quality :( 

Okay here they are...  So these would look even better with buttercream for the frosting but the lines could still be quickly piped.

Calm down ladies Please don't come down here lol. I know my limitations on my hands so I worked out a icing method more like piping a border on most cookies rather than dot to dot like pattern.  I have early symptoms of ruematoid arthritis (I'm only 29 which makes me super sad) so I found some good bags that don't kill my hands and keep my limits in check. Actually time wise I can do quite a few fairly quickly if I'm in a good groove :) I will definitely try the viva method like I do on cakes geeze I can't believe I didn't think of that lol.  

@Pastrybaglady  the picture didn't post :( 

Those are cute I'm sooooo doing the cupcake cookiewith the viva method!!! Thanks soooo much ladies maybe I'll throw out all the star tips after all Haha ;) 

I don't even think you should use Viva on the cupcake or ice cream.  It looks more like real ice cream if you can see the swirls in the cream.  That makes one less step!

very true I think there is a lot more that can be done than I originally thought. Sometimes I limit my thinking to one way good thing there are so many of you on here that are willing to help :) thanks again!! I'll post them when they are done 

@Webake2gether  If you are into sharing and don't mind, would you take notes when you make your icing? Be vague if needed and say "approximately" and "add until consistency of_____". I REALLY want to decorate some cookies with BC and it sounds like your recipe (method) is amazing! 

I'll make you a deal... if you give me your notes I will tighten it up into a recipe with ranges of quantities, but with written steps, and publish it on CakeCentral.com with you as the author. You can PM me if you're interested and we can chat about it.

I have never thought about putting crusting buttercream on sugar cookies so this was really good for me too!  As I'm thinking about it so many more textures are possible with buttercream like to get the creases on the liner or to put dents into a frosted cone Woo hoo!

I need a solid white cake recipe you got one of those?? Haha....every one that I've tried is not good and I've tried quite a few with great disappointment. I'm quite tight lipped about the icing recipe why I don't know anyway pm me we'll talk ;) 

@Pastrybaglady  I never knew to do anything other than buttercream. I started piping homemade sugar cookies with canned frosting yep I said it canned frosting so I've come a long way lol. 

I understand you're not liking royal icing because it's so sweet, that's why I use lemon juice instead of water.  People love it!

Meringue powder buttercream: from Karens cookies is my recommendation based on your post.

here's a link to her recipe.  She also has a video demonstration on how to use it.

http://www.karenscookies.net/Cookie-Decorating-Recipes_ep_68-1.html#recipe09

http://www.karenscookies.net/Cookie-Decorating-Video-Making-Icing_ep_94-1.html

My husband and I just had a conversation today at lunch and I was rambling on about being efficient and cookies blah blah and he said "I've been telling you large orders will kill your hands" so I am really going to get more creative with my buttercream and sugar cookies and not use the tips like I have in the past as much or only for very special orders (and by special I mean my kids or immediate family my grandma loves the way I decorate them). He had no idea about this post so as much as I love doing them that way I'm going to really try other ways. I want to do this for as long as I can and don't want to destroy my hands. I don't know if I'll ever like royal icing but it's not about me and what I like anyway ;) I'll show you what I end up doing soon  

Webake2gether,  I have always done buttercream on my cookies.  I have a huge following.  I have tried the other icings (fondant, royal, etc.) and always are back to buttercream.  I have a crusting buttercream that works great and have come up with ways to save my hands.  (Arthritis runs rampant and deep in my family and I too and feeling the onset.)  For example, I do a large amount of stars for Veteran's Day.  I use a #10 tip and zig-zag white icing across the top.  I then sprinkle r/w/b confetti stars on top.  The still look professional but aren't as taxing on my hands.  I can whip out 100+ of those in less than an hour.  For rounds, I use a 2D (I think) and start in the middle and circle around to the edge.  Depending on what I am doing, I then add sprinkles or details.  It can be done and done well, once you find your mo-jo you can buttercream the world. :)

@TheresaCarol  thanks for the encouragement!!! I definitely want to offer what no one else offers and I love doing them. I just did these yesterday as a free giveaway (pick up today) but I'd like to find a way to still do my buttercream designs on them :) nothing fancy but got them done lol

I think they look great.  One thing that I have found is that when people find something they love to eat, they don't like change.  You can still use the bc but may have to change the look of it.  My biggest time of year is Christmas, of course, so I have had to find some creative ways to decorate so that I don't kill my hands.  I do over 500 cutouts every year just for family.  I just did over 100 to send to my son at school.  Once I find a particular design, I pretty much go with that for several different cookies.  

Same here Christmas and Valentine's Day are busy times for me. I have the benefit of friends ordering several dozen (I can legally bake for them) take them to work and I've gained a lot of feed back from that and know that there will be a market for them. I also found a way to pipe some of the where it doesn't kill my hands but for ones I don't do a lot of I usually do the dot to dot method. I can knock out Christmas and Valentine's Day cookies with my eyes closed but I did some for a sweet 16 and those took me longer. Cookies for a birthday over a cake was a first for me.

So cute! I love all the ideas in this post!

I guess my newness will show now too. :)  How do you know how much powdered sugar to use in a BC frosting to make it crust? Is there a specific ration of sugar to the other ingredients? Thanks!

I just stumbled across this thread, and am so happy I did! I have done decorated cookies for years, and want to get back into it. I am preparing for my Cottage Food License and I know for sure I can't use meringue powder in my county. :( So I have been trying to think of a way to do my Christmas cookies. I usually use royal icing, but if I can use buttercream that would be great. Does any crusting bc work? I always thought they would get messed up, since the icing doesn't dry like royal. Here is an example of a royal icing cookie I made for a school I worked at.