i know the difference between buttercream and royal icing but for example-cookies made by certain places like "cookies by design" seem to use buttercream iciings how do they keep them from messing up designs while "wrapping" them and what kind of buttercream recipe is good for cookie decorations for cookie bouquets..gizzmo

I think this is a great question, but I don't know either. ...thought maybe if I bumped you back to the top, maybe we would both find out!

Hmmm.I always thought Cookies by Design used some type of Royal icing...I don't know!!!

I've read here about members who have used crusting BC on cookies and just let it dry. I remember thinking, didn't the cookie get soggy but they said it didn't and they said the cookies could still be stacked. It was an old thread. Maybe I can dig it up...

There are some glazes that are softer to the bite but dry so that they can be stacked. It could be they used something like that.

I add a tablespoon of meringue powder to my buttercream.(per batch) .it makes it a little stiffer and dries stiffer. I personally think Royal Icing is too sweet and hard for cookies.

Before I knew anything about cakes and cookies I would make my gingerbread cookies and just put a sugar glaze/BC type frosting on my cookies. The outsides of the frosting would dry hard enough so that i could stack the cookies no problems.
It was usually just a mix of butter, Powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. I have no idea of the proportions.

I actually just made cookies with royal icing on them and they were a huge hit. The cookies keep the royal from getting too hard. But just hard enough to stack and to keep their shape well.

Here's my cookie glaze recipe.
3Cup powered sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1Tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 Teaspoon flavoring
Food Color

Dissolve syrup in the warm water. Mix in extract, sugar, color until you have a smooth glaze. Add more sugar to thicken or more water to thin. Store leftover in covered plastic container in the fridge
The colors wont bleed if you allow time to dry in between . Glaze dry in about 8 hours to be packaged.

thanks for your tips i will have to try that recipe sounds yummmmmy! gizzmo

I know what you mean. I have been trying to figure that same thing out. I would love using the buttercream instead of royal but I have not played around with it enough to see what changes to make. I wonder if it is just more merigue powder to your regular batch.

Alice's cookie icing in the recipe section is similar to buttercream.....it doesn't get hard as a rock, but I didn't get a smooth finish with it like I do with Toba's glace icing. It was more bumpy but I probably screwed it up The taste was good and it was pretty firm but not hard the next day.

Berta