What takes a cookie from good to great? I see so many beautiful cookies and mine are okay. I want to step the decorating up a notch but I am not sure how.

I use royal icing, typically spread the icing on with a pastry brush and then outline and add details. The cookies taste great, I just want a better finish for them.

Any insight on this would be great! TIA!

would be nice to see some photos

kneadacookie, i'm lovin' your photos. i'm not very experienced w/ decorating cookies. do you use royal icing or glaze on your cookies?

oh i see on your descriptions that you use toba's glace. i gotta try that!

I'll tell you what was told to me......practice, practice, practice. Good luck to you.

I think you might be ready to upgrade to a piping bag/tips for greater control/coverage.....no matter which icing recipe you use.

Lenette -

that's such a complicated question to answer. I see lots and lots of cookies that I think are really fantastic - some that are very elaborately decorated, and some are more "plain." What makes a cookie great is very individual - sometiems, for me, it' teh concept even more than the execution.

As far as improving skill goes, I totally agree that practice is a necessity (unless you are born with a natural fantastic artistic talent - which, much to my displeasure, I am not !). The difference you will see after a few months or a year will be phenomenal with a lot of practice!

I recommend if you are looking to improve on skill or technique, you take some time to look through the threads in the cookie section - there is a wealth of wonderful information there. Antonia74 has a really fantastic article about decorating cookies. There are a bunch of threads with tips about icing, informati9on about storing and drying cookies, tons of threads about different icing recipes, etc. Here are a few of my favorites to help you get started.

Freddyfls how to
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-623107.html

icing tips/info
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-588155.html


outlining tricks & tips
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-581262.html

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


My biggest suggestion is to have fun and post pictures! We cookiers love to look at everyone's cookie creations!!