I am doing a cookie craft at a family reunion over the 4th of July. I will be making star cookies and letting all the kids decorate using piping bags. I usually like to use a corn syrup based icing but I think that would be too messy for the kids. I am worried royal icing will harden up in the tips too fast and give the kids problems??? Am thinking of buttercream but will it give the cookies a nice look. I am basically teaching the kids how to pipe and decorate and I'll have kids from 2-18 years old AND about 40 of them...covet your advice!!

Check out Karen's buttercream recipe. The usual question for buttercream on cookies is will it dry firm enough to stack for storage and transporting. Since your kids will most likely eat as they go, that shouldn't be a problem.

http://www.karenscookies.net/

good luck and have fun !

thanks... I actually have her recipes but never used them...does the buttercream crust so they can be stacked? I am wanting to make extras to serve.

I have a free membership to lets bake cookies web site (Karen Giamalva) she has a few videos and the recipe that you can decorate the cookie with paintbrushes. It is really fun, I did a project with my kids and they loved coloring the cookies. I outlined the design using paintbrush and black icing and they used colored icing to paint the cookies. The icing is tasty and dries for packing.
Hope you find this helpful.

Fondant works great for kids and the cookies can be stacked. It's easy for all ages. Shapes are easy to cut out and there is less mess.