Hello all! I am new to cake central and to decorating cookies. Would you please point me in the right direction on icing cookies. I love the no fail sugar cookies, but my icing and decorating the cookies need some help and lots of instructions. What is the best way to ice cookies and do you outline the cookies and then fill in with icing - please help by sharing recipes and tips for decorating cookies. Thank you!
Here's a great article that will definitely help you!
http://www.cakecentral.com/article54-How-To-Bake--Decorate-Cookies.html
Welcome to CC!!!
There is a pretty good tutorial on this site with Antonia74 icing that shows some great tips on icing.....search that out. Personally, I don't outline first and let that dry before flooding...I use the same consistency icing and outline and flood right away....I think that is just personal preference.
Other than that...my fave way to ice cookies now is by using fondant....either satin ice of Marshmallow Fondant (MMF) which you can also find directions for on this site. It will give you a nice base coat and you don't have to wait for the royal icing base to dry. Then you can add royal icing accents on top of the fondant. All you do is cut out the same shape as your cookies from the fondant while your cookies are baking, and as soon as they are out of the oven, lay the fondant on top of the cookies. The fondant melts in just slightly. Then cool as usual.
Hope this helps!
april
Welcome to Cake Central!! I agree with Melanie, that is a great tutorial the the icing listed is very good. I sometimes outline, sometimes not. If you are just starting out, I would suggest outlining first. I usually let them sit for about 20 minutes after outlining the then go back and flood.
Cindy
I agree with cindy6250. You should probably start with outlining and flooding, that way you get the feel for the icing and the differrent consistencies. Once you get the hang of it you'll probably want to ditch the outling (except for when the design calls for it).
The only time I outline is if there is a tight space or tricky shape to get to. I use a glaze and a spoon that has a very sharp tip to it - it gets to the corners well and follows the edge of the cookie. It is a very thin metal, so I can manuever it with ease. I like to 'push' the glaze towards the edge of the cookie to give a nice, polished look, versus dragging the spoon and glaze across the edge. It takes some time to perfect but with lots of practice you will be able to do it (even at 3 am after about 20 dozen cookies, right ladies? 
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