Need Sugar Cookie Decorating Ideas That Are Quick

Baking By vitade Updated 2 Dec 2005 , 3:23pm by vitade

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vitade Posted 30 Nov 2005 , 11:40am
post #1 of 16

Hi everyone,

I need some advice. Our NEWLY formed cake club (YEAH!) has decided to decorate cookies at our next meeting and donate them to the local childrens shelter. EXCELLENT IDEA! The only issue I'm having is that my cookies usually take, at least, over night to dry. This will not work in this case. What suggestions can you give as far as what to decorate with? We are going to bring in our own cookies and our own type of icing and decorating items. The idea is in part to show each other our different ideas. HELP, what else can I use to decorate them that won't take over night to dry? I thought about just doing them ahead of time and then maybe leaving a couple to do there just to show them but somehow, that doesn't feel ... fair. I would appreciate ANY advice. The meeting is on the 12th and I thought about doing stocking shapes. THANK YOU icon_biggrin.gif

15 replies
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dishguyswife Posted 30 Nov 2005 , 12:06pm
post #2 of 16

hmmm, why not try melting chocolate and dipping them in chocolates? or drizzling differant colored chocolate on them, add some unique sprinkles and voila, iced cookies!

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kerririchards Posted 30 Nov 2005 , 12:30pm
post #3 of 16

Use buttercream to decorate with. If you want it to be more durable just add a bit of merengue powder to it. I exclusively use buttercream on my cookies (with a butter cookie) and people always rave about how wonderful they taste. Sometimes I think I do more cookie orders than cake orders - which is okay - its faster than smoothing those darn sides. : )

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vitade Posted 30 Nov 2005 , 4:51pm
post #4 of 16

I thought about the chocolate idea but there isn't anyway to keep it melted. If I use buttercream on the cookies, how long before they could be stacked?

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sofiasmami Posted 30 Nov 2005 , 4:57pm
post #5 of 16

OMG... I was just thinking about PMing you ... I was admiring your soccer cookies and wanted to know how they were made ...

on to your question ... I've made cookies before using fondant ..you just cut out the fondant with the same cookie cutter you used for the cookie you brush the fondant with water and attach to the cookie voila!! ... I made flowers and butterflies and they were awsome ..I could email you a picture later when I find it if you want ... the only thing that I would caution is to use the MMF instead of the wilton junk....

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antonia74 Posted 30 Nov 2005 , 7:50pm
post #6 of 16

I like Sofiasmani's idea about the fondant. No drying needed!


I was going to suggest that you do royal icing outlines and coat them in the sanding sugar. They take way less time to dry. I've actually stacked some that I'd only made 2 hours before.

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JoAnnB Posted 1 Dec 2005 , 7:29am
post #7 of 16

Candy clay works as well as fondant, and can be easily made in bright colors.

Fondant is great (not Wilton) and makes beautiful cookies.

You could also use very thin coating of royal to use a glue for sugars. It could be applied with a paint brush.

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vitade Posted 1 Dec 2005 , 1:32pm
post #8 of 16

kerririchards, I'm getting more interested in cookies now too. I just seemed to be being drawn to that. Not sure if that's a "sign" for me to pursue or not.

sofiasmami, Thank you, I made the cookies using the no fail recipe, replacing butter with shortening. The icing is Toba garretts recipe for royal, thinned it with corn syrup. The hardest part was trying to remember the pattern on the ball. I kept forgetting which was white and which was black. Then I just outlined the blacks and filled, then filled the whites. It took over night and then some for them to dry enough to bag. I would love to see a picture of your cookies if you can easily do it.

antonia74, before anything else, thank you for your tutorial and other questions you've helped with. You are the BEST. What are sanding sugars? This sounds interesting.

JoAnnB, I like the ideas of painting a small coat of icing but then you just sprinkle on it? I thought about doing stocking so I wonder should I use white royal and then use red sprinkles that sparkle. I LIKE THAT IDEA. Think it would look okay?

When most of you do X-mas cookies, do you just frost and sprinkle? I really think that is what I'm going to have to do because otherwise, I just won't have time. I really would love to show a technique that I usually use, but maybe I'll just save that for a demo some other meeting. Not that I'm that experienced but I've DEFINITELY learned ALOT from everyone here and... trial and error.

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katiebug Posted 1 Dec 2005 , 2:21pm
post #9 of 16

I also would suggest fondant. All the decorated sugar cookies on my site are covered in fondant, some have additional fondant accents and some have additional royal icing accents. I attach the fondant with a very very thin coat of piping gel applied to the cookie with a paint brush.
These are one of my favorite cookies to make around the holidays.
LL

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vitade Posted 1 Dec 2005 , 5:33pm
post #10 of 16

katiebug, those are awesome!! How thin do you roll the fondant? Wow, I might have to give that a try. How do you treat the edges of the fondant? Do you just smooth down with a tool or hand, they appear rounded. These are really great.

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katiebug Posted 1 Dec 2005 , 6:50pm
post #11 of 16

I don't remember exactly how thick i rolled it, I never measure, I just guess icon_lol.gif
I don't think I did anything to the edges, just cut out the fondant and placed it on the cookie.

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vitade Posted 2 Dec 2005 , 10:25am
post #12 of 16

Thank you for all your help and suggestions. I'll let you know what my end result was. Thanks again.

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RAVUN Posted 2 Dec 2005 , 2:12pm
post #13 of 16

Vitade.........maybe you could just color your cookie dough red since you were going to do stockings.....then just use icing or sprinkles for the top cuff.....then pipe on toe and heel lines.
Or you could tint your dough part red and part green and do a patchwork designed stocking ...then just use icing for stitchwork.
Just a couple of ideas.....hope all goes well!
Debbie

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vitade Posted 2 Dec 2005 , 2:17pm
post #14 of 16

Thank you, RAVUN2003, that sounds like a good idea too. mmm.. I have alot of ideas to think over. Thank again everyone, I knew you'd help get the juices flowing!

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antonia74 Posted 2 Dec 2005 , 2:29pm
post #15 of 16

Sanding sugars & sparkling sugars are decorating sugars that come in different colours. They have bigger crystals than regular granulated sugars. I'm pretty sure Wilton sells them.

When you coat a cookie in wet royal icing, you can then completely cover that wet area with these sugars & leave them to dry. When you brush off the excess, only the sparkling sugar is left in that pattern. So pretty!

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vitade Posted 2 Dec 2005 , 3:23pm
post #16 of 16

okay, I know what your talking about. I think they stay REALLY crunchy. I will check out colors. Thank you.

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