I used royal icing for the first time today on cookies. It was a lot easier to handle than buttercream, but tastes awful. Is there any other recipe, besides royal icing, that sets up, that can be used for decorated cookies. I really want something that tastes good. Everybody loves my cookies because I use buttercream, but for large orders, I just don't have the time.

Have you tried to add flavoring? Perhaps a lemon, butter, or almond flavoring to it? I use Royal just for outlining and the pourable stuff (10x, corn syrup, milk and flavoring) for the fill inside the outline. That icing is softer but sets up enough so you can stack them - and it has a nice creamy feel on the palate when you eat them.

Just an idea, perhaps someone else can help you more...

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-1961-0-Alices-Cookie-Icing.html

I made some sugar cookies a couple of weeks ago and used this recipe. It tastes wonderful (like buttercream) but it sets up a little hard so you can stack or wrap the cookies, and it wasn't crunchy. I made about 45 cookies and they were snapped up so fast I barely got to have one myself.

I did try putting vanilla and butter flavoring. I just can't get used to the meringue powder. It seems like it gives it a "wang". Thanks for the tips. I will try the recipe.

I always use Wilton's Poured Cookie Icing, which is the same as Toba's (only in smaller quantities). It mixes up in seconds, and dries firm to the touch but soft inside. The hint I got off this website that I love: add some brite white food color to the icing. It will keep it from getting cloudy or spotty.