I love making cookies with cutters ( I must have 150 different styles ) but I always run into this problem.... great cookie recipe - cutters work perfectly and then its time to frost them.... I am at a complete loss as to what to frost them with. Royal icing - by far the most maleable for artistic designs, is soooo bloody hard you practically chip a tooth on it when you bite down!
Spreadable frostings don't 'set-up' and are messy and I just know that there is a simple solution or recipe for people who don't want to use hard royal icing to decorat their cookies. I would so appreciate and advice and veteran cookie decorators can give me because I want to make some yummys but feel the royal icing ones aren't as good.... What do you all think? 
I absolutely hate flooding cookies, that is why i decorate all mine with rolled fondant. I roll the fondant through a pasta machine to the desired thickness, then i use the same cookie cutter to cut the fondant that i used for the cookie, brush the back of the fondant with alittle water (doesn't take much and will leave shiny spots if you get the front of the fondant wet) press lightly to adhere the fondant to the cookie, with in minutes its dry enough to stack them. Then i love the food markers to add detail and i will also use some flavored royal to pipe in some details that may need to be.
I use the modified royal icing that Antonia74 uses. It's NOT too hard, it's just right! Check out her tutorial on this website titled "How to bake & decorate cookies" for the specifics.
I have been doing cookies for about 8 months, and I keep intending to try other recipes, but hers is so good I just have never gotten around to the others.
It's very easy to work with and tastes great too!
Laura.
[quote="slejdick"]I use the modified royal icing that Antonia74 uses. It's NOT too hard, it's just right! Check out her tutorial on this website titled "How to bake & decorate cookies" for the specifics.
quote]
I use the same - still have all my teeth! It's not hard - maybe you are going a little thick. I remember gingerbread house with big hunks of royal and it wasn't THAT hard.
I also use antonia74's recipe. I've gotten a lot of compliments (and all of the cookies get eaten 
).
I've also tried another recipe with good results. I think it was called alice's royal icing. I'll have to double check. LIke antonia's, it's hard on the outside, softer in the middle. This icing looks a little glossier than anotinia's. So depending on the look I'm going for, these are the two recipes I use. I tend to use antonia's more often.
I use Sweet Annie's Cookie Icing. It dries hard and is stackable and it is not hard to bite. I cut the recipe in half or thirds most times, because it makes alot of icing. That is what my cookies are iced in, in my gallery.
3 lbs powdered sugar
3-4 heaping tsp. powdered egg whites
3/4 tsp. clear vanilla
3/4 tsp. butter flavor
1/2 tsp. almond flavor
water to thin.
Place 2 lbs of powdered sugar in mixing bowl and add the powdered egg whites. Thoroughly mix together and add about 1/2 cup water or enough that the icing is somewhat thin. Add flavorings and then add the last 1 lb. of powdered sugar and enough water to get to the right consistency. When you drop some off a spoon into the bowl, it should take a couple seconds to blend into the icing in the bowl
mis - What happened to Sweet Annie's? If we're talking about the same person, she used to have a website filled with the most beautiful cookies, and then one day it was gone. I talked to her shortly before that happened and she said she was going to work for Monaco Bakeries in CA. Is this the Sweet Annie's you know, and is she still around??
CakeDiva73 -
Try Toba Garrett's glace icing, too:
1 lb. powdered sugar
3/8 c. water
3/8 c. corn syrup
You might need to add a little more sugar to thicken. It's delicous!
I also use Antonia's recipe and totally love it. Perfect consistency every time!
mis - how can I look up that board?
I don't know if I would call Toba's recipe shiny. Baking911 did a whole topic on whether or not her icing dried shiny, and how to tweak the recipe to try to make it shiny. That link was posted on another thread ... I'll try to find it for you.
Ok - I don't know how to copy the shortcut, but here's the datestamp for the message:
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 8:32 am
I use Wilton Royal Icing recipe and I love it. It dries hard enough to stack but soft to the bite.
I love making cookies with cutters ( I must have 150 different styles ) but I always run into this problem.... great cookie recipe - cutters work perfectly and then its time to frost them.... I am at a complete loss as to what to frost them with. Royal icing - by far the most maleable for artistic designs, is soooo bloody hard you practically chip a tooth on it when you bite down!
Spreadable frostings don't 'set-up' and are messy and I just know that there is a simple solution or recipe for people who don't want to use hard royal icing to decorat their cookies. I would so appreciate and advice and veteran cookie decorators can give me because I want to make some yummys but feel the royal icing ones aren't as good.... What do you all think?
Adding a touch of glycerine to your royal cing will prevent it from being rock hard.
I use Alice cookie icing. There is a version of that recipe in the recipe section on this site
Tscookies - here is a link: http://pub45.bravenet.com/forum/3783415996/
that links directly to the message boards. Thanks for the info about the icing. 
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