I Want To Make Sure I Have This Right . . .
Baking By Suzycakes Updated 24 Jun 2007 , 12:31am by cakesonoccasion
Hello all cookie bakers and designers!! I think I should change my name to "Gluten for Punishment"!! I have agreed to make 4 dozen Petit Fours (no problem with PF's have THAT under control) and 6 dozen decorated sugar cookies for Wednesday, June 27th event.
I work 40 hours per week outside the house, just started decorating this spring and am really not very patient to wait for cookies to bake!! But I am willing to try anything once and she is a very dear friend who placed the order!!
So - to the point before I lose you -- I have read agazillion posts here and printed the most important ones out concerning how to bake and decorate cookies. I am using the NFSC recipe and RBC for icing (the first time for that) plus royal icing to trim with.
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have your confirmations that I am in the proper sequence and time frame for my plan -- which is:
Friday night - make NFSC dough, roll between parchment paper layers and freeze. Also make the RBC Icing, divide and tint, seal and refrigerate. Also make the RI, divide and tint, seal and refrigerate.
Saturday - cut out and bake NFSC and let cool. Place in air tight containers and freeze.
Sunday afternoon - take cookies out to thaw and RBC out warm up. Roll out RBC, cut with cutter, dot on corn syrup, apply to cookies (unless I need to rechill the RBC if it has gotten too warm), then let dry on racks, then put back in air tight containers -- CAN I LEAVE THIS OUT ON THE COUNTER NOW OR DOES IT NEED TO GO INTO FRIDGE OR FREEZER -- then finish up with the royal icing trim on Monday night and set to dry back on racks, then pack up for delivery on Tuesday evening.
Any comments, support, changes and help will be appreciated!!
I love this place -- CC is truly addicting - but so helpful!! 
Thanks so much --
Suzycakes
I'm so glad you posted this because I pretty much had the same question!! Except that I want to start this evening everything has to be ready by Sunday afternoon for a 6:00 party... and Im not planning on using buttercream. I sure hope someone answers your question soon so I can know for myself.
Can I make a suggestion? Since you are already going to be rolling out the dough, why don't you cut the shapes that same night. That way you aren't going to have to wait for the dough to thaw enough to cut out the cookies, then try to re-roll it in order to get enough cookies out of it. You can then freeze the cut out shapes on the cookie sheets. Then you can pull them out of the freezer and let them warm up a bit as the oven heats up. You will also only have to clean up from rolling one time, thus saving time. Why are you freezing the cookies after you bake them since you will be decorating them the next day? They will stay fresh without the freezing if you keep them in an air tight container. Decorate sunday, let dry for at least 24 hours if using royal. Do not refreeze or refrigerate. Wrap in bags or whatever you are using to deliver them in and keep them airtight. They will stay fresh for quite awhile.
one more suggestion, as soon as your cookies come out of the oven, before you put them on the cooling rack, take your rolling pin and lightly roll over them to make your surface as flat as possible. I read that on here from someone else and I love that tip. I also wanted to add, you don't have to freeze your dough at any point either. It is not neccessary. If you want to you can, but I never do. I roll cut and bake all the same day. Of course that is just up to how much you want to do in one day.
suzycakes -
I haven't used RBC, so I can't help with that, but I frequently make the NFSC and use royal icing for decorating. I don't think you need to freeze the cookies between being baked and frositng them if it's only one night. I store mine in a tupperware contianer on the counter top between baking and icing (I've done that for up to 4 days) and they are fine - and I am VERY food safety conscious.
I would also suggest 24 hours at the very least to let the royal icing dry before packaging. When I package my royal iced cookies, I finish alll of the details at least 36 hours before packaging them up.
Best of luck with this big order! Be sure to post the pictures when you're done!
I have made 2 huge batches of NFSC recipe cookies and Antonio's Royal Icing recently. What I did-I made the cookie dough and baked all of my cookies and froze them. They came out awesome. I thawed them out and then decorated them. I made about 6 dozen a couple weeks ago. They are time consuming on decorating them. So I would bake and freeze them by the dozen. Thaw them out and decorate them a couple dozen at a time. I took about 3-4 nights to decorate them.
Also, I never put my RI in the refrigerator. I leave it in air tight bags or containers on my countertop. I am not sure how easy it will be to use after refrigeration...good luck!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! 
I feel so much better now!!
I was adding in the extra freezing after baking just to be sure they would stay fresh -- but if they will stay fresh in tupperware then that is what I will do!! It sounds like I also need to adjust my decorating times in order to be sure the RI dries in time. I'll just need to swap around some items on my Sunday todo list!!
Thanks again -
Suzycakes
What i do, is roll and cut the cookies out, refridgerate on parchment. Roll and cut out my fondant (never used rolled buttercream) wrap in plastic wrap, in layers, placed in sealed tupperware.
When ready to bake the cookies, just place the parchment on cookie sheets and bake away. When the cookies come out of the oven, i place the fondant on the cookie when its still warm, then by the time the cookie is completely cooled the finishing touches can usually be added.
I just made baby cookies last night for one friend that is expecting her first baby and one that became a second time grandma.
I used Penny's recipe. I rolled it out between parchment paper and put it in the fridge to chill. I rolled out my RBC and cut out all my shapes. I also put these on parchment paper and popped them into the freezer.
I cut out my cookies and baked them. Let them cool about 2 minutes and popped the chilled RBC cut outs on top. This helps them "melt" to the top of the warm cookies. I let them finish cooling and decorated with RI.
25 cookies start to finish took about 2.5 hours not counting drying time for the RI.
Hope that helps.
All of these posts have been so helpful. I really appreciate all of the help and information!!
Stellaz - you give me hope that I won't be in the kitchen all weekend!! I am still trying to decide on how much to charge for these cookies. They are going to be flower shaped so the RI decorations on top of the RBC will be minimal. How much do you sell your 2 dzn for -- if you don't mind my asking?!!??
Thanks again everyone. If they are any good - I will post pictures!
Suzycakes
It depends on the size- many people on here do $1 per inch. So...if the cookies are 3", they're $3 ($36 per dozen)! I know I could sell mine for that, but I'm in a big city- you may need to adjust 
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