Hi,

My playgroup has talked me into doing decorated cookies as an activity for the kids mostly 2 & 3 year olds, I have never decorated cookies before let alone with kids

I was thinking of putting the icing into small zip lock bags and snipping a corner off to make piping bags for them but was unsure which icing would be best - as I understand it cookies are decorated with Royal but these kids won't be doing fancy stuff they will most likely just be squeezing icing all over the place - would it be better to do it in buttercream or is royal still better?

Thanks so much

You could put fondant on the cookies, then give the kids bags of buttercream to decorate with, and sprinkles or colored sugar to put on top of that. I think royal might not be a good choice because it can take hours to dry and you won't want to keep the playgroup there for hours, but the kids will definitely want to take their creations home.

I've done it two ways with preschoolers and they really enjoyed both; first ahead of time, I made cookies, different medium sized shapes and frosted with plain light color RI/ glace (white, blue, yellow) let them dry. Then when it was decorating time gave the kids food color markers and let them go to town on their blank cookie canvases this was fun, but does not take them too long. the other way I've had kids decorating was just with butter cream in bowls with spreaders/spoons and then a large assortment of sprinkles and little candies, they loved this, but be warned they will use a ton of sprinkles!

Have fun, oh also I don't know if you guys have an activety budget, but the last kids cookie decorating party I did, I found these super cute apron/chef hat sets at the dollar store, they were perfect and the kids were so thrilled, they came in pink, purple and blue, so cute!

I agree that the kids will love playing, I mean decorating with sprinkles/coloured sugar/candies but I also like the idea of using edible markers. Kids love drawing but my only concern with that is because they are so young you don't want them to go home and start drawing on their food with regular markers thinking it's okay to draw on it.

Andpotts do you remember which dollar store you go the aprons in. My kids love helping and I think it would be cute for them to wear them and to save me having to stain remove their clothing to boot.

I've done many cookie decorating activities at home for my kids, as well as in their classrooms. I, too, have had success with the food-coloring markers, but instead of "drawing" on RI-iced cookies, I top each cookie with fondant. I'm always sure to explain to the kids that these are special markers and they can't draw on their food with regular markers. Three-year olds might have a harder time grasping that concept, though.

Thanks for posting the pic andpotts. I'm definitely going to look for them next time at the dollar tree store. Great pic btw, the little boy looks so focused on what he's doing.

My 3 year old love to decorate cookies with me. On her BD, I thinned out RI and put them to a small containers (like from yogurt). Then I gave them cheap painting brush and they painted the cookies and used sprinkles on top. Instead to give them the shakers, I put sprinkles in a plate, so they can use their hands. They had fun, but it could be messy.

My (now) 5 year old has been "helping" me decorate cookies for a while now. What works best for us is to put glace in a little squeeze bottle from the cake supply store (the ones I get hold about 2 1/2 ounces). That seems to cut down on the mess and gives him more control. The first time I used ziploc icing bags, and it was REALLY messy. Of course, to him, the icing is really nothing more than glue to hold on the sugar/sprinkles/candy, etc.

Thanks so much everyone for your help