just having a laugh at myself - i tried my second every batch of sugar cookies - they taste glorious but look like a five year old did them!! my first ever batch a year ago when i started caking was tasty but also was scary looking but i put that down to not having enough piping bags and nozzles and also the fact that i was trying to learn too many things at once like fondant, crumb coating etc this was just a step too far so i decided to leave it.

so this week i only had one cake which was really quiet and i thought id treat myself and make a batch of sugar cupcake cookies to put on my website as a new product - OMG seriously i must have really shaky hands and no hand eye co-ordination because they are shameful!! AND they took me hours, i could have iced and decorated a whole cake in the time it took to do one batch of cookies. i just ate 4 and am taking the rest into work tomorow so il be popular cause they havent had any freebies in ages but im disappointed i cant get these done nice.

Think il stick to the cakes and cupcakes it just shows we are all different, my hubby can do really fine painted writing and fine lines on stuff for me which i just can't do at all and i think this is what my problem is...maybe i should give him a piping bag and see if he does any better.

such a pity - i love the look of sugar cookies

I know what you mean! I find cookies incredibly hard to do, they just take too long to be worth all the effort for me. And I find mixing a trillion different colours icing too much work. It does get better with practice but still, it is not really my thing. Using fondant on cookies is easier, so that is an option.

im so bad i couldnt even fill the piping bgs properly, it was all over the sides and coming out the top and my hands were covered - how people get that perfect look is beyond me !

Yep I tried x-mas sugar cookies last year it was totally embarrassing, the only ones that cooked up nice were rerolled cookie dough, just was not a delicate texture. That was before the icing frustrations grrgrrgrr!!!! Unfortunatly I'll keep trying glutten for punishment. You may have something with that deligation therory.

oh, I agree

every once and a while I'll try them but I really stink

My piping sucks too. When I tried piping RI onto sugar cookies it looked like a chimp wearing boxing gloves had been at them!

Try using fondant on your cookies instead. Then pipe on RI details if you feel like it, they're usually fine without. A little luster dust on fondant-covered cookies looks great.

There is a tutorial, by Anne Heap of Pink Cake Box, for putting fondant on cookies on this great site:
http://www.rolledfondant.com/how.htm
She makes it look so easy, I think even I could do it,

Lots of other fabulous tutorials there too

yes the fondant on the cookies work awesome! I will never flood a cookie again. ! made 140 cookies in one day. fondant is super easy.

try using a squeeze bottle instead of a piping bag...it's a little easier to handle because it's much sturdier, and you don't have to worry about holding the bag, squeezing, squishing...just makes things much easier....and you just pour the icing in the top!!!!...no more messy runnies when you want to put the bottle down too...

The squeeze bottle is a GREAT idea - can't wait to try it.

I also saw a gal who uses a paint brush to flood her cookies, and even used brush to do the details .

i like a recipe for sugar cookies please.

this is reall easy and yummy

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/2055/no-fail-sugar-cookies