Hi,

is there a taste difference? Is glaze shinier when dry? Easier to work with? Why would you use glaze as opposed to thinned RI?

I'm new to cookies.

I think glaze has corn syrup in it which makes it shiny and doesn't dry completely rock hard..Toba Garret has a wonderful glaze recipe...Thinned RI is just meringue and water/cream of tatrtar for some recipes and icing sugar.Antonia74 has a awesome RI recipe for cookies.

Glaze can also be jsut powdered sugar, milk and extract of choice. For example a lemon bunt cake could have lemon extract and or lemon zest.

A few months ago I did an experiment where I compared the two types of icing. Maybe my experience will help answer some of your questions. I posted my results here.

Bonniebakes icing experiment RI vs glace
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-684108-.html

Wow Bonnie!! You are awesome. It is members like you that make this site so valuable. I hope that I can contribute as much once I have mire experience!

Thanks for the comparison!