I have alot of cookies to make for a Christmas open house at a homeless shelter. I am wanting to get them made ahead of time, if I can. I am going to be making the No Fail Sugar Cookies and outlining and flooding them with RI. Can I decorate them first and then freeze them or does RI not freeze well? How about rolled buttercream?

I've frozen fully decorated cookies before without a problem using NFSC and Antonia 74's RI. I'd just make sure the icing is fully hardened before freezing and that, if you stack the cookies to store them, they are separated by a sheet of parchment. I also froze some with Toba's glace and the cookies took on a dull film when they thawed out.

I think it may also depend on how long you plan to freeze them for. I've tried freezing cookies with royal icing and it didn't work so well for me. I had them frozen for about 3 weeks and when I thawed them out, the icing was rock hard (the cookie itself was just fine though).

I just did a trial run for freezing fondant covered cookies and it worked great! I decorate most of my cookies with a fondant base then do the details in RI. After the cookie had dried, I wrapped it in cello and froze it for just over a week. I let it thaw overnight and the next day it looked and tasted great!