I had to pass along this tip that I found on the "Cookiers R Us" website where it said that a heat gun can be used to speed up the drying time of your icing.
I had a last-minute request for 24 cookies that I had to bake and decorate in one short evening. I used an embossing heat gun that I bought at Micheal's for around $12 (love those 50% off coupons!) to set the white base coat before adding the logo on top. I was worried that the red top color would bleed into the white if it weren't set first, plus a soft base coat makes it difficult to get a smooth top color. The heat gun did its magic! The top color went on like a dream and when I checked the cookies this morning, there was no bleeding whatsoever! I was also worried about the glaze getting spotty overnight, as our temperatures were very cold last night and the cold does terrible things to my glaze. But the finish looks great. I'll be using the heat gun a lot this winter!
For those who use RI, the decorators on the website said that the heat gun seemed to help the icing stay a bit shiny. It also seems to help reduce the problem of craters forming in your icing, both RI and glaze. They were using a Wagner Heat Gun, sold at Wal-Mart for $19.99, but I really like the embossing heat gun. I kept it about 4" above the cookies and moved it slowly back and forth, never stopping for too long over any cookie.
Just thought you'd like to know about this tip. Waiting for icing to dry can be a bit frustrating, especially when you're up against a deadline.
Interesting! How long did you have to 'wave' the gun around before the icing was dry?
I only spent a few minutes drying the cookies. I didn't need the icing completely set, just enough to be able to ice on top of it without the base icing sinking. I know a lot of decorators use heat lamps to do this, but the heat gun works really well for me.
This will be a huge time saver, I can't wait to try it out. Thanks for posting.
Wow! This could be kinda life changing for me. LOL I make a lot of cookies. Thanks!!!
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