Cookie Decorating ? - Tiffin,OH

Wilton has some good recipes on their webpage (wilton.com) - not sure how well the frosting would do with freezing - you are better off decorating them the day before and storing them at room temp - the temp in the freezer might damage the frosting. if you want to make a cute & easy tiered platter here's and idea that I did for my son's birthday: use a large platter, invert a medium sized bowl on the platter, stack a smaller platter or plate on the inverted bowl - you can end there or make another tier with an additional small bowl and plate :) all items can be "secured" with playdoh or you can also take them together!

Here is a bloggers page on decorating sugar cookies and also the link to Pioneer Woman's blog when she and Bake at 350 blogger got together to make cookies.

http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/12/decorated-chri...

Do you have Eat n' Parks in Ohio ? This icing reminds me of Eat n' Park's Smiley Cookie icing. If you let it dry and 'harden' they could be stacked and frozen.

Poured Cookie Icing Recipe

This icing dries to a shiny, hard finish and tastes good too. It can be used for icing or to outline and fill in with a #2 or #3 tip.

1 c. sifted confectioner’s sugar
2 tsp. milk
2 tsp. light corn syrup

Place sugar and milk in a bowl. Stir until mixed thoroughly. Add corn syrup and mix well. For filling in areas, use thinned icing (add small amounts of light corn syrup until desired consistency is reached).

Same thing that Andrea Z posted. I followed the instructions from Pioneer Woman and straight from the Bakeat350 blog when making holiday cookies this year and they were AMAZING. I use the "no-fail sugar cookie" recipe (you can google it) and it's the best one that I've used. The cookies bake up soft, B. evenly, have great flavor, and are still yummy after a week when stored in an air-tight container. Give yourself plenty of time and have fun!

You can bake and then freeze undecorated sugar cookies. Just place a layer of parchment between the cookies, get all the air out of a freezer bag and seal it up. Leave the bag closed while you thaw the cookies on the counter.

You can make royal icing using meringue powder. Wilton sells it in wal-mart or Michaels or a cake decorating shop would carry it by CK (usually). CK is cheaper and just as good. If you can find dry vanilla add a teaspoon of that to the recipe for flavor or add a teaspoon of vanilla and take out a teaspoon of the water in the recipe. They will dry nice and hard but not break your teeth hard lol!

Also, a trick to keep the dough from spreading is to pop the cut out cookies(on the cookie sheet) in the freezer for a bit before baking them.

Sorry to be a little late, but when we make sugar cookies I ice them with a Powdered Sugar recipe from Betty Crocker.

1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk

Combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. Stir in additional milk 1 teaspoon at a time, till it reaches drizzling consistency. This makes about 1/2 cup icing. I just keep making a new batch as I need it.

I make it pretty thick and it dries on the cookies in about 10-15 minutes so if you want to do any sprinkles you have to add them fairly quickly. You can color the icing and it tastes fairly good. I have never tried freezing it though. Good luck!

If you don't want "royal icing," --that's the type that includes powdered sugar and corn syrup (but does dry hard), go to allrecipes.com and search "Butter Icing for Cookies," a frosting that isn't the runny royal type. I like both kinds but the royal is very sweet. There are similar recipes if you want to search for others with different ingredients.

Pipe and frost the cookies, and let them sit out for several hours to dry. When stackable, put them in a container and they usually taste better the next day!