Need cookie icing recipe

[NancyR]

This should be a very basic thing, but I cannot find a good recipe for a rolled cookie icing. I need to make cookies that look like flowers and I have all the food coloring, sprinkles and such…now I need the recipe! All I can find is “glaze” which I don’t think is what I want, or cake icing which I assume would be too soft (these will be stacked in a box to go to a pitch-in dinner). Any help would be GREATLY appreciated as I need to make these by Friday. Please help!! Thanks so much, Nancy

[Danielle]

My mom makes frosting for her cut-out cookies by mixing together powdered sugar, a little vanilla, and a little milk. Unfortunately she doesn't have quantities written down...she just mixes and adds until it's the right consistency. The nice thing about the frosting is that it hardens just enough so that the cookies can be stacked without the icing getting mushed. She adds more milk for more of a "glaze" look, and less for a creamier texture.

[Grace]

Nancy,

The kind of icing you want is called Royal Icing. It is the kind that gets hard and shiny after it dries. You can use it for "glue" also when making gingerbread houses and you need to "glue" all the candies and stuff on.....here you go

1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 large egg white
food coloring

Mix together powdered sugar and egg white, divide among small bowls and tint each a different color. Spread or pipe onto the cooled cookies and allow to set.

Some people are wary of serving "raw" egg whites, so you can substitute the egg white with powdered egg whites (they work perfectly, I've tried it), and you can get that at the grocery store in the baking aisle - it's called "Just Whites" and it's in a little can similar to the way powdered buttermilk comes. Wilton (the cake decorating people) also carries it, and you can get their stuff at Craft Stores and certain JC Penneys, just in case your grocery store doesn't carry it. Good luck, and I made cookie flowers once, and before I baked the cookies, I stuck dowel rods into the cookies, and after they were decorated (I also made some leaves), I bought small clay pots at the craft store that had flower arranging foam in the bottom, and then I "arranged" my cookies and leaves on their "stems" (dowel rods) in the pots, and tied ribbons around the pots. They were SOO cute, and went over big with the people I gave them too (I did this for Easter a few years back). Anyhow, I hope you have success with your project!!

Grace

[This message has been edited by Grace (edited 09-20-2000).]

[lorilei]

Originally posted by Danielle:
My mom makes frosting for her cut-out cookies by mixing together powdered sugar, a little vanilla, and a little milk. Unfortunately she doesn't have quantities written down...she just mixes and adds until it's the right consistency.

Exactly what I was going to suggest. You really don't need exact measurements. Just start out with about a cup of powdered sugar, add a bit of milk and go from there. A bit of food coloring makes excellent pastel colors -- perfect for frosting flowers!

[NancyR]

Thank you all soooooo much. I really appreciate it. You gave me EXACTLY what I was looking for.

[Nancy Fischer]

2 Cups powdered sugar
2 T liquid (milk, water, lemon, etc.)
2 T soft butter
2 teas vanilla
food coloring if desired
Blend until just thin enough to pour. I usually do this in a shallow wide mouth bowl and then I dip the front sideof the cookie in and set it to dry on a wire rack. Sprinkles etc should be added just after putting on rack.

These can be stacked if left to dry for a few hours. Add more liquid or more powdered sugar at anytime if you don't like the consistency or need 'a little more'

[bijoux22]

Nancy, thank you for posting this request. I spent at least an hour tonight with no luck trying to find the same recipe for cookie frosting! Thanks to all of you with recipes, I can finish decorating and start eating my cookies.