Icing ease...

 

Yesterday I posted my cookie trials, and, of course, those cookies ended up iced.  I thought I would share a couple little icing tricks I came up with that worked well, and might make for ease of use for kids, too.

I've always used icing bags for decorating cakes, and when I decided to make royal icing for my cookies, they were my first thought, but icing bags can be messy.  Given that I used to make icing bags with parchment triangles, the 'already made' icing bags are a dream, but surely I could make them a little less messy.

 

I filled my bags with icing (these would be my runny, or 'flood' icing bags, so needed no tips, just a snip off the bottom with a pair of scissors).  To keep the icing in the bag, and reduce spillage out the top, I filled each bag, twisted the top, and affixed a zip tie.  As the icing was used the zip tie could be pushed down to keep the bag 'full'.  Worked like a charm.

 

To keep icing from oozing out the tip while you work, just place each bag into a glass, tip up.

For piping icing that would be a little more stiff, I was going to use bags with icing tips, then had a brain flash.  What about condiment bottles?  As it turned out, it would be a terrific idea.

 

The only caveat was that the bottles needed to remain inverted between uses, or it would be one 'shake down' after another.  That was easily solved by putting the inverted bottles into glasses.  Any drippings would catch in the glass vs. all over the work surface.

I found the bottles at Walmart for $.97/each.  A great buy.  I only picked up two, but I think I will get a few more the next time I'm there.  We don't have children, but as I used these bottles of icing, I was struck with how easily a child could decorate cookies with these bottles, and wanted to share.

We iced our cookies, then used toothpicks to pull through the icing to make interesting designs.

Royal icing takes a while to dry, but if you let it dry completely, the icing is fairly hard, and impervious to nicks.  It also dries with a nice, matte finish.  I love the look.