I'm filling an order for graduation cookies that I need to start on right when I get home from work tonight. My cookies have always looked wonderful BUT the writing on my cookies tends to look less than professional at times. I thought I had a steady hand and good handwriting but when it comes to my cookies, it looks more like chicken scratch! (not really but it CAN look better I know!) A few months back I asked for advice on this forum and I got one suggestion that I am going to try tonight: Pick a font on the computer and print out on paper what you want on your cookie. Trace this information onto something transparent. Turn over this transparent material and trace the type with a small amount of piping gel (so it will be a mirror image). Turn the transparent material over onto your prepared cookie so that the piping gel adheres to the cookie and then lift up. You should then have a faint outline of piping gel that you can go over with royal icing.

Has anyone used that method??? I haven't tried it yet so I'm not sure what to expect but I will try it. My writing will be red on white royal iced cookies, so I got a small tube of Wilton red piping gel to use and then I plan to go over that with my red royal icing. What do you think?

Any other methods someone can suggest? I really really want these cookies to turn out well since they are for an important occasion and for someone important. Please respond asap! I'm nervous!

Oh, one more question...........I plan to use antonias74 icing (I've only used it for piping details but not for flooding). I'm using antonias in white all over the entire surface of the cookie. I'm going to do this about 8:00 or 9:00 tonight - wait awhile and pipe on the writing about 10:00. Do you think everything will be dry by morning so I can bag them up and get them delivered? Whenever I use antonia74 icing to pipe details it seems to dry rather quickly.

I think you should be wary of bleeding if you are trying to use red on white, without letting it dry well first.

I would suggest using clear piping gel rather than the colored decorating gel. That way if you have a mishap it is easier to take care of.

I used this method on a cake but never on cookies. I agree with Jewels, go get the clear piping gel. sounds time consuming but I'm sure it will be beautiful. good luck.

Maybe I should just use white fondant for the background?? I have a 5 pound bucket of the Ateco white fondant. I don't think it tastes quite as good as icing but it looks wonderful and then I don't have to worry about the red writing bleeding (or do I?). I have my red icing all ready to go and the cookies are already baked and ready to decorate so I guess I'll go the fondant route just to be safe. Gosh, that would be disasterous if I used red royal icing letters on white royal background and woke up the next morning to a mess of bleeding letters! I would be horrified! I have to get up earlier than usual as it is so I can package my cookies!

But just for future info.....how long should I let antonia74 icing dry before I pipe details on top of it? Especially dark colors on top of light colors?

I wait at least 12-18 hours for that.

Also, how are you going to package cookies that are decorated with piping gel? It doesn't dry solid, does it? Won't that make a mess?

I won't be using piping gel for the writing. I'll be using the antonia74 icing in red and outlining the entire cookie in deep purple icing. The whole entire background will be white (fondant, I guess). The piping gel will be used very sparingly underneath the red royal icing - just as a outline to trace over. I iced some cookies late last night with the antonias icing as an outline and it was completely dried this morning about 7:00 am. Actually it was pretty hard last night before I went to bed around 11:30 and I had iced them about 9:00. So that is why I'm pretty confident if I use the fondant for the background and then outline and write with the icing, that I will be fine in the morning for packaging.

Sorry for rambling! But these details are important! Plus I'm nervous and want to make sure they are done correctly!

I won't be using piping gel for the writing. I'll be using the antonia74 icing in red and outlining the entire cookie in deep purple icing. The whole entire background will be white (fondant, I guess). The piping gel will be used very sparingly underneath the red royal icing - just as a outline to trace over. I iced some cookies late last night with the antonias icing as an outline and it was completely dried this morning about 7:00 am. Actually it was pretty hard last night before I went to bed around 11:30 and I had iced them about 9:00. So that is why I'm pretty confident if I use the fondant for the background and then outline and write with the icing, that I will be fine in the morning for packaging.

Sorry for rambling! But these details are important! Plus I'm nervous and want to make sure they are done correctly!

oh! Well outlines only take a few minutes to dry...I had misunderstood you. I thought you were planning on flooding the cookies and then waiting an hour or two before you wrote on them in red.

That's what I was worried about, as the cookies dry from the outsides in...so the centre won't be dry for hours and hours!

How many hours does it take to dry before you write on the cookies? I wasent sure either. Im kind of nervous about the writting falling off if I wait too long.

Yes, my original plan was to flood the cookies with the white icing but when I learned of the possiblity of bleeding colors, I decided to go with the white fondant for the background instead of icing. Do I have to worry about red royal icing bleeding into the white fondant backgroud? It's a very bright red color.

Anymore suggestions on writing? How about the consistency of the icing? Does it need to be pretty stiff, runny or inbetween? I hate it when I have written on cookies and then the icing spreads out and the letters run together! I guess that means it's too thin huh? But I also hate when the icing is so thick that I can barely squeeze it out of the tip. I want a nice flowing but firm structured icing. I assume I should a "2 tip" for writing? Give me some hints to detect a good consistency of icing?

Why not try white or clear gel for the transfer?
GOOD LUCK!

I see that other members suggested the clear or white gel also. I just figured that red piping gel would go well under red royal icing but I guess the clear or white would be safer. I sure hope the whole transfer method works or I will be freehanding it again. Another reason I don't like to do a whole order of cookies freehand is because the consistency of the writing from cookie to cookie is different. I would like them to look all the same. I wish I could go home from work now and practice! Ugh!

Anymore suggestions people?!

Sorry heidinamba didnt mean to get off of your subject.
On cakes I have been having good luck with making the writting ahead with royal on wax paper. I run off the writting in the font I want and slip it under wax paper on a foam board. Then just let dry until I want to use it. Maybe this would work with cookies.

I thought of that method (royal icing on waxed then transfering to the cookie) but I figure that it would not work well on a cookie. Since my lettering will be so thin & delicate, it would be kind of a pain to stick it on without any sign of the royal icing I would need to adhere it to the cookie. But I do like that idea for cakes and I'll have to try that next time! I will try a few cookies with the piping gel transfer method and if it does not look good then I will simply have to write freehand until I figure out another way.

Anymore suggestions? I usually have to write on my cookies that people order so this is a problem that I would like to have a solution to. I admire some of the writing on the cookies that I see in the gallery on this website. Those people must sure have a steady hand and lots of practice. My writing sucks!!!!!!!

Using the fondant I have done the writing on the clear page with the computer writing, but instead of piping gel, I used a straight pin to punch holes from the front and then on the back of the letters you could feel it like brail.

Then I laid the clear letters on the fondant and rubbed gently to have a stencil outlined on the cookie. Then I wrote with antonia74 icing on top of my little stencil.

did the brail like letters make a distinct enough indent so you could easily trace over it with the icing? I thought of something like that but figured it would not be visible enough to go over the lines with the icing. But I guess with fondant, it's somewhat soft enough that it does not take much to indent it. That's a good suggestion and I think I will try it tonight. Thank you.

I SOMETIMES USE THE FOOD COLOR PENS. I HAVE SEVERAL DIFFERENT BRANDS AND ALL COLORS.

I just recently purchase a set of those food color pens but have not used them yet. I thought about that but I wanted kind of a 3D raised effect so I decided against them. Good suggestion though! I've seen some really fine work done with those pens. Hopefully I can acheive that as well.

The little indents were quite visible. Some of the MMF I was writing on was red and some was white. I could see the pattern on both.