I'm looking for a ballpark if anybody can help me. I've had an order for icing for 700 cookies. I'm not making the cookies but they are being purchased for children to decorate at a table at a Canada Day celebration (state fair type of thing). They just want me to provide enough icing for the children to use. It will all be white, it just needs to go in a large bucket or bowl and they're going to put it on with little plastic knives.

I'm really stumped over this one...I'm sure I'll just make something up but if anybody has a clue, I would really appreciate the help in deciding what to charge and how many batches to make. I don't even know how many cookies one batch of icing covers...just how many layers of a cake my buttercream recipe covers. I'm a caker and not too into cookies yet.

Please let me know,
Suzanne

How about your cost x's 2? Sounds like maybe might be worth it for you, or x's 3 like some poeple do cakes, maybe.

OK suzyqqq27 - here's my thought process on this.

I would say depending on the size of the cookie (being an unknown variable) you can figure each cookie will probably take 2 tablespoons (1 oz) of icing if it's spreadable BC. Find a small disher at a restaurant supply which yields a 1 oz scoop. (the #30 disher is 1.03 oz - close enough)

Make 1 batch of your standard BC icing suitable for cookies, keeping careful track of the ingredients you use, their cost, and the time it takes you to make 1 batch start to finish (including washing your dishes).

Then...

with your 1 oz disher, scoop out 1 oz portions onto a parchment lined series of baking sheets. When all the icing is portioned, count the scoops. This is how many portions 1 batch of your icing will make. Multiply the number of batches you'll need to make enough to go on all the cookies, then multiply the cost of the ingredients and your time/hourly rate accordingly.

Considering these are for children, and being involved in several church events that including frosting cookies, you should plan to provide about 10% more than the # of cookies in the quantity of icing because kids will wear a certain amount, eat a certain amount, and some will wind up on the floor.

Does that help?

Sorry I can't be of much help, but I did make a couple of batches at Christmas time for a friend's neighbor to decorate cookies with and charged her $5.00 a batch. She told my friend, "Boy, she really is making a big profit off of me!" HELLO! next time I will send her to the store for a couple cans of Betty Crocker frosting

Hopefully this will give you a bump & someone can REALLY help you out!
Good Luck!

Are you doing Royal icing or BC?
When I make a batch of Antonia74 icing, it does me for about 140 cookies at 3" each.
Sorry can't help with BC.

I iced 120 cookies with a batch of Antonia's RI and still had a good amount left (3" rounds), so what was said above sounds right to me.