I'm making some NFSC for my DD's preschool class. I've only made them once and decorated them with colored sugar and sprinkles. I had some leftover buttercream that I slathered on a few and they were divine! After searching through old threads, I learned that buttercream won't allow me to stack them, but that's OK.

So here's the question......how do I go about decorating them with BC? Do I outline, fill it in, then use Viva to smooth them (sort of like a FBCT)? I'm not going for anything sophisticated, just looking for a way to cover the cookies with frosting other than using a knife.

Any ideas?

I have used the 14 star tip on my Christmas cookies.

Do you use that tip for making features and accents or use it to create the background color?

For example, if I were making red stockings, how would I apply the red background so it's nice and smooth (other than with a spatula or knife)?

I understand the process with antonia74's icing when I read her tutorial, but I don't think buttercream will behave the same way. Do I need to thin it at all and try a technique similar to flooding?

I once tried "melting" the buttercream so that it was thin like royal icing, then putting it in one of those squeeze bottles. Worked nicely, of course you would have to be as careful as royal icing so it won't drip off the sides. The only problem with this is that it crusts pretty fast and reheating the frosting causes it to harden, but not so much a problem with the squeeze bottle.

Jocekinns....Welcome to CC!! I'm very much a newbie here, but love it.....and am SO addicted.

Thanks for sharing your method. I had not thought of doing it like that, but I'll give it a try. Did you work with small batches at a time? Did you nuke your BC to melt it a little? It's still pretty hot here so I could probably leave it outside for a few minutes and it would melt all on its own. I'm sure that sounds a little sick to all those talented wedding cake decorators who go to great lengths to avoid melting BC.

You can thin the icing a bit and try to fill in like a FBCT, or use a star tip and sort of outline it then zigzag fill it, depending on the shape you are doing. You do not have to smooth it at all with a viva - you can leave the zig zag shape, and even some cookie showing in between - it can look really nice that way. I've seen a lot of flowers and designs done that way. If you add a little meringue powder to your buttercream recipe, it will crust really nicely, and still taste like buttercream.