I'd like to make my first cookie bouquet next month for an employee's birthday, but I've never made one, nor have I decorated a cookie before. It's too bad there isn't a tutorial on here that provides step by step instructions about it. But from I gathered from reading on here and elsewhere, is that people use the NFSC recipe and the antionia74 royal icing recipe, roll it out to 1/2", insert sticks into cookies and bake on a flat cookie sheet, let cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes and lightly flatten cookie and transfer to cooling rack and let cool before decorating.

Could I use 9" bambo skewers for the cookies? Also, how do I go about decorating the cookies? What do I do if I want certain details, like writing? Does anyone have any other tips on creating a cookie bouquet?

puzzlegut, I don't know how to answer to your questions. Actually I was about to ask the other members. For what I've read the antonia74 icing has pretty good reviews from the other members. I'm waiting to see what the experts are going to say.

Check out this link Cake_ Princess does a mini tutorial:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-20377-rolling.html+cookie+dough+correct+thickness

Oh and here's another one :



http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-20375.html

Here's what I found:

http://www.visionsofsilk.com/Cookie-Bouquets.shtml

http://tinyurl.com/yjgdc3

http://tinyurl.com/yaapa8

http://tinyurl.com/yz22gp

HTH

Thanks for the links. What I want to do is do a movie themed cookie bouquet with cookies that look like a bucket of popcorn, movie ticket, etc. Unfortunately those specific cookie cutters are expensive. But I'm sure I could improvise. What I want to know is what icing would be best for those type of decorations, like doing red and white strips on the popcorn bucket as well as show the popcorn pieces and making a movie ticket with words.

I have made lots of different cookies using the NFSC recipe with Antonia74's icing. You can find her recipes and technique for icing the cookies in her tutorial (under the Articles tab) titled "How to bake & decorate cookies".

It works well for flooding the cookies as well as the design work and writing on them. I have a couple of examples in my photos, if you want to take a look.

You can make templates and hand-cut your shapes, if you don't want to buy the cutters. I've done a couple that way, and while I wouldn't want to hand-cut hundreds, it's not too bad for a dozen or so . . .

hth!
Laura.

Thanks for the help. Just to make sure, the cookie dough should be 1/2" thick correct? It also bakes at 350 correct? For how long do you normally bake the cookies and does it matter the position of the cookie sheet on the rack?

Also, do you absolutely have to use royal icing for the cookies? Couldn't a crusting buttercream work just as well? I also have a tub of cookie/cinnamon bun icing that I got from GFS, I was wondering if that might work too.

Puzzlegut, I bake the cookie until right before the edges brown. I like mine soft, though. I use the NFSC and you do bake at 350. Depends on how big the cookie is for timing, though. You can do butter cream, but it may smoosh when you package it. You might think of doing buttercream base w/ Antonia's or royal details. Like w/ your popcorn bucket, maybe do the popcorn in royal so that it helps the buttercream come in direct contact w/ something smooshing it. I usually use rolled buttercream and royal details. HTH, and good luck. I'm sure it'll turn out great, don't forget to show us when you're finished!

MMF ( marshmallow fondant) works Great for a base coat too...it lets you be able to start decorating quicker.. i did my first mmf this week so now im a mmf pusher...lol...

I was wondering if it would be possible to add a little bit of meriguen (sp?) powder to my buttercream so that if I decorate the cookies with buttercream that it'll set a little better?

Also, are 9" bambo skewers okay for the cookie bouquets?

I think that 9" bamboo skewers are ok and if you want you can make them shorter or keep them long

puzzlegut - I recentely made my first cookie bouquet, see in my photos. I did not bake the stick with the cookies. As soon as the cookies came out of the oven, I stuck in the bamboo skewer and let the cookies cool. When they cooled, the cookies contracted and held on to the bamboo sticks. When you ice your cookies, put a little dab of icing on the bit where you stuck in the skewer. It holds it in and I did not have any problems.

GOOD EVENING CAKE AND COOKIE BAKERS. HOW MUCH DO YOU CHARGE FOR A BOUQUET LIKE YOU DID

I've been reading up on the cookie bouquets and there are still a few contrasts in what I've read. Do you insert your stick before baking or after baking? Also, how long do you bake the cookie that is 1/2" thick?

I put my stick in afterwards as soon as they're out of the oven. But you could also do it before. Either way works; you'll just have to find the one that works best for you. I found that using skewers when I stick them in after they're cooked works better than using lollipop stick or cookie sticks. Don't know why though

Sorry can't help with the 1/2" cook time though. I always make mine 1/4".

I need to have the cookie bouquet done by Sunday. Any suggestions on what day I should bake the cookies and when I should decorate them?

To have them ready to bag on Saturday, I'd bake and do the base coat no later than Thursday, although you can do it a day or two sooner if it's more convenient. Allow some time for the base coat to dry before doing the details, if you're using Antonia's icing. (If you're using fondant on your cookies, you won't need the drying time, so you could wait 'til Friday to start if you wanted to.)

Also, if you need to (or want to) do the cookies even sooner, you can always freeze them after baking, then thaw when you're ready to decorate (at room temp in a sealed container, until they thaw completely). This makes it easier to spread the work out over the week rather than trying to fit it all in at once.

hth!
Laura.

I insert my sticks after the cookies have come out of the oven- to answer the question about baking time, I bake my cookies or only 9 minutes, 2 minutes more if they are larger cookies!

I make my cookies for a boquet 1/2", bake at 365 for 6 minutes, then turn the cookie sheet and bake another 6 minutes. I also insert the stick before I bake the cookies.

I think you could bake the cookies any day and seal them really well or freeze them. In my opinion sugar cookies taste better when they are a little older. I would decroate them the day before so that they have plenty of time to set and wrap.

Mom_Of_4:
What buttercream recipe do you use and how much meringue powder do you add?
Will this make the icing hard so the cookies can be bagged or stacked? Thanks in advance

I know I'm waaaay late on this, but thought I'd respond too... I use the snow white buttercream from Wilton for everything (with a few minor changes), including cookies. I also use the cookie recipe I got from the cookie class given by Wilton. I did a bouquet today and realized its a lot of work so make sure you charge enough. Its a lot more work then cake, (of course my cakes are still fairly simple), so its easy to be harder than cake. ha ha

You asked about prices you can look on my web site under cookie bouquets and I have prices listed.
WE should charge more but its a hard sell right now we are the only ones doing them in our town and it takes time for everyone to digest the prices we will be rasing them in 2007 from $1.50ea indiv wrapped to $2.50 or $3.00 ea hope this helps.