AHi, I have a birthday party to do this weekend for a big birthday bash for a 1 year old. The theme is "rookie of the year" in baseball. One of my projects includes making baseball cookies and a baseball smash cake. I have never decorated a cookie with icing therefore would like to which route will be the easiest to do. And how far in advance am I able to make and decorate them so that they will still be fresh? Thank you in advance for your help!!!

Given that's it's already tuesday, I'd start now.  Make the icing, bake the cookies.  Depending on your design, number of colors - if you need drying time in between.  Also, depending on the humidity where you live, you may need a little extra drying time before packaging.  Hope this helps ... Good luck!

Thank you GiGi. I was thinking the same about when to start. I will be traveling with them to MS. My question is what type of icing do I use because as I stated I have only done sprinkles on cookies not icing with a little artwork. It will be simple and resemble a baseball so I only need to ice the entire cookie and add the lines on the sides of it to resemble a baseball. My colors I will be using is white, blue and red. Do I need to make the icing or is it best/easier to purchase some already made and if so from where? What brand?

I've never purchase icing ... I make my own royal icing and I'm sure there are several recipes for it under 'Recipe'.  It sets up well for packing and travel.  I don't know how store bought dries but I'd check Michael's or your local bake supply store - they should have ready made that you can add your color to.  

Okay Gigi, thank you so much. Maybe I can try to make the icing today and do a sample batch to see how it will work. If not so good then I will still have time to go back to the drawing board if needed. Again thank you so much and hope to post some pretty pictures to share. :)

The easiest way to decorate baseball cookies would be to flood them white, let the icing dry, then draw the "stitching" on with a food color pen. You'd only have one color icing to worry about! I use glaze, which would need to dry overnight before adding the details. You could bag fairly quickly after that, just make sure the food color has had a chance to dry.

Glaze recipe:

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3 tablespoons milk or water

3 tablespoons corn syrup

2 tsp. extract

15 drops brite white food color (optional)

Mix to the consistency of white school glue. If you need to thicken, add more powdered sugar. To thin, add more corn syrup. Do not refrigerate the decorate cookies. The high sugar content keeps the icing from spoiling, even when it's made with milk. Leftover icing can be refrigerated and will stay fresh 10-14 days.

I love the glaze recipe GeminiRJ posted above. It dries so that you can stack the cookies once decorated, but the icing doesn't get rock hard like royal does. Can't wait to see pictures!
 

Thank you all so much. At first I had little confidence in taking on this task but I know that I have to start somewhere. I will try that recipe and keep in mind the tips that you each have provided to me. Hope to post some pretty pictures soon. :) Thanks again.

Okay so please forgive me ahead of time should this be a crazy or duh question....but when icing the cookies is it best to use a spatula, butter knife or what utensil? Sorry for all the questions but this is really my first time for doing this type of project, I normally do cupcakes. Thanks in advance for all your help.

AHope this helps

m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=K9wEILJshpU&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DK9wEILJshpU

I use an off-set spatula. Works great! I first pipe a line of icing around the perimeter and then fill in with the same tip in a zig-zag pattern (#4 for large areas, #2 for small areas). So you basically have a lot of naked cookie with lines of icing all over it. Then I use the spatula to smooth out the icing over the entire cookie.

AThank each of you for your help and sharing your knowledge. The baseball cookies came out good...not perfect but good being my first time ever decorating a cookie I think. They were a hit at the party and as a result I was able to get some new customers for somethings. Again a big THANK YOU!!! I was trying to attach the pics to this message but was unsuccessful..but will share them..

Here are the baseball cookies I had to do for the 1 year old birthday party. Sorry for the late post. More pics coming. Thanks again to all of those who gave me helpful hints.

Here is the entire display and set up I did for the party. All of the baked treats I did along with the set up. I think I did good overall with it being my first time of using the glaze and decorating the baseball cookies.