Zonked after decorating over 500 cookies with a lot of detail.  This was done over several days but made me wonder about those who do this all the time.  Is there a physical limit some of you set to how many fully decorated detailed cookies you will do for a holiday?  I find my neck, arms and wrist are really starting to ache from the piping.  How long does it take you to do , say 100 cookies in detail--flood icing etc.  While I love decorating cookies this session has made me think about setting limits for each holiday... however I have hit the big 60--so is it just age????

It's not just age.  I did 350 cookies for a wedding over several days and it's a lot of work!  I would do it again though, I like decorating cookies.  Not so sure about 500 of them though!

Thanks..that makes me feel better... I was beginning to think it was an age factor and I do love to decorate cookies.

or is it 8 feet tall, able to leap tall buildings, stop trains and all that........now my old age is showing.

I do hope you have many more years of piping in your talented hands.

Cheers

mb

I feel your pain ... literally!  I have averaged about 400 cookies in the last week and a half and I'M NOT OLD!  :)

Thanks for your opinions... by the way my butt is big so I don't worry about that one.  So from the input I get doing about 350-400 decorated cookies a week seems to be the limit for most of us. Glad I only do a lot over the holidays... I love to decorate but hate rushing and that is what happens.  Beginning to think I will only make x amount for each holiday and that is it.  First come first serve and when it's done I just won't decorate any more for that time. 

  By the way happy decorating to all you cookie people.  I look forward to seeing photos on cake central... wish I knew how to post some myself.  When daughter comes for visit in April I am going to make her show me how to do that.... along with learning to text.   

I just figured this out for myself. I had a bunch of cookie orders this year (for the first time ever) so I needed to keep track of things.

My cookies are deliberately not detailed nor did I aim for perfection, so I could make the most quantity possible (I'm selling wholesale only so it's all about money). I can mix, roll out, bake and completely decorate 250 in 9 hours.

but here's how simple they were:

I used the NFSC recipe with a simple dip type frosting. The snowman is 5" long....so they were large cookies

very cute though

AI decorated 120 yesterday in about 6 hours. I did have to stop and make more of the mints that go on top. I am not very fast though. So 3 minutes a cookie at a snails pace.

Liz

i decorate cookies a full sheet tray at a time on a turntable--i get up higher than the pan and lean over into it-- if i had to pick up and move each freaking cookie individually i'd go insane--

AHere is the pic.

Liz

[IMG ALT=""]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3154975/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

Liz, those mints are beautiful!! Is the mold as small as it seems?

I agree on Kate's comment about moving the cookies being a pain........but as I get OLDer than dirt.....my back can't take the leaning over the table for hours. That's torture that lasts for weeks of pain!! For me the dipping the cookies method is the easiest on my body.........and why I won't do detailed cookies anymore.

I stack the baked cookies up on my left upside down (so I don't turn them over 1 at a time) and plow through dipping them. I scrape off any bad drips when they dry.

Stitches - The mold is a little Springerle cookie mold - it is maybe about 1.25" x 1".  I make a butter mint dough out of butter and powdered sugar and then press them and trim them.

Liz

This is one of the things that usually isn't factored in when people start up a cake/cookie business. Long term over use of your hands and wrists can definitely "factor you out".

I'm a s-l-o-w decorator. I seem to gravitate towards designs that require a lot of detail, so I spend a lot of time outlining. I use 4 to 5 cookies an hour as my guideline when trying to figure how long an order is going to take me to do. I wish I had more time to devote to decorating, but my "real" job doesn't allow that to happen!