My rant on 1st time cookie decorating

So I thought I'd be clever and decorate a ton of Halloween cookies for piping practice.

Anyways, I baked a ton of witch hats, ghosts, black cats, pumpinks, etc.

I followed the recipe on the back of the Wilton cookie cutters for icing. It's basically 10x sugar, a couple tsps of milk and corn syrup.

The icing was so hard to handle, so hard to deal with, very sticky (I guess from the corn syrup) and didn't behave like other icings I've worked with.

I'm just frustrated and wondering if anyone has ever used that type of icing for cookies or what is the best kind? I need some that dries hard. I haven't tried royal icing, so I guess I will try that next.

Here is a cut and paste frm their site... I was able to bring up the recipe after clicking "recipes" at the top of the page. The link was not working though from the directions page.

Royal Icing from Sugarbaker's

Makes 3 cups of base consistency icing

3 3/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
3 T meringue powder
6 T warm water

Beat 4 to 5 minutes
By hand, stir in optional flavorings and desired tints.

They say to add 8 T of warm water if you want flow consistency

Toba Garrett's Glace' Icing
1 lb. confectioners' sugar
3/8 cup milk
3/8 cup light corn syrup
flavoring as desired

In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar and milk first. Add corn syrup just until combined.
Divide to flavor and add color.

Lesley's Royal Icing

1 bag confectioners' sugar
4 T. meringue powder (actually, I just dump some in but that sounds about right)
2 t. flavoring (usually almond)
warm water

Put confectioners' sugar and meringue powder in mixing bowl. Start beater and mix slowly
for a few seconds. With mixer running, add 3 to 4 T warm water. Add flavoring. Continue
mixing and adding water a little at a time until you get the consistency you want. Divide and color!

NOTE:
Remember that royal icing only takes a long time to dry after you put it on a cookie.
Until then, it turns to concrete in seconds. Keep your containers covered until you are
ready to use it. The cookies you see a on Kitchen Collectables' web pages were all
decorated with Royal Icing. Royal Icing has several advantages over buttercream:: no
fat, the icing won't separate, the icing hardens so cookies can be stacked, and you can
freeze cookies iced with Royal Icing!

I think maybe the wilton recipe was just not enough liquid. Seriously it was very hard even after being warmed up in my hands for quite a while.

I just tasted a cookie though and it is delish.

Ok, I will definitely buy the squeeze bottles. You can't even imagine how messy my kitchen was by the time I finished.