i'm very new...with only three cakes ever decorated. i'm hosting a babyshower next weekend (aug 26th) and i'd like to make some cookies to go with the cake i'll be doing. i'd like to start asap...at least baking the cookies, but how long with they last? with or without icing for now.
I'm no expert, but when I make my sugar cookies with butter they don't last all that long before the flavor changes. I wouldn't bake the cookies any more than 1 wk ahead-if that. Icing can be made in advance though so that it's out of the way. Maybe PM Antonia and see if the no fail recipe lasts longer....
You can bake them and freeze them if you're concerned. I start my Christmas baking in October and freeze them until they need to be sent. But IMHO they should be fine for the week. I have never had any go bad in that amount of time as long as you keep them bagged up so they don't get too hard.
At room temp, about three days..in the freezer, six weeks.
That's a good a idea, because you might be overwhelmed that day or the day before. 
add a slice of bread to the container to keep the cookies soft 
I tried freezing cookies for the first time. Took them out of the freezer yesterday, tried one today 
I didn't think everyone else was wrong, but I guess its something you need to try for youself. I baked, cooled, stacked and wrapped in saran wrap, press and seal and then wax paper for good measure 
They were SOOO good today, just like I just baked them. Will do that from now on with my large cookie orders.
HTH & good luck. I have a baby shower this weekend 
I always take a day and make a bunch of different shaped cookies, like butterflies and flowers etc.... I ice and decorate then wrap and freeze. I use them alot for that little extra something. Sometimes I'll write the HB on them or put their name on it. I keep a couple of dozen on hand and have never had any problems. Probably the most time they spend in the freezer is a couple of weeks.
Heh. I saw this topic and I immediately thought of my grandma, who was a professional cake decorator of note in Iowa in her day. She always made gorgeously decorated sugar cookies every christmas, but for some reason didn't base coat the house shaped cookies. The other cookies were snarfed by family, friends, and clients, but at least her children snubbed the house-shaped cookies with insufficient icing.
Back in the 70s, when my parents were stationed in the Philippines, grandma sent a christmas package with her famous sugar cookies. All were eaten--except the icing-light house cookie. My dad, always the prankster, mailed the cookie back to her.
Next Christmas, another package--and the SAME house cookie gets mailed back to my parents. It went back and forth several times, and, long story short, we still have the cookie thirty-some years later. Not that I'd want to *eat* it, but they can last a heckuva long time.
I can, from personal experience, say that the royal icing decorations my grandma made (by the thousands) back in the 60s and 70s are still gorgeous and tasty.
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