Need firm, workable icing recipe for sugar cookies

[cmarchibald]

I got a sudden surge of ambition when I stumbled across some cute cookie cutters in the store the other day. My nephew's 5th birthday is Saturday and he is totally in love with cars and trains. So I just baked about 3 dozen cookies, now I need to decorate them. These are the same cookies I made for Christmas and Valentine's Day. I have an icing recipe that sort of works (my mother's old decorator's posy frosting recipe that firms up after it dries) but.....

I'm looking for something that will dry firm and smooth, and be easier to work with in decorating the cookies. I found this recipe:

Kittencal's Buttery Cut-Out Sugar Cookies W Icing That Hardens Recipe - Food.com - 261889

Not using the cookie recipe there, I have a good one already, but interested in that icing recipe, wondering if it will work and how best to work with it. I will need to do a bit of piping and detail work on the cookie shapes, but will have large areas that just need to fill in with different colors.

Last time I made cookies like this I made the icing very stiff, which was good for the finished product but made it hard to decorate with. The link above suggests making the icing softer, a little more liquidy, then it will dry hard later. Has anyone done this?

Does anyone have a TNT recipe for this purpose? Or any tips on how to make this work?

Going to decorate them all tonight or tomorrow morning so please help!

 

[jabbur]

That recipe looks like the one on Wilton's website. Only difference is your recipe calls for almond extract which Wilton's relies only on the sugar for flavor. I'd say go with it.