holiday cookie icing

You can use either buttercream or royal icing. The problem I've found is look versus taste. The great look you see on the magazines may taste awful. They use bad-tasting ingredients to preserve the look. Now, if you want good taste and good looks, real buttercream is great, but you must keep the room cold or the decorations will start to droop. My experience anyway. Let us know what eventually works for you.

Sorry, I must interject a strong protest to your comment there, Free Rider.
As a food stylist who does lots of editorial work for many different magazines, I have to let you know that we do NOT, for the most part, put anything on the food that is inedible to make the food look better.
Those fancy cookies that you see in the holiday issues are completely edible. Very often, I donate the leftover desserts, cakes, truffles, cookies, etc. to my local community theater and Meals on Wheels.
Yes, we do sometimes use fake ice cream and paint poultry to get that perfectly roasted look, but those, by far are the exception to the rule.
We rely predominently on the skill of the photographer, art director, prop stylist and our own persnicketyness to get those pretty pictures.

As for your question about cookie frosting, Pastrycake, I use royal icing to decorate my cut out cookies-although I make it a little differently than most. Buttercream tastes delicious, but it doesn't really set up and become solid like royal does.
Most recipes call for combining egg white powder and water, whipping it to a froth, then adding confectioners' sugar and whipping it until stiff. You then thin it out with water to get that smooth glazed look, and adding more sugar to get to a piping consistency. This works great-check out Martha Stewart's website for a good workable recipe.
My only problem with this process is that the frosting becomes rather dull and flat-looking when dry.
I use fresh eggwhite, and with a paddle attachment on my mixer, beat in confectioners' sugar very slowly, about a 1/4 cup at a time until I get the consistency I want--looser for glazing, then more sugar for a stiffer, pipable frosting. This way there is no added water that softens your cookie and significantly delays the drying process. Also, when dry, the result remains beautifully glossy.
I know, I know, people are afraid of the salmonella present in raw eggs. This concerns me too, but my hunch is that something about the high ratio of sugar to egg white prevents the growth of the bacteria. I know of no case of someone becoming sick from eating a sugar cookie with royal frosting. I also tend to think that most of the salmonella and campylobacter carried in eggs is present in the yolk with its high fat content, not the white. Of course, I'm no scientist and I'm just talking out of my hat, but I make dozens of these cookies every year and send them off to all my relatives and have had no complaints of sickness from eating them.

Good luck and happy holiday baking!!!

Didn't say inedible, foodnfoto. I do know that cake decorators use Crisco, for example, to make buttercream icing that won't droop in warm rooms. Just take a look at the Wilton recipes. They taste just awful. Again, not inedible, but awful tasting to make sure that it looks right.

I prefer to use a poured fondant icing. Nice snap and a little soft near the cookie.

Royal

For highly decorated cookies i use royal icing adding a little corn syrup to keep the shine and that softness near the cookie like a poured fondant.

i have also added a drop of cinnamon oil when working on gingerbreads and lemon, clove, peppermint or orange oil with sugar cookies. just gives the icing character.:bounce:

I don't know what magazines you're referring to but my guess is that yes, you are looking for royal icing but you don't need to spread royal icing with a palette knife. All you need to do is make two versions of the icing, one thicker and one thinner. Pipe an outline onto the cookie with the thicker icing and then using a technique called "flooding", you fill in with the thinner icing and it will automatically self level for a perfectly smooth surface.

The amount of egg whites and sugar determines the consistency. More sugar yields a thicker best for piping. More egg whites yields a thinner icing which is best for flooding.

"thanks for everyone's ideas. would pan or m brown mind posting a simple icing recipe to try."

Well ,there you go.

Although in our kitchen adding more whites increases the volume and produces a more fluffy product.. Thinning with whites will usually result in a very hard crust when mature. also the sheen will dissipate faster. You sometimes will get a seperation when the mixture is no longer homogenous resulting in yellowing and sometimes seepage or cracking or shrinkage. We usually thin with a simple syrup. Now that's just us, I really don't know what's in print out there.
pan

royal for small batches

this is really a rule of thumb kind of fromula dealing with humidity, moisture in your sugar, technique,
etc...

Royal icing:

1 TBL Meringue powder
1/4 Cup warm water
(reconstitue the powder with the water and whip fluffy)

add sugar with the paddle attacment, paddle smooth
1-2# (+ or -) 10 x sugar

1 Tbl Corn Syrup

1/8 tsp salt (opt for flavor)

1/2 drop cinnamon or clove or peppermint or lemon or orange oil
or
1 tsp vanilla extract (opt for flavor)

thin with simple syrup or vodka for flow work.

keep covered with a damp towel.

refrig after use keeping well covered and re work with the mixer on low to knock out the air and bring back the fluff.

when working with the royal, you may want to knock out any air with the paddle on low every hour or so.
:bounce: