Recommend me a "writing icing" for cookies

Cafe Society
1

Title pretty much explains it. I need a brand of icing that comes in a few colors (blue being one), comes already in a tube for easy use in writing, and is pliant enough to be used by a 9- or 10-yr-old, but still hold together, so you can write legibly.

Reviews online are so mixed, it’s hard to pick-- there are some universally despised, but none that are getting enough praise to dismiss the 1-star reviews as just complainers, a bad batch, or a long time ago (I even spot-checked, and people leaving 1-star reviews don’t generally leave a lot of poor reviews.

The best one by the reviews is made by Wilton, but Wilton’s palette is limited-- and it doesn’t seem to have blue. I know Wilton does make generally good products, though.

Buying for work, so don’t have to worry about price.

Kids will be writing Hebrew letters, although not required to write more than one (well, technically not required to write any, but they have to write at least one to get the cookie). So, not demanding in volume, but asks a bit of the kids. Not for a grade, not an exam. Just a fun activity for a holiday.

Anyway, if you have had a good experience with an icing, or a particularly bad one, PLEASE share, and name the brand. Also, give me a time-frame-- if it was 5 years ago, and someone else says it was great 6 months ago, maybe it’s improved.

I know there are some other threads about icing cookies, but they are old enough that I feel I really need a fresh one.

I’m going to experiment before, but if you have any advice, such as “lay icing on the whole thing for a writing surface”, I welcome that.

2

You want what is called a ‘royal icing’ for good results with writing. Amazon has quite a few ready-to-use royal icings as well as royal icing dry mixes. I’d go with ready to use for your one-time use purposes. You might have to tint the frosting yourself with food coloring.

Wilton Ready-to-Use Stiff Consistency Royal Icing, Perfect for Decorating Cookies, Piping Flowers & Cake Designs, Hard-Drying Icing for Outlining & Flooding, White, 14 oz. Amazon.com: Wilton Ready-to-Use Stiff Consistency Royal Icing, Perfect for Decorating Cookies, Piping Flowers & Cake Designs, Hard-Drying Icing for Outlining & Flooding, White, 14 oz. : Grocery & Gourmet Food

3

It might be even easier to use food coloring magic marker type pens to do the lettering on top of basic white royal icing that has been allowed to dry.

Treedoa Edible Markers for Cookie Decorating,12Pcs Food Coloring Pens Double Side Food Grade Edible Pens with Fine&Thick Tip Food coloring Pens for Cakes,Easter Eggs,Fondant,Cookies,Frosting,Macarons Amazon.com : Treedoa Edible Markers for Cookie Decorating,12Pcs Food Coloring Pens Double Side Food Grade Edible Pens with Fine&Thick Tip Food coloring Pens for Cakes,Easter Eggs,Fondant,Cookies,Frosting,Macarons : Grocery & Gourmet Food

4

Good idea! Thanks!

5

Wilton sells blue

6

Excellent! I couldn’t see a kosher symbol on the image you had up, so I was worried the blue color wasn’t kosher for some reason, and that’s why it didn’t pop up when I searched for “blue + kosher.”

But I found it on Amazon after all, and it is kosher-- just sourced differently from the white icing-- they probably sell a lot more of the white.

Next part is the “whyfor” if anyone is interested (skippable if not):
This is for a short, hopefully fun project for my 4th grade Hebrew class. A holiday is coming up that celebrates the giving of the Torah, and the “Torah is sweet”-- a lot of Orthodox schools start children’s very first day of school with honey cards that have the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

We don’t have classes on the week before or after, because of holidays, so I need to capture their attention somehow, and also make class fun, since this is holiday time.

If I can find writing icing that is very easy to use, I’m going to get some Graham crackers, and sugar cookies, and let them write things like the word “Torah” (in Hebrew), their Hebrew names, or just their first initial. Doesn’t have to look great, they just have to try.

→ The edible markers are a great idea for kids who don’t want to try the writing icing. I can get similar markers that allow them to practice on paper!

Going to set a limit of 2 eaten in class (and have a pitcher of water), but going to let the more enthusiastic ones make some to take home [*note to self: Ziploc bags!]-- they can write “abba,” “ima” (dad & mom) and so forth.

Thinking about letting the more enthusiastic ones make them for shyer friends-- only problem is with food-handling in the building-- I may have to get gloves, not sure, to allow them to touch one another’s food. [*note to self: research kid-sized exam gloves, because food-service gloves won’t work].

Got other activities, like Jewish-themed board games, and jigsaw puzzles in Hebrew for kids to do when it’s not their turn at the cookies.

If they finish before class time is up, going to review previous material with Kahoot games, something they always love.

7

I would research the school’s rules, because I don’t think it’s terribly dangerous for kids to touch each other’s cookies. If you supervise them all washing their hands (really washing, with soap, not just ritual washing) before the start of the project, i wouldn’t worry about letting them make cookies for each other unless it’s specifically against the school’s rules.

8

I need to talk to the principal. It WAS against the rules when we came back to the classroom after COVID, and I don’t know whether it has officially been rewritten. If we have one parent who expects it, then everyone has to do it, so one child isn’t singled out. We have a few helicopter parents.

Ironically, the one child we have with a serious illness and compromised immunity has parents who want him to participate in as much as possible, blend in, and don’t want his class to miss out on anything because of his needs, and will bring in special things for him to be able to participate in activities, rather than demand that the school do it. They are nice, and he is easy to work with.

Kids with nothing wrong, just “snowflake syndrome” are usually perfectly nice, but you have to work not to transfer the resentment of the difficulty their parents cause, to the kids themselves.

Sorry, mods! just hijacked my own thread!

9

You beat me to it, exactly what I would have said. Especially the “supervised” part with the handwashing.

10

:rofl:

And yeah, you do have to supervise 9-yr-olds. It just takes one kid being sloppy, or skipping the soap, then everybody does it.

Mostly, just as long as you are standing there, they do it right.