You'll be happier if you use royal icing than buttercream on sugar cookies that will be packed and shipped. Finish icing the cookies 12 hours prior to boxing them.

My mother made thousands of cut-out cookies in her life. Her frosting was always a box of powdered sugar, milk to get it to a thin consistency but still thick enough to cover, and a bit of lemon extract. The frosting was delicious, and it dried to a nice hard coat. SO easy to make. Yes, they did ship well if waxed paper was between the layers of cookies.

Hmmm...I really don't want a royal icing. My sister sent me some sugar cookies from a business last year that used a buttercream and they were wonderful...I will have to ask her the name. They were individually wrapped. I'd love to try and recreate them.

gardengriz, I only use royal icing for cookies, but a quick google for "buttercream icing that hardens" came up with several links, including the one below. Sorry...can't vouch for it. You might also check sites like Wilton and King Arthur Flour. My mom used to decorate her holiday sugar cookies with buttercream, and I remember it drying and hardening a bit. The air exposure can mean some freshness is also compromised, but that wasn't the least bit of a problem to my 10-year-old self.

https://www.craftsy.com/cake-decorating/article/crusting-buttercream/

ETA - Check with your sister since the business she used could be a good source. As I mentioned, my mom's buttercream hardened a bit but wasn't nearly as sturdy as royal icing.

we used to use the powdered [confectioners] sugar/milk icing recipe when we were kids and used the icing to slather between graham crackers ... they hardened up nicely, when they lasted that long ...

Cake Central also has some recipes for crusting buttercream. I normally just use my buttercream recipe, which is butter, powdered sugar, milk to thin it to a spreading consistency and almond/vanilla/whatever extract. It's not super smooth, but it is sturdy enough to withstand transportation.

Martha and I "talked" on another thread about buttercream that is thinner and dries more smoothly than the traditional buttercream. It was basically thin buttercream with the addition of a little corn syrup, and Martha's had 2 tsp. of corn syrup as opposed to my one tsp. Her's seemed a bit "smoother" in her pictures, mine was, I believe thicker. I was looking for a buttercream thin enough to "flood" cookies, but I haven't tried the additional syrup yet to see if I can attain that texture. Anyway, here is her recipe:

Vanilla Sugar Cookie Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar (sift if it is lumpy)
2 TBS milk to start, add more as needed
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp light corn syrup

In a small bowl, mix powdered sugar and 2 TBS milk with a spoon. Slowly add more milk, 1 tsp at a time, till you get a thick glaze consistency. You want it spreadable so that it covers the cookies easily, but not so runny that it is dripping off. If you feel you went too far, just add more powered sugar. Very forgiving recipe! When you get the consistency you like, use a whisk and add in the corn syrup and vanilla. Spread on cookies and let them set up for 45 minutes before eating. I recommend leaving them out overnight to set up completely.

Have fun!

Annie

Won't the butter go off? I would have thought it would need chilling.

Thanks Annie, that's more of what I was thinking. I did check out Cake Central and was thinking it needed to be butter free and maybe a little meringue powder added. I will talk to my sister today and find out the name of that cookie company...I remember they were sugar cookies that had a crusted butterflies a held up great in shipment.

Buttercream!

What Annie said -- I ship them all the time to my Grands in Minnesota and they travel well. I usually put 3 cookies in a package and they always arrive in good shape.

It's Cheryl's Cookies, which are very good and VERY expensive! I looked at their nutritional information and it looks like all they used was powdered sugar, evaporated milk, extract, and salt...pretty much what Annie listed minus the corn syrup! Looks like I need to make some "test" batches this weekend. :-)

This is what I use to frost my holiday cookies. They always have traveled well.

Old-Fashioned Confectioners' Icing

1 1/4 cups confectioners; sugar, sifted (I don't sift}

2 tablespoons milk Whole, low fat, rice, soy, whatever is fine

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Food coloring of choice

Stir together all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Adjust consistency by adding sugar by tablespoon to thicken and milk by teaspoon to thin.

Divide in small bowls and tint to desired color.

The recipe is from Nanny Edith's Sugar Cookies that was published in the paper in 2010. The cookies recipe is great also. I found the link online, but I couldn't seem to make it printable.

Gardengriz, I have been cutting out sugar for a while, but will make the ultimate sacrifice for you. Just ship that batch of cookies to me when you finish and I will test them for you

No advice for you, I have not made any that would be sturdy enough to ship unfortunately.

LOL Nancy...I'm in Virginia, where are you? I just might take you up on that! :-)

I just opened my latest issue of Fine Cooking and found this glaze recipe. It calls for cream cheese and cream, but says it can be stored at room temperature for 3 days, which surprised me. I'm definitely going to have to try this one.

Cream Cheese Glaze

1 1/4 cup heavy cream; more as needed

1 tbls. cream cheese at room temperature

1 tbls corn syrup

2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar; more as needed

Food coloring and sanding sugar, optional

Whisk the cream, cream cheese and corn syrup until free of lumps and very smooth. Whisk in the sugar and food coloring, if using, until smooth. The glaze should be thick yet easy to spread. If too thick add cream 1/2 tsp at a time. If too thin, add more confectioners sugar. Working with one cookie at a time, use a spoon to drizzle and spread the glaze. It should settle into a smooth surface in about a minute or so. if it doesn't the glaze is too thick. Add sanding sugar or sprinkles if you like. Let the glazed cookies dry for about a half hour. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Surprisingly, the glaze was paired with a gluten free butter cookie, and that's why it caught my eye.

Annie

I just reread your original post and I completely missed that you wanted buttercream frosting/ I still like my glaze, but here is the buttercream frosting I use for cakes. It does crust over. If I was putting it on cookies, I probably would make it a litter thicker. I always use Domino brand sugar.

https://www.dominosugar.com/recipe/buttercream-frosting

That cream cheese glaze does sound interesting. I may just have to make some cookies and try that. I suppose you would want a cookie that is not so sweet? Although I have not found many things too sweet for me. I know I will be eating dessert Thanksgiving, trying not to eat sugar til then. My whole Thanksgiving meal may be dessert though, I NEED dessert!

Test batch number one...nothing fancy and using my soft sugar cookie recipe. We'll see how this frosting crusts up.

Oh, nice counters. And so clean.....(grin)

I'd have had powdered sugar from one end to the other, the dust is like magnetic particles settling on every surface, including me!

Annie

Ding ding...winner winner chicken dinner! Annie's frosting crusted up beautifully after letting them sit overnight. The only changes I made was to add 1 tsp meringue powder, used butter flavored extract instead of vanilla, and added about 1/8 tsp salt. I'm going to make prettier cookies today and send them into work with hubby tomorrow.

The big test will be to see how they ship. :-)

Annie, I was just looking at the cookie recipes in my Fine Cooking issue yesterday. Somehow I missed seeing the Cream Cheese Glaze. However, I did remember the Chile-Chocolate Rugelach and Maple-Bacon Ginger Cookies. Hmmm...

Test batch number 2...this time I rolled out my cookie dough and cut out cookies. I like them better, plus they bake more evenly, when they are uniform in shape.

I used a piping bag with pink and white buttercream and did spirals. I'm going to ship some of these out tomorrow to a friend in Fla to see how they ship!

How pretty! And delicious I am sure. I remembered this morning when I worked at a school. They made cookies with a buttercream frosting, surprisingly good considering the frosting came out of a 5 gallon bucket. They had to sit overnight to crust over. Not sure they would have shipped well, but they were really popular.

Very nice! The uniform size/shape does help with even baking. Let us know how the shipping goes.

Chloebud, the recipe is on page 86, right after the Thumbprints and the chocolate-chili rugelach.

Oh, those are very pretty, and I'm sure they are delicious. If you make small enough circles you can stack cookies in a Pringles can for shipment, works great and keeps them from getting banged around...

Annie

They crusted up pretty well by this morning (made them last night). I'm thinking of shipping them stacked on their sides in a box with parchment in between each cookie. I'd be afraid that stacking them vertically would smoosh the frosting even more. I will let everyone know!

A follow up...late I know. The frosted cookies shipped wonderfully and I'm making more today for Christmas cookies! Going to ship them tomorrow.

Great!

Thanks for checking back, gardengrlz, that's very handy to know.

Merry Christmas.

Annie

Her's a link for Crusting Buttercream Icing from cakecentral, with a many reviews & comments. If you experiment with it, let us know the results, with photos if you can, please! :O)

CAKECENTRAL LINK