Dummy Display Cookies

Hi Lisbet

How about using gum paste instead of cookies?   What I did 4 years ago is I made cookie-colored  gum paste and cut it out, after they dried completely I decorated with royal icing.   The gum paste is going to be rock-hard and what I made is still here.   Just some colors of icing fades faster.  

Let me find whether I have the photos of it 4 years ago and I take the photo how it looks now.  

 I made gum paste dough with gum paste powder and followed the instruction how it should be made.  

Here I found the photos

 4 years ago

 well the colors really faded.  

Hi, I save most of my gingerbread projects for months (some for years), just using my normal cutout gingerbread cookie recipe. But the cookie and icing will eventually dry out, and weird things can happen. For instance, the icing can "sheet" off (slide off in big sheets). So if you're storing pieces with vertical iced cookie parts, it's important to store them on something soft that can "break" the fall of any icing pieces. Usually sheeting can be repaired by gluing the icing sheets back on the cookies, as long as they haven't broken. But, if you're just storing until Christmas, it's doubtful you'd experience this problem.

Ryoko ~Cookie Ave. posted:

Hi Lisbet

How about using gum paste instead of cookies?   What I did 4 years ago is I made cookie-colored  gum paste and cut it out, after they dried completely I decorated with royal icing.   The gum paste is going to be rock-hard and what I made is still here.   Just some colors of icing fades faster.  

Let me find whether I have the photos of it 4 years ago and I take the photo how it looks now.  

 I made gum paste dough with gum paste powder and followed the instruction how it should be made.  

Here I found the photos

 4 years ago

 well the colors really faded.  

thank you Ryoko for taking the time to find the original photo and to take a new one!

yes, the colours have faded, but other than that it still looks the same, that's good. Four years is more than what I would expect to get out of a display set, if it lasts 2 years, I would be happy    I will try it out to make 'cookies' in gum paste.

Is the box you store the display in airtight?

Julia M. Usher posted:

Hi, I save most of my gingerbread projects for months (some for years), just using my normal cutout gingerbread cookie recipe. But the cookie and icing will eventually dry out, and weird things can happen. For instance, the icing can "sheet" off (slide off in big sheets). So if you're storing pieces with vertical iced cookie parts, it's important to store them on something soft that can "break" the fall of any icing pieces. Usually sheeting can be repaired by gluing the icing sheets back on the cookies, as long as they haven't broken. But, if you're just storing until Christmas, it's doubtful you'd experience this problem.

Thank you Julia. It would be horizontal cookie platters, so no falling pieces expected.

The gingerbread projects you saved for years, how do you store those? Do you have a perspex box made for it and then keep it dark and cool inside another box?

Liesbet posted:

Ryoko ~Cookie Ave. posted:

Hi Lisbet

How about using gum paste instead of cookies?   What I did 4 years ago is I made cookie-colored  gum paste and cut it out, after they dried completely I decorated with royal icing.   The gum paste is going to be rock-hard and what I made is still here.   Just some colors of icing fades faster.  

Let me find whether I have the photos of it 4 years ago and I take the photo how it looks now.  

 I made gum paste dough with gum paste powder and followed the instruction how it should be made.  

Here I found the photos

 4 years ago

 well the colors really faded.  

thank you Ryoko for taking the time to find the original photo and to take a new one!

yes, the colours have faded, but other than that it still looks the same, that's good. Four years is more than what I would expect to get out of a display set, if it lasts 2 years, I would be happy    I will try it out to make 'cookies' in gum paste.

Is the box you store the display in airtight?

It is not in airtight box.  I had left it as it was for months and in order to try to prevent dusts I put into a box and covered with Saran Wrap.  When it gets dusts, I replaced the old Saran Wrap with new Saran Wrap.  I am in Japan and very humid here during summer and winter is very dry, but I do not do anything special.  I leave it in the room which is near my kitchen.    

I hope this helps.  

Liesbet posted:

Julia M. Usher posted:

Hi, I save most of my gingerbread projects for months (some for years), just using my normal cutout gingerbread cookie recipe. But the cookie and icing will eventually dry out, and weird things can happen. For instance, the icing can "sheet" off (slide off in big sheets). So if you're storing pieces with vertical iced cookie parts, it's important to store them on something soft that can "break" the fall of any icing pieces. Usually sheeting can be repaired by gluing the icing sheets back on the cookies, as long as they haven't broken. But, if you're just storing until Christmas, it's doubtful you'd experience this problem.

Thank you Julia. It would be horizontal cookie platters, so no falling pieces expected.

The gingerbread projects you saved for years, how do you store those? Do you have a perspex box made for it and then keep it dark and cool inside another box?

Icing can also sheet off flat cookies; you'll just be more likely to see it before you break it. I don't know what a perspex box is, so I can't comment on that. Many of my projects are dimensional, so if they are not on display, I put them in tall plastic storage containers that are reasonably airtight (if not, I tape the edges) and then bag them with large garbage bags to keep direct light off them. Everything is stored in an air-conditioned space in the summer. But I have also left projects out in the open for months on display without much trouble too.

For flat cookies, I store them in large (sheet tray-size) cardboard bakery boxes and then bag those boxes.

I made cookies for my website over 3 years ago (maybe 4 years ago). They were my regular vanilla sugar cookie and royal icing  recipes. Since I had gone to the effort to decorate them, I didn't want to just toss them. I stacked them in a clear glass dome cake stand (not air tight). The stand was in a corner on my kitchen counter - there was light exposure.  I never touched them until about 2 months ago. I decided to throw them away.  They held up fine, ever so slightly lighter in color (I had used blues and white). No mold or obvious issues. I am in the desert of Southern California, we are dry (very dry - humid days are few) and run the A/C for several months. 

CraftyBrandi posted:

I made cookies for my website over 3 years ago (maybe 4 years ago). They were my regular vanilla sugar cookie and royal icing  recipes. Since I had gone to the effort to decorate them, I didn't want to just toss them. I stacked them in a clear glass dome cake stand (not air tight). The stand was in a corner on my kitchen counter - there was light exposure.  I never touched them until about 2 months ago. I decided to throw them away.  They held up fine, ever so slightly lighter in color (I had used blues and white). No mold or obvious issues. I am in the desert of Southern California, we are dry (very dry - humid days are few) and run the A/C for several months. 

thank you for that. I might give it a try, but I live about 100m from the ocean, so far from dry. will let you know how it goes

I know this original post was last year but thought I would chime in and let you know what I did this past Christmas. I purchased some off-white colored hobby clay that you bake in the oven. I rolled it out to my regular thickness, used my cookie cutters to cut out my shapes and baked them per package instructions.

The reason I needed them was to practice icing techniques and designs. I just cut out my 'basic' shapes, and flood iced on the top like a normal cookie. Once I was done taking photos, etc. I literally used a putty knife and scraped the RI off into the trash, washed any residue off, and started over with another design. I feel that these are going to last a while.

I used Michaels brand craft and hobby oven bake clay. I would go each day and get one at 40% off, as they can be a bit pricey, but I feel like if I want to practice, I don't 'have to bake' to be able to accomplish that. Haha, I hate cleaning up kitchens after a big cookie batch. (I need a robot to wash and sanitize everything haha)