Heart Cookies with Various Scrolls

Royal icing for us is stiff enough to not run over the side of a cookie but fluid enough that you can quickly flood a cookie.  If you are careful and deploy a little strategic maneuvering, you can still easily make pretty designs in the cookie without needing to make a stiffer icing.

For the cookie on the left, I made the scrolled outline first, let it set, and came back and filled in the rest with a thin layer of icing.  Then, I did a second layer over the scrolling. 

For the cookie on the right, I did the base layer of the icing and let it dry.  The more you let it dry the better the top scrolling will stand up.  I made sure to not squeeze an excess of icing out and made a very simple but elegant scroll with the icing bottle.  These two cookies create a more interesting design than just a plain ole heart and will make cute edible delights at a wedding we are making them for.

My main recommendations are not overdoing it, not doing designs too close, and being patient enough to wait for it to set if you are using one of this consistency.  If you want the simpler of the two, use the style on the right.

Happy crafting!