royal icing cookies

i've always loved the look and taste of royal icing cookies. there are some amazing looking cookies that skilled bakers can create. i wanted to make some fish shaped royal icing cookies for alex's goody bags for her friends this birthday and i had to try some recipes and practice. i found a recipe online a little while back and decided to try that, those are the yellow fish shaped cookies in the photo. i did a horrible job icing the cookies, the mix was too thin and runny and they look just plain sloppy. i didn't like the taste of this recipe either. the recipe called for meringue powder and i could taste that in the icing - it tasted powdery and chalky. to give them a little credit, the next day after they really set they tasted better and less chalky. so when halloween came around i wanted to make pumpkin face cookies. the cookies are sugar cookies from a mix and i cut out pumpkin shapes. this time i used alton brown's royal icing recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/royal-icing-recipe/index.html. the recipe was easy to make and it tastes really good and mild. the consistancy was nice and the color is bright (i use wilton icing colorants). i'm still not skilled at decorating with royal icing but i think they're a huge improvement from the first batch. they turned out cute, and then i wanted to cover them up for the night to avoid cat tampering...wasn't a good idea. i thought they were set enough to lay saran wrap on top loosely but when i found them the next morning their faces had all bled like they cried overnight. they still tasted good though and i learned a lesson and i still sent them to alex's school for the kids who really enjoyed them.