How to attach icing to gingerbread biscuits?

[VoilaAnotherGimlet]

I'd like to decorate some gingerbread biscuits with fondant icing for my niece's birthday party..... how do I make the icing stick to the biscuits? Jam? Butter icing? All tips welcome!

I think you can buy special glue for this. Confectioners use it.

Otherwise, why don't you use royal icing it's less fiddly?

Jam's fine. But why are you using fondant?

Thanks MissMartha! Hoping to go to baking show soon so can look for glue then. Am total amateur, but was hoping to use cookie cutter to cut out icing - would it be fondant icing for that? Isn't royal a bit like glace? - glacé always goes everywhere but where I want.

Royal is like glace but thicker - think Christmas cakes. It's pretty biddable stuff really.

Yes, you'd use fondant to roll out and cut, but a piping bag and royal/glacé would be easier I think.

Ahhh - sounds like this is what I want. I had in my mind the kind of icing on the Waitrose gingerbread sheep etc Could I get royal icing into the same shape as the cookie? (Bear in mind am a complete klutz/ham fisted/waiting for 5 mo ds to be old enough to be blamed for dreadful cake decoration). I was going to do "5" shaped cookies for a 5th birthday.

Just have a practice first :)

X post! Sounds like I need to practice both options. Anyone know where I can get one pf Hermione's time-turners?

X post again! Thanks all!

Ok....so I made a batch and attempted to simply apply royal icing with a spatula. Results look like a 5 year old was involved. Sadly I don't have a 5 year old to blame.

So, wise ones, should I have properly read your advice and used a piping bag? I did an internet search and found advice on "flood icing" where you pipe an outline then fill in. Should I do this? I no longer have time for another trial run but can make a double batch and see how it goes (baby free couple hrs on Sat, party is Sunday).

All help/tips/ideas gratefully received!

this is what I used to do handbags/shoes for my DD. Did the job perfectly. And I am as cack-handed as the most cack-handed person in the world. If not more so.

Ooh I saw that page before - nice to know it works! Thanks! Do you use a squeezy bottle and the exact nozzles etc?

I did, but I'm a sad bat perfectionist when it comes to things like that. Probably because I am so spectacularly crap at art and that's sort of art! I wanted to get it right and it worked. Have used many many times since and love it. Worth buying.

test

So the party was yesterday...and the biscuits were great! I bought a small piping kit and used a number 2 nozzle for the outlining which was far easier than I expected (it really does fall neatly!) and the "flooding" went very well on my first batch using tyhe technique on that link. The second batch was a bit rougher as the icing was not wet enough but by then I had an aching back from the tense concentration and was scattering sprinkles over it anyway so it didn't matter that it wasn't as glassy - I will know for next time. I'll also get a squeezy bottle for next time, the piping bag worked but was messy! All in all I am thrilled with the results, thank you all and esp boosmummie!