How To Stencil on Cookies with Royal Icing

by Krista Heij-Barber of Cookies With Character
for SugarEd Productions

 

 

 

 

Choose any shape you like. My favorite of all time is the versatile plaque shape!

 
 

The colors I chose for this tutorial are a “vintage-ish” teal color scheme. The key is to start with an ivory base. Then I added Americolor Teal and Sky Blue. If you feel it’s getting too strong or bright, add a bit more ivory. *I tend to use ivory a lot with my colors. I love how it can change colors drastically. Muting the vibrate pinks etc. Love it!!

 
 

Choose your stencils. These are my faves from The Cookie Countess and Salsa Sweets/Salsa Stencils. They can be found here: https://thecookiecountess.com https://www.facebook.com/SalsaSweets

 
 

Base flood your cookie and allow to dry at least 24hrs. If it is not dry enough, your finger will indent the cookie during the stenciling process. (Note: see our Cookie 101 tutorial in our online school to learn about icing and flooding cookies).

 

Then lay your chosen stencil onto of the cookie and look at all areas to make sure the stencil “ends” off the cookie the way you like. Layer on a rather thick coat of icing with an offset spatula. I recommend using a metal spatula. They are more sturdy and give you a cleaner edge for stenciling.

 
 

Wipe the spatula on a wet paper towel. Using the edge of the spatula, in long swipes, remove as much excess icing as possible. This may take 3 or 4 passes. Don’t worry about the ends, we will fix them later.

 
 

Gently remove the stencil in one quick movement.

 
 

Afterwards, you will notice these little wiggles of excess icing that have fallen between the stencil and the cookie. Use either a toothpick to remove the excess or…

 
 

… the tip of the spatula to quickly scrape off the ends.

 
 

You may also want to use only a section of a stencil. Here, I wanted to just use one line of my damask stencil. Using scotch tape, mask off the top and bottom of the area you want to stencil. I have also heard of some using “Press and Seal” wrap to mask off areas.

 
 

Repeat the process above, trying to keep the icing in the center of the area we masked off.

 
 

Remove excess icing with spatula or toothpick.

 
 

 

Smaller stencils do tend to be easier to use at first. Mainly because a lot of them have a small “tab” on the side that allow you to hold it easier.

1. If you would like to practice, you could use either a paper plate upside down or the “Notta Cookie” The Notta Cookie can be found at Karenscookies.net. It is a dishwasher safe, reusable fake cookie. I love be able to test techniques on a similar shape to a cookie!
2. Place stencil on cookie.
3. Add icing to bottom of offset metal spatula.
4. Layer on your icing. Not too thick, but making sure it gets into all the groves.
5. After you have wiped your spatula on a damp paper towel, swipe off excess icing.
6. Remove stencil carefully.
7. Beautiful butterfly! This stencil, and others can be found at designerstencils.com These cookies made a HUGE splash at my kids school. The teachers where blown away and wondered where I bought them! 😉

Stenciling can give you that big bang for little effort. Think about your colors and shapes ahead of time and the process goes super quick!

 
 

 

Happy stenciling!

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Merging her lifelong love of art and baking with a career in illustration and design has given birth to Krista’s immensely popular cookie business and blog. After working in illustration for 15 years, she married that skill with her affinity for baking, and Cookies with Character was created. Krista’s fun yet refined designs have helped put her stamp on the cookie world.
Krista’s pages: Facebook, Website, and Etsy shop

— Krista’s full bio here