Hey Besties! We are officially in the thick of fall now with cooling temperatures and even snow falling here in MN! And if you come to our house any fall or winter weekend, you’re very likely to see a bonfire! Honestly, pretty much year-round, but there’s something about the crisp air that I love. And since there was a such an overwhelming response to our haunted house royal icing transfer set, I created a fall theme as well! Today we are toasting up some adorable campfire cookies! I’m in LOVE with how cute these turned out and the design options are endless. And if transfers are new to you, read on to see how fun and simple they make it to create beautiful cookies!
Recipes
Before we talk about the royal icing transfers, we need to create a delicious canvas. In the spirit of fall, I used our incredibly delicious no-chill cinnamon spice cutout cookie recipe for this batch. They are quick and easy to make, with the perfect amount of flavoring for those cozy fall feelings!
Next, you’ll find our exact royal icing recipe and method HERE. If you are looking for a royal icing recipe or if your current recipe gives you any issues, THIS is the recipe you should try. It is so simple to make and gives us perfect results every time. I will add that HOW you make your icing is even more important than the list of ingredients. The method we use is simple and if you follow the instructions, it’s the only recipe you’ll ever need.
Royal Icing Coloring
Let’s spend a moment on coloring, especially since we’re making rich, bold colors today. I almost exclusively use ChefMaster gel colors for all of our bakery’s decorating. Hobby Lobby brand is my emergency back-up if I need something I can get my hands on same day. ChefMaster gives me stunning bold colors at a great price point, and I can mix any shade or hue I need from THIS set that I buy in repeat. Although, they do offer other color sets as well for those who don’t like to mix their own colors.
Navy is a color many cookiers dread mixing and since we made a while lot of it for this set, let’s talk about it. I’ve had bottled Americolor navy gel coloring in the past but still always found myself needing to add more colors to make it a true navy. So for me, mixing my own is actually easier. Now since we’re all making different quantities of icing and the kind of meringue powder you use affects how much coloring you need, I could never tell you an exact amount of drops. But I can tell you that this equation of colors will result in a beautiful navy. You can think of it in terms of drops, but depending on how much icing you’re making, you may need to multiply this equation for how much icing you’re coloring.
- 4 parts Royal Blue
- 3 parts Purple
- 1 part Black
The Most Versatile Cookie Cutters
If you’ve been here before, you know I’m a huge fan of using basic shapes and plaques for beautiful designs! Which is exactly what we did here today. Bestie, in all honesty, I use at least one cutter from THIS set every day…no joke. And today was no different, you’ll see I used some of my favorite basic shapes!
Royal icing Transfers
If royal icing transfers are new to you, I have a complete tutorial on the benefits of transfers, how to make them and use them HERE! But in a nutshell, royal icing transfers entail simply piping over a design on a surface like a sheet protector and then letting it dry, before adding it to your cookies. It can be a great way to add fun design elements, numbers and letters to your cookies. Decorators of all levels use royal icing transfers but they can particularly be helpful for beginners. It’s a great way to practice piping and consistencies in a low-stress way, without risking ruining cookies.
I create all my royal icing transfer sheets designs with varying sizes of the design elements so you can customize them for your cookies. I also focus on creating designs that work well for transfers, avoiding thin lines where possible, to make for sturdier transfers. You can see here, I piped only the different sizes I knew I was going to use for these designs. I always use THESE sheet protectors which are made from Polypropylene, a food safe material. Parchment and wax paper will curl from the moisture, leaving your transfers with warped backs that don’t allow them to sit flush on your cookies.
I piped these in the evening and in the morning, they were dry and popped right off the sheet protectors. You always want to curl the sheet away from the back of the transfer to release it from the sheet. If you try to peel the transfer off the sheet, it’s more likely to break since they don’t have any flex once dry.
Add to your cookies with small dabs of royal icing as glue or add to your wet flood. If adding to wet flood, I usually let my flood set up for a minute or two before adding your transfer, so they don’t sink too much.
Campfire Royal Icing Transfers
I share all of my royal icing transfer sheets for free for other home bakers to use in their decorating. So, you can find these royal icing transfer sheets within my free collection HERE. You can use them to make transfers as described, or you can use these designs with your projector if you’d prefer to decorate that way.
Toasty Campfire Cookies
I hope these designs and the photos of this set provide some inspiration for you to create your own campfire cookies!
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