How to Make Elf Cookies Decorated with Royal Icing Transfers!

Hey Besties! I’ve been SO excited to hit publish and share this blog post with you! Last holiday season, cookiers went gaga over my gingerbread house royal icing transfer set, so I knew I had to come up with something great this year! And I hope you love these elf cookies decorated with this all-new royal icing transfer set as much as I do! I had so much fun making these and think they turned our absolutely adorable! It is so fun to make endless designs with this set and then play around with designing your cookies just how you love them! I’ve included all my tips for successfully making these, the free download and a video as well! Let’s get creating!

Cutout Cookie Recipe & Cutter

First things first, we need a delicious cookie canvas! For these elf cookies, I used our no-chill cinnamon spice cutout cookie recipe. I felt like elves must like cinnamon, right? It’s a year-round favorite, but especially during the holiday season! All of my cutout cookie recipes are no-chill and I mean that seriously. I make hundreds of cutout cookies every week, year-round and not one gets chilled. With a delicious flavor, texture and zero growth, there’s no need to chill. So if you’re looking for a quick and simple way to make cutout cookies, you’ve come to the right place. You can find over 20 different delicious cutout cookie flavors HERE! I dare you to try to pick one favorite!

A sweet Cookie Cutter

As soon as I saw this cookie cutter, I knew I could do so many things with it! Bobbi, of Bobbi’s Cutters, provided this adorable cookie sheet cutter. I used a 4″ cutter for this set, but she offers several different sizes. I always love Bobbi’s designs and love that she includes the name of the cutter on the cutter. Thank you again, Bobbi, for that thoughtful feature!

And since Bobbi loves the Besties, she offers 10% off your entire order when you use promo code BESTIE10 on her website. Bestie perk!

The Only Royal Icing Recipe I Use

If you already have a royal icing recipe you love, I love that for you! But if you need a fabulous royal icing recipe or if your current recipe is giving you any grief, I encourage you to try THIS recipe. It’s the only recipe I use every day and gives me delicious and beautiful results every time. It’s also worth mentioning that not all royal icing is the same. In fact, different recipes actually yield very different results and flavors. It’s not good enough to have a pretty cookie, it needs to taste just as good as it looks! If you need any guidance on creating different royal icing flavors, THIS post breaks it all down for you with endless flavoring options.

Royal Icing Consistencies

Just about everything in the cookie decorating world comes down to consistencies! While you’ll use the same batch of icing for all of your decorating, you’ll create different consistencies based on what you’re doing – flooding, piping, florals, etc. For making royal icing transfers, I use my puffy icing consistency, which is a thicker consistency, which makes for sturdy, strong transfers that have great dimension and shape. You can see exactly what that consistency looks like in the mixing bowl, in this royal icing consistency guide.

How to make royal icing transfers!

Intro To Royal Icing Transfers

If transfers are new to you, THIS is a great introductory tutorial to get started! Royal icing transfers are like creating and using giant sprinkles that you create in any design you’d like. You probably don’t even realize that so many of the decorated cookies you see, include royal icing transfers. They can be the centerpiece of your design or simply an added accent. Your options are quite literally, endless.

And while royal icing transfers are fabulous for new decorators, they are a common technique for decorators of all skill levels. They provide a great opportunity for piping practice, creating designs without a projector and add design elements to your cookies with no risk of messing up an actual cookie! You can even create beautiful fonts and numbers without a projector, using royal icing transfers. But today, we’re focusing on these sweet elf cookies decorated with transfers! Let’s cover some of my most helpful tips for making transfers!

Tips For Making Royal Icing Transfers

Making royal transfers is very simple, however, there are several tips and tricks that make them easier and more successful to create and use! I also receive a lot of questions about transfers, so I’ll include those tips here as well.

Making Transfers

• What consistency is best for make royal icing transfers? You want to use a thicker consistency when making transfers for several reasons. First, thicker icing is going to make the transfer much more sturdy and less prone to breaking. I use a consistency that globs into the bowl off of the spoon with little to no ribboning off of it. It requires light scribing once I pipe it to perfect the icing. It’s pretty thick! In THIS royal icing consistency guide, you’ll see the exact consistency I use for making transfers!
• What royal icing recipe do you use for transfers? We use the same royal icing recipe for all of our cookie decorating. We never struggle with craters, color bleed or other issues. The magic is in the METHOD of making royal icing. It’s simple but important to follow the instructions. You can find exactly how we make our royal icing HERE.
• What surface is best to make transfers on? I make all my transfers on sheet protectors which allow your transfers to dry in under 24 hours with perfectly flat backs that will sit flush on a flat cookie. Parchment and wax paper will curl from the moisture. And cookiers who use thicker acetate or laminated sheets can sometimes struggle with dry times. If you’re going to use acetate or laminate the sheets, choose the thinnest weight available. THESE are the sheet protectors I use, which are made from Polypropylene, which is a food safe material. Then get wiped clean in-between uses as well. TIP: Companies don’t always use their marketing dollars to promote products as food safe if they aren’t marketing to a demographic that is using their product for food-contacting purposes. I always encourage bakers to familiarize yourself with the most common food-safe materials so you can make informed decisions about the products you use.

Drying your royal icing transfers

• Can sheet protectors go in the dehydrator to speed up drying? Yes, as long as you are using a food-safe material. When using a dehydrator for cookie decorating, it is used on the lowest temp (mine is 95) so contents hardly even get warm to the touch.
• How long does it take for transfers to fully dry? The answer to this will depend on your icing, your climate and if you use anything to speed up drying, like a dehydrator. Royal icing transfer should always be completely dry within 24 hours. The only time it may take longer than that is if your home is very humid. Otherwise, you may want to consider using a dehydrator or reconsider the surface you’re using to make your transfers on. Our transfers are always completely dry within 18 hours.
• What is the best way to remove transfers to avoid breakage? Royal icing transfer don’t have any flex, so if you try to peel them off the sheet, they will break. It’s always best to curl the sheet away from the back of the transfer to release it. If your transfers are fully dry, they’ll pop right off. If they are sticking, they may not be full dry yet.

Storing Transfers

• The best way to store royal icing transfers? You want to store at room temperature. I use organizers like THESE to store my transfers. Again, these are made from food-safe material.
• How long are royal icing transfers good for? Basically, forever when stored properly. Although, we almost always use ours within a few months and are constantly replenishing.

Using Transfers

• The best way to attach royal icing transfers to cookies? You can add your transfers to dried flood, using tiny dabs of royal icing as glue. Not too much or the transfer won’t be able to sit flush. You can also add to wet flood for a slightly different look. I always recommend letting your wet flood set up for a couple minutes, so the transfers don’t sink too much. In THIS post, I compared what these different options look like so you can decide which you prefer!
• Will transfers bleed? When added to dried flood, there is no chance of color bleed. There is a chance of bleed when added to wet flood. If you are struggling with color bleed in your royal icing, THIS post will help.

Elf Cookie Transfer Set

Bring on these sweet royal icing transfer sheets! I hope you like all of these designs and can put them to good use this holiday season! I created each design in three different sizes, which lets you completely customize your cookies! Make all kinds of different sweet elf treats, as well as rolling pins, oven mitts, spatulas, piping bags and more!

You can download the four-page pdf royal icing transfer set file HERE or clicking on the image below.

Elf Cookie Transfers Video

I put together this quick video to show you exactly what these completed transfer looks like, coming off the sheet and how you can use to decorate your cookies! You can find the video HERE!

As explained in the tips above, you can add your transfers to wet flood or dry, I prefer adding to dried flood so I can arrange and rearrange them on my cookies to create my designs before gluing them on with royal icing. But it’s really personal preference!

Ready to make Elf Cookies Decorated this fun way?!

I just adore the holiday baking season, and I hope you have as much fun with these as I have! From one Bestie to another, have fun!! And if you’re not already in our Facebook group, I urge you to join so you can share your work, and we can all “oooh and ahhh” over your baked art! It’s also a fabulous place to bounce questions off of each other and a judgment free group to get support for all things baking!

Lastly, if you’re not already receiving my weekly newsletter, you are missing out! Every Friday, you’ll receive the best email of the week with new recipes, tutorials, techniques, free transfer sheets, labels and so much more! You can subscribe here! Happy Baking, Bestie!