How to Make Royal Icing Transfers! Tips, Tricks and FAQs!

Hey Besties! If you’ve been here before, you may already know my love of royal icing transfers. So much so that many of you now call me the “Transfer Queen”…your words, not mine! But here’s the deal, what I love most about royal icing transfers is that it’s a method or technique that makes cookie decorating a whole lot easier for all skill levels. I’m all about finding simple ways that bakers of all levels can create beautiful and delicious goodies. So while there are a lot of benefits of royal icing transfers, I love how they can help everyone. So today I’m covering all my tips on how to make royal icing transfers! I’m covering all your FAQs! Let’s go!

Royal Icing Transfers 101

Let’s start from the beginning, Bestie! What is a royal icing transfer? I like to think of making royal icing transfers as like a coloring book with icing. Transfer sheets provide a design template that you can use to trace over with royal icing. Transfers are simply design elements – flowers, letters, shapes, and other designs, made from royal icing. They are basically a giant sprinkle that you make and add to your cookies. They can be the centerpiece of a design, an added detail or accents…the options are literally endless.

Benefits of Royal Icing Transfers

Cookie decorators, even the best ones in the world, use transfers as a common decorating method or tool. They offer a low-pressure way to create design elements without any risk of messing up a cookie. This can be very appealing for a number of reasons, but especially for newer decorators learning the craft. Learning consistencies and piping can be much easier while making transfers versus going through actual cookies. And being able to make as many transfers as you want and use your favorites, is something many cookiers love.

Not an artist?

Not artistically gifted? You’re not alone. Most cookiers aren’t! Most cookiers rely on a projector or transfers to make beautiful design elements on their cookies. And while I use my projector every day, there are certain times and designs when I prefer to make transfers instead. So for cookiers who don’t have a projector, you can still have beautiful designs on your cookies!

Timesavers!

They can also be a HUGE timesaver for decorating day. For example, I always have jersey numbers, flowers and seasonal shapes made on-hand and ready to pop onto cookies anytime. I personally love turning on a good podcast and cranking out transfers with leftover icing. I guess that’s an exciting Friday night at my age now?!

Icing issues be gone!

Transfers also don’t crater which is a huge benefit to some cookiers, if that’s something that plagues them in decorating. They are also great if you worry about color bleed. Using a royal icing transfer on dried flood can be a safe way to add a design element without the bleed. Lastly, it’s much easier to paint your design elements as transfers before they are on your cookie, if you’re looking for a metallic or painted finish.

How to make royal icing transfers – FAQs

Alright Besties, we’ve covered the basics so let’s answer all the frequently asked questions I commonly receive on this topic!

• 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? I use the same royal icing recipe for all of my cookie decorating. I 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 I make my 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 drying 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 transfers are usually 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 your royal icing 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 your 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.

How do you decorate transfers?

A question I receive periodically, “Bestie, how do I decorate a transfer?” Obviously every design is different and there is usually more than one way to decorate or make a transfer. But it’s basically like coloring with icing. You decorate transfers the same way you’d decorate a design directly on a cookie. Often working in sections to create definition between areas, or wet-on-wet techniques if you want all the icing to meld together.

It’s up to each cookier on how they want to create each design. Some cookiers like to have all the decorating on the same level. Whereas some prefer to have a more layered look. So again, it really depends on the look you want or what you’re comfortable with from a skill perspective.

I usually take a minute to look at each design before I start, to make my decorating plan or order of operations. If I could clone myself, I’d make a tutorial for every transfer design for you! But since I publish hundreds every year, it’s simply not possible. But I’m working on it for you, Besties! HERE is a recent video I made showing a unicorn example!

Where can you find royal icing transfer sheets?

You’ve come to the right place, Bestie! You can always find a comprehensive free royal icing transfer sheet collection HERE! There’s no catch, these are completely free, just click on the design you want and the pdf file will open up. The free collection gets updated weekly with new and different designs. All kinds of different themes, seasons and holidays.

New royal icing transfer sheets are published every week and are available in my newsletter a couple weeks before they are available on the website. It’s a Bestie perk! So, if you want to be the first to get your hands on the latest designs as they get released, subscribe to receive my weekly newsletter below.

And finally, if you want to have your own giant collection of royal icing transfer sheets at your fingertips, Your Big Book of Royal Icing Transfers is for you. Over 350 different designs across 30 different categories, seasons, holidays and themes. An instant download for you to have you own personal collection.

Need more help?

I hope this post all about how to make royal icing transfers has been helpful! But if you need any more help or want to share your work, you’ll find me and thousands of other Besties HERE! That’s where we hang out, talk all things baking, celebrate delicious and beautiful treats and laugh at our fails.

And here is where you can subscribe to receive my weekly newsletter to receive all the new transfer sheets as they are released! Many Besties call this their favorite email of the week, so I hope you love it too! Happy Baking, Bestie!