Hey Besties! If there is ever a customer looking for amazing, one-of-a-kind cookies, it’s a bride! Every couple wants to treat their guests to a unique, special and memorable favor. There are endless options you can design and consider complementing their special event. But what better way than custom photo cookies of the bride and groom? Couples love these customized cookies and as a baker, they are so easy to make! Let’s dive into options you have to create these stunning wedding favor cookies!
Wedding Favor Cookies Everyone Will Adore
There are so many beautiful and creative options when you get the opportunity to bake for a wedding! And sometimes the supporting events, like showers, bachelorette parties and rehearsals can be even more fun!
While these Polaroid-style cookies have been gaining popularity, we actually love intermixing them with other complementary cookies to create beautiful sets. I recently published THIS piece featuring our wedding dress cookie collection, which may inspire some fitting designs as well. And of course, for anything wedding-related, you can never go wrong with floral designs.
EDible Image Printing at Home?
If you’ve been here before, you know I’m all about helping home bakers make amazing baked goods economically. Whether you’re a hobby baker or a bakery owner, I want you to delight your customers and keep more of your dough! And with the rising popularity of photo cookies, an edible printer setup is an easy investment to consider. It opens up a world of design options and can definitely set you apart from other bakers.
If you want, you can spend the $3k on a direct-to-cookie printer, called Eddie. Eduardo is definitely something special and is an incredible piece of technology! But let’s be real…not everyone has or wants to spend $3k on an edible printer. Fortunately, you’ve got options!
Mythbuster! It is more affordable than ever to print edible images from home! Contrary to popular belief that a home setup is expensive, I’m happy to report that anyone can print high quality edible images from home very affordably! For under $200, you can be printing images like these for your baked goods at a cost of about 25 cents per image. And when you consider how easy these cookies are to make, they are actually much quicker than more other decorated cookies. Cheap and easy to make yet beautiful and delicious? WINNING!
Now I can appreciate that not every baker wants an edible image printer at home or makes enough to justify the cost. Totally get it! If you’re only using edible images for a one-time order, it doesn’t make sense to invest in an edible printing setup at home. But if you’ll be purchasing more than 20 edible image sheets from another seller, you may want to consider it, to save a lot of money in the long run.
The Edible Printing Setup We Love
My daughter is the cottage baker in our house and our edible printing setup has been a game changer for her business. Everyone is obsessed with photos!
When we decided we wanted to be able to print edible images from home, I spent a billion hours researching and then testing different products. That’s kind of a flaw of mine…I research things to death. 😉 But there were SO many options out there, it felt necessary! I wanted to ensure we got the best bang for our buck! And for us, the research paid off…we did not love the first couple kinds of edible ink we tried. But we finally dialed in on the edible printer, edible ink and frosting sheets we love for our baked goods.
And what kind of bestie would I be if I didn’t share this information? I hope this can save you all that time and put you on the fast-track to making beautiful cookies!
Edible Printer
THIS is the edible image printer we use and love. It was very easy to set up and has worked perfectly since day 1. We’ve been very happy with the print quality, especially for the price.
It is important to note that for edible image printing, you need to use a brand-new printer. You can’t convert a printer that has previously been used with regular ink.
Edible Ink
THIS is the edible ink we use. As I shared earlier, we ruled out a couple other brands during our research phase. But this one has been wonderful for us. We consistently achieve vivid colors without any manual color adjustment needed.
We also have never had a printer cartridge clog. Despite even going several weeks between printing, it has always printed perfectly every time. Although I know other cookiers do run a piece of regular paper through their edible printer once a week, if they know they won’t be using it. We’ve never done that but if we ever start having issues, we may start.
Edible Frosting Sheets
THESE are the edible frosting sheets we use and love. They take the edible ink beautifully with wonderful saturation. And they are easy to work with and smell heavenly! They are considerably thicker than rice or wafer paper which is something we wanted for better flavor and quality. Now because I’m always honest with my besties, I will tell you that the icing sheets don’t completely melt. It is still a sheet of icing added to whatever treat you’re making; cookies, cakes, cupcakes, etc. So, if you’re expecting an image that magically becomes part of your icing, an Eddie is really the only way to achieve that.
What If I Don’t Want to Print EDible Images At Home?
I get it! For one reason or another, edible printing at home may not be what you want. And that’s okay! Here are a couple Etsy sellers who other bakers commonly use and speak highly of!
Dough By Mo – specifically offers Polaroid-style edible images
SweetSammiesBakery – offers a broad selection of edible image printing for all kinds of baked goods
If you or someone you know offers edible image printing services, please connect with me so I can share their information as well!
How To Print Edible Images
If you are printing from home, this is exactly how we print our edible images. To prepare your images, you will need them in electronic file format. I use Canva to format my images and it works perfectly! In today’s example for these wedding favor cookies, I made only vertical photo cookies. So first I measured my cookies and determined what sizes I wanted my images. Then I opened a new design in Canva for an 8.5 x 10.5″ sheet and went under Elements and then Frames. There are tons of shape options you can add to your page. You can then resize them however you’d like based on what you want for your cookies. It’s then very simple to just drag, drop and edit your images in the frames. Note: I do leave some space at the top and bottom of my page because the icing sheets are technically 10.5″, not 11″. Then I save as a PDF file to my computer before printing.
We now have an edible image file ready to print! Here is a snapshot of the printing settings I have saved for printing edible images. We have not needed to make any other manual color adjustments. You can also check the box at the bottom that says “Always Pring with Current Settings” and then these will be defaulted for you.
Also note that once you have your design set up in Canva, you can use your design as a template, time and time again, just replacing with new photos or logos. So, we have a set up for 2.5″ circle logos, another sheet of all vertical photo pics, etc. No need to reinvent the wheel every time, besties.
How To Make Photo Cookies
This is where the fun really begins! Once printed, you can cut your images in a variety of ways; what is easiest for you. For these cookies, we use a food safe paper cutter. You can also use kitchen shears, if that’s more convenient. I’ve been told other bakers use their Cricut to cut their edible images. And while we have a Cricut, that’s an adventure we have not embarked on yet for this.
If you’ve made it this far, I’m guessing you already have your cookie canvases. But if you want a fantastic no-chill cutout cookie recipe, THIS is our vanilla go-to. Or if you want to try a fun flavor that I promise you’ll love, we have a whole collection of no-chill, no-spread recipes for you HERE. And if you need any assistance with royal icing, THIS breaks down our recipes and exactly how we make our delicious royal icing.
For these photo cookies, I use a thin coat of royal icing as the glue to adhere the image. The easiest way I achieve this is by piping on a flood consistency in the area the photo will be and then use a scraper to thinly spread across the area. You definitely want icing under the entire image before you gently place it on.
I then add the image, making sure it is smooth around the edges and solidly in contact with the royal icing. Then I let the edible image set on the icing for at least a couple of hours before adding the piped frame. But then it really is that simple…pipe around the photo, using a Polaroid picture as inspiration. Then let the cookie completely dry.
I have not had any issues with bags sticking to the images, but I have seen other bakers who have. Particularly if you live in a humid climate, you may want to dust your cookies with cornstarch or powdered sugar before bagging.
Video Demo
To see exactly how I adhere these wedding edible images to the cookies, I made a quick video that you can find HERE. In under 1 minute, you’ll see exactly how I make them! Sometimes it’s just easiest to SEE them come together, so I hope this is helpful!
You’ll find that these are incredibly easy to make and can be a top seller for your bakery or just super fun as a hobby baker! I can tell you my grandnieces and nephew LOVE getting our photo cookies. We have a batch of these already made with their grandma’s face on them for when they come over this weekend! I know they’ll get a kick out of eating Grandma cookies!
And if you do have a bakery, I highly encourage you to create some edible photo goods to post on your social media. Your customers need to SEE what you can do in order to plant the seed of what they need! If a bride in your community sees that you offer these, she’ll be connecting with you. These wedding favor cookies are HOT and they are a great opportunity for you to bring joy to a happy couple!
I hope this post all about wedding favor cookies has sparked some inspiration or given you another idea of a great bakery offering! To keep the ideas coming, make sure you’ve subscribed to receive my weekly newsletter! Never miss out on the next design, recipe, technique, product recommendation, Featured Baker or free printables! Happy Baking, Besties!