I designed these silhouette cookies just about a year ago for a Dolce Drive princess charm school themed party, which was featured on the Amy Atlas blog, Sweet Designs.
I used the royal icing transfer method to make the silhouettes for these cookies. First, I drew a silhouette, scanned it into the computer and printed multiple images on one sheet for my template.
I don't have the file with multiple images printed on one page saved on my computer, but this is the drawing I made for this project. You can click on the image to bring up the full size version and use a photo editing program to make your royal icing transfer template.
Then, I taped the template to a sheet tray and taped a piece of acetate over it. Using 20 count royal icing and a tip 1, I piped the silhouettes onto the acetate. Although this tutorial uses acetate, I recommend using wax paper for this method. It will be much easier to remove the transfers. Parchment paper doesn't work as well because it ripples from the moisture of the icing and your transfers will not dry flat.
After allowing the silhouettes to dry overnight, I carefully removed the acetate from the tray by sliding a knife under the tape on both sides. I then cut the silhouettes apart and very carefully peeled the acetate back in order to loosen the royal icing transfer. I then gently slid the silhouette off of the acetate onto a sheet tray.
I made a lot of extras in case of breakage!
This cookie shape is the fancy square from coppergifts.com. My orange vanilla spice cookie and royal icing recipe are available in my tutorial shop.
I iced the cookie with thinned royal icing and let it dry overnight. Visit my shop for a video on flooding with royal icing. This step should be done on the same day that you make your silhouettes so they'll be ready at the same time. Using a 2-½" round cutter as a stencil, I traced a circle onto the cookie using a FooDoodler Food Coloring Marker.
Then I filled in the circle with hot pink flood consistency royal icing and a tip 3.
I carefully placed the silhouette onto the icing while the icing was still wet. Using a small piece of acetate from earlier will help in transferring the silhouette onto the cookie. Let the icing dry overnight.
I added an earring, a necklace and a bead border using stiff aqua colored icing and a tip 2. A video on how to pipe a bead border is available in my shop. The gold bead border was piped with a tip 3 and light brown stiff icing then painted with gold pearl dust. Read this blog post for more information on painting with pearl dust.
I was just looking at your site on doing silhouettes do you actually have videos available cause I have done some designs of my on an want to put them on my cookies .
Hi Felicia! Sorry to say I don't have a video on silhouettes. I'll put it on my list! 🙂
Me too.
Hi , thank you for amazing tips ! It's help me a lot ! Can I follow the same method by using melt chocolate instead of royal icing for different usage ?
Thank you !
Dear Amber can you send the cameo template to me please , I don't have computer to made the template. Thanks
Bless.
did the pink not bleed into the light-colored transfer?
Hi Tamara! Here's a post that has tips on how to prevent color bleed: https://www.sweetambs.com/tutorial/royal-icing-consistencies/
Scroll down a bit to find the section on royal icing troubleshooting tips.
Are you Jewish?
I love this! How did you attach the eyelashes, Amber?
Thank you ~ Patti
Hi Patti! I used a little dab of black royal icing and then used the scribe tool to drag it out into those very thin lines.
What baffles me is the eyelashes. How did you manage that? Pretty amazing.
Todo lo que haces me parece precioso
I love your cookies. They are absolutely stunning. How did you keep your black/ hot pink base icing from bleeding onto your white transfers? I recently made gray puppy transfers on a royal purple background, but the ears and tail turned completely purple ( so they got covered with silver). Thanks!
Thanks, Nicole! This post has some tips on how to prevent color bleed. Scroll down to the section on Troubleshooting Tips: https://www.sweetambs.com/tutorial/royal-icing-consistencies/
Hi Amber can you send me the template of the pony tail girl , please .
Thanks . You are awsome
These are amazing....so beautiful...so much detail...!
These are gorgeous! Thanks so much for sharing the tutorial on how to make them. You are truly, truly talented.
Hola, es hermoso todos los trabajo que realiza. Yo estoy aprendiendo y sus diseños me han ayudado mucho.
Another fabulous cookie! Just beautiful! Is there a template for the girl?
Thank you, Kathy!! I added the drawing to the blog post. If you click on the image, it will bring up the full size and you can save it to your computer from there. I'm sorry I don't have the version with multiple images on one page. I forgot to save it when I made my template!
hi amber
your work is amazing!
can you send me the template of the pony tail girl?
thanks
pearly
Hi Pearly,
I just updated the post to include the drawing I used 🙂
Amazing! Thank You!
Thank you, Tina!
Hi Amber,
I e mailed you earlier about the cameo tutorial not knowing that you actually had one.
I was wondering if you could provide a template of the pony tail girl so that I can copy that image.
Thank you.
Cheryl
Hi Cheryl,
I do have the template! I'll email it to you now.
Hello, Amber,
Do you mind if you can also email the Cameo Template to me?
I also want to ask you , what I can use to avoid burning the bottom of my cookies, it is not really burn, burn, but too brown than the top? I appreciate your info. by the way, your workmanship is excellent.
Thanks.
Maria
Thank you, Maria! I just added the template to the blog post. You can click on the image to bring up the full size and then save it to your computer from there.
To avoid burning the bottom of your cookies, I'd recommend placing another sheet tray in the oven, one rack below the rack that your cookies are on. That should help protect the bottom of the cookies from getting too dark.