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Stencil or pipe?

post #1 of 13
7/29/11 at 6:29pm
Thread Starter 
I am doing 350 decorated cookies for a friend's wedding- their colors are burgundy and champagne, and they wanted monogrammed cookies. The cookies will look like this:

Image

Normally, I would just Kopykake them but I'm dreading having to outline, flood and pipe 350 of them AND pipe the tiny bead border too. Would making my own stencil work, and if so, what should I make it out of?

I've never stenciled with royal icing before, so I don't know if this would make things easier or more difficult. Opinions? Thanks!
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post #2 of 13
7/29/11 at 6:59pm
Definately make your own stencilicon_smile.gif You can purchase blank stencil material at any craft store OR find some stiff-ish plastic bookcover or something like that. You don't want it real stiff but not real thin either. I've even seen people use freezer paper but for the amount you need to use it I'd go with the stencil material blank.
Flood the b ackground color, then after that dries, stencil the letters on.
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post #3 of 13
7/29/11 at 7:06pm
Make your own stencil out of transparency paper from your office supply store. I think you can use one of those wood burning tools to cut the stencil.
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post #4 of 13
7/30/11 at 4:52am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for your replies! I'm headed to Joann's today so I'll see if I can find some stencil plastic. I think (hope) that this will make my life much easier!
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post #5 of 13
8/18/11 at 4:56pm
Thread Starter 
So I've just finished the 300 cookies- whew! For anyone who's wondering, these are some things I've learned:

1. I do not recommend the little hot stencil cutting tool. It melts the plastic and leaves a rough edge that does not work well when stenciling the icing, and I also burned myself pretty badly on it (though that was more due to my own incompetence than anything else). The best stencils were the ones I cut out with a sharp Exacto knife and a self-healing cutting mat.

2. You can stencil WITH royal icing onto Toba's Glace. I prefer the taste of TG so I wanted to use that for flooding, but was unsure if it would dry hard enough to stencil on, but it does.

3. I was a fool to agree to do 300 cookies in 7 different flavors for a wedding for free (plus a cake AND a personalized sculpted cake topper of them with soccer balls and cameras and whatnot), but live and learn.
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post #6 of 13
8/18/11 at 5:16pm
I read all the way to the bottom and I am glad I did. I was going to tell you that the stencil cutter that was a gun took lots of practice. I have not perfected it by any means. I will learn from you and try an exacto knife. actually I will draw the design on and have my husband cut it out. He is much better with that then I am.

Unless you had a huge order for the cake and were making lots of money on it I sure would not have agreed to do that many monogrammed cookies. But like you said we all live and learn and we can learn from each other as well. Thank you so much for sharing what you did learn. It sometimes seems easier than what you find it to be when you get started.
I can do everything through Christ which strengtheneth me Phillipians 4:13
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I can do everything through Christ which strengtheneth me Phillipians 4:13
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post #7 of 13
8/30/11 at 4:09pm
Glad they came out well. I can't believe you did that many cookies in all those colors. You are a good friend! I have a question about the stenciling. Did you put the stencil on and then dab on the icing or scrape it across with a spatula or something else? If you used a spatula method how stiff was your RI?
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post #8 of 13
9/1/11 at 3:33pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by rlowry03

Glad they came out well. I can't believe you did that many cookies in all those colors. You are a good friend! I have a question about the stenciling. Did you put the stencil on and then dab on the icing or scrape it across with a spatula or something else? If you used a spatula method how stiff was your RI?



I would say the RI consistency was similar to toothpaste. Obviously you don't want it too thin, otherwise it'll run all over and not keep the stencil shape, but you also don't want it too thick, because it will stand up in funny little peaks and not look as nice. I laid the stencil down and smoothed it across with a small offset spatula. It took a few "test cookies" to refine my technique but I'm SO glad I decided to do stencils. They're really handy when it comes to projects like this, where you need to do 300 of 1 design.
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post #9 of 13
9/7/11 at 1:44pm
Kudos to you!! That was a lot of work and I am sure they looked wonderful!
"I think every woman should have a blowtorch." - Julia Child
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"I think every woman should have a blowtorch." - Julia Child
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post #10 of 13
9/17/11 at 2:19pm
Very nice work that's. that's what they taught us to do in school. icon_biggrin.gif
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"Guilt free chocolate recipes"

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post #11 of 13
9/17/11 at 3:22pm
I ended up trying the stencil method and loved it! I was just practicing so I didn't have food stencils and found the wall stencils a little to flexible so the design wasn't as clear, but trying gave me a chance to decide if I should buy cookie stencils. They're on my list now!
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post #12 of 13
9/27/11 at 10:00am
I'm in a bind. I have the same problem. I need to do 150 stenciled cookies by Nov 4. I read what you done, now my questions are, How large did you make the initials for the stencil, and how did you do the font on the stencil to cut it? Desperate need of an answer. Also how large of a cookie cutter did you use to make all that fit. Thanks
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post #13 of 13
9/28/11 at 4:53am
Thread Starter 
Carleen: I chose the cookie cutter size based on what the bride wanted, and then printed the font to fit on a sheet of paper (lay the cookie cutter over the sheet to make sure all the letters fit well within the cookie border). The cookie was about 3" across, and maybe 2 3/4" tall.

To cut the stencil, I taped the printed sheet to a self-healing cutting mat, and then taped the stencil plastic over that- you can still see the printout through the stencil. I cut it using an exacto knife (a sharp one!).
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