13 Essential Cookie Decorating Tools and Supplies

For many families, decorated cookies and the holidays go hand in hand. They are also ideal for birthdays and other seasonal occasions. If you want to get started with cookie decorating, there are a few tools you need buy first.

If you bake regularly, you may already have some of the ingredients on this list, but if you have little expertise with cookie decorating, you will most likely need to acquire a few products. Here’s a list of essential tools and equipment to get you started.

1. Cookie cutters

There’s a simple method to make cookies shaped like letters, numbers, animals, or shamrocks. Cookie cutters are available in a wide variety of forms and are easy to use: just lay out your dough and push in the cutters.

2. Piping tips

These, sometimes known as pastry tips, are required when applying icing to adorn cookies. These tips are used for writing or drawing little patterns like as flowers or borders and enable you to regulate how much icing comes out at a time.

You’ll probably want to acquire a variety of sizes so you may produce finer and broader lines to fit various designs.

3. Piping bags

These, sometimes known as pastry or icing bags, work in tandem with the piping tips explained above. The piping tip is threaded through a corner of the piping bag, then you fill the bag with icing and draw on the cookies while pressing the icing through the tip.

4. Piping tip couplers

These are designed to fit into your piping bags and enable you to effortlessly exchange piping tips while using the same color of icing. Whereas they are less crucial when icing items like cupcakes, where you normally adhere to one size tip, you’ll frequently find yourself needing thicker and thinner lines while creating with the same color icing when cookie decorating.

A coupler enables you to replace your tip without having to fill another icing bag.

5. Cooling rack

Once your cookies have finished baking, take them from the heated cookie sheets as soon as possible to prevent overcooking and possibly burning.

Cooling racks are ideal because they are slightly elevated and enable air to flow around all of the cookies, allowing them to cool faster.

6. Cookie scoops

When decorating a batch of cookies, you’ll probably want them all to be the same size. Cookie scoops are used to make circular cookies and are often sold in sets of three different sizes.

Simply push the handle of the scoop to release the dough onto your cookie sheet.

7. Rolling pin

When baking cookies in various forms using cookie cutters, you must first roll the dough flat. A rolling pin simplifies the procedure.

If having absolutely uniform thickness cookies is essential to you, try obtaining a rolling pin with removable rings that enable you to modify the thickness level and then rolling the dough so that it has a constant thickness throughout.

8. Mini silicone spatulas

These are ideal for combining food colorings and frosting cookies. The spatula’s edge is also useful for gently transferring icing to repair the inevitable tiny mistakes encountered during decorating.

I would strongly advise purchasing a set of these to prevent having to stop and wash your spatula every time you changed colors.

9. Stand mixer

A stand mixer may make preparing dough for most varieties of cookies faster and simpler, but it is absolutely necessary for creating icing to cover the tops. A stand mixer is also necessary for beating egg whites for meringue cookies and macarons, and they are quite inexpensive.

In a hurry, you can use a hand mixer, but getting the correct consistency is considerably more difficult, especially when creating icing.

10. Cookie sheets

This is a simple one, but it is unquestionably necessary. Cookie sheets are specially designed to make the baking of cookies simpler.

They are often lighter in color than standard baking pans, which aids in the uniform browning of cookies, and they have flat sides, which make it simple to slip the cookies off after they are done.

11. Decorating brush set

These are merely paintbrushes used to decorate biscuits and pastries. They are really affordable, and I would suggest purchasing a modest collection of various sizes.

greater brushes are simpler to use for painting greater areas, whereas small brushes are required for painting delicate lines and details. Paint with petal and luster dusts on them.

12. Food coloring markers

These markers have the appearance of conventional markers but contain food-grade edible ink. The best marker sets are double-sided, with one side of the pen having a small tip and the other having a broader tip. You may draw patterns or write on the frosting with them just as you would a conventional pen.

After baking the cookies, add the frosting and allow it to set. Once the icing is dry and firm to the touch, you may write and draw straight on it using markers.

13. Scriber needle

This serves many purposes for decorating cookies. The scriber may be used to rectify minor flaws in your design, burst air bubbles, carve patterns into your cookies, manipulate royal icing into elaborate motifs, and smooth icing so that it is exactly level. This low-cost tool is essential for designs that need tiny details.

That’s all there is to it. These are my must-have cookie decorating supplies. There are many more options available, and you may want to play with some of them as you gain skill and begin producing different designs.

With these tools, you’ll be well on your way to creating a broad range of patterns and embellishments for your cookies. Many of these tools are also handy for cupcake and cake decorating, so have them on hand if you decide to branch out into other areas as well.