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Hey Besties! In today’s edition of trying things so you don’t have to, we’re chatting about embossed royal icing! As bakers and decorators seek creative new ways to elevate their cookie designs, embossed royal icing is gaining popularity! It’s a fantastic way to create dimension and texture to accent cookies or in the background of a design. I finally found the time to play with embossed parchment paper designs made by Intricut Edibles and am excited to share what I learned and tips for success! Note that this is not a sponsored review – I purchased this product and this post is reflective of my personal experience! Let’s jump in!
Embossed Parchment Paper
For some background, Intricut Edibles offers a wide variety of embossed parchment paper designs, patterns and textures to add life to your designs. I have only experimented with royal icing to start but it can be used in many other applications. I’m planning to try it with chocolate and buttercream as well in the near future! Each sheet is double-sided so you can either emboss (press in) or deboss (raise) your design – totally up to you. They claim each sheet can be reused about 10 times as long as you remove them correctly. And in my experience, I would agree, they can be used multiple times.
They have MANY great designs and come 6 sheets to a pack. Since I wanted to experiment and show several designs, I opted for the combination pack which costs more but provided 12 different designs! I will also tell you that I ordered mine from The Cookie Countess. Reason being, I like getting loyalty points on their site to apply to future purchases. However, the Intricut Edibles site does offer a larger variety of designs. So if you don’t see a specific design on The Cookie Countess site, look on the Intricut Edibles site. Here are some of the designs that came in the combo pack!
Tips and Lessons Learned
Intricut Edibles does offer tips on their website, which I followed to maximize success. That said, read on to see and hear more about my results. The first important tip is that it says you should use a medium-stiff royal icing consistency (15-20 seconds) to help keep the shape design and reduce drying time. In my experience, I had more success with a medium consistency closer to 15 seconds. When I used a stiffer consistency, closer to 20 seconds, I experienced more air bubbles. My opinion is that when the icing is stiffer, it’s harder to work out those air bubbles compared to medium consistency.
As far as process, you simply flood the cookie, or area of the cookie, you’d like to emboss. Then, while still wet, you are going to apply the parchment paper. The website suggests applying it by starting at one edge and pushing the paper down onto the icing as you move across the cookie to the other edge. Similar to applying a decal.
I used this method but struggled to see if there were any air bubbles underneath or not. And in my photos below, you’ll see that this was my downfall. I left the parchment paper to dry overnight, and it easily peeled right off the next day! Here are my cookies with the parchment paper overnight!
Now, I don’t know if perfection is realistic with these, but being the perfectionist that I am and that many cookiers are, I was a bit disappointed in the air bubbles I experienced with no real way to avoid it. That said, the idea with these is to add texture or a background design, they are not really meant to be “done” after embossing. So, while I did have some air bubbles, depending on the rest of your design or writing that will go over the pattern, the air bubbles could easily be covered!
Check out my results below and further thoughts!
Embossed Royal Icing Results
Thoughts on Embossing Royal Icing
Honestly, even with the minor air bubbles that I experienced; I was still really happy with the results! Knowing that if I was actually using these for an order, I’d build a design on top or add writing, I LOVE the character that these add. I also recognize that this was my first time and I’m sure I’d get better at potentially avoiding air bubbles with more experience.
My top tips are to use a with medium consistency royal icing as those did come out better than the stiffer consistency! So, I definitely recommend a medium (15-ish second) consistency. I would also suggest using a firm enough pressure when applying to hopefully push out any air. If you simply apply it very lightly, you’re apt to get more bubbles. And I definitely recommend letting them set overnight. Not only will this give you better results but it will protect your parchment sheets so they can be reused more times.
The below three ended up being my favorites and I’m actually really excited to try some other designs! I did notice that they have seasonal designs too so now my creative wheels are really turning for the holidays! I think these are a FANTASTIC way to really elevate your cookies and set them apart from others. Overall, they are easy and quick to use to give a really cool effect and are cost effective too!
As you know, I’m always on the hunt for creative tools, hacks and techniques to create impactful designs that anyone can do. I definitely plan to add these to my arsenal of innovative products to create elevated designs! And I appreciate the creativity of the founder, Deborah Stauch, for bringing these innovative products to life!
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