Design Cookies Baking Essentials List

Number one on the list is cookie cutters, the ultimate baking essential for design cookies. When I started out I bought Wilton’s 101 Set of Cookie Cutters. They give you a huge variety of cookie cutters for only $15 including all the letters of the alphabet, numbers 1-10, and cutters for major holidays like Christmas, Easter and the 4th of July. This set is perfect for anyone starting out.

Now let me tell you. When I first started making cut out cookies, for the life of me I couldn’t get my dough thickness to stay consistent between each roll out of dough. Because I have been baking for awhile now, I have learned to get a consistent thickness, BUT I wish I had this Rolling Pin with a Guide earlier because it does all the work for you! You want ½ inch thick cookies, switch the disc to give that size. You want ¼ inch, you can do that too! Because of such convenience this rolling pin is higher priced at $20, so it can be put on the backburner for essentials, but it is definitely a smart investment!

Next is piping bags. These are essential and you will need A LOT OF THEM. Because you will most likely be making cookies with multiple colored icing, as well as different consistencies for flooding, out lining and designing the cookies, you could use 6 or more bags for just one batch of cookies you are making. I recommend the 100pk 12in Disposable Piping Bags. These are my go to bags to buy, and they are only $15 for one hundred of them! Tell me that’s not a deal? They are also very durable and last me at the LEAST a couple months.

You can very much start cookie decorating without have any tips at all by cutting the end of the piping bag with scissors to the size hole you want. At first I did this but noticed uneven line sizes when decorating my cookies with words or intricate small details. Buying Piping Tip #1, the smallest was perfect for intricate small basket weave designs, small cursive wording or other fonts and small dots. While most of my purchases are from Amazon because of such good pricing, this item is best bought at Joann Fabrics for less than $1 each. You are going to want to buy more than one if you want to use them at the same time for different icing colors. I would also buy a few of Piping Tip #2, for slightly thicker lines or beading designs, and Piping Tip #4, best for big words on cookies. All of these are less than $1 each and remove the worry that comes along with cutting the end of piping bags just the right size or getting a jagged edge making the frosting come out unevenly.

These tools are necessary for smoothing out the flooding of the royal icing, popping bubbles in the icing and making certain designs that require raking one frosting color through another. The scribe tool is perfect for this. I like this 6pc set of Scribe Needles from Amazon because you will definitely need more than one if you don’t want colors to mix. These are only $5, but it is not necessary to make this purchase if you are just starting and have toothpicks at home. You can easily substitute these for the scribe tools but obviously these aren’t reusable and will have to be thrown away after using them for a batch of cookies.

I assume one of the reasons you are decorating cookies is because of the DESIGN part, the most fun! The Wilton’s Cookie Design Tool Set for $14 comes with a Boo Boo Stick, a Scribe Tool and 3 Pronged Comb perfect for making zig zag designs, a galaxy look, little hearts and cleaning up royal icing in unwanted spots on the cookie. If you click the linked took set you can see this already has a scribe tool in it, so if you think 1 is enough for you, you can just buy these design tools and skip #4 on the baking essentials list for now.

Food Dye is of course a necessity in the cookie decorating business. My question is do you want to start off slow with the main primary colors or dive in deep and just go for every color in the rainbow? If you are looking to test the waters I would go with a 4pk of Food Dyes which gives you yellow, red, blue and green for only $4. If you want to go the other route, I would buy the ones I just purchased for myself that I LOVE, a 14pk of Food Dyes. This $14 kit will help you make brighter whites, skin tone colors and different shades of purple, pink, blues, oranges and more!