Creating Expressions using Royal Icing Transfers with Arty McGoo {Guest Post}

April 20, 2014 | 19 Comments »

Happy Easter, everyone.  Today, I have a very special visitor, the amazing Elizabeth Adams, otherwise known as Arty McGoo! 

I always feel so special when Mrs. McGoo comes to my place because I’m one of her biggest fans!  I could go on and on, but instead I’ll let her amaze you in true Arty McGoo Style.  Enjoy!

Updated Blog BreakHi, my name is Arty McGoo and I’m so excited to be here today!  I really wanted to babysit little Liv and french braid all that hair, but it looks like I’m going to babysit Callye’s other baby today.  I guess this would be called blogsitting?  I had all kinds of grand plans to repurpose those baby themed cookie cutters we all have.  I rolled out my dough, cut out the bib and the rattle and pacifier… I sat and stared at those things and then I realized… Crud, I’m not Callye!  I suck at re-purposing cutters.  Then I ate the cookies and I felt better.

I had another project I was in the middle of and I am so excited about what I learned while doing it, that I thought I’d share those results with you instead.  The inspiration started at CookieCon last month.  That magical conference where nobody gets tired of talking about cookies and making cookies, and then we dream about cookies, and wake up and it starts all over again and continues for three wonderful days.  During Myriam’s {Chapix Cookies} class she demonstrated how she uses royal icing transfers.  I usually only make royal transfers when I pipe roses, but she opened my eyes to all the possibilities.  I loved the dimension it gave and how easy they were to use and promised myself I would use this technique more when I got home.  

Chapix and Arty McGooMyri and I.  I am squishing her!

Fast forward to a couple of days ago: I was working on this guy {let’s call him Meester Bunny} and I was thinking I would paint some eyes on him, but then got a little nervous.  He was looking so cute and I didn’t want to screw him up!  Eyes are such a focal point and the right expression makes a huge difference.  I’m sure I’m the only one that gets a little nervous when it comes to decorating faces, right?  

eyelessThen, I remembered the promise to myself to try more royal icing transfers and decided this would be a perfect time to experiment and virtually fail-proof!  If I didn’t like how they looked, I didn’t have to use them.  I grabbed some wax paper and filled my piping bags.  Let’s take a second to talk about consistency.  I’m new to the royal transfer family and by no means an expert, but I’ll tell you what I used: a soft piping consistency and it worked beautifully.  I barely thinned the frosting, just enough so it wouldn’t keep a peak, but didn’t completely settle down. This thickness gave me the dimension I wanted and also dried super fast.

Because I was making small details, I only used 1.5 PME tips, but a 1 or 2 of any brand would work great as well. I started out with a squeeze of white, piped a little green circle, and filled the middle with a dot of black.  I didn’t wait in between, it was just bing, bang, boom.  The next step is my favorite because it brings the eye to life.  I added one or two dots of white for a highlight and voila! I had an eyeball.  Okay, that was easy and fun.  The next step is to make a billion more.  The beauty of RI transfers is that they are so fast and easy that you make a bunch and odds are, a couple of them will be pretty close to identical and the transfers you don’t use keep a really long time in a sealed container for later, you know? for that jar of mismatched eyeball cookie you’ve always wanted to make.

eye tutorialLet the transfers dry.  I know overnight is probably suggested, but I am impatient and peeled these puppies off about an hour after I piped them and I had no casualties, yes even the eyebrows.  If you are a rebel like me, be careful and take the humidity of your area into consideration and always make more than you need.

The next step… go crazy.  I knew I wasn’t going to put big kissy lips on Meester Bunny, but it was too fun piping different eyes and mouths and noses.  Make different sizes, different shapes, it’s amazing how many expressions you can create.  

Royal Icing Face TransfersThe next step is to play Mr. Potato Head, and put the different parts together.  It was fun to try the different faces on Meester Bunny.  I experimented with the spacing of the eyes, how high they were on his face, and I loved trying out all the options before committing to one.

Royal Icing FacesSo after playing around with the different facial features, I picked a nice pair of eyes, put a little dot of white royal icing on the backs and placed them where I had practiced.  I loved discovering this fuss-free way to decorate faces and I know I will be using the royal icing transfer technique a lot more in my designs.

bunnyThanks for having me blogsit, Callye!  Next time I’ll trade with you and I’ll be on baby duty.

Updated Blog BreakPssssttt…I’m not usually one to call my idol a fibber, but that whole thing about not being creative with cutters?  Total whopper.  If you don’t believe me, just click here.

3-D Cookies, Animal Cookies, Cookies, Easter Cookies, Guest Tutorials, Holiday Cookies, Royal Icing Accents, Tutorials
19 Comments »