The Transfer Vault is a digital subscription for bakers and cookie decorators who want to save time, reduce stress, and create gorgeous royal icing cookies—without reinventing the wheel for every order. Inside the Vault, you’ll get access to 100+ printable royal icing transfer templates, sorted by season, holiday, theme, and style. From baby showers to birthdays and trending themes like graduation or lemon summer sets—everything is ready-to-download, beginner-friendly, and designed to impress. You also get new designs added regularly, so you’ll always have fresh cookie decorating ideas at your fingertips.

A royal icing transfer is a design you pipe with royal icing onto a non-stick material using a printed template underneath. Once the icing dries, you peel it off and place it directly onto your cookies. 🎯 It’s like edible art stickers—but way cooler. Transfers are one of the best cookie decorating hacks for adding professional-looking detail without spending hours on wet-on-wet piping or hand-painting. And yes, they’re perfect for beginner bakers and pro decorators alike!

1000% yes. Even if you're brand new to cookie decorating, you’ll feel confident using royal icing transfers from The Vault. Everything is printable, traceable, and easy to apply to your cookie designs—whether you're doing seasonal sets or custom orders. We’ve included simple designs for beginners (like bows, florals, balloons), and more intricate pieces for intermediate decorators. You’ll get the look of advanced cookies without advanced stress.

Absolutely not, cookie queen. 👑 One of the biggest perks of The Transfer Vault is that it actually reduces the number of cookie cutters you need to buy. You don’t have to hunt down the perfect shape for every theme. Just use your basic shapes—like plaques, squares, rounds, or hearts—and apply the transfers to customize them however you want. These templates were made to maximize the cookie cutters you already have and help you create unique, detailed cookie sets with fewer tools. Less cutter clutter. More creative freedom. More money saved.

Royal icing transfers are used to decorate cookies, cakes and cupcakes (probably other desserts too). You can think of them as a big sprinkle or sticker for your cookie. They are made by piping royal icing onto a non-stick surface, drying and then popping them off and onto your cookies.

There are many reasons! Here are my top reasons: allows you time to work ahead before baking your cookies, you don't have to worry about messing up a whole cookie, a great way to use up left over cookie icing and keep a stash for those last minute cookie decorations and it eliminates the need of a projector and buying specific cookie-cutter shapes which can be pricey!

This is a great question that I have not found a definite answer to. I have tried icing transfers that were over a year old, stored in an air-tight container, out of daylight and they tasted just fine to me. This is royal icing that was made with meringue powder, I would not make transfers with royal icing made from fresh, raw, egg whites. Consider royal icing transfers as large sprinkles. I've yet to taste a sprinkle that has "gone bad".

Print a template. We have many free templates on our site (click here) for all occasions and holidays! Choose a non-stick material. I suggest food-safe acetate but you can use parchment paper or even a cello cookie bag. Lay this material on top of your template. Use thick-ish royal icing. You'll want it thick enough that it doesn't run when you pipe it but also not so thick that you can smooth it out with your scribe. Let them dry! This can take 1-4 days. It depends on the humidity, thickness of your icing, size of your transfer and the material you pipe it on.

Once your transfer is dry, attach it to your cookie by either placing it on your wet flood icing or use a small amount of royal icing as glue to stick it onto your cookie.

You're in the right place! We have lots of free royal icing transfer templates in PDF format under our freebie section! Or you can click here!

You can use any royal icing recipe, as long as it dries hard. I use the same royal icing for my transfers as I do on my cookies and you can find the recipe on our site!

The first reason would be because your icing wasn't piped thick enough and created weak areas so when you peel the transfer off, they easily crack. The second reason is that you moved the transfers before they were dry. When you pipe your icing, you should use a tray that you can leave your transfers on until they are completely dry.

Technically, yes but it's not preferred as it tends to wrinkle under the royal icing transfers as they dry which can cause undesirable effects. I prefer to use a sheet of acetate but you can also use a cello bag or even a page protector.

You can download free royal icing transfer templates from our freebie page. Just click on the template you want, and it will be available for download in PDF format.

You will need a template, a non-stick material like food-safe acetate or parchment paper, and thick royal icing. Lay the non-stick material on top of the template, pipe the icing, and let it dry for 1-4 days.