Airbrushing Sugar Cookies

If you’re like me, you’ve spent more than your fair share of time on Pinterest and Instagram staring at cookies. You might have noticed that many of these cookies have a patterned background, and it looks impossibly good. Too good to be done with royal icing, anyway. Chances are that it was created with an airbrush! Airbrushing is something that can seem intimidating on its own, with all the pens and stencils and inks. The good news is that when you break it down into individual steps, it’s nothing to be frightened away from using. Once you see just how simple it is, you may find yourself doing it all the time!

What You’ll Need:

1. The first thing you’ll need to airbrush a cookie is, of course, an airbrush! I absolutely recommend this one that you can find on Amazon. It’s reasonably priced, user-friendly and will also give you a good starter set of airbrushing dyes. It also has the power to push through metallic dyes which some of the smaller units can’t seem to handle.
2. A stencil holder. This is another necessary tool, because it will hold your stencil steady while your hands are occupied with the airbrush pen. I love this one from Sweet Sugarbelle. It has clear measurement markings on it to help you figure out your stencil size, and all the pieces click together and apart with little effort or hassle.
3. Stencil sheets. These are some of my favorite classic patterns, and Sweet Sugarbelle makes another set that any beginner would find easy to work with. I like working with stencils that are about 5″x5″, because they give me plenty of space to move my cookie around and find the best spot to stencil.
4. Extra dyes. If you’d like some more choice in your colors than what comes in the starter kit, I definitely recommend this large selection. You’ll get some great metallic choices and neon dyes as well. It also includes a color wheel to take the guesswork out of mixing dyes together.

A Note Before Beginning:

Airbrush dye and food coloring are not interchangeable. No wet or gel food coloring should be used with your airbrush, only use edible dye made for airbrush use. All of the dyes I’ve linked above are mixed to the correct consistency in their bottles and do not need to be thickened or thinned. Other brands may require this, so always read the small print before use!

Let’s Get Started!

An airbrush kit comes with several parts- the compressor that holds the air, the pen, pen holder, and the hose. The first thing you’ll want to do is assemble it all. First, attach one end of the hose to the airbrush pen, and the other to the compressor. You can attach the pen holder by slipping it over the psi adjustment knob and securing it with the red ring.

Before you turn your compressor on, you can fill your airbrush with the dye of your choice. I chose a metallic red for this tutorial because it shows up so well in photographs. You won’t need to fill the pen well anywhere close to the top unless you’re doing an absolutely massive amount of work at one time. I like to fill it enough that I can’t see the hole at the bottom anymore, and then add another 5 drops of color. It’s always better to add more later than to waste dye- there’s no putting it back in the bottle! Once you’ve filled your pen, you can place it in the holder for safekeeping.

Next, you will want to prepare your cookie stencil. The Sugarbelle stencil holder comes in eight pieces, four in light green and four in a slightly darker shade. You will need to assemble each group of 4 into a square, with the arrows on the pieces pointing outwards. The stencil pieces can click together to form many different sizes of squares and rectangles. For this tutorial, we’ll be working with a stencil that is 5″x5″. When one square is assembled, lay it flat on the accompanying silicone mat with the magnets facing upwards. Now place the stencil you’d like to use on top of the frame.

Once you have the stencil centered on the frame, place the other frame square on top to sandwich the stencil between the two. It should be tightly held in place by the stencil frames, without a lot of give or any unsecured edges.

Move the stencil holder out of the way, place your cookie on the silicone mat and then place the framed stencil on top of your cookie. There should not be a large gap between the stencil and the surface of your cookie. If there is, you can ‘lift’ your cookie up by placing something (like thin cardboard) underneath your cookie until it is better situated closer to the stencil.

Now you can turn on your air compressor. I like to run it at about 20-25 psi, but you may find something higher or lower works for you. The pen that comes with my recommended kit is a double action pen- you pull back on the trigger to control the airflow, and press down on the trigger to control the paint flow. I recommend practicing a bit on a piece of paper until you have a bit of muscle memory in your fingers for where your comfort zone is. When you’re ready, aim your airbrush tip almost straight down at the cookie. You want to avoid spraying at an angle, which can lead to paint getting under your stencil and ruining those nice, clean lines.

If you are looking for a deep color, it is better to give your cookie several passes with the brush while allowing a bit (at least 30 seconds) of drying time between each application. Too much wet paint will also cause runs under the stencil. When you are satisfied with your coverage, carefully lift the stencil straight up off of the cookie to minimize the chances for any smudging. Allow the cookie a minute or two to dry, and you’re there! You’ve done it! See? I told you it was nothing special and that you could do it. Now get going! Let me know if there’s anything that I can help you with in the comments.