How to Make Adorable Bat Royal Icing Transfers

Since it’s October I know you’ve probably asked yourself this question, “How do I make adorable bat royal icing transfers for my sugar cookies?” Am I right? Well, maybe everyone isn’t asking themselves that question, but if you’re thinking about it,  look no more because I’ve got some bats for you!

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

We’re going to make some simple fun bats, clouds, and we’ll get to airbrush and splatter a little paint to make these fun cookies. There’s a little bit of decorating fun for everyone in these cookies so get ready to have a little fun with this set.

How to Make Adorable Bat Royal Icing Transfers

Supply List:
(may contain affiliate links)

Recipes:
Royal Icing Color and Consistencies:
15 Second Royal Icing Consistency.
  • Black
  • White
  • Yellow
Bat Royal Icing Transfer Patterns:
Airbrush System and Colors:
Tools:
  • Cello Bags– I got these bags at Hobby Lobby and they worked well. I’m sure you can use just about any cello bag you have or buy.
  • Tipless decorating bags- The Cookie Countess or The Flour Box
  • Turkey Lacer, Scribe or Thingamagenie
  • Toothbrush (I try to keep a few new ones on hand for projects like this.)
  • Food-Safe Gloves
  • Scissors
  • Painters Tape
  • Paintbrush to spread the food gel color on the clouds.
  • Something flat you can use to tape the cello bags on so you can move them out of your way after you pipe them. I used a piece of leftover foam board and cut the bags to fit.

Bat Royal Icing Transfer Video:

Enjoy the video!

Let’s go bats!

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

  • If you’ve hung out around the blog you probably know what I’m about to tell you because it works for me and I’m pretty sure it’ll work for you as well. You can get a piece of foam board from The Dollar Tree and the best part is each piece is only $1. You can get four pieces from each one and have a little leftover we can use to make the fun transfers like the clouds we’ll make for this set.
  • Cut the foam board into four sections with each a little larger than a piece of paper.
  • Then, print your bat templates fund under the supply list and tape them to the foam board with a piece of painters tape. You don’t have to have painters tape but it works well and will let go without breaking your bats.
  • Next, cover the template with a piece of wax paper and tape it into place.
  • It’s time to make your royal icing.
  • Add some black food gel color to a small amount and mix it well. Keep in mind that black food gel will develop into a deeper color as it sits so don’t add a ton of gel color. You can mix it the night before so it will turn a cute black bat color.
  • Place the royal icing in a disposable piping bag and cut a small amount off the tip.
Decorate the Bats:
  • Pipe the outline of the wings and use a turkey lacer, scribe, or Thingamagenie to make the points in the wings nice and crisp by gently pushing them with the tip.
  • Let the wings dry until they’ve crusted over which is about 20 minutes.

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

  • Next, pipe the ears and let them dry. Here is where you have a choice to make. You can pipe these as the ears or add white dots to make little bat eyes. I wanted the bats to look as if they were flying away so I piped two ears. You only need black royal icing for these unless you want to make them have eyes. If that’s the case add a little white and dot it with a small black circle.
  • After the ears (or eyes) dry for about twenty minutes you can pipe the body. Try to pipe a circle and fill it up so it’ll look a nice round bat body. If you’re afraid the icing will sink you can pipe a dot and let it dry and then pipe the body over it. Now you’ve got yourself some bats that need to dry. Let them dry completely before you try to remove them from the wax paper and keep in mind sometimes royal icing transfers break so make extra just in case.
Let’s Splatter Some Food Gel Colors on The Clouds and Stars

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

  • Remember when I said you’ll have a piece of foam board left over after you cut your four pieces for the background? You can use them to make fun shapes like clouds or mini pumpkins so keep them close because they’re a helpful little tool to have.
  • Tape a piece of wax paper or a cello bag to the top and begin piping some white royal icing in the shape of clouds.
  • If you want your clouds to have a 3D look you can pipe some random circles to add on top of the base once everything has dried. I’ll show you that in a few minutes.
  • Let your clouds dry completely and then splatter a little black food-gel color. I’ll show you how to make the splatter turn the clouds gray in a few minutes.
Outline and Flood Your Cookies:

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

  • It’s time for the cookies. You can use any shape you want and I thought circles and stars would work well for these little guys.
  • Once you bake your cookies and let them cool outline and flood them with your 15 Second Royal Icing.
  • Let them dry completely because we’ll add the clouds and bats later.
It’s Time to Splatter a Little Food-Gel on the Cookies and Clouds:

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

  • Once your cloud royal icing transfers and cookies have dried it’s time to splatter a little black food-gel color to add a little character. I highly recommend you use food-safe gloves to help with this step. It’s pretty hard to get dark colors of food gel off your hands. Yep. I have lots of experience with this issue. LOL
  • Mix a little black food-gel color with water or vodka and mix it well.
  • Cover your work area with parchment paper because this can get a little messy.
  • Use a new toothbrush to dip in your food-gel mixture and then hold it over the cookies and clouds and pull your thumb or finger across the toothbrush bristles. This will flick little specks of the food-gel all over your cookies and clouds. It will also give your table a nice splatter so that’s why parchment paper is our friend. It makes clean up nice and easy.
Time to Airbrush

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

  • Grab your airbrush machine and let’s have some fun!
  • Add a little airbrush color around the edges of the cookies. Sometimes I take the color all the way around the cookies and sometimes I like to think about where the shadows will actually appear if the sun was shining on the object. Do whatever makes you comfortable and you’ll like the final results.
  • For me, I like to take the Golden Yellow color all the way around the edge of the cookie and then airbrush one side with the Outrageously Orange. Do what works for you.
Let’s Talk About Glueing the Pieces into Place:

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

  • Once your clouds and bats have dried you can gently remove them from the parchment paper and/or cello bags and add them to your cookies.
  • Add a little royal icing to the back of the clouds and place it on the cookie.
  • Gently push it into place.

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

  • If you made a few dots and circles you can add a little royal icing to the back and glue them on top of the clouds. I really like the way it makes the cloud look. Who knew a dot could do so much?
Now the Bats:

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

  • Carefully remove the bats from the wax paper.
  • Now take a minute and look at all that work you did! Aren’t they cute?

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

  • Add a few drops of royal icing to the back of the bats and glue them into place. Be careful because they might break so go slow and take your time pushing them on the cookies.
Time to Make the Clouds Gray. This is going to be FUN:

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

  • Grab your paintbrush and a little water so you can make the clouds turn gray.
  • Dip your paintbrush in a little water and dab it on a paper towel to remove the excess so it doesn’t mess up the icing on your cookie.
  • Gently paint the clouds and the specks of food-gel will spread over them and make them look nice and gray. I love painting cookies like this. The specks do all the hard work for you and the only thing you have to do is make sure you don’t use too much water.
Step Back and Look at Your Cute Cookies:

bat, royal icing transfer, Halloween, animal

I hope you enjoyed making the bat and cloud royal icing transfers. It’s a simple way to make super cute cookies without focusing on piping them on the cookies. If you want to have a cookie decorating party with kids or beginner cookie decorators this is a great way to get them hooked! And no one will go bats trying to make cute cookies!

Bear hugs,

Lisa