How to Make Stamped Fondant Cookies
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Learn how to make stamped fondant cookies, turning simple sugar cookies into perfect party favours and personalised treats. This step-by-step guide will show you how to use fondant stamps and includes all my favourite tips and tricks for success.
I love decorating cookies with fondant, and fondant stamps are one of my favourite ways to make fancy-looking cookies, without needing any super fancy skills.
At their most basic, fondant stamps are, well, simply stamped into fondant, leaving you with either a raised or imprinted design.
They’re a simple way to get text or images onto a cookie, without having to pipe or paint the design yourself. It’s also a lot quicker to stamp a cookie than to pipe or paint on each one individually.
I’m going to talk you through everything you need to know about making stamped fondant cookies – the different kinds of fondant stamps, where to buy them, and all my tips and tricks for getting a professional result.
Before you start – check out my Sugar Cookies with Fondant tutorial, which shares all the basic tips and tricks for baking cookies to decorate, choosing and colouring fondant, and storing your decorated cookies.
Types of Fondant Stamps
There are two types of fondant stamps, those that deboss (press a design down into the fondant) and embossing or raised stamps, which leave a raised design on the fondant.
A debossing stamp is pictured here at the top, with an embossing stamp below.
Debossing stamps are quick and easy to use, and can be used on the fondant before or after it is applied to the fondant. These are often just called “fondant stamps” rather than debossing stamps.
Embossing stamps can take a little more practice to use, but they give a beautiful raised design that looks almost like stencilled royal icing, and the raised design can be painted over to make even more eye-catching embossed fondant cookies. These can be known as embossing stamps or raised stamps.
Fondant stamps are usually made from laser-cut acrylic or 3D-printed plastic.
Where to Buy Fondant Stamps
My favourite cookie stamps are made by Design@409. This post isn’t sponsored, but Stacey is a friend of mine and she very kindly gave me a discount to buy the stamps I used for this tutorial. She also made me the custom Sweetness and Bite stamps pictured above. She only ships within New Zealand, but if you live outside of NZ you should be able to find stamps where you live by searching for “acrylic fondant stamps” online.
Many online cake decorating stores will sell fondant stamps, and most fondant embossers designed for cake decorating can also be used for cookies.
You can also often buy alphabet stamps from cake decorating stores, which can be used to spell out any message on your cookies. These are great for personalised cookies.
Tools and Supplies
Here’s what you’ll need to make stamped fondant cookies.
Edible Supplies
- Cookies – You can use any of your favourite sugar cookies. Here I used my gluten free sugar cookies.
- Fondant, coloured with gel food colouring, if desired. Learn more about fondant for cookies here.
- Sugar syrup or water that has been boiled and cooled.
- Cornstarch – If you don’t have cornstarch you can use icing sugar (aka confectioner’s sugar.)
Tools
- Fondant stamps
- Cookie cutters – Some fondant stamps will come with a matching cutter, that you can use to cut out the cookie dough and then to cut out the fondant. Otherwise, just choose a cookie cutter in a size and shape that’s slightly larger than the design of the stamp.
- Rolling pin – One with spacers is very handy for getting an even thickness of fondant.
- Food-only paintbrush or pastry brush x2 I use one flat paintbrush for painting sugar syrup onto the cookie, and one fluffy brush for dusting cornstarch, but two regular pastry brushes will also work.
- Offset spatula (palette knife) – optional, but I find using a spatula to be the easiest way to lift the fondant and line it up with the cookie.
- Small flexible fondant smoother – great for smoothing the flat sections of fondant around the stamp. If your stamp covers the whole surface of the cookie, then you won’t need a smoother.
- A pin or acupuncture needle – for pricking air bubbles.
- Sugar shapers or paint shapers – optional but handy for tidying up the edges of the fondant.
- Scalpel/knife – For tidying up the edges of the fondant. Some cookie cutters don’t cut perfectly so if there are any ragged bits you can use a scalpel to trim them off.
Quick Tips
- Make sure your stamps are clean and dry before starting. Any dust on the stamps will stick to your fondant, and any moisture on them will leave wet marks on the fondant. Follow the cleaning instructions for the stamps you use – some shouldn’t be immersed in water and should just be brushed clean with a pastry brush or paintbrush.
- If you’re colouring your fondant, do that at least a few hours in advance and give it time to rest before you use it. This will make the fondant less sticky to work with.
- Start by covering one cookie at a time, so the fondant doesn’t dry out while you’re working. Once you’ve had more practice and can work faster, you should be able to cover multiple cookies at a time.
How to Make Stamped Fondant Cookies
Debossing Fondant Stamps
Gently knead a golf ball sized piece of fondant until pliable. The amount of fondant you need will depend on the size of your stamp, but that’s a good place to start for one cookie.
Roll out the fondant to about 2-3mm thick. Make sure you roll it big enough to fit the design. If you’re unsure, hold the cookie cutter over the fondant to ensure there is enough room.
Let the fondant sit for a minute to dry slightly on the surface, or dust it lightly with cornstarch and a fluffy brush.
Gently press the stamp into the fondant.
You will need to play around with the pressure – you want to press it enough to get a clean imprint, but not push it all the way through the fondant.
Line up the cookie cutter allowing an even amount of space all around the cookie, and cut out the fondant.
3D printed cutters don’t always have the sharpest cut, so if there are any rough bits of fondant, you can trim them off with a knife or scalpel.
Lightly brush the top of the cookie with sugar syrup or cooled boiled water. Position the fondant on top and gently press it down to smooth out any air bubbles.
If you find it hard to lift the fondant because it is floppy, you can leave it to sit and firm up for a minute or two.
You can very lightly buff the fondant with a flexible fondant smoother to finish smoothing it, just make sure not to press too hard and distort the stamped design.
Tidy up the edges of the fondant with a silicone tool if needed.
Let the fondant dry before storing or packaging. Remember to keep them covered and away from light, otherwise the fondant will fade (especially pinks and purples!)
Embossing Fondant Stamps
For embossing stamps, it’s best to only roll out enough fondant for 1-2 cookies at a time, because if the fondant dries out too much, it won’t have a clean imprint.
Roll out the fondant to 2-3mm thick. Use a fluffy brush to dust a small amount of cornstarch onto the stamp.
Turn it upside down and tap it to knock out any excess cornstarch from the grooves.
Place the stamp onto the fondant, allowing enough room around the design to cut out the fondant with the cookie cutter later.
Press down evenly across the surface of the whole stamp. Like really press it, don’t be shy.
The amount of pressure you need will vary depending on the softness of your icing and the depth of your stamp, so you will need to experiment.
Carefully lift the stamp. If there are places where the design hasn’t been fully imprinted, you can carefully place the stamp back down, being extra careful to make sure the stamp is lined up and press again. If you can’t get it lined up, it’s better to reroll the fondant and try again.
Center the cookie cutter over the design, and cut it out.
If there are any rough bits around the edges, trim them off with a scalpel or knife.
Brush the cookie lightly with sugar syrup.
Apply the fondant shape to the cookie, making sure not to press down on the raised design.
You can use your fingers to smooth out the flat areas of fondant.
If the shape has gotten a little wonky, use a silicone modelling tool to smooth it back into shape.
Let the fondant dry before storing in an airtight container or packaging in cello bags. Remember to keep them covered and away from direct sunlight, to prevent the fondant colour fading.
Here are some tips for stamps like this cute bear fondant embosser stamp that has a lot of deeper sections.
Roll the fondant a bit thicker, around 4mm. This makes it easier to get the fondant pressed all the way into the stamp without tearing.
Dust the stamp well with cornstarch to make sure the fondant doesn’t stick.
I like to press the fondant into the stamp, the opposite of the way I described above.
To do this, turn the stamp design side up, then gently press the fondant down into the stamp, starting at one end and moving along to the other end, so you can avoid air bubbles.
If you do get any air bubbles, you can prick them with a pin or acupuncture needle and gently press the air out. Bush any excess cornstarch off with a soft brush.
Place the stamp fondant side down on your work surface and remove the stamp as described above, then cut out the fondant and attach it to the cookie.
Adding Details
Adding extra fondant details or sprinkles can really make the stamped fondant cookies pop, and it’s also a fun way to make a design more your own.
Use tiny dabs of edible glue to attach your decorations.
And don’t forget you can combine stamps to make new designs. Stamp the centre of your design first then work your way out, so you don’t overlap and flatten what you’ve already stamped.
To make these designs, I first stamped the “Mr & Mrs” stamp, added the patterned stamps top and bottom, and then used the hexagonal cookie cutter to cut out the shape.
Clean Up
Make sure you take good care of your fondant stamps, and follow the cleaning instructions for the ones you buy. Many are hand wash only, however some shouldn’t be submerged in water at all, so you can just brush off any leftover cornstarch or dried fondant with a soft toothbrush, pastry brush or lint-free cloth.
And if you want to learn all about how I paint on fondant stamped cookies to make them pop even more, check out my full painting on cookies tutorial for all the details.
I love seeing what you create! Please tag me in your stamped fondant cookie pictures or videos on Instagram @sweetness.and.bite or Facebook @sweetnessandbite so I can see 💜
As always, if you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.
Natalie
xx
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