Easy Watercolor Cookies - A Step-by-Step Painting Tutorial

Learn how to create beautiful watercolor cookies with this step-by-step cookie painting tutorial. I’ll show you what type of edible paint is best for painting watercolor cookies, the best icing to paint on, and some inspiration for designs.

Two heart-shaped watercolour cookies painted with shades of pink and purple, with a paint palette and paintbrushes alongside.

When it comes to painted cookie designs, I think that watercolor cookies are some of the easiest to make.

You can keep them simple, with a soft, dreamy wash of colour, or you can release your inner artist and use the watercolor technique to paint a full design on your cookies.

In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the easy watercolor technique I used to decorate these little heart-shaped cookies. I’ll share all my favourite tips and tricks along the way, and once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll be ready to paint any watercolor cookie design your imagination can dream up.

Before you start, I recommend having a read of my Painting on Cookies tutorial. It will give you all the basic information you need about cookie painting, plus lots of extra tips and tricks.

Edible Watercolor Paint for Cookies

Ironically enough, water-based edible paint isn’t actually the best for watercolor painting on cookies, as the extra water you’ll add to thin it down can start to dissolve the icing. While you can probably do simple designs with a water-based paint, I highly recommend using a glaze-based edible paint instead.

My favourite glaze-based paint to use is the Sweet Sticks Edible Art Paint. I talk more about glaze-based edible paints in my cookie painting tutorial, but essentially, they’re edible colourings mixed with confectioner’s glaze, which is an alcohol-based glaze. The alcohol evaporates, leaving a painted design that is vibrant and smudge-proof.

Because it evaporates more quickly, it doesn’t dissolve the sugar in the icing as quickly as water does, meaning you’ll have more time to play with your paint.

You can also make your own glaze-based paint by mixing powdered colour with confectioner’s glaze.

If you don’t want to use a glaze-based paint, you can do this technique with powdered food colouring or gel food colouring mixed with vodka or water; however, you will need to be aware of the limitations.

You’ll have to work faster (before the icing starts to soften), and you won’t be able to do more layers of colour without messing up the paint underneath. The paint also won’t dry as well, meaning you’ll need to be careful when storing and packaging the cookies.

Tools and Supplies

The tools for painting cookies, laid out on a light grey marble background - assorted paintbrushes, palettes, sponges, toothpicks, Q-tips, a pencil and bottle of rose spirit.

Paintbrushes – The paintbrushes you need will depend on the watercolor cookie design you’re painting. For a wash of colour over the whole cookie, use a wide flat brush. For more detailed designs, use a smaller brush. You can clean your brush in between colours or use a different brush for each colour if you have enough. Sweet Sticks have a great selection of brushes. I also like the Sugar Crafty brushes.
A paint palette – or other container to put your paint into while you work. For watercolor I like to use the rectangular one pictured on the right, as I can put the colour in the round space and then use the other space to thin it down to watercolor consistency.
Cake decorator’s alcohol – (95%) also known as rose spirit, Everclear or food-grade ethanol. This is used to thin the glaze-based paint. Do not use isopropyl alcohol to thin down the paint, as it isn’t food-safe.
Pipette or dropper – for adding drops of alcohol to thin the paint.
Toothpicks or ice cream sticks – for mixing the paint.
A small jar or plastic container – to clean your paintbrush in between colours.
Q-tips/cotton buds – handy for fixing mistakes. I like the ones with a pointy end.
Paper, a pencil and scissors – if you’re tracing a design onto your cookies.
Sponges – Sea sponges and makeup sponges are both great for adding a textured look to the paint. I like sea sponges for adding a splotchy watercolor effect. These are not tested to be food-safe, so if you’re selling your cookies, you should take that into account to comply with your local food laws. I’ve not yet seen a problem with them, and food photographers have been using makeup sponges to prop pieces of food up for years, so do with that information what you will. Wash the sponges well with warm, soapy water and let them dry before using.
And of course, you’ll need your cookies.

Preparing the Cookies

This watercolor cookie technique works on both fondant and royal icing, although I do find it works better on fondant, especially if you’re a beginner, or if you want to paint more detailed designs. Royal icing will begin to break down if you get it too wet, even with alcohol-based paint, so it can take a little more practice.

You can use any sturdy sugar cookie that you like. I used my gluten free sugar cookie recipe, and covered the cookies with fondant.

Cover your cookies with fondant or royal icing at least 24 hours before you want to paint them, and allow the icing to harden. Exactly how long that will take will depend on the humidity where you live. The firmer the icing, the less likely it is to dent as you paint.

A heart-shaped cookie covered in white fondant icing, with a palette of watercolour paint and a paintbrush.

How to Paint Watercolor Cookies

Now the fun bit!

I’m just doing a wash of watercolor over the whole cookie here, but you can use the technique to paint anything you like.

A hand painting a light wash of thinned down pinky-purple paint onto a heart shaped cookie covered with white fondant icing. There is a paint palette nest to the cookie, that has 5 shades of pink and purple edible paint.

Start by thinning down your paint to a watercolor consistency. Add the alcohol a few drops at a time, and test the paint on a paper towel or a scrap piece of fondant before painting on the cookie.

More paint being added to the cookie to give a gradient effect going from a light pink to a darker purple.

Here I started with a lighter wash of colour, then added splotches of the darker pink and purple. I keep a small dish or container with alcohol nearby to rinse off the brush when needed.

You can play around and get different effects by:

Adding darker colours over light.
Adding more colour to the wet paint, or letting it dry slightly and then adding more.
Using different brushes, or using sponges.

Once the watercolor cookies are dry, you can paint on top with undiluted paint to write on the cookies or add other details, if you like.

For these stamped fondant cookies, I dabbed on some watercolor consistency paint using a sponge, let that dry, and then painted the lines in using undiluted paint.

A collage of two images - top image shows a hand using a sponge to dab watercolour paint in shades of pink and purple over a fondant covered cookie that has been stamped with a bunny head design, bottom shows the same cookie with the bunny design outlined in purple paint.

For these watercolor wedding cookies that I made for a wonderful friend of mine, I used a fondant cookie stamp to create the raised “Mr & Mrs” design, painted over the letters with undiluted paint, and then painted the watercolor leaf designs around it.

Hexagonal wedding cookies, decorated with a raised fondant stamp saying "Mr and Mrs" and painted with a watercolour leaf design in shades of green.

I hope you enjoyed this watercolor cookie tutorial! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below.

And don’t forget, I love seeing what you create! Please tag me in your painted cookie pictures or videos on Instagram @sweetness.and.bite or Facebook @sweetnessandbite so I can see 💜

Natalie
xx