WHAT Is The "Glob & Ribbon" Technique?! Royal Icing Transfers & The Magic Consistency

hey guys and welcome to another episode of cookievision in this video i'm going to give you a little crash course in the elusive medium consistency royal icing as well as a lesson on creating some simple royal icing transfers one of the hardest parts of cookie decorating even for those who have been doing it for a long time is royal icing consistency and one of the trickiest consistencies to nail down perfect every single time is medium consistency others call this 15 second consistency it falls somewhere between flooding which is thin and outline or detailing which is more on the stiffer side it's basically a happy medium between the two and if you're one of those people that don't want to have two different consistencies when you flood your cookies and you want to skip the bottles and the piping tips and just go for one of those tipless piping bags this is the consistency that you want to use it's also the most common consistency for things like lettering or royal icing transfers or both as i'm going to show you in this tutorial now there are tons of tutorials that will show you how to get a medium consistency but there is no exact science to it there are no exact measurements it's trial and error and it's based on look feel and in some cases timing like in the case of cookie artists who use the 15 second method they'll drag their spoon through the icing and then time it to see how long it takes for the icing to settle back into place my method is entirely based on look and feel and how the icing reacts with the spoon and the bowl it's a good lesson in patience and observation now this isn't to say that the 15 second method is wrong or that it's a waste of time in fact i encourage you to look into all methods and find one that works for you your method might end up being a combination of tricks and tips that you learn so always open up your mind to more learning first things first your base royal icing i've added some to a small bowl and will be stirring with a large tablespoon when you take your royal icing out of the mixing bowl it is going to be pretty stiff it doesn't really let go of my spoon even when i move it around or try to flick it off way too stiff i've added some color in this case i've added a few drops of americolor soft gel dye in gold this would definitely be stiff enough for some rosettes or leaves you can pipe it using a thick piping bag and it would hold its shape pretty well now i'm going to add water by the half teaspoon stirring well after each addition to see where it gets me [Music] [Music] you can see that it's gotten less thick the icing is very slowly settling which means that the water is doing its thing and it's starting to slowly thin out but there isn't a whole lot of movement so it's still thick enough to hold its shape you could use this as an outline or detailing consistency but it's still too thick to use as a medium consistency without having to do a lot of work to settle and smooth it out see how the icing drops for my spoon this time it falls when i flip the spoon it falls off in one big glob [Music] [Music] now as i add another half teaspoon you can see that the consistency has greatly loosened the icing is moving around the bowl a bit more and when i take a big spoonful of it and tip it over most of it comes off in one big glob but the rest as you can see does something else it slowly falls down into the bowl back and forth on itself and like the name implies this is called ribboning because it well looks like a ribbon this is the consistency that we're looking for and i feel the need to be professional and give this method a memorable title but uh glob and ribbon it is guys sorry uh not too thick not too thin just right the magic consistency glob and ribbon now if you tip your spoon and adjust ribbons not globs then it's too thin you need to add more of your base royal icing and give it another shot most of it should just glob and the other last of it should just ribbon nicely be patient it's one of those things where it can seem super thick but then all of a sudden it can change consistency all within one addition of water take a lot of time during this part of the process to get a really good feel for how the icing looks and how it feels on your hands with the pressure of the spoon and how it looks in the bowl and how it looks falling off your spoon you're also using different supplies than i might be so it might make you feel better to take photos notes or videos when you feel like you've gotten the perfect consistency and then you can reference it whenever you need it for royal icing transfers this consistency right here shouldn't be thin enough to lead to any cratering even in smaller areas and it shouldn't be thick enough that you'll really need your scribe tool to maneuver or shape the icing too much either the transfers will also be decently puffy but if you'd like them to be a bit more puffier you'll just need a touch more of a thicker consistency so you'll want to go back a step back before i added that last half teaspoon of water and use that consistency just keep in mind that when working with a thicker consistency you'll most likely have to do a little extra work to shape and level out the icing with your scribe tool so this is totally up to you when it comes to bagging your icing and tipless bags just a quick tip you'll naturally want the seams at the sides and then snip across but to get the best and straightest cut in the opening make sure the seams are on the top and bottom instead flatten the tip and then snip across for the letters you can open your favorite word or graphics editor program and then print out your favorite fonts this font is called cooper and there are so many free font websites out there to check out as you can see i was running out of ink online perfect time to tell you about some ink saving opportunities when printing with black ink always make sure to check your printer settings and check the quality if you're only using them to trace for something like this you don't need a high quality printout you could even use the draft setting and if you're just doing black and white use the gray scale setting even the black and white setting uses your color ink did you know that if your program allows you can even outline your letters as opposed to printing the whole letter in solid black that'll save a lot of ink now there are a few options on what to pipe on you could use something paper-based like wax paper or parchment paper or you could use something plastic based like sheet protectors or acetate parchment or wax paper is easy to come by and very cheap i'm using parchment acetate can be a little pricey but these sheet protectors are a great inexpensive option they come in a multi-pack for just a dollar or so so i'm going to be using that first i'll show you the plastic sheet cover now if i were smart i would have used it the way it was intended and slipped a piece of paper inside so i didn't have it slip around while i was piping but it just wasn't my time to shine clearly now you can just start piping and filling in the area as i'm doing here but i find that this way leads to overfilling instead it's better to outline the area and then fill it in [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so you can see how i had a lot more control with the second zero by outlining it and filling it in with the first zero i accidentally overfilled it and the hole in the middle is starting to fill in you can continue to outline each number one at a time filling it in as you go [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] if you don't like something you did go back with a straight blade and scrape it away you don't need to outline and fill each one one at a time you can outline a row and then go back and fill it in [Music] do these sixes will be a good example of a trickier number to fill you might find that the hole in the middle keeps wanting to fill in and i'm going to show you some ways to combat this it's helpful to outline a whole row of them the outline has time to crust over a little bit and create a bit of a barrier so that the flooding doesn't seep into the middle it also helps to outline the opening just a little bit bigger than it actually is finally ever so slightly under fill them and then go back with your scribe tool to work all the icing into the crevices [Music] following all the same rules that i've taught you for the plastic use them for the parchment or waxed paper paper is a little easier to work on because the texture is a little more coarse it's got a bit more tooth and grip to it your icing doesn't want to spread as much as it does on slippery plastic but you'll see that parchment and wax paper also has its own set of cons if you're having problems with spreading and none of my tips seem to be working your icing is on the thin side you can fix this by adding a little bit of your base royal icing from your mixing bowl and reevaluating the thickness level if your icing doesn't seem to be settling on its own it may be on the thicker side it may need a touch more water if it's only a little bit too thick you can use your scribe tool or tap your cookie sheet gently on your work surface to get rid of any peaks in the icing paper plus moisture equals warping you'll find that once your transfers dry they may warp a little bit as opposed to being perfectly flat on the back plastic will be perfectly flat but since there's such a good seal on it you'll find that it may take longer to dry than transfers on paper i would definitely recommend leaving your transfers to dry overnight in front of a fan whether or not you use paper or plastic here's a very quick set that i did on some parchment i wanted to show you some of the problems that can develop you can see that i outlined way too many numbers at a time in these two rows and as a result the outside crusted faster than i could flood the middles in the last few you can really see the border on the outside unless that's the look you're going for you only want to outline and flood as many as you can at a time to get a nice consistent shape with no outline you can also see that a lot of the metals of the six is filled in because i didn't use any of the rules i mentioned when i was piping on the plastic this poor little seven is full of cracks because the paper warped and the fan blowing at the paper made it even worse because it can catch all those warps in the paper like little wind tunnels you can see how warped the bottoms are as well [Music] the reason why i used a gold colored royal icing is because i'd like to paint my royal icing transfers gold now why wouldn't i just use white royal icing there's a simple reason for that if you use a complementary color base to the metallic color that you're painting the transfer with you don't have to use as much of your metallic color and since i want my transfers to be 100 edible i want them to be as gold as possible without being inedible there's a lot of metallic products on the market that give you a beautiful brilliant gold but many of them are only non-toxic if you intend on using them on sugar cookies that are meant to be eaten and not just looked at and appreciated you have to keep this in mind find a product that is 100 edible and rules and regulations vary greatly from country to country what is edible here in canada which is where i live might not be regulated for consumption in the us and so on i'm using edible art metallic glamorous gold be sure to shake it very well as it tends to separate if you're using a luster dust mix it with alcohol like everclear which you can get in the us or vodka or you can use lemon extract i'm pouring some in a teaspoon and using a nice broad wide brush to cover the whole number be sure to use a clean brush that you're only using for food i'll show you the difference between painting numbers on paper or plastic on paper they tend to move around so you'll need to use your scribe tool to anchor the number in place while you paint use nice big strokes in one direction to reduce any brush marks on the surface [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] on plastic you'll see that the process goes a lot more smoothly the numbers stick to the plastic pretty nicely so you don't need to worry about them moving around keep in mind specific brands may differ if you find a particular brand of parchment wax paper or plastic covers that you like or don't like and why be sure to share it in the comments some tend to be more grippier or slippery than others so [Music] i like using the teaspoon for the edible metallic paint so that i can pour back the excess when i'm done [Music] here you can see some close-ups of the bottoms of the numbers you can probably tell which ones are which the ones done on paper are matte and kind of wobbly whereas the ones done in plastic are shiny flat and ever so slightly concave [Music] i'm attaching them to my sugar cookie with a little bit of royal icing and to show you why i prefer to do my numbers and letters as transfers and do my metallics before applying them to the cookie i'm going to attach one to my cookie before i paint it just so you can see the difference [Music] as you can see i need to use a smaller brush as i need to be a lot more careful it takes a lot more time and i'm probably going to get noticeable brush strokes on the surface [Music] [Music] you can also see that i accidentally got a tiny bit of gold on the cookie itself and it's really difficult to get the paint all the way down to the edges of the transfer without touching the cookie in this particular case transfers save me a lot more time and trouble if you were doing super skinny letters or numbers and you needed them painted it'd probably be best to pipe them right on the cookie though so why royal icing transfers anyway well for all the reasons i've already stated but you can also pipe a bunch of them ahead of time and save them for when you need them you can also choose the best of the best if some of them don't work out say if they come out wonky or cratered or just plain ugly you can eat them if you pipe it right on the cookie you pretty much need to get it right the first time maybe you're having problems with color bleeding when you flood one color on top of another or your letters keep cratering on you and nothing else is working this could help these are just a few reasons but try them out for yourself and see i'll be sure to do more videos on other different types of transfers in the future what clients would you like to see let me know in the comments below be sure to subscribe so that you don't miss an episode if you haven't liked me on facebook or follow me on instagram you're missing out so come find me if you need a sugar cookie or royal icing recipe i share it on my website at sweetheartbaking.com that's it for this episode guys thanks for watching my name's cookie and i'll talk to you next time

Channel: Sweethart Baking Experiment

Views: 128,511

Keywords: sweethart baking experiment, kimberly hart, baking, bakery, sugar cookies, cookies, tutorial, how to, how to decorate sugar cookies, how to decorate cookies, royal icing, cookie techniques, goderich, goderich ontario, sugar cookie decorating, cookie decorating, decorated cookies, decorated sugar cookies, piping, icing, frosting, kookienomz, kookievision, icing consistency, consistency, medium consistency, 15 second consistency, royal icing transfers, cookie course, baking course

Id: Ou5Zpf3rPmU

Length: 26min 3sec (1563 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 16 2021