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Making and Decorating PYO (Paint Your Own) Cookies - The Cookie Countess

Making and Decorating PYO (Paint Your Own) Cookies

unicorn PYO stencil
mermaid pyo stencil

Paint Your Own (aka PYO) Cookies have been a cookie maker staple for a long time now. They are a great moneymaker for those that sell cookies, and a perfect gift to kids of all ages. The basic concept is that they are edible coloring pages. Creative and tasty?!? Sign me up! 


They're easy to make, and while they do require some extra supplies, the end result is so worth it.

Bake and Ice Your Cookies

You will need to bake your cookies and allow to cool before icing. If you are covering your cookies with royal icing, they will need to be flooded a day ahead of stenciling and packaging. If you are using fondant, you can get all of this done in one day. 

Add Your Design

PYO cookies are stencilled with a with designs specifically created for PYOs. They are usually fun, kid friendly illustrations, sometimes along a holiday or theme, that have lots of areas for painting and adding color. We sell some of our PYO stencils with matching cookie cutters. This is a great way to create a bespoke look. If you don't have a matching cookie cutter you can choose a basic or plaque shape that goes well with your chosen stencil. Here's a link to an in depth tutorial on how to stencil.  


Most people stencil with black royal icing as it is the easiest to see the design and looks the most like a coloring book. I have seen people do white, or a color along the theme, and sometimes that can be fun too! 

unicorn PYO stencil
mermaid pyo stencil

Ready, Set, Paint!

Now comes the fun part! Painting your cookies! If you are making these at home with your kids and are going to paint and eat them yourselves, you just need to wait long enough for the stenciled design to dry. This shouldn't take more than 20-30 minutes since it's such a small amount of icing. 


For painting you'll need some PYO paint palettes. We make these at The Cookie Countess just for this purpose. It is edible, food color, paints that are activated with water - just like old school watercolors. Our Edible Paint Palettes come in multiple color combos and make prep and clean-up a snap. 


If you are gifting or selling your PYO cookies, you'll need to plan ahead for packaging. We have a whole other tutorial on just that. You can find that here


Watch the video:

Printable PYO Cookie Instruction Sheets

If you wish to get a printed instruction sheet on how to use PYO palettes, you can download that PDF here. This is great if you are selling or gifting PYO cookies.

Related Articles:

Previous article How To Package and Ship Cookies

Comments

Evelyn Blanks - May 21, 2024

Can I stencil directly on baked cookie (without any Royal Icing on the cookie)?
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The Cookie Countess replied:
Hi Evelyn! You can, but it likely wouldn’t be as clean and crisp as stenciling on flat royal icing. Naked cookies tend to not be perfectly flat, and they inevitably have crumbs that can get scraped into the icing. It might just take some practice to get it to come out more cleanly.

Tia - February 26, 2024

Hi! Can the paint palettes be used on fondant?
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The Cookie Countess replied:
Hi Tia! Yes, they can 😊

Lorra - October 26, 2023

How many cookies will a palette paint?
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The Cookie Countess replied:
Hi Lorra! You can typically do 1-2 cookies with one palette, but it really depends on who is doing the painting. Older children and adults can easily do two cookies with one palette, but smaller children tend to go a little crazier when getting paint on their brushes and would benefit from one palette per cookie.

Diane Schaff - October 16, 2023

How long for stencil to dry before painting? Can it be frozen after stenciling and packaging in PYO kits?
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The Cookie Countess replied:
Hi Diane! Stenciling icing dries pretty quickly, since there really isn’t that much water in it, and also because you leave so little of it behind when you scrape it across the cookie. By the time I’m done stenciling a dozen cookies, the first ones I did are already dry enough to paint on. And yes, they can be frozen! See our other blog on freezing cookies for more details.

Paige Howe - October 10, 2023

Hi! Can you use an edible marker rather than icing? Thank You
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The Cookie Countess replied:
Hi Paige! Edible marker lines will smudge away as soon as they are touched with a wet paintbrush, so you are much better off scraping PYO designs onto your cookies with royal icing. I hope this helps!

Jennifer - March 9, 2023

Can these be used to paint on chocolate covered Oreos?
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The Cookie Countess replied:
Yes they can, but I’d recommend using less water than you would if you were painting a regular PYO cookie.

Amber Kenyon - February 20, 2023

What type of stencil should be used for Royal icing
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The Cookie Countess replied:
Hi Amber! Any of our stencils can be used with royal icing.

Adriana - February 20, 2023

Hi! Can your edible paint palettes be used on white chocolate?
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The Cookie Countess replied:
Hi! They can be, but we would suggest using a little less water than if you were painting on royal icing.

Brittany Turner - November 14, 2022

How long do you let the stencil icing dry before the painting can begin?
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The Cookie Countess replied:
Let dry completely before painting, I always let mine dry overnight!

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