For links to the resources in the roundup pictured below,

click HERE to visit  Houzz.

THE ESSENTIAL TOOLS AND SUPPLIES

the shopping list:

a set of round cookie cutters

dough scraper

rolling pin

shaped cookie cutters

lollipop sticks

cupcake liners

good baking and cupcake trays

fondant

meringue powder

parchment paper

spatula

disposable decorating bags

couplers

decorating tips

Americolor Soft Gel Paste food coloring

food decorator pens

paint brushes

scissors

edible icing sheets

sanding sugar and sprinkles

candy melts

WHERE TO SHOP FOR SUPPLIES

craft stores

Stores such as A.C. Moore, Michaels and Hobby Lobby carry many of the items you need, such as

cake decorating supply stores

Search google to see if you have any of these stores locally. They carry everything your craft store doesn’t, most likely. In the DC area, you have Fran’s Cake and Candy Supply out in Fairfax, VA and Little Bitts Shop in Wheaton, MD.

specialty chain stores

One of my favorite shops is Sur la Table. They carry fondant, tips, cookie cutters bakeware, cupcake liners, meringue powder and other decorating supplies.

online

Everything you need is online. Everything. Amazon carries a lot of products, such as the  Some of my other go-tos for supplies are

Sugarcraft

CakeArt

NY Cake

Country Kitchen Sweet Art

Kitchen Krafts

Candyland Crafts

Wilton

Layer Cake Shop

for cookie cutters

Many of the above resources also carry cookie cutters, but be sure to check out this post on cookie cutter collections for a more complete list.

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Thank you everyone for your tremendous outpouring for the Wilton 101-Piece Tool Caddy giveaway! Over 1109 comments. I couldn’t believe it. A winner HAS been drawn randomly and notified this morning, and will be announced as soon as I get confirmation they received their notice.  But don’t despair, details about the KitchenAid givaway are coming soon! In the meantime, you can still enter the Wilton caddy, KitchenAid and Sugarlicious giveaway HERE at Woman’s World.

As promised, I’m back to talk about all of the tools you love (which are pretty much exactly the tools I wax on about in Sugarlicious, so yay! We all think alike!). These are collected from the oh so many comments you left for the Wilton giveaway, and though I wrote this post before the last day’s worth of comments, I did my best to go through them all and add what I could.

BUT FIRST, A SUPER QUICK GIVEAWAY!

Leave a comment here by midnight tonight (yes, tonight) and I’ll randomly choose one winner to get a Sugarlicious Prize Pack that includes a Sugarlicious apron, spatula, oven mitt, Post-It notes, a sneak peek booklet and some recipes. (Note that the book itself is NOT included in the giveaway, as I’m all out of my own books.) Contest worldwide.

THE TOOLS YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

Understandably, there is much support for Wilton’s products. Wilton makes just about everything you need for decorating sweets, and their products are widely available online and in craft stores (and while they gave one of you an awesome caddy, they didn’t pay me to say that, many of the products I use are Wilton’s).   Your favorites (and some of mine) are:

GENERAL TOOLS

Below are what many, many of you voted on as your faves, and they are mine, too! All of these are listed in Sugarlicious, of course.

•  Disposable decorating bags (This is MY go-to as well as the majority of yours, can’t live without tool. I, too, use them for cookie decorating, for cupcakes, candy melts, non-sweets, everything.)

•  Decorating tips—I, too, use Wilton’s decorating tips for frosting cupcakes and for decorating cookies.

•  I was glad to see a few shout-outs for couplers, which allow you to switch tips easily.

•  And to add my own, rubber bands! Use these to close decorating bags to prevent oozing.

•  Other Wilton favorites include rubber spatulas for scraping bowls and spreading icing (Elaine), the comfort grip cookie cutters (Carrie) and miniature cookie cutters for making pie crust decorations (Laci Jamison), the Wilton chocolate melting pot (Anne J-Z and Karla) and the quick release (Lynne).

• I certainly have to agree that cookie cutters and fondant cutters are in the list of essentials. Read more about building a cookie cutter collection HERE. I agree with Dee, I use fondant cutters a lot, even for cutting out cookies.

•  Toothpicks are a must-have tool, as many of you note, for scraping mistakes, encouraging icing, even decorating techniques.

•  Parchment and wax paper are on the necessities list for many, including me. I line baking trays with parchment and use wax paper for easy cleanup and practicing piping. Though Charlene Wiggins points out “My favorite tools are my practice board with patterns.” And many note they use parchment piping cones for decorating.

•  Georgianna writes, “A simple but imperative tool that I have is a set of teeny rubber spatulas. I couldn’t decorate without them!”

•  I’m glad to see KitchenAid mixers getting a lot of use. I use mine almost every day.

•  I’m also glad to see how well-represented SPRINKLES are for decorating, covering mistakes and just for fun.

•  Also vital, you can’t decorate without food coloring. Danielle Smith, I agree, I use Americolor Soft Gel Pastes. (For tips on food coloring, click HERE.) Emily writes, “I have JUST discovered Wilton colour gels – and I am in LOVE with them.” And Madiha Naeem says “My fav tool is my icing colors .. love trying different color combos and bringing a cupcake to life.” Agree!!

•  And just like Angelica Geoge, who suggested decorating pens, I always have these in stock.  (CLICK HERE for tons of information on food coloring pens.)

•  Marie’s must-have decorating tool is a “wooden skewer with a sharpened tip for drawing fine features with frosting.” Now something new I have to try.

•  Emma Gonzalez says “My fondant roller is my favorite tool.”

•  I have not mastered my convection oven, though, as Tracy has, sigh.

•  Some other good go-tos: Ziplocks (Maureen) and

•  a gum paste/fondant tool kit (Christa Dunn).

•  And Elane has a Cricut, something I’ve yet to find under the Christmas tree!

•  And yay, I’m glad sticks got in the mix! Thanks, Tammy Moore, for adding popsicle sticks.

•  Katie S. uses tweezers (yep, definitely helpful for things like dragées!)

•  Sharon uses a paintbrush to decorate sweets (I love “painting” sweets, too! And even added that to the book.)

•  Suz is right on when she says “my all time favorite tool is a steady hand”!

•  Amber, too, mentioned the internet, and Julie mentioned Pinterest. The source of MUCH addiction, I mean, inspiration, to be sure!

•  Jamie Spagnola said, “I can’t live without my ‘google image search!’”  YES! I agree. Certainly not to find and copy others’ work, but when drawing or creating art on sweets, especially objects and cartoon characters or landmarks, sometimes you just need to see what they look like. I understand this fully. At the cookie store, we’d have requests daily for such things (Big Ben? A hammer? Dishwasher? Garfield?). In the early days, we didn’t have internet access, so we had a huge ClipArt book we called “The Bible.” Once google images came about, it changed the game.

COOKIE DECORATING

•  Squeeze bottles—I actually don’t use these, I use decorating bags instead for cookies, but most swear by the bottles!

•  Lorna “ cannot live without my boo-boo stick from Karen Cookies ( apparently I make a lot of boo-boo’s ).” And Penny Carsner said the same thing. And Cynthia H.  And Shelley. Me too! We went through many boo-boo sticks when I worked at the cookie store. They aren’t easy to find, I’ve found them wholesale, but not retail, so I’m glad for the Karen’s Cookies tip. Find them HERE.

•  Ryan Alice Piccine can’t live without a silpat mat, “an amazing multitasker.”

•  Vbaler, yes, luster dust definitely counts as a tool.

•  Decorating tips are must-haves. I use sizes 2, 3, 4 and 5 for cookie decorating, but 1, 1.5, 2 and 3 are the most popular. (GOTTA get some 1.5s)

•  Amanda @ Foodfascinations says “I can’t live without a wooden skewer when I’m decorating. They are great for helping to flood royal icing and mix in color.” Another item now on my must-try list.

•  Linda Livingston says she uses dowel sticks to make sure all the cookies are the same thickness.

•  Shirley Murray, I must agree, says cookie cutters. “I love to decorate cookies using my large collection of cookie cutters. I find the cutters at thrift stores for pennies! Can you believe someone would part with their cookie cutters?!” Um, no, no I can’t.

CAKES

•  I also agree with the many who said offset spatulas are crucial for frosting cakes and cupcakes.

•  When it comes to cakes, it seems tools to just get that frosting on their smoothly are paramount. Lindsey (café johnsonia) writes, “my favorite decorating tool is my bench scraper.” As did Amy Nguyen for “clean sharp edges!” And Robin, from Bird on a Cake, too. And a turntable is also a popular choice, and Connie added a cake splitting tool, “like a giant cheese slicer.” And Jane uses a cake lifter.

•  For cake decorating,  stars, leaf tips, number 22 and the 2D nozzle are popular decorating tips.

CUPCAKES

•  Windy writes “I grew up on cupcakes iced with a knife or if we were getting really fancy, a spatula. I’ve found the joy of icing bags and tips. Now that I’ve found them, I can’t live without them!!” Yep! Me, too!  The popular decorating tips for cupcakes are stars, leaf tips, and the 1 M.

•  Shelly says for simple piping, she uses her “Tupperware ‘ball.’ I just fill it with frosting, stick in the tip, and squeeze.” I’ve never heard of this. I think I found it here at amazon. Where have I been?

UPDATE:

Gotta add a couple more from the comments below.

• Natasha uses chopsticks instead of toothpicks. I’m so going to try this.

• Mandy uses a pizza cutter for fondant. YES! Great one! I have pizza cutter listed in Sugarlicious, too. I use that all the time for fondant. Had to add here since I forgot that the first time around. Thanks, Mandy!

MORE ABOUT SUPPLIES AND WHERE TO FIND THEM…

Well, you could buy Sugarlicious for the extensive list of every supply you’ll ever need and the many stores and locations for buying them…. but I also have lots of tips and links HERE.

Thank you everyone so much for all of your tips and tricks and tools!! I know I got a few tips.

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Those of you who have been here before may already know this, but I have a thing for drawing on food with edible writers. Particularly marshmallows. See? HERE. I came up with this idea almost two years ago in the midst of a housing search when our belongings were in storage, we were living in temporary housing, and then we went through a kitchen renovation. Marshmallow art is so quick, easy, kid-friendly, versatile and oven-free, so it was perfect for our transient life at the time.

Edible markers, gourmet writers, food writers, food coloring pens… the many different terms are just as confusing as the many different brands. This post is all about food writers: what brands to buy, where to buy ‘em and what you can do with them. Food writers are markers that have edible ink, NOT to be confused with “candy writers” that you find in the craft store. Those come in tubes. I don’t use those.

Americolor Gourmet Writers, set of ten. These are my favorite writers. They have good flow and are easy to use. You can get finer detail by using the tips and cover thicker areas by using the sides more. If you only buy one set of writers, buy these. The Americolor site doesn’t sell directly, but you can buy these on amazon.com, sugarcraft.com and many other online sites.

FooDoodler. My next most-used writers are the FooDoodler Fine Line set of ten. The fine line is even finer than the Americolor Gourmet Writers and I use this a lot for very fine detail. FooDoodler also carry thicker markers, which are good (here), but I rarely use those, only because I draw such small things. If you don’t need a super-fine line, then they work well. The perfect combination of markers–if you buy two sets–are the Americolor Gourmet Writers with the FooDoodler fine line set. You can buy FooDoodlers at their site, and at sugarcraft.com.

KopyKake pens. The set of KopyKake pens are also quite good. They have two ends, one thick and one fine, which is great. The fine end gives the same detail as the fine line FooDoodlers, so I love them. The other big bonus? The set has two greens, including a lime green. I use lime green a lot, and I miss this with the other sets above. The down side to these? I feel like the flow is a little dry and they run out of ink more quickly. Find KopyKake pens at the KopyKake site and at sugarcraft.com.

FoodWriters. I’m a fan of all Wilton‘s products, of course, though I use their FoodWriters the least. They are good writers and have a good flow, but the tips are a bit thick for the detail I like to draw. However, the pros: they are widely available in most major craft stores, they come in a variety including lime green (yay), and they are great for kids. When my 3-year old decorates marshmallows, I give her the FoodWriters. You can buy them on the Wilton site, in craft stores, or on amazon. The sets are smaller, so you end up needing to buy a couple different sets. I’m partial to the “neon” colors.

• marshmallows
• fondant (roll out and cover cookies, cupcakes or cakes with fondant and draw away, or if you make dimensional designs, use writers for the details)
• royal icing that has been flooded and left to dry overnight

• candy melts. Yes, you can use edible writers with candy melts that have hardened, but the writers do react with the fats in the melts and don’t work quite as smoothly as the above. If you’ve tried making cake pops, dipped them in candy melts, then tried to draw on them, you may have experienced this. I suggest markers with good flow, like the Americolor Gourmet Writers, use the tips of the markers and use them sparingly for small details like dots for eyes.
• buttercream frosting. Frosting won’t harden fully, and the bumps and grooves make this a bad surface for writers.

• Let your surface dry well before using the writers. Let marshmallows sit out a couple hours first to stiffen a bit, and let the fondant do the same. You must let flooded royal icing sit overnight before using.
• Don’t try and layer colors, unless it’s for effect (like in my spring flower marshmallows above). The bottom color will show through. Only black will cover other colors, so I usually outline with black last.
• When switching colors, let the first color set about ten minutes so you don’t accidentally pick up another color with your marker and to prevent bleeding.

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STUFF I USE
(click on orange links for a closer look at these items)

1. Wilton decorating tips, usually sizes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
2. Wilton 12-inch disposable decorating bags
3. Wilton standard couplers
4. lollipop sticks
5. Americolor gourmet writers
6. Americolor soft gel pastes
7. rolled fondant
8. cookie cutters
9. light corn syrup
10. parchment paper
11. meringue powder
12. marshmallows

WHERE TO GET IT

Wilton
As you can see above, I use a lot of Wilton products. Wilton products are available in tons of craft stores, cake decorating supply stores and online shops, but you can also shop at Wilton directly.

supermarkets
Ingredients, marshmallows, corn syrup, and parchment paper can of course be found in the supermarket. You may even find meringue powder there.

craft stores
Find most of the supplies above in the baking aisle of major craft stores, like Michaels or AC Moore. You can find: decorating tips, frosting bags, couplers, fondant, meringue powder and lollipop sticks there. You can also find concentrated paste food coloring and edible pens there, but I much prefer Americolor soft gel pastes and Gourmet Writers (see below), harder to find.

food coloring
As mentioned above, I prefer Americolor soft gel pastes and Gourmet Writers. They come in a huge array of colors, blend beautifully, and best of all are tasteless. The Writers have more color variety than craft store counterparts and have finer tips. To find, go to Americolor’s web site (click the link and then click “Links” for resources). You can also find them at amazon.com. Search for “Americolor soft gel paste” or “Americolor Gourmet Writers”. Unless you have hundreds of cookies to decorate, I recommend the .75 ounce size of soft gel pastes. A little goes a very long way.

cookie cutters
There are a near infinite supply of cutters in all kinds of shapes online. Find basic shapes at the craft stores (also look for fondant cutters there, they work on cookies, too). Here are a few of my favorite cutter sites:

the cookie cutter shop
coppergifts.com
h.o. foose tinsmithing
off the beaten path
sugarcraftTweet

Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!