We’ve been hosting cookie decorating workshops here in Brevard County for over 10 years, wow! When you take a Little Blessings Cookie Workshop, we have class recipes for a basic sugar cookie and royal icing included. These recipes give you step by step instructions along with tips & tricks for a successful batch. Over the years, we’ve had a lot of questions about our favorite products & suggestions for hobby baking. As you might imagine, we’ve got some strong opinions so it’s time to share our beginner essentials list with you!

Keep in mind, you don’t NEED every gadget or product out there to get started. Just a few things are necessary and the rest are just nice to have – anything extra will make your projects go a little more smoothly or give you a little boost in efficiency. A lot of items work out to a better deal when you start to buy larger quantities but, for the sake of a beginner perspective, we’re going to share basic sizes (be sure to check the larger quantities available on an item listing if you’re interested in a bulk deal!).

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T0 start it off, you’ll need a stand mixer for your icing and cookie dough. It doesn’t have to be a Kitchenaid but this is what we have always used so we can vouch that it will get you through several years, at least! This basic model comes with the whisk you’ll need for royal icing and the paddle used for cookie dough. 

Every baker has a favorite spatula & this one is ours! Strong, stiff spatula so it doesn’t collapse under the dense sugar cookie dough, smooth and without any crevices so it’s easy to clean, and long enough to reach the bottom of the mixer bowl.

This small nylon scraper is the absolute best for mixing icing colors – we’ve had four in our kitchen for the last 10 years and have never had to replace unless we lose them.

When it comes to piping bags, we prefer the textured disposable bags for icing. You can really feel the icing in the bag and the texture gives good grip. They’re inexpensive enough that you can grab a pack and you’ll be able to use them for a long time

Next up, the main ingredient you won’t likely find at the regular grocery store – meringue powder. We used to purchase whatever brand we could find at local craft stores but can honestly say that there is a noticeable difference in the quality of this meringue powder. You can always use another brand in a pinch but highly recommend this one!

Food coloring is not all created equal! Especially when you’re working with royal icing, it’s important to use a GEL food coloring, not a liquid coloring. Any liquid added to the icing will affect the ratio and consistency of the icing. These Americolor food gels work well, mix easily, and you can create nearly every other color by mixing the colors in this set.

Lastly, we wouldn’t make a single batch of sugar cookie dough without parchment paper. It’s truly a lifesaver and these pre-cut sheets are just too convenient. If you’ve taken one of our workshops and use our class recipe, you’ll know that we roll out all of our cookie dough between sheets of parchment paper.

There you have it! Our TOP 7 product recommendations for getting started with your sugar cookies at home. Of course, you’ll have other basic baking ingredients and kitchen tools on hand already – things like your flour and sugar or small mixing bowls and cookie sheets.

If you’d like to up your cookie game with some beginner cookie workshops, you can check out our upcoming classes in our shop HERE! Join us for a workshop and soon your cookies will look a little more like this: