Wafer Paper Butterfly Cookies

Use wafer paper to create stunningly detailed cookie designs like these butterfly cookies! To make wafer paper butterfly cookies, you will need:

• Cookies made from your favorite sugar cookie recipe and cut using butterfly cookie cutters
• Icing made from your favorite royal icing recipe in blue and green (or other colors matching your wafer paper butterflies)
• Butterfly wafer paper from Fancy Flours
• Clear piping gel
• Rainbow disco dust
• Ziploc bags (or icing bags or bottles, couplers, and tips)
• Toothpicks, scribe, or boo-boo stick (optional)
• A food safe paint brush (optional)
• A pair of food safe scissors

Use gel food coloring to dye your royal icing to match the colors in your butterfly wafer paper. Water down your icing to a 10-count consistency and then load each color into a separate Ziploc bag.

If you need help with icing color or consistency, check out the How To Make Royal Icing section of 101 Essential Cookie Decorating Resources.

Snip off the corner of a Ziploc bag and pipe a border around the edge of a butterfly cookie. Immediately fill the entire cookie surface with icing. Run a toothpick, scribe, or boo-boo stick through the icing to help smooth it out and pop any air bubbles.

While the icing is still wet, sprinkle the surface with rainbow disco dust. Repeat this process with each cookie, moving onto the next step only after the icing has completely dried. I like to let my iced cookies dry overnight on a cookie sheet protected by a mesh food cover.

Use a pair of food safe scissors to cut out each of your wafer paper butterflies.

Working one cookie at a time, pipe a thin line of clear piping gel onto the center of the cookie where you will be placing a wafer paper butterfly. Spread a small amount of piping gel onto the surface of the wafer paper where the butterfly wings meet the body. Fold the wings of the butterfly up at a 45-degree angle and apply it to your cookie using the line of piping gel as glue. If the wings of your butterfly start to fall, you may need to prop them up with a cookie cutter or other small object until the piping gel dries.

The wafer paper is thin and crisp. Adding piping gel to the surface helps to soften the paper and reduce the chances of breakage. I found that covering the entire surface of the wafer paper made it too sticky to work with, so I suggest only using the piping gel on areas that will be folded.

  

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