Free Guide + Palette Maker

Paint Your Own (PYO) Cookies

PYO cookies turn dessert into an activity: a white royal-icing cookie with a colouring-book outline, an edible paint palette, and a brush. Dip the brush in water, swirl a colour, and paint. Here is how they work, how to make them, and a free tool that designs the edible paint palettes for you.

Open the Free Palette MakerHow to make them
Free palette generator300 DPI icing-sheet print filesAdd your bakery name

What are paint-your-own cookies?

A PYO cookie is a sugar cookie flooded with smooth white royal icing, with a simple outline design stencilled on top — like a page from a colouring book. Each cookie is packaged with an edible paint palette (swatches of concentrated edible colour, usually printed on an icing sheet) and a small food-safe brush. The person eating it dips the brush in water, rubs it over a colour well exactly like a watercolour set, and paints the design before eating the whole thing — palette included.

They are hugely popular for children’s parties, school holidays, classroom treats, rainy-day activity boxes, and seasonal kits — and they have become a staple product for home bakers selling on Etsy and at markets because a box of three PYO cookies sells as an activity, not just a biscuit.

How to make PYO cookies

  1. 1

    Bake and flood with white royal icing

    Bake sturdy sugar cookies, then flood them with smooth white royal icing and let them dry fully — ideally overnight. The icing is the “paper”, so the flatter and whiter the surface, the better the painting experience.

  2. 2

    Add a colouring-book outline

    Use a PYO stencil with a thick contrasting colour (black or a deep brown) and a scraper or airbrush to transfer a simple line design onto the dried icing. Simple, bold outlines work best — think balloon, dinosaur, flower, or rainbow rather than fine detail.

  3. 3

    Make the edible paint palettes

    Design a palette in the free PYO palette maker and print it on an icing sheet with an edible printer. Cut each palette out along the printed outline once it has dried for ten minutes or so.

  4. 4

    Package the kit

    Pair each cookie with one palette and a small food-safe brush in a heat-sealed bag. Add a short instruction card: “Dip the brush in water, swirl a colour, and paint your cookie!”

  5. 5

    Paint with water

    That is the whole trick — a damp brush activates the edible colour exactly like a child’s watercolour set. Less water gives stronger colour; too much water can dissolve the icing surface.

Ways to make edible paint palettes, compared

Bakers have tried everything from sweets pressed into icing to hand-piped dots. If you already print edible toppers at home, printing palettes is the clear winner:

Edible paint palette methods
MethodEffortResult
Printed icing sheet (this tool)Low — design, print, cutConsistent, deep colours; brandable; scales to a full sheet per print
Piped royal icing dotsHigh — pipe, colour, dry overnightPretty but slow; colours vary batch to batch
Airbrushed dots over a stencilMedium — needs an airbrushFast once set up; messy; limited colour depth
Sweets pressed into wet icingLowQuick but colours bleed into the icing within a day or two
Gel colour painted into podsMediumStrong colour but stains mouths and tastes bitter in concentration
Free Tool
PYO Paint Palette Maker

Choose a palette shape, pick deep water-activated colours, add your bakery name, and download a 300 DPI icing-sheet print file — free, no sign-up.

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Recommended Supplies

What you need to print palettes at home

Edible paint palettes print on standard icing sheets with an edible printer — the same setup used for printed cake toppers and cupcake discs.

Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Used in our kitchenEdible printing

Edible Icing Sheets for Frosting Printing

The edible icing sheets we use for printed cake toppers, photo toppers, and repeated cupcake sheets.

These sheets give a clean finish, work well for photo toppers and cupcake sheets, and are the first option we point bakers to for edible prints.

Why we recommend it

Used in our own topper setup because the sheets feed cleanly and hold detail well for edible prints.

  • Photo toppers and edible cupcake sheets
  • A4 edible print workflows
  • Home bakers who want a dependable icing sheet option
Amazon product reference: B089YXQZJX
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Used in our kitchenEdible printing

Katie's Edible Ink Canon TS705A Printer Kit

A ready-to-print edible printer bundle — a Canon TS705A WiFi printer supplied with edible ink cartridges plus 25 icing sheets and wafer paper.

This is the kit we point bakers to who want their own edible-print setup without sourcing the printer, edible ink, and sheets separately. It arrives with the edible ink cartridges and 25 icing and wafer sheets, so you can start printing toppers, PYO paint palettes, and photo prints straight away.

Why we recommend it

Handy because it bundles the WiFi printer, edible ink, and a stack of icing and wafer sheets together, so you can print toppers and paint-your-own palettes at home without piecing the setup together yourself.

  • Home bakers starting edible printing from scratch
  • Printing cake toppers, cupcake discs, and PYO paint palettes
  • A WiFi printer that arrives with edible ink and sheets included
Amazon product reference: B0747S4VXX
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Used in our kitchenEdible printing

EPS Bottled Edible Ink Refills (4 x 100ml)

Refillable edible ink bottles for Canon and Epson edible printers when you want a lower-cost in-house print workflow.

A bottled refill set makes most sense once you are printing edible toppers regularly and want to keep an existing edible-printer setup running without buying a full starter kit again.

Why we recommend it

Useful once edible printing becomes a regular job rather than an occasional one-off, especially for cupcake sheets and repeat topper orders.

  • Refilling an existing edible-printer setup
  • Repeat edible cupcake and topper print runs
  • Bakers trying to lower the cost per edible sheet
Amazon product reference: B01KVRWY8M
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Print

One A4 icing sheet yields a whole batch of palettes — print at 100% scale, never “fit to page”.

Store dry

Icing sheets hate moisture. Store cut palettes flat in a sealed bag and add them to kits last.

Sell as kits

Three cookies, three palettes, a brush, and an instruction card make a ready-to-sell PYO kit.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are PYO cookies?

PYO stands for “paint your own”. A PYO cookie is a sugar cookie flooded with white royal icing and stamped or stencilled with a colouring-book style outline. It comes with an edible paint palette and a food-safe brush — you dip the brush in water and paint the design, then eat the cookie.

How do edible paint palettes work?

The palette is printed with concentrated edible ink on an icing sheet. A damp brush lifts colour from each swatch exactly like a watercolour set. The whole palette is 100% edible.

Do I need an airbrush to make PYO paint palettes?

No. The easiest method is printing palettes on an icing sheet with an edible printer. Design the palette in the free CakeyTops palette maker, print at 100% scale, and cut along the outline — no piping, airbrushing, or overnight drying.

Why do my PYO colours paint so pale?

Because PYO painting is watercolouring: light or desaturated swatches hold very little pigment, so they barely show on white icing. Use deep, saturated colours. The palette maker flags any colour that will paint too pale and can deepen it automatically.

What icing should the cookie have?

A smooth flood of white royal icing, fully dried (ideally overnight). Royal icing dries to a firm matte surface that takes water-activated colour well. Buttercream does not work for PYO painting.

How long do printed palettes keep?

Stored flat in a sealed bag away from moisture and sunlight, printed icing-sheet palettes keep for several weeks. Add them to kits just before sale and keep them away from condensation.

Can I sell PYO cookie kits?

Yes — PYO kits are popular on Etsy, at markets, and for party orders. Use food-safe packaging and brushes, follow your local food business rules, and put your bakery name on each palette (the palette maker has a branding field for exactly this).

Ready to make your palettes?

Design a palette in under a minute — artist palette, paint pods, or dot strip — and download a 300 DPI sheet ready for your edible printer. Free, no sign-up.

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