About the cookie cutters

Pick a shape and a size

Choose a heart, star, circle, square, hexagon, flower, crescent moon, Christmas tree or gingerbread person, or type a name. Cookie width and height are the size of the cookie itself: the cutter’s inside edge is exactly that outline, and the blade and rim grow outward from it. For a star, set how many points it has and how deep the valleys go; for a hexagon or a pentagon, how many sides; for a flower, how many petals. Corner rounding softens sharp tips and tight valleys, which are hard to press out of the dough and easy to snap off a cutter.

The cutter itself

• Blade thickness is the wall you see when you look down into the cutter. 1.2 mm is three perimeters with a 0.4 mm nozzle: strong enough to press, thin enough to cut cleanly.
• Blade height is how deep it cuts. 15 mm suits most rolled cookies; go taller for thick dough or if you want to hold it comfortably.
• Sharpened edge tapers the last couple of millimetres of the blade down to a thin 0.4 mm edge, so it slices the dough instead of squashing it. The taper is built in steps that follow your layer height, so a light pass with fine sandpaper on the edge makes it cleaner.
• Pressing rim is a flat lip around the top for your palm. It also keeps the print flat and steady on the bed.

Names and letters

Choose Letters or a name, type it, and pick a bold font (thin fonts make letters too slim to cut). The height you set is how tall the letters are; the width follows the words. Join letters ties the letters into one cutter instead of one per letter: it fills hairline gaps and adds a thin web where two letters sit further apart, and Letter spacing moves them closer or further apart. Letters with an enclosed space, like a, e, o or B, get a thin bridge across the cookie so the blade around the space stays part of the cutter, which leaves a small slit in that letter, as on any stencil-style letter cutter. Turn Join letters off if you want each letter as its own cutter on one base.

Printing and using it

• Orientation: printed rim-down, as shown: the flat lip is on the bed and the cutting edge points up, so nothing needs support. Use a 0.4 mm nozzle, 0.12–0.2 mm layers and at least three perimeters.
• Food contact: a cutter touches dough only briefly, but printed plastic has tiny gaps between layers where flour and bacteria can hide. Wash it by hand in warm soapy water and dry it well, keep it out of the dishwasher and oven, and use a filament sold for food contact if you want extra assurance.
• Getting clean cookies: chill the dough, dust the cutter with flour, and press straight down before lifting.

FAQ

Is a printed cookie cutter safe to use? It is fine for the short contact of cutting dough if you clean it well, but layer lines can hold residue and printed plastic isn’t made for the dishwasher or oven. For cutting play dough or fondant there is no such concern. If you want extra assurance, print in a food-contact filament and give it a clear food-safe coating.

Why is my cookie stuck in the cutter? Sharp points and thin valleys grip dough. Raise Corner rounding, chill the dough, and flour the inside of the cutter.

Why does my letter have a slit in it? Letters with an enclosed space (a, e, o, B, 8…) need a bridge or the blade around that space would be a separate loose piece. The slit is the bridge; it’s narrow, and the cookie holds together around it.

How big can I make it? Up to 200 mm in each direction. Very large cutters are flexible, so use a thicker blade and keep the rim on.

Can I use my own drawing? Not yet: the shapes here are built from a fixed set, plus lettering.