Chocolate Printing

[brokenscale]

I am in the transition between careers and trying to become a chef. Unlike most I want to be well rounded and versed as my love for foods includes sweets. I have an epson printer and kopykake edible ink setup that i print onto sugar paper for cakes. My question is that I have a special event coming and would like to do some chocolates as gifts with a company logo ontop. Has anyone tried or have any ideas that if i print onto blank sheets of acetate, will i be able to do a chocolate transfer? Im not sure if it will work and dont want to waste money ordering the sheets that would not get used if the transfer doesnt work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[JeanneCake]

I think you would want to use cocoa butter on an acetate sheet; I think the edible inks are water based and would smear on acetate if you tried to put that through the printer. (I have an epson printer and those ink cartridges - I buy the frosting sheets from Pfeil and Holing because they're the same price and no shipping charges).

When I make "logo" petit fours for clients, I use the sheets, and resize the client's image to something very small (an inch square usually) then put it on a (rolled) fondant square so I can make these the day before (I also like to paint the edges and make it look like a frame). I use dipping chocolate for my petit fours (less sweet than the poured fondant which is traditional) so it is possible to adhere the image directly to the chocolate (timing is everything, too soon and the image may bleed, too late and it doesn't stick.) but the fondant tiles work well.

[brokenscale]

thanks, so how is it that those printers that print on chocolate work? do they use a powdered ink?

[JeanneCake]

No clue on how it works with chocolate!

But it very probably is the same principle - using cocoa butter to make the pattern on the acetate and then applying the tempered chocolate. Or it could be a stencil with an airbrush. Maybe Kerry (Beal) would know. Or Ilyana (Lior) or John DePaula.

[emmalish]

There's a discussion here about a transfer sheet machine. I know it's not what you have, but there is info about how it works and links to sites that explain the process in more detail. Hope this helps...

[Baskets By Expressions]

We do these in my shop. We purchased a cannon printer and ordered edible ink for them (you can purchase a system from Kopycake or Pfeil & Holing which comes with everything). What I was able to do was to get the printer from a regular retailer and purchase the edible inks separately. You also need to get rice sheets and that's what you use to print anything on chocolate. I'm not by my desk right now so I can't give you the names of the companies that I ordered the things from, but will post later.

[hac]

JeanneCake thats the same process that i do, mostly for sugar cookies. i found that process much easier and more presentable than icing the cookie. i lay the edible image in a piece of fondant then cut it out neatly and water the back to adhere to the cookie. marshmallow fondant would be best for this as it taste close to royal icing when eaten.

you can check and email sweetlink website for the chocolate printer and process, i get my supplies from them. havent tried the chocolate transfer sheets though as its a bit expensive here in the philippines