Cookies, Edible Ink and Paper

[LaMiaCucina]

I'll be baking 10 - 20 dozen cut-out cookies for an upcoming event.  I have a few questions regarding edible ink and  "paper" to be used for the photo.  (Edible markers would take too long, and cost a lot, given the amount that need to be made.)

 

1.  Have any of you used a printer with the "paper" and ink?  If so, did you find a decent supplier?

 

I'm trying to decide the best way to do this.  I don't want to be baking the days leading up to the conference, so I thought to pre-bake.

 

2.  Is it possible to freeze cookies with "printed" designs?  Will the designs "run?"  Or, am I better off baking them and freezing them plain (and add the "photo" later)?

 

3.  Do you recommend any specific type of "paper?"  I know that there are fondant type sheets and rice paper sheets.  What have you used with success?

 

Any other advice you have is appreciated.

Thanks!

[Deryn]

Quite a number of years ago now I used a printer to print edible ink onto frosting sheets - and it worked fine. I didn't try it on rice paper because that was not what I wanted (for cakes). It was just a normal printer that I already owned (I think it was a Canon - not all would work) BUT once you clean it and print with edible inks, you cannot reverse the process and go back to using regular inks(or you could not back then - technology advances may have changed that). For that reason, and the fact that, at the time, I had limited long term use for a caketop printer, I didn't buy a dedicated printer for edible ink work - I eventually bought a new printer for regular printing on paper purposes.

I looked into a number of (expensive) printers that were supposedly designed to only print with edible inks but eventually found a source that said that was extra expense one didn't need to go to (although I would guess that if one was running a commercial establishment, just using an old printer probably would not be allowable when it comes to health authorities).

I can't vouch for whether cookies can be frozen well with the icing already on them but why take the chance if you don't have to?

Edited August 21, 2015 by Deryn (log)