Anyone familar with edible ink

[Wendy DeBord]

I had a wedding cake consultation this weekend and she's looking for something way over the top. Picture this: a three tiered wedding cake, the bottom cake is a monopoly board with hotels and game pieces on it, the middle layer is 4 dice (the supports will be hiddened thru each dice) and the top cake is a square covered in playing card on each side, the cake topper is two playing cards inserted-a king and queen. Around the base of the wedding cake I'm going to make dominos on the table.

This needs to be done well and not "cheezy" as the bride phrased it. Problems: BUDGET, of course AND all the colors should be pastel, pastel monopoly board dice and cards and dominos.

The brides sister works for an advertising company and shes going to have them scan playing cards and re-color them in pastels. Then so I'm not hand painted all these cards (too keep costs down) I want to take them to a bakery that has a edible colored printer and have them print these cards on either gum paste or rolled fondant.

BUT I'm not that knowledgable about these printers and I'm hoping one of you are, and can guide me. Everyone is worried that this scanned image will look bad like gorcery store cakes. But I worked at a bakery once were they printed dirrectly on rolled fondant and you can get a decent reproduction. Well, the easiest thing would be for me to go to that bakery and have them print these up for me. BUT (of course theres a problem) that owners spouse ran their printer and he did a horrible job, never centering the images and didn't fill the color cartriges so full color stunk.

So I need to make some phone calls and find a bakery that will do a great job. Anyone in Chicago that does this please let me know?

What do you call the type of printer that prints dirrectly on fondant verses those press on sheets? Whats the best way to get the best product.....I could have the images on disk or copies to be scanned. How do those printers work, do they take a disk? Can I use gum paste rolled out instead of fondant to print on?

Have any of you done any work similar to this? Any advice? Will I need to spray cards, game board and dominos with edible shelac so they look real, not dull?

[Fat Guy]

I personally think the edible frosting sheets look better than the jet-decorated cakes, even though the equipment for the latter is 10-20 times as expensive. In my (limited) experience, the printed-on cakes, no matter how well-made, allow for a ton of ink dispersion -- it's just inherent in the technology as far as I can tell. Whereas the edible frosting sheets can reproduce fairly high resolution images that can transfer very well to frosting without spreading out too much -- I suppose there must be technique tricks that can improve performance, but it seems possible to do very well with these. The margin for error with edible frosting sheets is also much more favorable, because you're not wasting actual food product each time you print experimentally.

I don't know where you can find a shop in Chicago that does this, but if you're looking to use this technology repeatedly over time it may very well be worth it to get yourself set up with the equipment anyway. The frosting sheets, although they are often sold with relabeled printers that are allegedly special, actually work in Canon bubble jet printers. You also don't need any special scanner or software -- you can use generic products, which you may already own. All you really have to buy is the food-safe ink cartridge and the frosting-transfer sheets. These are sold under several brand names such as PhotoFrost, KopyKake, and Lucks.

A couple of Web sites just for background reading:

http://www.icingmagic.bizland.com/edible-paper.htm

http://www.sweetart.com/

How long do you have for this project?

[Wendy DeBord]

Well thats interesting info, thanks Fat Guy! Seems like I need to do more exploring on which process will look best for my use. Thanks for the links, they make it easier to visualize but they don't help me deside which would be best for this application. I need to learn more.

Think that I could do this on my own hp printer or are the edible cartages only for cannon printers? Technically no one is going to eat these cards....so......

Oh, I missed you last question. The wedding is in July.

Edited April 26, 2004 by Sinclair (log)

[Fat Guy]

They make edible ink cartridges for HP printers, but I don't know anything about their quality. Here's one source:

http://www.iqdurableink.com/page18.html

[celenes]

Sinclair,

I have a printer that uses edible ink it is a cannon. I have information from DecoPac, Country Kitchen and Bakery Crafts. I also think that Lucks offers printers and the supplies.

To be honest I really don't use my printer too much. I use rice paper alot and draw alot of my stuff coloring it in with piping gel.

My clients are usally quite pleased.

[Wendy DeBord]

Actually I'd love to get really deep into what can be done with printers and edible printing. Theres a few decorators out there doing amazing work with them. If I had the time and the money........I know I could do some cool things with it.

I know this might not make sense coming from my art back ground........but to me freehand is sooooo limiting (time wise). Not that I can't do freehand work, but to take art work to items made in mass-that's interesting to me!

Where are you Brian?-you could do some really impressive wholesale products this way.

[IcingMagic]

Picture this: a three tiered wedding cake, the bottom cake is a monopoly board with hotels and game pieces on it, the middle layer is 4 dice (the supports will be hiddened thru each dice) and the top cake is a square covered in playing card on each side, the cake topper is two playing cards inserted-a king and queen. Around the base of the wedding cake I'm going to make dominos on the table.

Sinclair,

Hello, I'm the owner of IcingMagic. I would like to help you with this interesting cake ideal. After reading your post, I believe we can make something "Well Done" and not cheesy.

First off. The bottom cake shouldn't be too much of a problem. This will be a simple layon of an icing sheet or two depending on the size of the bottom cake.

For the dice we can wrap a print on all showing sides. (This is similar to a gift box style we have done)

The top can be done in the same way or we can go the extra mile and make 3x5 cards (approximate size) out of white chocolate and then you can add them to the side of the cake. This will give you a 3d effect.

If the brides sister can get all the artwork converted over to the pastel colors. Then I'm sure they can send the pictures in a jpg file to me, I’ll print them for you and ship them to you. You would only have to assemble the finish product. (I say it like it will be easy and it may be)

If you like this ideal. Please give me a call. 866-424-6448 and we can discuss it further.

Have a Nice Day,

Robert

[Wendy DeBord]

Icing magic thanks for the offer, but I need to do this local. I'm a very hands on person.....and will only be printing the card images, the rest will be free hand work.

[philbo]

I'd check with Dolores at Sugarcraft (http://www.sugarcraft.com/). She will do the printouts for you, or can sell you the supplies to do this yourself.

I've ordered products from Sugarcraft before (although not this one), and they are great.

Edited May 3, 2004 by philbo (log)

[SweetArt]

I would like to make a few comments in reference to the discussion about icing sheets versus the "Jet" method of applying images to edible products. In the interest of full disclosure, I represent the manufacturer of the Sweet Art Jet System.

There are some major differences between our system and the "edible paper" based systems, mainly in the natural appearance and taste of the finished product. The guiding principle of our business has always been that the image should not interfere in any way with the taste or texture of the bakery item. For a very high-end wedding cake, I would think this would be paramount. Because our process results in an image with no foreign substance other than tasteless, textureless food coloring being applied to the cake, the chance of an unpleasant "tissue-paper" experience disturbing wedding guests is eliminated.

Because the Jet System can print to a three-dimensional item, the Jet can easily print directly onto rolled fondant, which I believe would be a much more acceptable subtance than edible paper sheets for a upscale wedding cake (the image quality is excellent).

It is true that our equipment is more expensive than the edible paper methods, primarily because the Jet is designed to be totally hygienic and food safe. Like all food preparation equipment, its exterior construction is of easily-sanitized stainless steel and its unique design eliminates ALL direct contact between the machine and the food product being decorated.

Utilizing an office printer, which was never designed to handle edible items (and can't be thoroughly cleaned), to create these images seems to run counter to proper food preparation practices.

Although a new Jet Decorator is approximately $4,500, factory refurbished units are available for a third of this price.

One further point. A reference was given to a supplier for HP food coloring cartridges. It is important to remember that overseas sources (or any source for that matter) of this kind of product should be thoroughly investigated. Careful reading of this particular vendor's ingredients list mentions Red Dye #2 which has been banned in the U.S. since the 1970s.

[IcingMagic]

Icing magic thanks for the offer, but I need to do this local. I'm a very hands on person.....and will only be printing the card images, the rest will be free hand work.

Sinclair,

I thank you for thinking I have the energy or the skill to even attempt to make this cake. (still a beginner when it comes to making works of art) My offer was to talk and let you know what the icing sheets can do, and possibly help with providing the material that you would need to accomplish what you want to do.

Congratulations on your advancement with this forum. (read my first newsletter today and seen your name.)

Have a Nice Day,

Robert

P.S. Philbo, Sue at Sugarcraft is wonderful to work with as well.

[Wendy DeBord]

Ah, I'm learning. I did breifly work at a bakery that had the more expensive Sweetartjet system and I thought it seemed superior to icing sheets. When you lay icing sheets down you can tell thats what it is on a cake. But with this other printing process since it prints dirrectly on your fondant it's a real fooler. This is the process I'm looking for. Thank-you for giving me a name for this, now I can call around to local bakeries and find someone who owns a sweet art jet.

Sweetart, do you have a photo that you could post to show everyone how well this prints? Also how does it work, can I use a disk or is it only a scanner system? Theres a couple top cake decorators out there that are using your system (I believe).....do you work with them at all and can you post any advance examples of what their doing with your printer? From what I've seen this could really be an amazing tool.

I know the top decorators print onto chocolate plastic, are there other surfaces that you know work well too in addition to fondant?

Icing Magic, sorry I must have mis-understood. I am familar with sugarcraft and have ordered from them serveral times. I agree their service is great-I have nothing but praise for them.

[Rachel Perlow]

Whatever you do, we want to see pictures of the finished cake!

[Wendy DeBord]

o.k. I will post it-but it's not for a couple more months.

[IcingMagic]

Attn: All Readers of Egullet.com

At the beginning of this post "Fat Guy" (Steven) referenced our web site for a little background reading.

IcingMagic really appreciates this, and would like to extend a special offer in return for the mention.

IcingMagic would like to offer any member of the egullet.com message board a 10% savings on their next purchase from IcingMagic.com till the end of June 2004, (This will be in addition to our FREE SHIPPING offer) unfortunately this must exclude cake packaging materials (boxes, boards/pads and domes).

To receive the 10% Savings all you have to do is mention that you are a member of eGullet.com and your member name in the comment section of the order form.

Thank you for your time.

Robert Allen

www.icingmagic.com

P.S. Permission was granted to place this offer on eGullet.com.

[Fat Guy]

Thanks, Robert.

[Wendy DeBord]

While we are talking about decorating cakes on another thread, I wanted to bring this topic back up. Just last night I finally found the source of my interest in printed fondant/chocolate. Look at the patterns on her cakes in the "spotlight". They use a edible ink printer to do these.

Check out http://www.cakework.com

I would LOVE to be able to do this on my cakes. I think it has soooo much potential and several different applications I could apply it to in my work.

[Tepee]

Wendy, I've had my eyes on this site for some time now. They do marvellous work. But resigning myself to the fact I will not be able to reproduce that in the near future (don't have the equipment or the paper, is it rice paper?), I'm wondering if other methods could be used. Chocolate wraps, for example. Or strips of fondant rolled together. Of course, the result will not be as beautiful as the printed ones. Just my 2 sen.

[SweetArt]

Cakework utilizes a Sweet Art Jet Decorator, but I do not believe they are using any type of edible printing system to do the striped patterns seen in the "Spotlight" section of their website.

I do know they create the chocolate book covers seen in the "Specialty" section with the Jet Decorator. The link to this section is:

http://www.cakework.com/specialty.html

Cakework does beautiful work and their website is extremely well done, also.