Edible Food Coloring & Edible Inks are essentially not the same. Many of our customers often ask why should they buy edible inks while the edible food colors are much pocket-friendly. The answer is simply that these two are fundamentally different. Let’s dig in.
What Are Edible Food Colorings Or Cake Art Paints?
Edible food colorings are safe to consume colors, majorly available in two variants - Poppy Paints and Edible Art Paints. Both can be used to add interesting colors to any food, even the savory ones. The poppy paints dry way faster, In like 30-60 seconds, compared to the edible art paints that can take upto 24 hours. So, even though the poppy paints cost a little more, they are worth every penny. You can mix both the paints with gum paste, fondant, dough, royal icing, buttercream, cream frosting, Ganache, etc. Also, the cake paints are perfect to add details and create some amazing hand-drawn artwork on food, especially the poppy paints. Their assorted range of colors can produce any design you want.
The Icinginks Edible Art Paints come in 3 variants - the edible Art Primary Paints, edible Art Pastel Paints & Edible Art Metallic Color Paints. They are ready-to-use and quite easy too. Simply shake, pour and paint on any food surface you want; just like you would use any regular paint bottles. Want some edible watercolor effects? Mix a little cake decorator’s alcohol (high grade 95% alcohol) and paint away. They are great for DIY projects and also for professional uses. However, they are not engineered to be used with edible printers.
How To Use The Edible Food Colorings?
- Shake the bottle well to ensure the solid and liquid ingredients mix together and form an even consistency.
- Each color has different pigmentation, so try and taste your cake paint bottle with different surfaces and methods to understand them better.
- The Standard Art Primary Paints can be applied to Fondant, Crusted Buttercream Cakes (chilled), Royal Icing, Sugar Cookies, Marshmallows, Gold Leaf, Deco Magic, Confectionery, Ganache, Modeling Chocolate, Macarons, etc.
- The Metallic Paints are better applicable for Fondant, Crusted Buttercream Cakes (chilled), Sugar Cookies, Marshmallows, Confectionery, Ganache, Modelling Chocolate, Macarons, and Fruits. Unlike the standard paints, the metallic ones are not that great with Italian Buttercream or Swiss Meringue Buttercream surfaces.
- Try different paintbrushes. While the metallic ones are better with wider, flat brushes of soft bristles, the primary colorings are better with sponge brushes.
- Have a glass of hot soapy water on hand with some paper towels and keep cleaning your brushes after every use.
- Take a small amount of paint into your palette and paint or, pour 2-3 drops (as required) on fondant, ganache or buttercream, etc. A small amount of edible paint goes a long way. Use as little as possible at first and you can mix more later.
- Let the first layer of paint dry before painting on a second layer.
- Use high-grade alcohol for a watercolor painting effect or if you need a little diluted paint.
- Allow up to 24 hours for the edible art paints to air-dry, depending on the temperature and humidity. If you are using poppy paints, it's just a matter of a minute.
Edible Inks on the other hand are manufactured to work with your edible printers. They are safe to consume and are specifically formulated and engineered in a food-grade laboratory to have the necessary characteristics that can work with a printer without damaging it. The edible inks have a certain viscosity, droplet size, charge, etc. that allows them to easily get jetted through an inkjet printer and print on edible sheets.
They are highly pigmented and produce vibrant images on frosting sheets. These inks are also designed in a way that doesn’t damage the print-heads. Like any inkjet printer inks, these magical edible inks come in only 4 primary CMYK colors (Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow). You can either buy the set of 4 edible ink bottles or individually as per your needs.
How To Use The Edible Inks For Edible Printers?
Edible inks come with cartridges when you first buy an edible printer. They are set and used exactly like your regular inkjet printer cartridges. After you are done with them, you can always buy some refill bottles and keep the fun edible printing process running. The Icinginks edible ink refills are FDA compliant, Kosher and Allergens-free. They work best with the Icinginks edible cartridges and edible sheets. Plus, refilling your edible ink cartridges can save up to 60%.
Things You Need To Refill Edible Ink Cartridges:
- Icinginks edible ink bottle
- Refill injector with needle
- Cartridge sealing clip
- Paper towels and safety gloves
- Step 1: Attach the cartridge holder clip to the cartridge. In absence of the clip, cover the bottom hole using the thumb to create the pressure and avoid leakage of ink. Remove the top refilling color plug from the cartridge.
- Step 2: For small cartridges (CLI series), fill the syringe up to 8-10ml of edible ink, and for the large black cartridge (PGI series), fill up to 12-15ml.
- Step 3: Hold the cartridge in the inclined direction so that ink goes to the sponge side first. To refill, insert the blunt needle through the filling vent and slowly push the syringe to pour edible ink into the cartridge.
- Step 4: Insert the refilling plug into the filling vent.
- Step 5: Shake the cartridge upside down to settle the inks in both chambers.
- Step 6: Take a damp paper towel, hold the cartridge and remove the bottom cartridge holder clip. Again remove the top refilling plug and let the cartridge drip 2-3 drops of edible ink to resume the normal flow of edible inks.
Now that you know the fundamental differences between the two kinds of edible colorings, use them wisely. Keep asking questions and remember that we, at Icinginks are happy to share our expert guidance.
