I’ve had an edible ink printer since November and have finally got around to using it. I was feeling kind of intimindated, but it’s actually pretty easy – hook your computer up to the printer or scan your image in, and print. The possibilities are endless!
I can’t wait to use it for these two:
My brother Norm proposed to my future sister-in-law Stefanie last week! Yay! I’m so happy and proud of you both! CONGRATULATIONS!!
Stefanie’s sister Jenny is getting married in May, so I’m of course delighted to be making cookies for her wedding and made cookies a few weeks ago for her shower.
Her overall them is love (Mais oui, of course!), and she completely fell for a line of LOVE cookies (below) by Zoë Lukas of the Whipped Bakeshop. You should see her cakes, cupcakes and cookies – they’re all absolutely stunning!
A huge thank you to Zoë for granting me permission to use her signature image for Jenny’s cookies.
The LOVE graphic can be printed as an edible image. For an explanation of what edible ink and edible paper are, see Sweetopia’s Sugarcrafting Glossary here.
Jenny’s wedding colours are silver, white and plum, so, here are the results… Not as well-executed as Zoë’s, and please excuse the poor quality photos; these were taken at night.
If you’d like to make edible image cookies, you can; {a} visit a bakery in your area which has and Edible Ink Printer and pay per page or {b} you can buy the whole kit-and-kaboodle yourself.
If you’re going to do it infrequently, definitely choose option {a}.
Buying everything is kind of expensive. In the past I’ve gone to our local grocery store, Sobey’s, and paid $10.00 per page. (Even that is pricey, I know, but the ink and wafer paper costs a pretty penny… annnnd I didn’t really have a choice).
Option {b}.
I went for it! I bought the Canon PIXMA MP560 Wireless Inkjet All-In-One Photo Printer (3747B002) (what a mouthful, but there you have it if you’re interested), as well as the frosting sheets and edible ink cartridges from Icing Images.
The neat thing is that you can buy almost any Canon or Epson printer (of course, never using it with real ink), and just use the edible ink cartridges and frosting paper.
Rice or Wafer Paper can be used with it as well.
The people at Icing Images can help you figure out what you need, depending on which printer you buy.
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There are a few ways to apply an edible ink image to a cookie though. You can put it on the icing when it’s wet, and in the case of royal icing, you can also add it when it’s dry. I prefer this method because the image seems to go on smoother and the edges don’t curl up.
If you’d like to try this way out, here’s the recipe I use for Royal Icing.
And my Sugar Cookie Recipe.
Here’s the way I do it:*
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How to Put an Edible Ink Image onto a Cookie:
I wasn’t exactly thinking about writing this post when I made Jenny’s cookies, so I don’t have step by step pics of that, but I can demonstrate next time.
Happy decorating!
xo,
Marian
Melissa says
Very Cute! I also recently used edible images but I made Olympic Mascot Cupcakes using your idea from the Olympic Mascot cookie post. They were a huge hit!
I love reading your blog! It is always filled with great ideas. Thanks for sharing two other great blogs/companies in the last two posts!
xo Melissa 🙂
meaghan (chic cookies) says
I’m dying to get one of these and try it, so thank you for the how-tos, tips and inspiration! You just pushed me one giant step closer….
Rowaida Flayhan says
Beautiful ideas Marian! As always love reading your blog.
Thanks
the wicked noodle says
These are amazing! Of course, I’d never expect anything less from you 🙂 Congrats to all on the engagements!
doreen says
I got an edible image set-up for Christmas from my darling husband and I’m going to use it for the first time to make Easter cookies! Thanks for the tips, I hadn’t a clue!
Jenny says
I always wondered how to do an edible image. Thanks for the lesson! I just found your blog and LOVE it.
By the way, I was wondering if you’ve ever tried rubber stamping an image onto royal icing? I’m toying with that idea for my daughter’s birthday (coming up soon!).
bridget {bake at 350} says
I *just* ordered my printer on FRIDAY!!! Great minds think alike, right? Now, I can’t wait to get it!!!
Thank you! Oh, I love that LOVE image!
Sue says
You are SO right, the possibilities are endless!!!
AWESOME! I really need to buy the whole set-up:)
Rose says
OMG Marian what a wonderful job you did! I bet the guests were delighted with their goody bags! Thanks for all the great information. I can’t wait to see the wedding cake!
Lovey says
Haaaaaa… it’s not just me than. I received MY edible image printer for Christmas (along with a new camera)from my husband and they are both still in the box but look forward to trying them out. BTW: You may already know this but…. the love image that is Zoe’s signature image was originally done by Robert Indiana for a U.S. stamp issued in the 70’s. http://www.sites.si.edu/images/exhibits/Art%20of%20the%20Stamp/pages/Love_jpg.htm
I always “LOVE” (pun intended) this image as, even though done in the 70s, it has a very 60s retro feeling to me.
Marian says
Glad to hear you guys are excited about the edible ink printer too – it really is fun and easy!
Jenny, I have thought about that but haven’t done it yet. When I was looking into it I found this site with food-safe rubber stamps. You might want to check their stuff out!
http://www.sweetstampen.com/
Enjoy and would love to hear how it goes!
Renee of Kudos Kookies says
Thanks for that post Marian. I was wondering how the images were applied to the cookies and your post covered it perfectly. I may want to take the plunge one day into edible art image printing. It sure does seem popular right now. Thanks again for the informative and always timely post.
Marielle says
Great cookies!! I always wondered how such perfect cookies were made and now I get it finally; they are printed!! Didn’t know it was possible…
I learn something new from you every time. Thank you very much!
I also heard about a technique called Royal Icing transfer: could you maybe explain how that is done???
Marian says
Marielle, I’ve got a post on royal icing transfers (also called run-outs, floodwork etc.) in the tutorial section. Here’s the link:
https://www.sweetopia.net/2009/12/how-to-do-royal-icing-flood-work-or-runouts/
Hope that helps! Don`t hesitate to leave comments or questions there. I`ll try my best to help out!
Lovey, how appropriate with your name! Thanks for the LOVE image background!
Amanda says
Looks fantastic! Would love to get that someday!
Janet says
Thank you so very, very much! Just ordered the same printer and cannot wait to try this for myself. Any tips you might have to share about the software you used/how you got the image to fit the icing sheet would be very much appreciated! Also, if you can stand one more question… Does the corn syrup leak through the image? I’m worried about my cookies sticking to the parchment when I turn them up-side-down. Thank you again – LOVE your blog!
Marian says
Janet, I didn`t have to worry about formatting or anything; I just hooked my laptop up to the edible ink printer, pasted the images into Microsoft Word and printed (at best quality), from there!
There is an installation c.d. which comes with the printer, but there`s nothing to that. It just intalls the recognition etc. files.
The corn syrup was a bit sticky. I ended up keeping a damp cloth on the table beside me and a dry towel as well. In between every 2nd cookie I wiped my hands on the damp cloth and then on the dry towel. Annoying, but necessary.
I tried my best to just get corn syrup on the space that needed it, but inevitably some leaked out the sides of the image when I pressed it on. I used one hand for one cookie (to press image on), and then the other for the 2nd cookie. That`s why I wiped my hands after every second one.
The clear corn syrup doesn`t leak through the image when you leave it upside down on the parchment, and although some might eek out the sides when you press the image on, there`s usually not enough to really make it stick to the parchment.
I find piping the border necessary to clean up the look of the edging a bit.
I used a sponge brush to `paint` on the corn syrup.
All these things you`ve reminded me of; I`ll make sure the tutorial I do with step by step pics showing everything, will be more detail-oriented.
In the meantime, if you figure out another way/better ideas, would love to hear them!
Hope that helps!
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
Very helpful post, I would love to get printing edible cookies.
I wonder though, whether it’s actually Robert Indiana the artist who you need to be asking permission for the LOVE lettering though as Zoe certainly can’t claim any rights to it no matter how gorgeous her cookies may be!
Marian says
Sarah, I guess what I meant is that she gave me permission to use her graphic and shared the file with me.
Good point as to permission from the artist though. I didn’t even know it was by him until I wrote this post, although knew it was a sculpture of course.
Lovey says
So sorry… I’m the one who mentioned who the original artist was who did it on a stamp… I only mentioned it as I found it interesting. I’m assuming that the artist is fine with his art being duplicated as there are several sites selling this cookie cutter on the internet.
Marian says
No need to be sorry Lovey! The information you shared was interesting and certainly gave me food for thought!
Laura says
I’ve found you can just lay your printed image on the wet royal icing and give it one extra day to dry. If the order is for Friday, ice the cookies on Wednesday, let them dry overnight and then ice the border the next day (so the color doesn’t run) and then let them dry again overnight to be ready to be bagged on Friday.
Had a bad experience with corn syrup that never dried and we had to put each cookie in a jewelery box instead of bags.
If you ice the whole cookie and lay the image in the middle you can have fun putting sprinkles around the image on the rest of the wet royal icing instead of piping a border.
Just fyi, just use white icing behind the image – seems logical until someone requests their little princess picture on a pink crown. The color can come through and distort the picture.
One last thing – hope you share the “flicker” technique to getting the images off the plastic sheets, it works every time. Just place the sheets image side down, lift a corner near an image and flick with your middle finger (like playing carroms) the plastic backing and the image will pull away from the backing.
Oh one more thing, the Epson Workforce 30 $60 at Office Depot works great with Kopykake ink cartridges. (www.kopykake.com)
Thanks for your terrific blog!
Marian says
Laura, thanks so much for your terrific input! It’s very valuable and useful! I don’t have a lot of experience with edible ink images, so am grateful for the advice!
Linzy says
Hi Marian,
Always such wonderful things! Anyway, had a question…when you do the scalloped edge do you make your royal icing thicker?I feel like I have been having a lot of royal icing issues as of late. The last cookies I made, the frosting never hardened completely, and it was sorta light and fluffy, I am more of a fan of dense sugary royal icing. I added luster dust to the frosting and think this may have been the issue? Do you have any experience in this? Just hoping for a little help, thanks much for all your inspiration! xo!
Jami says
Congratulations to your family! The cookies look great. Do you have any tips on applying edible images to fondant? thanks!
Mandy says
I love my edible ink printer and I LOVE your blog!! I’m following you on twitter to keep up with all your lovely sweet adventures.:)
Kate says
You did a fantastic job on those cookies! I’m going to look into the edible printer. That is awesome!
Jeniffer says
I learn so much from your blog… thank you!! Love these cookies 🙂 Congratulations to your brother on his engagement, he and Stefanie make a gorgeous couple!!
nikki says
Hi Marian,
Your cookies look amazing. Everyone must have been thrilled with the results! I recently made a cake using an edible image for the first time too. My image was much larger and hence quite tricky to get off the backing sheet and onto my cake. I found laying it onto the cake without getting folds in the image a bit of a challenge! My language was very colourful at that point!! On the second attempt, I discovered using a very thin paint pallet knife and gently running it under the image helped get it off the backing. I also supported the paper thin image with some light cardboard and eased it out slowly as the image fell onto the cake. You may not have experienced the same level of difficulty as I did as your images were much smaller…… but I hope these tips help. Just one question, what made you go with the edible printer you bought?
Marian says
Oops, I hadn’t noticed those questions Jami and Linzy – Sorry!
Linzy; Yes, the consistency of the royal icing border has to be thick so that the piped star tip details can be seen. I just make my royal icing and keep it thick instead of thinning it to runny consistency. Here’s the recipe I use:
https://www.sweetopia.net/2009/06/cookie-decorating-tutorial-general-tips-butterfly-cookies/
Luster dust may change the consistency a bit, but it shouldn’t tooooo much. What was the consistency like before you added it? Did you use the 10 second rule to make the icing the right thickness? Did you let it sit for a while and then use it? (Royal icing separates and the top half of what’s in the container gets thin). What recipe are you using. -Sorry, lots of questions but there could be many factors affecting the outcome of your icing.
Jami; I haven’t tried edible images on fondant yet – sorry!
Nikki; Thanks for the input!! Very valuable!!
Shirley Womack says
I noticed Linzy’s question about the fluffy frosting. That has happened to me a couple of times and I suspect it was because I was beating it at too high a speed which put too much air in it and then I had to add too much water! It was more like a marshmallow texture. Since I have been beating it at the slow speed, I have not had those issues. I thought this might be a possibility as an answer, but I’m no exper!
Linzy says
@ Marian:
Hi Marian, sorry it took me so long to reply! Anyway, I use Antonias74 recipe. It seems that sometimes its perfect and others its not so perfect. I beat on low speed and it comes out nice and thick and then I water it down, using the ten second rule. I generally try to use the frosting immediately, but sometimes I make it the night before. My favorite consistency is when it is that hard candy shell and the fluffy mix is not so great because it looks ok, but it is more fragile and kinda powdery when you eat it 🙁 Well Marian, thank you so much for your help and inspiration! Have a great weekend!
Linzy says
@ Shirley Womack:
Thanks Shirley, I will try beating a bit slower the next time, I would agree with you a little marshmallowy (word?) Thank you for the help!
AshleyC says
Thanks for the post and advice on the edible image supplies. I just ordered mine and can’t wait to use it!
Kookie Krums says
Just found your site and am absolutely loving it! Thank you so much for all the detail you provide, it’s absolutely amazing. I have the Canon printer too for my edible images, and buy my sheets from Icing Images. However, with the new sheets they’re using, I can never get my images centered perfectly on the circles. I use the 2.5″ circles to print on. Any suggestions?
marian says
Thanks so much!
Kookie Krums; I’ve just received the circle frosting sheets in the mail so haven’t played around with them yet – sorry! If I figure anything out I’ll post on it for sure!
Hazel says
hi marian,
have you tried edible images on a cupcake?
thanks.
hazel
marian says
Hi Hazel,
No I haven’t. I’ve seen them at a local bakery though; it looks like they just put the buttercream on with a spatula, lightly press a circular edible image onto the icing, and then sprinkle sanding sugar around the edges (which the edible image doesn’t cover).
Sorry I couldn’t help you more!
Lorraine Russo says
Hi Sweetopia: I recently made photo cookies for my grandmother’s 96th birthday. I had a question about the border and using the star tip. I used a no. 16 star tip and played around with the border a bit. I liked the way it came out overall, but was wondering how you use it to get the scalloped look that you do. I am not that experienced with shaped decorating tips so that’s why I tried to practiced, but couldn’t really get a scalloped look. Thanks so much! I will also post a picture to your page soon so you can see it. Thanks so much. Lorraine Russo-Harty (Lorraine’s Cookies)
marian says
Hi Lorraine,
It’s hard to explain but i’ll try (and will have to do a video i think!):
-used a #16 star tip
-thick icing
-Pressed enough icing out to almost look like a ball of icing then stopped pressing (piping bag) and dragged the top towards the cookie and tapered off the end.
See… I need to do a video. LOL
Lin says
Hi thanks for being so generous in sharing your experiences n knowledge. How do you cut the edible images after they r printed? I am printing about 150 two inch by inch round logos n the shop doesnt do the cutting n suggested I use a cookie cutter to do so.
Are there any tools out there that can print n cut the logos? I m thinking of buying my own printer.
Thank you
Marian says
@ Lin: I usually use scissors, but if you’re doing circles, how about a circle punch cutter from Michael’s or your local craft store?
I’ve never used a cookie cutter, but that might work. I’m not 100% sure how sharp the edges would be though.
I don’t know of a printer which prints AND cuts, however, you CAN buy edible ink paper in various shapes. I.e. circles, squares, whole 8 1/2 by 11 sheets etc. You’re limited in terms of the size of circles etc., but check Kopykake.com or Icing Images.com for your options.
nicole says
Can you use a colored base icing when using an edible image. I have only seen the background color white. Thank you so much for sharing your amazing talent.
Marian (Sweetopia) says
@ nicole: I wouldn’t recommend it. The image seems to show up best on a neutral (white) background.
Aneesha says
How long can Edible image cookies last packaged in cello bags..
Will be using royal icing on the base..
Can i last 3 weeks i am wondering..Please advise.
marian says
@ Aneesha: I make mine up to two weeks in advance, however many people swear by up to one month. I’m sure it would be fine, but I usually time mine so it’s up to two weeks. Three weeks should be okay. =) Have fun!