Tips From The Pros - Edible Ink Printers & Edible Ink Images
Via our newsletters, social media, blog, website and direct contact we are always trying to offer tips and handy hints regarding our edible printing products. We want your decorating experience to be enjoyable and as seamless as possible. Like everything, the more you use a product or technique the better you become - you may even become an expert in that field. So to help you further, we’ve collated here a small snippet of handy tips concerning edible ink printers and printing edible images, from the experts in this field - our customers!
“Allow plenty of time for your printed edible image to dry. For a topper, wire in advance and allow to set. For cake application, put on fondant backing first. Use a tiny spray mist of water or sugar glue to apply.”
- Kyla Daniels, Cakes By Kyla, Gosford, NSW
“Always allow yourself plenty of time to organise the image and print it out. Doing it in a rush will guarantee that something goes wrong. Always feed the end of the paper with the clear plastic margin in first - I’m not sure why that makes a difference, but it does.
Without question, learn how to troubleshoot - I have become an expert at cleaning the printer head - something I never thought I’d hear myself say!!”
- Gabby Elliot, Lets Have Cupcakes, Brisbane, QLD
“Use good quality sheets*!! Also, try to avoid super saturated dark areas as sometimes the ink has a hard time transferring across. Always abide by the recommended temperatures for use, otherwise once the chocolate sets the image may not have melted in properly.”
- Jen Lo, Meltdown Artisan, Darlinghurst, NSW
*Jen is referring to chocolate transfer sheets
“You get what you pay for. I’ve seen it first hand and that’s why we stick with Edible Image Supplies.
Keep your printer in use at least once a week. Clean your printer every month.”
- Pascal Menezes, The Red Balloon Candy Artisan, Prahran, VIC
“The ink will only ever run out when you need something urgently, keep a swear jar and spare full ink cartridges handy”.
- Jody Pender, Sugar By Design Australia, East Gresford, NSW
“I learnt that I need to clean my printer at least once a week. I'm still doing that to the best of my ability. My printer is working magic.”
- Lucinda Cocker, Vortex Cakes, Tonga
“The source image really is most important. Sometimes our customers might send us a fairly low-quality image, and while it can be a bit of a pain, we try to follow them up to see if they happen to have a better quality image file on hand”.
- Andre Portelli, Mezzapica Cake Studio, Leichhardt, Sydney
“Be prepared and print the image ahead of time. When applying to fondant, paint around the cut edge to match the colour of the fondant.”
- Sara Sabbagh, Sara’s Cake Studio, Erina Heights NSW
“I use a little water or edible glue to attach the edible images onto cupcakes & cookies”.
- Amy Rutherford, Cakes By Amy Rutherford, Dubbo, NSW
“We find that using a thin layer of piping gel is the best way to adhere images to fondant and buttercream. It also helps to avoid any of the annoying little air bubbles that can occur under the image”.
- Tanja Kober, Choice Cakes, Chirnside Park, VIC
“It took me a while to realise that printing with 'plain paper' setting was much more accurate with colours - especially with photos. High resolution always seemed to make colours a little out, and also too dark sometimes.
And never let the ink tanks run completely out - failed that lesson a few times”. - Donna Zagari, Deezee Designs, Halls Head, WA
“My tip when using edible images is to make sure that you apply them fresh & not too far in advance. The weather (particularly humidity) can be a problem if they’re left to sit”.
- Kylene Lovat, Smash Cake, Coogee, NSW
“Always follow Edible Image Supplies recommended schedule of daily, weekly, fortnightly and 6 monthly maintenance. If you have trouble remembering as I did, add these reminders into your phone calendar and they will automatically pop up”.
- Leanne Jones, Sweet Lucy, Gin Gin, QLD
So there you have it, from the experts producing edible images every day. There are definitely a few key points that many of our customers adhere to:
Allow plenty of time to get your edible prints done
Conduct regular edible printer maintenance
Run your edible printer weekly
Learn a few troubleshooting techniques
Quality edible printing products count
Keep spare edible ink cartridges on hand
