Using a Printer in Your Kitchen

Posted by eyman on March 11th, 2013

Did you know a printer could be useful in your kitchen? I’m not suggesting you’re going to start using documents in your recipes or wallpapering your kitchen with recycled paper, rather a printer used with edible ink can and icing sheets can turn out designs and photos to incorporate into your desserts. If you ever wanted to be Martha Stewart in the kitchen, but just don’t have the time or patience for the details, you’ll be surprised what you can do in just a few minutes and with very little talent using these tools.

5 Minute Dessert Make-Overs

1.Top a cupcake with a design cut from icing sheets using a punch cutter – you can find a wide variety of punches designed to cut out a shape. A squeeze of a punch cuts out a snowflake, a flower, a heart and many more popular designs.

2.Add a photo of your child on top of his or her birthday cake – either scan a photo you have or print from your computer on to a whole icing sheet or one that has been pre-cut to a picture frame size.

3.Cover the sides of a cake in a designer print – a light coat of piping gel over the fondant will stick the design to the sides and/or top of the cake.

4.Add an icing snowflake to a cup of hot chocolate or coffee – just punch out the design or cut your own with scissors.

5.Cut a circle out of a printed icing design and apply it to a cookie – use scissors or print on icing sheets with pre-cut circles.

6.Lay the icing sheet over rolled fondant, use a flower cookie cutter to cut out a flower and add a round center to create a flower topper for a cake or cupcake.

The list of creative ideas goes on, but the key idea here is that it only takes a simple cutting tool like a punch, scissors or a cookie cutter to create a decorative touch for any dessert. So, imagine, in a very Martha Stewart-like manner, you wanted your table scape to coordinate with your dessert. Let’s say your theme is sunflowers. You can find a picture or illustration of sunflowers online, download it, print it on an icing sheet and cut it out to add to the top of your dessert. You’re certain to get rave reviews and you can keep how easy it was all to yourself.

The edible ink cartridges look like regular printing cartridges but are filled with liquid food coloring. Food coloring used to only come in squeezable tubes years ago, but today its numerous forms allow cake decorators to be more creative and artistic in their application. An edible ink printer merges food coloring with today’s technology and like most technological advances, makes using it faster and easier.