Does anyone have any hints on how to make your own transfer sheets? I understand that it is generally just colored cocoa butter, so you would have to melt the cocoa butter and paint it onto a plastic sheet. My assumption is parchment paper or waxed paper wouldn't work well. Can you color with wilton paste colors or do you need special colorings? How long will it stay liquid before you need to rewarm it? How long do you have to let your design sit before you can use it to make a wrap? Hope someone is out there who's done this.
I wonder if you would use the powder food colors with the cocoa butter. Where does one buy cocoa butter?
As far as what to do it on, I'd say acetate sheets (thin plastic, like transparences).
You can use powdered colors, but it's hard to get them fully incorporated sometimes. They make colored cocoa butter, but I'm not sure where you can get them. I used to by them wholesale from Europe, so I don't know of any company that sells them retail, but I'm sure someone does.
You paint on a plastic sheet (acetate) and let it dry. It takes time to dry, sometimes days depending on humidity. Then you can use it. You can't use parchment paper or wax because you won't get shine that you get from acetate, and the paper will leave an ugly residue on your chocolate. Personally, it's much easier and cost efficient to use ready made ones, but good luck!
[edited to say I do know where you can get them]. I did some research, and you can find colored cocoa butter at www.chefrubber.com. They also have a tutorial here, that tell you how to do different things...
http://www.chefrubber.com/LearnWithCR/ColoredCocoaButter101.pdf
I probably won't try it for awhile, I've got plenty of ideas for cakes that I need to try already. My family is still really young, I have 3 children 3, 18 months and a newborn, and then just my husband and I, so we don't eat alot of cake and since my family lives far away it is hard to find reasons to make cake that we won't eat.
There is a cake and candy supply store here that sells the cocoa butter, but I live in a larger city, I don't know where you'd get it if you don't have a supply store close. On the internet of course, but I hate paying shipping.
i have tried to attempt this myself, by screenprinting coca butter onto sheets of acetate (sp?). Anyway, from my experience, the transfers ended up being very light in color and the whole process was really time-consuming and messy. If I were you, I'd just buy the ready-made transfers.
If you are still up for it...good luck
what makes it so time consuming? The painting? The melting and coloring? The drying? It just sounds so straight-forward....
I would think you'd be able to use the gel colors if you use the flo-coat. It's made for adding to chocolate to keep it from seizing with gel colors, etc.
The fact that it's not easy to paint with cocoa butter is what makes it time consuming. It's pretty much like painting with melted butter or oil on plastic. It doesn't always go where you want, it turns out lighter then you'd like, and it's an art that takes practice. As far as using gel colors along with flo-coat, I wouldn't. You need pure cocoa butter and nothing else...especially not a water product, because your finished chocolate product will not turn out good. I'd love to see what you make.
You can color it with powdered colors or oil based. You need to melt it and stir it until it sets again then melt it gently and use it. It is the cocoa butter in couverture that needs to be tempered which is why lots of us use the melts for everyday work. If you just melt and use it will take a long time to set and may be grainy just like untempered chocolate. Doing it yourself works fine for abstract designs, but if you want something really crisp and fine then you should buy the premade. As the pps said, use acetate not any paper product.
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