I normally cover my cake boards in thinned down royal icing. I am in the process of making a treasure chest cake and I would like the cake board to be the map. Can I ice my board, let it dry completely and then paint the map on the board with food colour? Do I need to use alcohol or lemon extract to thin my paint, I obviously do not want to melt the board.

BakingGirl

I have tried it before but using royal icing as well. Try letting the board dry completely and then painting over that with royal icing.
You might be able to draw the map with chocolate too, but I've never tried that.

Let me know how it all turns out. Sounds like a great idea.

Yes, you should be able to paint your dried board. To thin your color, use vodka or another clear alcohol. I've never done it with straight food color- I would definitely not use one that has too much water in it. A paste color might work, but the safest thing would be to make your paints with petal dusts or luster dusts. Don't use too much liquid on your board at one time, because if the royal icing gets WET, it'll start to break down, of course, and be sticky. So let it dry nicely between coats. Good luck!

I have made pansies from royal icing in white and then painted with food color and I used water to thin it it worked great. no problems.

This may not be of much help, but I used Food Markers on my cookies this morning (which were covered in Antonia's Royal Icing) and they worked great. If you wanted to make a map, and were worried about painting on it, the Food Markers work good, so you might want to keep those in mind if the painting doesn't work out.

Thank you all. My board is drying now so I will get working on the map as soon as the icing is dry. I think I will try painting first, spot check in the middle where the cake will go, and take it from there.

BakingGirl