Hi all! I'm wondering about painting on fondant. I've read people have used vodka, extracts, lemon juice. etc...What works best?
Would the alcohol evaporate off if i used vodka? I'm working on a cake design and I was thinking of painting a "portrait" on it but there will be kids eating it. Can i just use clear vanilla extract or is the vodka safe?

Use vodka. It evaporates completely.

A high "proof" alcohol--the higher the better--like EverClear, vodka, or gin works very well. The alcohol evaporates, so there's no taste or "effect" left once it's dry.

Lemon extract--NEVER juice because that has too much water & natural sugar in it--is very high in alcohol content, too. The oil in it helps with the "flow" of the paint and there seems to be less powdering (of luster or petal dusts) after it dries. It smells nice, and there's no real detectable flavor left behind when dry.

Vanilla extract--clear or reg.--really isn't a good medium. It has no oil in it and it's generally not high enough in alcohol content to work well (although my homemade vanilla is 80 proof vodka based, but it's really dark brown, too).

You can paint with canola oil, too. It doesn't really dry and it's translucent, but it works.

You can also use cocoa butter, but it needs to stay warm and can get thick quickly. Nice if you really want to see brushstrokes.

Rae

thanks for the advice everyone i'll be trying this in the next week!