AI'm a hobby baker working on a small project for a friend. I wanted to get a pattern printed on wafer paper. I don't have an edible printer so I made an inquiry to a local bakery asking if they might print the image I wanted for a fee. They responded telling me that printer ink is non toxic and that I should be able to use my home printer, without an edible ink cartridge, and print it myself. This has to be misinformation right?! Printer ink isn't made to be ingested even if it's not toxic. Wouldn't it at the very least, taste awful?

i mean i'm not eating any and i would not serve it to anyone -- you could go ahead and print it yourself then laminate it or encase it in tape or use press n seal and use it like that to be removed before it is served -- or figure out how to pipe something appropriate on there instead--

If the local baker said that, then that would be a red flag to NEVER do business of ANY KIND with that baker, nor send ANYBODY there for ANYTHING. Food safety is NOT something to play fast-and-loose with.

If it's intended to be edible, do it right (a cake supply dealer, rather than a baker, would be the preferred place to farm out edible printing). And if it's not intended to be edible, then (1) make it physically impossible to eat it, and (2) isolate it from the cake.

ARight?! I was shocked! They are pretty reputable in my area, and a winner of cupcake wars. Gross..

i'm shocked too but it could have just been a worker bee answering the phone? maybe

AI sure hope so! We were corresponding through email so I'm not sure who I was talking to. I responded letting them know I felt that was a concerning response.

And the reason I say that a cake supply dealer would be a better choice than a baker, for farming out edible printing, is that a baker's primary business is selling cakes, and his or her whole reason for having an edible printing rig is to sell cakes. Whenever he or she sells an unmounted edible print, no matter how much he or she may mark it up over material and labor cost, he or she is still using his or her resources for something that doesn't sell a cake (and might sell a competitor's cake!). Whereas a cake supply dealer's primary business is selling cake supplies, and providing edible printing to those who can't or won't do it themselves certainly counts as "cake supplies." And even in the unlikely event a dealer were to price edible printing as a loss-leader, it's still getting customers in the door, where they might buy something like, say, a new Magic Line pan.

Bottom line: a cake supply dealer, even one who does baking and decorating as a side-line (e.g., the place in Orange, CA, where I've been farming out my edible printing needs lately) has every reason to offer edible printing services, to the trade and to the public alike. (I understand that shop also offers decorating classes.) Whereas a baker, unless he or she would otherwise be unable to do enough edible printing to keep the printhead from clogging up, has no incentive to do so.

AMakes perfect sense! I felt that it was probably an obnoxious request, and I got the idea from a thread here actually. I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask but expected a response stating that they don't provide that service. I'll look into a supply store. I'm only aware of one in the Utah valley and I know they don't do prints, but there are probably more somewhere. Thank you for the advice!!

This response sounds more like they were trying to get you in trouble, but who knows for sure.

If you still need the edible image, I would contact grocery store bakeries that sell cakes with edible images.  They are often willing to make just the edible image for you for 6 or 7 dollars, and don't seem too upset about losing out on a cake order.

AI thought about that! I hope not. I really wasn't trying to offend by asking. I figured if they were not willing to make the print they'd just let me know. Maybe there was some harm in asking.. I'll check into a grocery store! Great idea!

ASuccess! A grocery store printed my image for 5 bucks. Thanks for the idea frostedmoon! My sweet friend won't be subjected to eating printer ink! Yuck!

In a situation like that, where I figure that I'd be asking a merchant to, in effect, compete with his or her own core business, I'm way too shy to even ask.

And the one time I did go to a baker (on a referral from a cake supply shop that was evidently in the process of quietly going belly-up, and whose edible printing rig had preceded it to that state), it turned out to be a rinky-dink bakery/florist/bridal supply operation in a not-too-pleasant neighborhood, and their edible printing was of substandard quality. After that, I found another cake supply shop. I won't give names, but I'll say that while they're not especially convenient, their quality is wonderful, and I'll also say that they're in Orange, California. (If you want specifics, PM me.)

Yay!  Glad you were able to get it printed!  I'm doing an iPhone cake tonight with an edible image for the screen.  Good luck with yours!

One other thing to remember: if you're doing multiple cakes with edible printing, or a cake with multiple images, and none require a full page, there's nothing stopping you from combining the images onto a single sheet. Or if the image(s) for a single cake don't fill a sheet, there's nothing stopping you from having spares made. In fact, if you're just getting started with edible printing, and farming it out, you're probably better off having a spare of everything.