For anyone who has painted with luster dust mixed with lemon extract, do you think it would be a bad taste combination with a chocolate cake? It sounds kind of gross to me, but I don't know if there are any other options. Vodka or any actual liquor isn't an option. (although I know the extracts have alcohol in them, ironically, but that's the way it is...
I've tried mint extract before but that was REALLY strong and made the whole cake taste really minty. Can I use Wilton clear vanilla, even though it's just an imitation flavor? Any other suggestions?

THANK YOU!!

vodka works wonders.

Thank you, unfortunately it's not an option (see above).

Any other suggestions?

sorry my bad.

I'm pretty sure you can use vanilla extract, it just has less alcohol in it than lemon extract so it may take longer for the pieces to dry. Try it on something small to see what happens to be sure if you are worried about it.

In her book, Mich Turner uses melted cocoa butter with her colours and then paints it onto the fondant.

I'd be inclined to try the almond extract.

Thank you everyone. I don't know where to get cocoa butter, and I have to do it for tonight, so I'll probably just use one of my extracts. Vanilla seems safest. Not all people like almond, so I don't want to be worrying about that. I guess it will just have a lot of flavor!
Thanks!

What exactly on the cake are you wanting to color? In my photos I have a chocolate cake with royal roses and leaves that I painted with Mahogany Luster Dust. I used the lemon extract and it worked great.

Lazy_Susan

I've painted using vanilla! It does work, but go with the pure extract not the imitation (just as a matter of taste, nothing else, really).

I've used vanilla before, no problems...I actually saw on a cake website (some big name cake decorator whose name I can't remember right now) who uses vegetable oil to paint with colors on their cakes....I haven't tried it but am planning to for my baby shower cake Fri. nite. I would imagine it would give it a nice sheen.

Can you actually paint directly on icing?