Is there such a thing out there? I was wondering if you can use the same type of printer you would use for printing edible images to print on the clear transfer sheets?? I noticed at fancyflours.com that they sell clear transfer sheets. Does anyone know?

I recently took a chocolate class with BKeith Ryder and we talked about making our own transfer sheets using acetate blanks.

Basically, the sheets are printed with ultrafine colored cocoa butter images. You could do something similar--but not nearly so precise and "clean"--using colored cocoa butter and stamping materials (rubber, foam, etc.).

I'm going to try it at some point. I don't think that there is any type of printer that could handle cocoa butter.

You can buy already colored cocoa butter from chefrubber.com. You can buy food grade cocoa butter in small blocks (very price--$4.00 for about 2 oz.) or in bulk (about $8/lb.) and color it with powered food colors, or candy colors (oil based).

Rae

you can make your own but it's really hard to get the intricate detail. At the chocolatier I worked at I had some "spare" time and got to experiment. The blank acetates will give you the shine, and what I did was use pearl/luster dust mixed with vodka and painted. I ended up with big colorful swirls which I let dry for about two days and then poured chocolate on top. I was going to try stamping and stenciling but ran out of time. I think it would work, but the design would have to be pretty big with thick lines.

Rae and mendhigurl...thanks so much for your insight!! I wonder what the pro's use for the printing of the tinted cocoa butter? It definitely would be worth a try, though, with some stamps and/or stencils, and even freehand painting. Or maybe and impression mat with a geometric pattern? Could you paint the raised parts of the mat and then apply it to the acetate blanks or would it not adhere to the acetate maybe? hmmmm....I get curiouser and curiouser...

"the pros" who have colored transfer sheets have them custom made. You can too, if you have the money. I found some a while back, when I was researching something else.

But I think some melted cocoa butter, a stamper, and some acetate might be worth a try. Not much expense involved in a test run.

There was a topic a while ago:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-148466-.html#148466

Started by the "stripes" on some cakes. In the meantime I ordered the transfersheets I mentioned there, but haven´t had the time to give them a try. But I will inform you as soon as I tried them.