Hi all! I am new to cake decorating and was wondering if you could offer some suggestions on how to paint on gumpaste. I made some butterflies and used food coloring gel but didn't know if there was an easier way.

Thanks for any help!
Kari

Hey- it's very easy to paint with food coloring gel as long as you have something to mix it with that has a very high alcohol content. For example, I use vodka---the alcohol evaporates, leaving the color--very quickly.

Some extracts have a high alcohol content--I know that peppermint extract does...and I'm sure some others do too. Just paint as if it were watercolors.

it might go easier is you mix it with some vodka. or you can mix dusts (like lustre, pearl or petal depending on the look you want) with vodka and pait that on. you can use them dry too for a different look.
xx

Thanks for the quick reply! I was using water to mix it with. Never thought of Vodka. Good to know for the next batch. Are there special paints available to make it easier or is that my best bet?

Hi kurrie! Welcome to CC!!! I use vodka, and sometimes lemon extract.

Have fun!!!

Oh ~ and like brincess_b mentioned, I also use the petal, lustre or pearl dusts. They come in such a wide variety of colors!

Colored piping gel works very well also. Paints on easily w/ a paint brush and dries completely.

vodka is better than water, it dries faster, and you wont risk it doing mushy things to your surface either.
id just use whatever you have handy, if its gel or dust.
xx

I've used airbrush paint to paint (w/ a brush, I don't have an airbrush) on gumpaste & fondant, I've found that it dries faster than the gel stuff, even when the gel stuff has been thinned w/ vodka (it can take a long time to dry!). I've also pained w/ chalk dust, you can buy a big thing of no-toxic chald (not technically edible, but then who eats gum paste lol!) at Michaels for $5.

If you look at my photos, all my teacups (lots of practice, thats why so many!) are gumpaste hand painted. I tried using plain icing color, worked but took forever to dry, then I diluted it with a little vodka, I used a very thin lining brush and had a sm flat brush for shading. The vodka was the ticket, just a tiny bit though to thin it out.

So you are just using like the wilton icing paste coloring? and adding the vodka? or is there a different type of food coloring you are using? Thank you for letting me know.
Kathy

thank you. I just tried using the colors out of my edible printer, oh dear, that did not work. I have the wilton paste colors. I will mix them with the little bit of vodka and see if that works better. Thank you for the help.
Kathy

Yep, any of the wilton icing colors worked for me. If you have a dropper, I think its easier to add the vodka to make the consistency you want. I didnt and tried adding from the cap, kept getting too much vodka in it.

Ditto on the vodka. If you pour too much, just wait a little while and some of it will evaporate off.

This is the closest thread I've found so far for my question, but I needed to know if theres anything else apart from alcohol that I could use to mix colour. I don't deal with alcohol, and not allowed to either! So was hoping for an alternative. Does anyone have any suggestions?
TIA

You can use lemon extract, but i believe that's made from alcohol?

Thanks beachcakes. I read up elsewhere, that if its synthetic alcohol, then we're allowed to use it. I've gone and bought the lemon extract.