Or am I just horribly ignorant and you've been doing it for years?

'It' is using stamps to transfer pictures on to fondant. The system wont let me post a picture of what I mean here, so I've placed it in my gallery, you can see it here;
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo-1403292.html

I used rubber stamps - the kind you buy in hobby stores to make Christmas cards and wedding invitations - and applied a little Sugarflair food colouring paste with a fine brush.
Personally I think it looks quite nice, and it's easier and quicker than having to decorate with royal icing. It does have to dry though.

I'd really like to hear your opinion...

I think it is a really cute idea and I like your cookies! I have heard of this being done before, but the only issue I have heard of is that you can't use regular stamps, but ones that are food-safe. It looks like a fun way to quickly decorate a cookie and still have it look great!

hi,

i love rubber stamps and i use them on cookies and on fondant cake decorations.

using the wooden handle stamps are not food-safe, but it is my understanding that the clear rubber stamps you mount on clear acrylic are because you can clean them correctly and there are no worries about bacteria harboring in the wood.

also, if you've used them for crafting with regular ink, then you should not use them again for food (that's probably obviousl, lol, forgive me).

f a n c y f l o u r s has a cookie photo of a yellow teapot that was stamped that is absolutely goregoues. you should check it out .

diane

I wonder what exactly is jumping off of those rubber stamps that are barely touching the fondant for like 3 seconds anyways? I can understand not using a used stamp, but really. Wash a new one off to get the stuff off from people handling it.

i know what you mean
sometimes i wonder if i am getting paranoid about "food-safe" but i hate to take chances. (that said, i HAVE quietly used wood stamps, lol).

i read somewhere that its the wood, not the stamp itself, that creates the food risk. and that is the sum total of what i know .

I know. I think people tend to get a little overboard with the whole food safe thing. I can understand if the thing was going to sit there on the fondant for the whole time, but really, pressing it onto the fondant for a second or tow? And if it is the wood, which i recall as pretty much being "naked", not varnished, not sealed, save for the plastic sticker indicating what the design would be.....then where does that leave dowels??

I made sugar cookies yesterday using a rubber stamp. I did it on royal icing and this worked out really cute. I did steal the idea from FancyFlours.

How cute is that?? And I am quite sure those cookies are not poisoned.

those are so awesome looking! i will deffinately hvae to try this idea.

Thanks. I was really happy with them. I think I may enjoy doing sugar cookies more this way.

can you tell me where the picture of the tea pot cookies on fancy flours site is? I can't seem to find them and they sound so pretty!

here you go

http://www.fancyflours.com/cookie-cutter-teapot-tin.html

I am one of those OCD's when it comes to food-safety. If you know Laure'l Silverberg, then you know her story. She came up with the concept of using rubber stamps to decorate cookies. She had even done a demo on The Carol Duvall show about it. Shortly after that episode aired, the FDA and others were contacting her, inquiring as to whether the stamps she used were food-safe. After voluntary testing, she found out that they were not - the rubber leached carcinogens.

She then worked with a company that helped her create safe rubber stamps for use on food, and thus, www.sweetstampen.com was born.

Holly Dare now owns the company, and is a member here. Hopefully, she will hear about this post and chime in.

Getting back to the original subject, I cannot dictate what you do with your business, but as for me, I'm not willing to take the risk, especially where I live. The state of PA, and the city where I live, both have more fierce guidelines than the FDA when it comes to this subject, subject to heavy fines. Although I'm not in business at this time, I would hate to have to pay those fines, then be forced to re-invest in stamps later on because I did not comply in the first place. I buy my stamps from her from the start, and that way I'm safe in the future.

Theresa

sweetstaming.com.. is a site for edible paint and stamps. started several years ago.. haven,t been on it in a while.. was there last time i checked.. the stamps are food grade..hth

sorry, didn,t know someone else had posted. and yes. it is sweetstampen.com.. sorry for the miss spelling

Can we use those stamps and apply brush them with regular food coloring, the one's we use to color or paint on our fondant? Or does it have to be a special brand?

And here I thought I'd had a new idea

About the food safety; I have to confess it never crossed my mind, but it definitely has now. I just used ordinary rubber stamps, but will now see if I can get hold of the other kind, because this is something I will be doing again. I think my local hobby store has the clear kind on acrylic

Thanks for the ideas and links.

Don't be afraid to send Holly an e-mail if you have any questions. She's great at responding asap.

Theresa

yes, you use reg. food color.. the americolr gels are great .. and wilton ,etc..

I have tried stamping onto cookies but it is very difficult with letters especially. Not only do you have to make sure that every nook and cranny is brushed with color, but my problem is that when i went to stamp the cookies, they all broke! It was because the cookies werent completely flat. If there is any sort of bump, indentation, or the likes, it's difficult to get the stamp on clearly without pressing too hard that it'll break the cookie.
Anyway, i have not visited the sweet stampen site yet but i look forward to more insight in how this is done. Thanks for the link!

Ok, i'm confused. Are all the stamps on this site food safe? Because there is no one category that has all the food safe ones, just listed according to occasions.
Also, what are mounted and unmounted? which are better for our purposes?

I looked at the site & was disappointed that almost everything I would want (numbers, letters, & designs I could use to cover the background for a cookie) were all wood mounted & therefore not food safe

So are clear acrylic stamps ok to use? I would think so since I've seen some gumpaste rollers made out of acrylic

So maybe when it says 'mounted' it means the wood and unmounted would be the ones we're looking for to do on cookies? I wish there would be more of a distinction as to what can be used for food and what can't.
Even the stencil site has it's own sister site just for culinary purposes. Otherwise, it's confusing.

I use stamps all the time for my cookies and get rave reviews on them. What I do is lightly press the image into the fondant and then I paint that with thinned food gel colors. You can open up a whole new world with these stamps. It works beautifully on cakes also.

I use stamps all the time for my cookies and get rave reviews on them. What I do is lightly press the image into the fondant and then I paint that with thinned food gel colors. You can open up a whole new world with these stamps. It works beautifully on cakes also.

If the stamp in indented into the fondant, how do you avoid the 'paint' from pooling into the indentations?

You press the stamp just enough so you can see the design. It doesn't really matter if it does make a deeper mark as I thin my paints with melted cocoa butter and they do not have that pooling effect. If it does go down in the groove it only goes down on the side of the design and not up the outer edge. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it does work.
Another method is to use stiff stencils and press the stencil into the fondant. This raises the design and it's easy to paint that way also.
When you use the melted cocoa butter you get a shiny finish to your work.
Hope this helps.