Help- My White Separates From Other Colors When Painting!
Decorating By cakesrock Updated 29 Nov 2009 , 1:29am by Texas_Rose
Hi all,
Whenever I use white (superwhite or Wilton whitener) to paint on fondant and/or gumpaste, it tends to separate from the other color(s) I mix with it. I mix it well and don't used vodka or lemon juice (as recommended). Does this happen to anyone else? How do you avoid? I have to make grey, so there is really no way around mixing white. I find it worst when I mix a few colors (e.g. for skin tone). Am I doing something technically wrong?
TIA 
I don't know but I just avoid using white myself--that's not a super answer but white food coloring has been available for only a small fraction of my caking career so it's not difficult for me to avoid using it.
I mean to get grey you just thin the black--you don't have to use white to get grey. Same for any color, add water, add everclear use a lighter touch. There may be a white color expert somewhere but I think that stuff is freaking weird.
And in my personal case I have a dear friend who is crushingly allergic to titanium dioxide, aka white food color so I think I'm doing the world a favor by avoiding it.
But perhaps re-think the way you mix colors for painting. It's the white color strange stuff--doesn't act like the other colors. But again I'm no expert on white food color.
So can you just add the color to the gumpaste/fondant creations before you make them or is it easier just to paint them once done?
Just however you wanna do it--there'd be different times you'd be wanting either method--just whatever you like. And gum paste/fondant sometimes might not take the color the way you want either so you have the option to paint over.
Like I did 'a painting' on a cake so I used the food color as paint.
However I put molded hands & face on the cake with skin tone colored fondant --and I then painted the shadow on the face then used edible ink markers for eyes and stuff. So you can use a bunch of mediums all depending.
http://acmecakes.com/images/IMGP0216.JPG
Yes and I add everclear to my airbrush colors for painting on fondant.
........don't used vodka or lemon juice (as recommended).......
Just want to point out that lemon *juice* is NOT what is to be used. Anything painted w/color thinned w/lemon *juice* will NOT dry - will remain sticky/tacky forever.
You must have alcohol in it. Juice doe not but extract does.
When I was trying to paint with white, I figured out that if you mix it with vodka, it separates out into little white chunks. I don't have any trouble mixing straight white with gel color...it doesn't separate, either after mixing the color or on the cake. It does dry fast. I had to paint an entire cake in shades of grey and white and I did it with wilton's black gel and white color.
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