Good Morning,

I am doing a baby shower cake for Thursday.  I'm making little flat figures out of fondant that will go in the cake and I need to "paint" them.  I know that it is necessary to mix vodka with gel color in order for it to dry correctly.  I don't have vodka on hand, can I use everclear?  Should I paint the fondant figures while the fondant is still soft, or wait until it dries?  The fondant will go on the cake dry, as I want it to stand off of the cake and not conform to it.

Thank you,
Christina

everclear is better than vodka imo -- no worries there -- and paint after they dry so the surface doesn't yield when you brush it --

sounds like fun -- best to you

Thank you K8memphis!  I'll give it a go with the everclear...  :-)

Exactly as -K8memphis said (of course!).  You can also use any clear extract, like lemon or almond to mix your paints.  

To add to what Sandra said, look at all your extracts to see what the alchol content is - some as much as 14%.   I had a sis-in-law who couldn't have any alchol (and a customer who was early on in his AAA recovery).   I learned to check that out.

and even when we cook with it -- some alcohol remains is what I have read -- although that does go against the usual belief -- so there's that -- and it does stay on a bit in the paint too --

These items on my cake won't be eaten, so no worries with the alcohol.   I used the everclear, and it worked great!  Thank you for the tip on waiting for the fondant to dry a bit.  That helped a lot!  I had made the pieces yesterday and I don't think they were quite dry .., the color "bled" out from my lines a bit.  I remade them today and it worked beautifully!

As always, you ladies are the BOMB!

Thank you!
C~

you're very welcome -- glad it turned out so good

You are very welcome!  Happy it worked for you!

Always glad to hear when our advice works/helps out someone.  That's what we are here for - to help each other out.  There is no dumb question.  If you don't know the answer/how to do something  just ask!