How to Hand Paint on Cakes with Edible Colors

Hand Painting on cakes can be fun and you don't have to be an artist to hand-paint. A set of good brushes, edible colors, and well-dried fondant cake is a good start. Here are a few tips and details from me before you venture into your next painted cake project.

Hand painting is not my forte. And yet, I have been very fascinated with the art of hand painting.

What's weird about my hand painting ability is that if you give me a piece of paper and asked me to paint, I can't!! I just can't. And yet, if you give me a cake and asked me to paint - I can!! Not really an awesome painting, but .........hey it might even look good. Ha!!

How to hand paint on cakes with edible color gels?

Now I'm no painter but as always I'll share with you what I have learned from the experience so far. I'm sure I will share more on this subject in the coming days /months /years and perhaps look at his old post with embarrassment. But that's how we learn right? We all have to start somewhere?

Brushes

This is extremely important. The flow of your brush is what will give you those brush strokes. It is also important that your brush be soft so you do not ruin your cake.

Most importantly you must have good quality paint brushes that will not have the bristles(hair) falling off. And, you want to ensure your brushes are not used for anything other than food. So they are food safe.

And, you want to ensure your brushes are soft bristles as the fondant is soft so you will be working on a soft canvas.

Cakes

Cover your cake and let it sit for a few hours so the fondant will dry and form a seal. The dry fondant will be easy to paint on. On the other hand, with wet fondant, the color doesn't always stick well. So, be patient and let the fondant rest for a while.

Make sure you do not use vegetable shortening on your fondant. Roll your fondant on cornstarch, not vegetable shortening. Any grease on the fondant may prevent the colors from staying on the cake.

Colors

Gel colors or powder colors.
I use edible color gels, sometimes powder colors mixed with vodka.

And, if you need lighter shades, it's best to use white food color instead of liquid. For example, add white powder instead of more vodka.

Also, you will find you have great success with painting if you use less on your brush and use more layers rather than try to do it all in one go.

Medium

I use vodka or lemon extract as my base. Lemon will leave a lemon flavor. So do keep that in mind. Often, I do not need much, just enough to moisten my brush. Every painting requires a different thickness, so find the right balance of how much you need to add.

Design

This is a cake so decide what you want to do. Once you start there is no going back. Since, going back would mean redoing the fondant on the cake which is not just time-consuming but costly too!

If you have no experience with freehand painting, try to trace a design on the white canvas first. Also, go to Google and look for the image you want. Copy and paste it on PowerPoint or word document. Resize it to the size that is right for your cakes.

Then trace it on both sides of a parchment paper.
After which you can then trace it on the cake with an edible pencil. The black pencil will leave a fine trail on the white cake.
You can then use this to fill in the colors.

Here are some of my hand-painted cakes

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Right now I'm still pretty new to this whole hand painting on cakes phase. Once I have a little more experience under my belt I might even make a tutorial. So stay tuned. Until then wish you all a great week.

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