I was going to try some handpainting on my daughter's first birthday smush cake. I have seen to mix the coloring with vodka or clear vanilla to help it dry and not be sticky.

My question is how will the crisco (from kneading, etc) effect painting the fondant? Will it make the color bead up? Do I need to pat the fondant down with powdered sugar/cornstarch before painting?

Any tips on painting would be much appreciated. Thanks!!!!

I tend to do alot of painted detail on my cakes but I never use vodka, I tried it recently on the advice of my local cake decor supplier but I found the drying time to be too long & the top of the pieces got sticky. I use Culpit dipping solution which is a food grade iso-propyl alcohol. You can only put a little at a time into say, the dimple on your mixer pallet as otherwise you will loose loads to evaporation. In between colours I wash my brush in boiled, cooled water then dry it on a paper towel before putting it back into the alcohol. Vodka would be fine if you just want to paint on one colour & not have to add any details on top or if you have time to wait longer for the first colour to dry. The crisco shouldn't be an issue unless you have used loads, as the ratio of crisco to fondant should be low. If you want to get a resist technique in your painting you can melt some crisco & paint it on where you want to leave small details or a pattern in the background color then apply the new color over the top & it should ( fingers crossed ) leave your crisco pattern behind uncolored. Happy painting.

Hi,

I paint alot onto my cakes and only use vodka and the colour. I never find it is sticky and it always dries quicky.

Do not cover you cake in cornstarch before you paint it otherwise it will run because the colour is absorbed to the cornstarch instantly. You actually need to do the opposite and make sure you have not cornstarch residue on the cake before you paint.

Here is one I did recently using vodka and blue colour.

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1569597.html

Good luck,

Kim

I am getting ready to do some painting too. I am going to paint some details on fondant designs. What is the ratio or consistency for the color and vodka? I am assuming it is gel color too, right? I can not get that culpit sent to me in time so I will have to try the vodka method.

BTW Kim - Your cake was awesome. That painting was beautiful
Thanks!
Chonda

I just painted on top of a teapot (it is in my photos) and I just added a tiny bit of water to my americolor gel and it worked great. I have used lemon extra with my powders and that has been great too.