I have no idea what to do with some extra money that I've saved. I could try to purchase a Cricut cake on Ebay or I could invest in an edible printer. I just don't know which one will give me more bang for my buck in the long run.

Any ideas or issues for me to think about would be greatly appreciated.

cakeymom

I have both. If I had to choose, I'd go with the edible printer. I like my Cricut Cake....but I LOVE my edible printer.

I'd get the printer and save up for a silhouette cutter. It can do everything a cricut can do plus you can print and cut. If you buy it from Linda McClure it comes with a special blade and A DVD that will teach you step by step to use all the features. It's a handy companion for an edible image printer. Check it out on her website
www . creative designs cakes . com / photo_5.html (without the spaces)

Edible printer is a very, very smart investment you will not regret it at all. Your money will be well spent.

Printer ALLLLL the way!!!

I was thinking printer too. Ok, let me ask this is it better to convert a printer vs buying directly from a company?

cakeymom

My vote is for buy from a dealer who sells and edible printer, I purchased mine from Photo Frost I was glad I did. I had trouble with not printing I called them they were able to help me. They told me what might be wrong and told me what I could do to correct the problem. If I purchased the printer from Best Buy there is no way they would have been able to help, When I wanted to up grade printer they treated me more than fair.

I have a Canon IP4700 model. I bought it from Amazon.com

Go visit icingimages.com

They are really good!!!!


HTH

Michael

PRINTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The cricket is crap!!!! I am so upset with mine!!!

My cricut works just fine. You just have to use the right medium and process it correctly.

The printer is a lot cheaper and you will have so much fun with it. I love mine. I guess I don't use my Cricut as much as others, but sometimes it just seems like a glorified cookie cutter.

Yeah...there's a very steep learning curve with the Cricut, but you can do some nice stuff with it. Probably not right out of the box...but with practice. You can just do so MANY great things with edible images. I wouldn't take anything for my system!

ok now I'm bummed! I have been saving my pennies for a cake cricut and now my little bubble just got burst Does everyone really feel that the edible image is THAT much better? I would really like to know the pros and cons of each machine are and what makes one better than the other?

I've used the Cricut Expression for years on paper. I have no desire to get the Cake version. It is only a glorified cookie cutter. If you spend the time to get the fondant done just correctly, I think it would be nice for letters, but not much else. I hate the cookie cutter look of many of the Cricut Cakes.

I love my cricut! I haven't used any of the cuttings that came with the cartridge. I cut SCUT2 and I can cut anything I want off the internet. Nothing cookie cutter about it.

Hey Cakes...don't be bummed. I don't have either so you are waaaay ahead! I don't not much about the edible printer and I know even less about the cricut...BUT... I was told the other day that you can get the less expensive cricut, tweak it...whatever it takes, I don't know; and download from a site Surecutsalot. Other decorators will need to "pipe" in. I don't know if this helps. but I can hope.

I am in a similar situation, which to buy, it seems everyone likes the image printer, what do you all do with it?

Well, I just was incredibly disapointed with the cricut. I find myself spending more time with trial and error than anything. I am waiting for Linda's DVD's and fondant recipe to come out so I can try her method with the cricut. I guess I shouldn't have been so quick to say it was crap. As someone else said, it takes ALOT of practice and it has EVERYTHING to do with your medium! And as of right now, I have not found the "majic medium" I just thought it would be a huge time and money saver in the long run and, as of right now, it's just prooving to be a waste of both.

You have to decide, based up on what type of cakes you do whether something that cuts shapes will be a more useful tool than something that prints! It is more of a personal choice. Both are great, but it really has to make sense for what you want to do! I can tell you that printing pictures is not just about slapping a picture on a cake. You can put the images on fondant and gumpaste and make bowes and many many other things. I saw Lindas machine, and what I liked about it, since I am partial to printing (for obvious reasons) is that it prints on the icing sheet and then you can turn around and it will cut out what you printed...exactly. To me, that is cool!

For all of you that own the printer, is it true that if you don't use it often the ink dries up or the cartridges get "gummy"? I read that somewhere and I'd like to know if that has ever happened to anyone.

It's more about what you want to accomplish than anything. I almost NEVER put a photograph of people on my cakes...just don't like the way they look. Many people do nothing else. It's what floats YOUR boat! I have used my edible image printer to do great-looking lettering, embellishing of design elements and such. One of my favorite uses is to totally cover the cake with printed icing sheets. My jukebox cake and and watercolor cake were done that way. I use the 7 X 11 pan a lot, which enables me to cover the entire top of the cake with an edible image. I think that is a nice look and opens up tons of possibilities. BUT...perhaps you dream of creating damask-covered cakes or constructing a quilt top or maybe doing something like a gumpaste cartoon character or a standing gumpaste monogram. These are where the Cricut soars. Decide what you want to do the most of and go for whatever gets you there.

If you don't use the printer frequently it will clog on you. It happens to pretty much everyone. I try to print something at least once a week, even if it's just on paper.