How Are Photographs Put On Cakes?

Cakes are probably the most integral part of celebrations and parties, especially when it comes to birthdays. In fact, every milestone is incomplete without cutting and sharing cakes with your loved ones. Once available only in a handful of flavours such as vanilla, strawberry, and chocolates, cakes are now available in all sorts of flavours and shapes. Some are personalized with messages scribbled on top in icing. Kids love cakes based on their favourite superhero and cartoon characters.

The latest cake decoration trend has to be where the baker features a photograph of the birthday person on the cake. These are known as photo cakes, where the photo on top of the icing looks precisely like the one you’d see on a photo frame. The only difference is – you can eat the photograph on the cake!

Thanks to modern technology, making edible photographs for cakes is indeed a piece of cake now. It follows a simple process of creating an edible version of the photo that you give your baker, which is then used to decorate the cake. Make sure to provide the photograph well in advance. Bakers usually prefer digital pictures, but they would have to scan the photo to create a digital file if you don’t have one.

Edible images are printed pretty much the same way one would print a picture on a printer. Individual home printers can also print edible photographs if you have the right materials. Bakeries that specialize in creating photo cakes possess special printers that are used for the sole purpose of producing these edible photos.

If you have a printer and a digital photo file, then all you need is ink and paper. Edible photos are usually made on papers called ‘frosting sheets’ or ‘icing papers’. It would help if you kept in mind that the headers of your general office or home printers are not functional in diffusing the edible inks properly on your sheets. The print might come out uneven and incomplete, making the picture look faded along with the ink ingredients getting denatured. It is best to go to an experienced baker to get an edible photo on the cake, or you can also buy edible ink printers from authorized retailers.

In earlier times, rice was used to make these icing papers. Now, the frosting sheets and icing papers come in various types. The kinds of sheets include wafer paper, fondant paper, sugar sheets, and chocolate transfer papers. An array of materials such as cornstarch, potatoes, and starch and sugar mixtures are used to make these papers. Likewise, edible and non-toxic inks are used for printing the photographs on frosting sheets or icing papers. These links are pretty special because food colouring and sugar go into the making of these inks.

Usually, the edible photographs do not have a significant taste, just a little texture. Their design and form are such that they easily dissolve on moist surfaces, like the top of frosted cakes. After it is applied and dissolved, these photos look like they were printed directly on top of your cake itself. (See Why Do We Eat Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday?)