Screen Printing Chocolate

We found a cricut in the unit we got last week.  As you probably know, it is used to cut paper, cardstock, vellum etc. I have been wanting to try screen printing on chocolate.

I downloaded an image from the internet...

I used the software program Sure cuts a lot to trace the image and send it to the Cricut and cut onto card stock.

I watched a youtube video on how to screen print using a paper stencil.

I went around the house and found an old sheer curtain, a cardboard box, some tape, an empty CD case (no squeegee laying around) and some scissors. I made a silk screen frame using those items and melted some chocolate.

I put a piece of parchment paper down on the counter. Then I placed my cardstock image on the parchment paper. Next I put the silk screen frame over the parchment and cardboard image. I got the candy melts out of the microwave and printed my image basically the same way as the video.

I used a cutting board to lift and transfer the parchment paper to the freezer and melted some more chocolate. I poured a thicker layer of candy melts over my screen printed image and put it back in the freezer.

Amazing! It totally worked! I wish I had worked with more contrasting colors but I only had some leftover orange candy melts and 2 white chocolate bakers chocolate blocks. So I had to mix the white with some leftover orange. Luckily, I used the scrap piece from my stencil, so the real stencil is still intact.

I made a second attempt. I had a little problem with the stencil. Probablly because it had a bit of the candy melts stuck to it and because I rushed a little. I also used a smaller piece of parchment so I had to lift the screen without being able to stabilize the parchment so that may be why it stuck a little. I used black and the orange this time to get a better contrast on the image but the slippage taking the screen off may have made the image a little muddy. We'll see when we take it out of the freezer...

Darn it! I hate when I rush things. It totally worked correctly and the contrasting colors made it look better but the half of the heart stencil that slipped messed it up. Oh well, I wasn't actually making anything important at least, just experimenting. The color didn't come up that thick either. I guess that will be a learning process as well as that was my first attempt ever at screen printing.

I want to make transfer sheets but did not have any cocoa butter or dry food coloring. This was still a good test of the process.

http://candy.about.com/od/phototutorials/ss/sbscaketransfer.htm

I also saw these which were awesome...

http://www.designerstencils.com/CAKE-CONFECTIONERY-C11.aspx

They had videos on how to use stencils on cakes and pies which were pretty informative.

Then I made a stencil file for the cricut. The Cricut kept stalling while cutting though and I'll have to figure that out too I guess.

And I made these...