Issue: Fondant seems to be resistant to a solid coverage of color applied with a brush (water based color). Maybe oil from hands? Removing surface oil with denatured alcohol doesn't sound too tasty...
Maybe oil based colors are the answer? Coverage even on solid areas with those? Don't want visible panty lines, I mean brush strokes. Anyone out there have a good recipe for an oil base goop for cake painting(in which to add powdered color)?

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Thursday, October 03, 2002 - 01:31 am: Edit

I know gold leaf and just a touch of oil works well, but have not applied it to fondant.
does it have to be fondant?
how about marzipan?
use a paste color base, and thin with the oil.
if it still runs you may have to tell the "paint" where to stop, by this I mean,
try drawing out your whatever, with distinctive(sp) lines. this should stop any run over.
if you still have trouble, try drying the paste, air dry and then add just a touch of the oil to reconstitute(again with the spelling) but just with drops from a dropper.
you could also try painting with a fountain pen that uses a ink cartriage. get a new one and fill it with the color, or a quill
i don't think fondant will hold any kind of liquid color, water or oil. I could be wrong, God knows I have been in the past.
has this helped at all???

By Ladycake (Ladycake) on Thursday, October 03, 2002 - 11:03 am: Edit

Actually, I have found that fondant holds air brush paint better than any other surface. My butter creams cause the water based paints to bead up. You might try using an oil based paint. The outline method works well. I use butter cream mixed with oil based paints as a paint in a method similar to oil painting. The finished product is rather like impressionistic art but my customers like it and it is fun to work out the designs (I did Ninja turtles like this once - don't even ask! The kid wasn't impressed but the dad loved it lol). Anyway, if your customers aren't too specific on their design this might work for you.

By Ladycake (Ladycake) on Thursday, October 03, 2002 - 11:04 am: Edit

I just thought, why don't you tint the fondant? Or... rent an airbrush?

By Michele2 (Michele2) on Thursday, October 03, 2002 - 11:25 am: Edit

My decription of the problem was about as murky as these muddled colors (sorry). Am painting with a brush on rolled fondant covered cakes. The problem is not in color running over, but in painting large solid areas without streaking or brush strokes. Seems like some ex-artist pastry chef formulator-type would have come up with Just The Thing for regulating paint consistency on a fondant surface. Replacing turpentine and such for the sake of edibility. Looks like massive experimentation in my future. Thanks for the comments/will advise of any successes.