Help with blank transfer sheets for printing on chocolate

I am sooo frustrated!! with the failure rate of the blank transfer sheets

I would love to hear your experiences.

From what I understand we have two options with blank transfer sheets, 1. cocoa butter and 2. starch,sugar,emulsifier sheets.

I really want the want the sugar starch sheets to work - mostly because you can purchase in warmer months, storage and shelf life issues and I feel they're less likely to gunk up the printer.

But for the life of me I am having about a 50% failure rate and these sheets cost WAY too much ($2.00 a sheet) for that type of loss.

I have tried reducing the contrast 10% and still about 1/2 the "ink" remains on the sheet giving me a partial transfer.

I contacted KopyKake and while they got back to me right away their only suggestion was to make sure the chocolate was "warm enough"

I am using kopykake "inks" and allowing the sheets to dry at least an hour after printing before attempting the transfers. I have tried room temperature drying and cold drying (had more luck with room temperature- but not perfect)

Please share your experiences with the sheets - type - where purchased - tricks etc.

Thank you, thank you, thank you

I purchased my sheets from Tomric. I have never had any problems with the sheets, but have seen comments from others stating that they had gotten a bad batch, but others were fine.

The last inks I bought were from www.photofrost.com . I've had good luck with them. There is also www.tastyfotoart.com .

The main thing I've noticed is that the chocolate has to be at the high end of the temper range so that it is warm enough to have the image adhere.

I just print normally, using the best print option. I allow the sheets to dry about 1/2 hour, and mold as usual. I'm thinking unless you just got a bad batch of sheets, it's the chocolate that's causing you problems.

Thanks Robin - can you tell me if the sheets you're using are the cocoa butter coated or the starch/sugar coated ones.

I bought the starch sheets from KopyKake a month ago - the ink prints on to them perfectly, but I've had a ZERO percent success rate at seven attempts transfer on to perfectly tempered chocolate. I've tried the upper temperature range, and no luck. I've put in a call to KopyKake also, and am waiting to hear back, but I'm not hopeful about what advice they'll give. It just doesn't seem to work. Sorry I can't add any helpful advice, but I'll be reading this thread as well to gain some!

thanks Heather, I'm sorry you're having as much trouble as I am - I feel your pain.

I've gone through 4 sets of sheets.

I did find a tutorial on another companys website - i cant remember whose - that said

Print on "glossy photo" setting

Decrease the contrast/intensity by 10 -15% (i'm guessing this is so it sits on the surface more)

Wait 1 hour after printing

have the chocolate over 90 degrees.

Wait till completely set to peel off.

I've done all this and still it's very sketchy results. Would you please post what KopyKake tells you.

They must have heard from many more than us with complaints and hopefully they're addressing it.

It's been a while since I bought them, and I may be wrong, but what I can remember is that they are coated with a mixture of cocoa butter, gelatin, maybe some type of egg white? I can't find the info I had, but it's supposed to be a mixture of ingredients.

My thought is that since the sheets you are using don't contain cocoa butter or other fat, it doesn't melt into the chocolate when it's applied. So, it's not adhering.

Hi margaret can i ask how long you leave the sheets in the fridge til you demold them, i had problems exactly the same , i found leaving them overnight helped quite a bit,also another problem i have found with the starch sheets depends what batch you get some work better than others, i only use cocoa butter ones now from chocolate world they seem to work, ive costed the price of a new printer against the cost of wasted sheets, and a new printer every 6 months or so at a cost of around 40.00 is a savings.