After Eight-like paper Needed
Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted
you might have to get them customized and a good start would be clearbag.com
Forum Activity for @Debra Fleck
Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted
wrapping chocolate
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
as long as it is air tight and food safe you can use anything to the imagination.
Can anyone tell me the technique that Chapon use to print image on chocolate?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
if you go to the CHOCOLATE ARTIST SOFTWARE/PRINTER talks you should get all your questions answered. Should be on page 2 or 3 of the discussions.
Help!! Is my thermometer wrong?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
The indoor temp is high and can cause some difficulty. I have trouble on hot days. Also, how much quantity are you tempering. A little amount is hard to work with. Don't forget, the Manjari needs to be melted in the higher temperature range because of the the cocoa butter content. The indoor temp could be your culprit.
Help!! Is my thermometer wrong?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I am not sure how well it would carmelize. That, I would suggest experimenting with a small amount. Many chocolatiers have had experiences of overheating/cooking the chocolate. Especially in microwaves!! Another idea is to make almond bark with the chocolate. Or make a ganache filling and strain the ganache to get the chunks out.
Help!! Is my thermometer wrong?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Sometimes chocolate just won't temper. I will have problems tempering if the amount of chocolate is small. So, if I have maybe 1 cup of liquid chocolate, it is hard to temper. You need to have enough chocolate to work with.
Help!! Is my thermometer wrong?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Good Luck. If I get a chance I might try to do a quick video using a blackberry to show the process. I am a very busy soccer mom. So when I am not doing production I am the road to soccer stuff.
Help!! Is my thermometer wrong?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
thats correct. you don't need to use any tempered chocolate. milk chocolate must be a bit lower in temp and tends to be more finicky.
Help!! Is my thermometer wrong?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Use the double boiler technique. When I have to do demos using a stage kitchen and have a lack of time I get one bowl that is big and I get ice and water in it. Then I get my warm melted chocolate and temper in over the bowl of ice. If it is too cool either use a heat gun (or hair dryer) or the microwave to bring the temp up. So you wouldn't need the seed for that.
Help!! Is my thermometer wrong?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
The shinier the better. Always do the lip test as a second check and also do the paper test. Check the temp with your lip as explained earlier. Even with your broken thermometer you could have succesfully performed the lip test for tempering. Test to see if the chocolate is tempered by putting a swipe on some wax or parchment paper and see if the chocolate sets up within a few minutes. Then make sure the chocolate doesn't appear streaky. Your description of what happened indicates to me that the tempering was incorrect. The temperature was slightly on the high side, but probably not by much.
Help!! Is my thermometer wrong?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Here is the Callebaut link for the on line videos
Help!! Is my thermometer wrong?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Go to the BArry Callebaut website.Actually, Callebaut and Cocoa Barry may have their own website. In both websites are training videos which you might find very helpful
http://www.cacao-barry.com/uken/1855
I don't know if this link will work but it is in the Cocoa Barry website. They both have excellent training videos.
Help!! Is my thermometer wrong?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I would temprer the chocolate via different method. First, you need to follow the temp chart on the Valrhona bag, the chocolate contains lots of cocoa butter and thus needs to be melted to a higher temp...in the 50's celcius. The technique you should use, I am not sure of how many pounds you are trying to temper, but I would use a marble slab or a bain marie.
With the marble slab, or stainless steel work top, cool the table with ice first to get the surface cold. Dry table well and then pour 2/3 of chocolate on table and cool the chocolate until the chocolate feels cool on your top lip (THE LIP TEST). Pour it into the remaining 1/3 warm chocolate and stir well. Try taking the temp or do the lip test again. You should not feel any warmth on your lip. It should feel slightly cool.
If you don't have a marble slab or hard surface, then use the bain marie. Instead of hot water, you need to use ice and water mixed together and place 2/3 chocolate in the pan and on top of the ice. Cool it down and then pour the remaining 1/3 chocolate into the mixture and stir well.
Humidity can be a problem. Sometimes you need to add cocoa butter to thin the chocolate out if it gets to thick.
Benoît Nihant Chocolatier goes "Bean to Bar"
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
Congratulations. I am planning soon to do my own bean to bar.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I think that tomric might have the software. If not then Chocolat-chocolat in Montreal will have it. Purchasing anywhere within North America is fairly easy and straight forward. It's just as easy to order directly from Deco artist in England. Maybe even faster for shipping.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
TS02 directly on the printer. Attached are the settings that I use. If the images are sticking to the sheet (partially) then there is too much ink flow. The settings on the attachment are for any canon printer. 
If the ink is flowing to much then change the brightness to LIGHT.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
There are several companies that can do the customized logos. Chef Rubber, PCB from France, and several other companies.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I always use a thin layer of white. I use white chocolate and cocoa butter.
100 grams white chocolate and 30 grams cocoa butter is my blend. Depending on what white chocolate you use, you can make minor adjustments.
What CIS system are you using. What brand of CIS are you looking at?
updated by @Debra Fleck: 09/07/15 01:15:45PM
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I have used several different brands from the United States. I live in Canada. I've used Icing Images, PhotoFrost, and Kopykake. The best inks for color matching to the original canon inks is Kopykake. The cartridges they use are quite well made. I use the canon mg5320. Canon is always changing their printers so I look for the new models that have the same printhead as whatever model I have. I just bought a new printer last weekend because it (mg5320) was on sale and the price was cheaper than buying a new printhead! I have not purchased the continuous ink system but have done some research in the past for this type of technology. I would be very curious to know how the continuous ink system works for you.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Sounds like they are the one made by Deco chocolate artist in England. The spray is too thin and then when you print on them the ink saturates through that thin covering on the sheet. If you press print, the dialog box pulls up. Go into "properties", go to "colour/intensity", click "maual", then go to "brightness" and choose the "light" (will be automatically on normal). That will help reduce the amount of ink being printed. I use these sheets when I have artwork that is very delicate. These transfer sheets work great when they work!! The best solution is to use the ones by "Cake Art Intl". There is an American distributor but I find them to expensive. I purchase from "Home Chocolate Factory" in England. Ask for the trade discount if you are a business. The best size to use is TS02. I find the TS01 has caused me grief in the past. The American distributor even told me the TS02 size is a better quality product.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
It is worth it to buy the USB stick. Deco artist also has the cake software which is free. If you download the Edible Artist software, scroll way down in the template page and you will see all the template shapes. Just make sure it matches what you need.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
These can be used just like any other transfer sheets you would buy ie. PCB, Chef Rubber etc. You do need to use a white backing to make your image show. If not the image gets lost in the dark chocolate.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
David, what are the ingredients listed for your chocosheets? I am wondering who Chocolate World is using for their supplier. The cake art sheets are: water, cornstarch, sugar, cocoa butter, citric acid, bamboo fibre, soya lecithin, vanilla flavour.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
You cannot airbrush the chocolate-artist (Deco) sheets, but airbrushing the cake art sheets should work. David is right in that "just do what works" and progress as experience comes.
I have done thousands of customized bonbons and I am very disappointed with Deco artists chocosheets. They need to double the spray on the sheets because the ink always saturates the spray then dries and sticks to the sheets.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
If you are making a high end product, then the candy melts compromise the product. Compound chocolate is fine if the product is run of the mill quality. I blend white chocolate with cocoa butter and just plain everyday light oxidizes the white chocolate and the creamy yellow goes white. I use to add white coloured cocoa butter and realized it was a waste of time.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
click the top image that says "NEW DESIGN"
Click the proper mold template you need. You will need to wait anywhere from 3-10 seconds for the template to open up. Be patient.
Click "PICTURES" on the left menu. On the Right side, the IMAGING MENU appears. Find your picture and click it. I usually save an image (jpeg,jpg, or png) to my desktop (i have also created a file called LOGO) because it is easy to find the image. Anyhow, click the picture you want.
Set up the image to the size you want. There is an ability to crop the picture if you want. Once you have sized the image the way you want it thenClick on left side "PRINT IMAGE". Make sure that you have the security stick plugged into the USB. Print. OR "PREVIEW " if you want to see how the image will look before printing.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
You need to have a printer that has not and is not being used with regular printing ink. I will try to put together a manual for people to use the software. It really is a good product and very valuable to my business.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I have refilled my own cartidges. I order bulk ink from Icing Images, although next week I will be purchasing locallybulk edible ink that is made by Photofrost. Kopykake also has bulk ink. The acetate needs the special spray so that the ink adheres to the sheet and not smudge. The cartidges are expensive but can be reused up to 3 times. I recently purchased some empty automatic chip resetting cartidges from China. I am going to try using the cartidges to see how good the quality is. But, by purchasing bulk edible ink and empty cartridges, it could be a large signicant saving. I do alot of printing on chocosheets.
updated by @Debra Fleck: 09/07/15 01:15:21PM
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I think it runs only on PC's, not the Macs. Anyone can download the software directly from the website, but they will not be able to print without the flash stick.
Does the packaging on the transfer sheets say they are a Callebaut product? That comes as a surprise to me if Callebaut is making transfer sheets. I would guess the sheets were Deco Artist and/or Cake Art Intl. The ink is not cocoa butter, but special edible ink for printing on chocosheets and icing sheets for cakes.
All the above posts refer to this printing system.
The deco-artist software is very easy to use and I use this technology almost daily for my chocolate business.
Your first step is to use a PC for the software. Then is should be quite easy from there!
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I've attached 2 photos of chocolate business cards made at the same time. I used Chocolate World molds that have the metal backing. The metal gets much too cold and I have to heat the metal up so that the white chocolate will adhere to the image and not chill too quickly. I prefer the molds that www.dr.ca sells. They carry magnetic molds with the polycarbonate backing which I like much better because they don't get so cold. One card is using the Deco Artist via Tomric chocosheets. The other is Cake Art Intl via Home Chocolate Factory. The Cake Art sheets are thicker and have different ingredients than the Deco Artist. The Deco Artist sheets are very thin. I find that when using Deco Artist sheets for larger prints thus any transfer that has a larger surface area, these sheets show their imperfections. When using the small 12 - 15 gram molds, these sheets are okay because it is harder to see the imperfections. So, on large images such as the business cards molds or the large ovals made by chocolate world, then it is better to use Cake Art Intl. The Deco Artist sheets do make a beautiful transfer image. I have made some amazing customized pictures with them. But use them only for smaller transfers. You must make sure that the metal backing molds on your 2 piece molds are warmed to within a few degrees of your chocolate temperature...so with white 29 Celcius.
I order from Home Chocolate Factory for the Cake Art Intl chocosheets. There is an American supplier and when I did my research the price was cheaper to order from England. The American reseller did say that she prefers to sell the larger sized sheet than the smaller because it works (transfers) much better even though they say that the sheets are exactly the same except for size. After having used both sizes of sheets, I agree with her, the larger size sheet works much better. I trim the sheet and save the scraps for when I have to make some individual transfer images.
Please note that the Deco Artist card has the crackling effect (BLEMISHES) that i have been referring to. Hopefully this helps with.
INK: Icing Images is one of the places that I purchase the ink from. Photofrost was another. I have had trouble with Photofrost and have not purchased from them for quite some time and they have not given me the routine phone call asking if I need to place an order which tells me they know good and well they were in the wrong. I told them that the ink cartidge was not working/being accepted by my printer and they said "We will send you another one today" This has happened twice in a short period of time and they never, AND I MEAN NEVER sent any replacement to me. And of course that is why I don't receive any sales calls from them anymore!! Icing Images and Photofrost and Kopykake to name a few sell many many different varieties of edible ink cartridges to fit a variety of printers. If you are looking to a printer you could even call Icing Images and they would be very helpful on what they think a good printer would be. They do sell chocosheets but the sheets are very poor quality.
One last note: The business card image was scanned from an actual business card. Had I received an original jpeg or png image it would be even nicer..much better clarity...sharper image on the chocolate.
Chocolate Artist Software/Printer
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I use this technology all the time. Almost daily. the sheets can vary. Sometimes the Deco artist work best for a project, other times Cake Art Intl work better. It always varies and you have to adjust your printer settings to control the flow of ink. It can be tricky. I use to airbrush white but have long stopped that process. When working with magnetic molds you have a very flat surface. If your house was flat and had no beam, it would cave in. These magnetic molds work on the same principles. Therefore, to protect the strength of the chocolate I mix 100 grams white chocolate with 30 grams cocoa butter and add some white PCB powder colour. It all goes int the Thermomix until heated to the proper tempperature. Anyhow, I put a thin layer in, instead of airbrushing.
Why is it so difficult to do? (some time ago a question from Joanna Miles)
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Very very important to melt to the higher temps of approx 55 Celcius. Make sure you follow the temp requirements on the bag. Valrhona has a high amount of cocoa butter in the chocolate.