Edible Art

How about creating a painting that you can eat? Sounds weird ? But believe me its possible. It is CHOCOLATE PAINTING. You can use this kind of painting as a cake topper, as a piece of candy or as a personalised gift. The best part is that you can make it yourself . Don’t worry,  it doesn’t require any special equipment or outstanding drawing skills. You can choose any motif you want, be it pictures of friends and family, handwriting, an elegant pattern, or the movie star you have a crush on – almost anything can be turned into an accurate chocolate picture. Lets now see how a chocolate painting is made. I m sure that it will change your perception that painting isnt fun.

You will need:
- Printer and paper
- white parchment paper
- baking spray or oil
- tape
- cutting board
- white chocolate
- dark chocolate
- clean thin paintbrushes
- toothpicks

Step I:
Find the picture you'd like to paint, or make it yourself.Pictures with high contrast work best.With a picture editing software, make it a black and white picture.Then turn up the contrast so much that it only has two colors: Black and white.Flip it horizontally and print the result.

Original picture



Altered picture

Step II: Preparing the picture- Now tape the picture to the cutting board.Tape the parchment paper on top of it.Put some cooking spray or oil on a kitchen towel, and wipe the parchment paper with it to lightly grease it.
                                                                                 

                                                                              
                                                        
Step III:
Melt the chocolate- Break the dark chocolate into pieces and melt it in the microwave or in a double boiler.

Step IV:
Using a paintbrush or toothpicks, paint the dark areas of the picture.Put it in the fridge until it is completely hardened.

                                                                              

                                                                      

Optional: Application of mid tones

                                                                              
Step V:
Adding the white chocolate-Then melt the white chocolate and pour it over the whole design, the thicker, the better. This is the easiest step because you just have to splash it and disperse.Let this harden completely as well.

Step VI:
All done! Now you should be able to flip the chocolate piece over and peel off from the parchment paper.

TIPS:
1) If want to make a coloured chocolate picture, you can do it by mixing white chocolate with the different kinds of food colourings available in the market. I will suggest not to use liquid food colouring because it results in a rather bad chocolate texture. I guess it’s better if you work with liposoluble food colouring or powder alternatives. You can also think of other ways to colour white chocolate naturally. For example you can mix white chocolate with green tea powder to get green color.

2) Mirror the image if you have handwriting on your picture.

3) To get midtones mix dark and white chocolate together. When drawing, it’s okay to overlap the dark chocolate areas since it won’t shine through later.

4) Be careful not to use overheated chocolate or your previous work will melt away! Heating the chocolate for 1-2 minutes is sufficient.Shake the picture a bit to prevent air bubbles.

5) When you peel off the final thing dont touch it with bare hands.Use gloves or napkin.

HAPPY PAINTING AND HAPPY EATING!!!