Painting cakes

[chrissi_e]

I tried covering a cake with white modelling chocolate. Needless to say the chocolate tore and did not finish as smooth as I would have liked, so I decided to paint it. I used my wilton gel icing colours in both the concentrated and diluted forms. I had done this before and the result looks great, but the colors never really dry. Obviously this stained the fingers and mouths of my customers.

Does anyone know of a better product I can use next time? I really liked the result and would definetly like to try it again with a better product.

[izbnso]

What are you diluting with? Undiluted will certainly stain and remain uber-tacky. Maybe switch brands or to powdered colors.
Have you tried brush embroidery with royal icing or powdered sugar butter cream (I’ve managed to do brush work with this type of butter cream but haven’t seen anyone else do it and it isn’t as easy as royal icing). It isn’t the exact same look as straight painting with food color but if you are looking to cover flaws in the fondant/modeling chocolate it would still be cool.