About this article Over the years, we at ZATZ have had the opportunity to publish articles by some well known authors and true experts in the field. As digital technology has grown, it's moved out of the lab and out of the studio into the home. Crafters have made digital photography their own, creating a new genre of crafting: computer crafts. Creative Computer Crafts published by No Starch Press (at http://www.nostarch.com/creative.htm), provides readers with 50 fun and useful projects you can make with any inkjet printer. Marcelle Costanza, the book's author, has gracefully consented to provide us with additional projects, exclusive to Connected Photographer. And now, the most important article we've ever published (yep, it's about chocolate)...

Even before the advent of the digital camera, computers and inkjet printers and some special inkjet media made it possible for folks to put their favorite photos on lots of things, from mousepads to mugs to T-shirts and tote bags and tons of other stuff as shown in Figure A.

FIGURE A


There are so many items you can put photos on using your inkjet printer. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Well, have I got a photography craft for you! Chocolate photos! Over the past few years many companies have come out with special papers, mostly rice papers, that you can print photos on using inks that are actually food coloring.

But one company -- PhotoFrost (at http://www.computercakes.com) -- went one step further by making their edible sheets out of actual frosting! Rice paper is ok, but when you print on it and apply it to a cake top they tend to make a mess when you try to cut the cake. PhotoFrost's sheets melt right into the frosting on your cake (which has to be white, by the way) so that when you cut the cake the photo and whatever other design you have printed is actually part of the frosted cake.

I have used them often and absolutely love them. But I decided to take it one step further and thought, "What about putting the frosting sheets on chocolate?" I did some research on the Web and it turns out this is not a new idea. And once I started, I was hooked!

Important safety tips first
There are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, the edible ink cartridges are only made for Canon printers. I was lucky enough to pick up a BJC 2100 a few years ago in a drug store for about $30. If you can find an inexpensive Canon, grab it.

Keep in mind that the printer must be used only for edible inks. You cannot switch between regular ink and edible. It will contaminate the printer and could make someone sick. So your edible ink printer has to be dedicated solely to printing with food coloring cartridges. Don't take a used printer and convert it -- it must never have had printing inks pass through its jets.