Help finding a bee decoration

July 25, 2005 9:48 AM

A friend of mine is starting a catering business focusing on sweets. She has decided that her theme for her menus, business cards, etc will be an in-motion bee. She would like to continue this theme to her desserts as kind of a signature. Any ideas where to find bulk quantities of a tastefully rendered bee that would look appropriate attached to, or set along side, a dessert. I'm picturing something the size of a quarter or half-dollar. Thanks in advance!
posted by jbradley to shopping (14 comments total)

Found bee cupcake picks here. They're sickeningly cute! (Cute seems to be winning over tasteful in the bee-stuff department.)

A 3-d bee on a spiral wire would be very cute - here is a link to a craft project. Sounds like a great job for a nine-year-old.
posted by SashaPT at 10:01 AM on July 25, 2005

If I were her I would think about making them out of marzipan. Color it with food dye and then make them by hand. After a bit of fiddling I'm sure she could come up with a good design, and then after some decent mise en place, a relatively quick way to make them.
posted by OmieWise at 10:08 AM on July 25, 2005

Oh, well, here, I googled Marzipan Bee. They're cute, and give a good idea of what I was thinking of. Nothing new under the sun.
posted by OmieWise at 10:10 AM on July 25, 2005

I found this paper-punch that makes the shape of a bee, which could be cute.

There also seem to be a lot of bee stamps -- maybe she should check out a local rubber-stamp store? That way she could buy whatever color/sized paper she wanted, and stamp the bee onto it.
posted by occhiblu at 10:41 AM on July 25, 2005

What about a stencil of a bee? She could set it on her sweets and shake some powdered sugar or cocoa on it, remove and voila! She should make (or have someone make) her own though, if it's her logo/signature.
posted by cali at 10:56 AM on July 25, 2005

This site sells gear for printing onto edible paper, perhaps she can get the gear to do her logos and also enable her to do this kind of thing as well - a quick google for this also turned up places that do it for cookies.
posted by phearlez at 11:01 AM on July 25, 2005

Just my two cents: I think both the holepunch and stencil ideas are FABULOUS. I think they would each work well in different situations, and would provide a nice personal touch to your friend's sweets.

Perhaps she could even make some sort of thin confectionary sheet, and punch it while it was still pliable. I'm thinking of something Necco Wafer-like. She might get two punches, one to punch paper as is, and a second punch to take apart somehow and make into more of a "press punch" than a "squeeze punch" (ie, take the lower jaw off.)

The stencil, with shaken sugar or cocoa would be great on certain kinds of desserts.

Such good ideas, folks! AskMeFi comes together again!
posted by NewGear at 11:34 AM on July 25, 2005

Another edible logo idea is getting transfers made for chocolate. They're super easy to use, and can be made custom. Lots of the top pastry places use them in little squares on the top of their desserts, though I'm having a dickens of a time finding a picture. Here are some examples of non-custom chocolate transfer designs. (I used to work for this company, they don't do custom design, but might be able to connect you with someone who does or order in a bee if it already exists).

What you get is a food-safe ink printed onto a plastic sheet. When the chocolate is still melted, you lay the plastic over it, ink down. Once the chocolate is solidified, peel off the plastic, done.

Searching for "chocolate transfers" should be a good start point to see more.
posted by whatzit at 11:40 AM on July 25, 2005

I just noticed the stamp idea - you can use new stamps (i.e., not previously inked) in food-safe inks. Another option is the good stuff called "luster dust" or "lustre dust" (lots of it is UK-made) or "petal dust" that, when mixed with a little bit of alcohol (evaporates!) can be stamped right into firm frostings, gumpaste, rolled fondant, and the like. They're usually used for painting flowers and such for wedding cakes, so there is a huuuge color variety out there.

Actually, she might also look into molds for gumpaste. They're made of silicone usually, and you can pop in gumpaste or other clay-like sweets and then pop out a finished leaf, bee, whatever. You can get the idea of gumpaste molds here, though I don't see a bee offhand here, other places do sell them.
posted by whatzit at 11:52 AM on July 25, 2005

And the pliable confectionery sheet NewGear mentions is definitely rolled fondant or gumpaste - both can be cut using cookie cutters and such. gumpaste is easier to make very thin sheets of, and dries hard. Fondant gets stiff but takes much longer to get really hard.

Sorry for all the posting, as I said, this used to be work for me, I just can't organize my thought so well!
posted by whatzit at 11:55 AM on July 25, 2005

Go here and search for "bee." There's all kinds of neat stuff and you could make molds from simple lineart pretty easily with photopolymer.
posted by luriete at 12:14 PM on July 25, 2005

The neccos are a neat idea. A simple rubber stamp that used food coloring rather than regular ink and you'd have something you could place on anything. They're somewhat porous so I'd think they'd take the stamp pretty well.
posted by phearlez at 2:34 PM on July 25, 2005

Hey, phearlez! That's a great idea for the Necco wafers! Combine that with whatzit's food-safe ink, and I think you have a winner.

I always find it interesting when somebody takes somebody else's idea, turns it on its head, and comes up with something different and cool. Kudos!
posted by NewGear at 4:24 PM on July 25, 2005

Your profile doesn't say where you are - but if you don't have them in your area - Neccos are thin candy wafers that have the texture of chalk and come in rainbow flavors or chocolate flavors. They can be ordered online in bulk, for sure.
posted by whatzit at 4:47 PM on July 25, 2005