printer marshmallow

Okay, so you may have grown up being told not to play with your food. But now, there’s a gadget that takes the concept of being creative with your food to a whole new level, making it in fact quite irresistible even if you’re not as artistically inclined as food artist Tisha Cherry. It’s the TP-101E Direct Food Printer sold by ink and printing material maker Creative Print.com, and … you guessed it, it prints letters and pictures directly onto food! Now who wouldn’t want to play with a machine like that?

The Direct Food Printer uses special edible ink which is also sold by Creative Print.com and apparently lets you create originals foods by decorating them with letters and drawings of your choice. And even though the printer is designed to print on any food item up to 15mm (0.6in) in thickness, it’s not complicated to use either — the machine looks and operates very much like any regular printer.

But don’t let its seemingly simple appearance deceive you. This device can print images on a surprisingly wide variety of foods as you can see below:

▼Here are some samples of work done by untrained staff to demonstrate how easy the process is:fp2

▼The drawing and letters on this cookie are amazingly clear.fp5
▼You can draw faces on tiny marshmallows … simply adorable!fp1

▼You can create stylish original macarons as well.fp3
▼Illustrated rusks could make excellent party favors.fp4
▼You can also use the printer on Japanese snacks like these monaka wafers. Once they’re filled with red bean paste, they’ll be both cute and tasty!printer monaka
▼Or how about a senbei, or rice cracker, with a cute original illustration? printer senbei

▼You can even print designs on small pieces of gum!printer gum

▼So, are you wanting this printer already? Here’s a short video on how the machine works, which should make you want it even more! The the printer comes with everything you need except the actual food you’re printing on, so you can immediately start having fun once you receive the printer.

Not surprisingly, the Direct Food Printer has attracted a fair bit of attention on the Japanese Internet, with comments such as “I seriously want this!”, “I almost ordered this without thinking,” and “Gosh, watching the video really made me want this!” being shared on Twitter. And while the printer isn’t exactly cheap at 135,000 yen (US$1,321), another Internet user commented, “If it cost under 100,000 yen, I very well might have clicked to buy it. Well, printing on food sure looks exciting, so we can certainly understand people feeling that way!

With all the interest in this unique printer, the initial stock actually sold out very quickly once it went on sale on June 23, and they’re now taking back orders, with the next shipment expected to be in mid-July.

The Direct Food Printer should not only be fun for personal use, but should be great for commercial purposes as well, such as making cute promotional items for shops or restaurants. And we have to say we’re fascinated by this machine, because something that makes tasty foods look even more attractive than they already are … well, that’s definitely our kind of technology!

Source and photos: Creative Print.com (Japanese)
Original article by: Anji Tabata (c) Pouch