Make Your Own WHITE Food Color Marker


A few weeks ago, I was sitting very calmly in my quiet (not-dirty, no children screaming) house, staring at the perfectly white walls with absolutely nothing to do. And since I was completely caught up on all household chores, tasks, and personal projects and had seen every cookie ever made and shared on Facebook, I was enjoying an afternoon of nothingness. Well, nothingness and a big slice of chocolate pie.

HA!

I'm totally kidding. I only wish-wish-wish in my little heart that such a thing could ever be possible. But sadly, it's about as likely to happen as a white food color marker.... except that...guess what actually happened that afternoon?

As I was careening from project to project and child to child and cleaning up messes while scheduling a parent teacher conference and making sure dinner didn't burn...I happened to come across a post by Beth at Hungry Happenings. THIS post. She talked about how to take care of your food color markers. And how to re-charge them when they get all dried up and practically useless. (And if you haven't read it, you really should. She also makes the funnest food crafts!)


And then a few days ago I was thinking about how much I wanted to make white stitches on my turkey cookie from last week. And I didn't want to pipe them because they always get all pointy from the stiff icing and my hands get tired, and I'm a teensy bit lazy if you haven't noticed this already. So I added Beth's informative post to my natural desire to do less work, threw in an overnight experiment and ended up with A WHITE FOOD COLOR MARKER!!! This is not a joke. I am not kidding you.


Do you see this? Do these look like the cookies of someone who is kidding you about a white food color marker? I'm beyond excited and it was all I could do to wait until daylight to take decent pictures before posting this. Get ready for the details.



The first thing you need to do is find a marker you are okay living without. I tried a Wilton marker first because I don't love them. But... then I sacrificed an Americolor marker for the sake of science and I am SO GLAD I did!! Remember how I told you that the Wilton marker was temperamental? Americolor isn't. It's perfect. Anyway... whatever marker you choose... take the back off. Beth at Hungry Happenings used tweezers, and I used pliers. Use whatever works for you.

1. Pull the foam core out of the marker. You might have to shake it out. Run it under water for a couple of minutes.
2. The core should be COMPLETELY white before you give up and move on to the next step. I tried using an Americolor black marker and it never got completely white. So...that was a waste. I would avoid any marker that has red in it.
3. Put the marker barrel under the water stream for a few minutes as well.
4. The tip of the marker should also be completely white.


5. You can drop your foam core into the bottle of white coloring if you want to and skip steps 5-7. But if you don't have sugar tweezers, or you only have small bottles of white...make this little gem. I put the barrel of the marker inside a plastic bag and then wrapped foil around it.
6. Take the marker out and place the foam core inside. Stand it up in a small glass.
7. Pour white food color over the top of the foam core. You might have to do this a couple of times at 15-20 minute intervals as the food color soaks down through the foam core. Fill up the area around the foam core as well. LEAVE FOR AT LEAST 8 HOURS. Trust me.
8. Slip it back inside the barrel of the marker and replace the cap. Shake 5 or 6 times with the tip end down and you should be good to go. Store with the tip end down and ALWAYS check the tip before writing on a cookie. Sometimes there is a drop of white on the end and it will make your writing all smudgey. Just dab it on a paper towel if you see excess white.


HINTS 

**Americolor markers work infinitely better than Wilton for this conversion. I don't know about any of the other ones. Try them and let me know!

** The original color should NOT have red in it. I tried with a black Americolor marker and could not get all the original color out. And I spent nearly twenty minutes rinsing it under water and then let it soak in water for a few more hours and the core was still magenta. In contrast, the yellow marker took about 3 minutes to rinse completely out.

**START NOW. Because you're going to have to be patient and really let the core soak up the white food color overnight or for at least 8 hours. And you're going to want to use this right away.

** Always check the tip before writing. I noticed that a couple of times there has been some excess white on the tip and it blobs out on my cookie if I don't dab it lightly on a paper towel first.

** If you want a thick, BRIGHT WHITE lettering or lines, dip the tip of the marker into your bottle or a bowl of white food coloring and use it like a paintbrush.

** I used Wilton white-white food coloring for this marker. I am relatively sure however, that AmeriColor's white food coloring will work just as well.
Georganne
Georganne

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