Custom Polycarbonate Chocolate Molds

We often get questions about the price of custom polycarbonate chocolate molds.  Polycarbonate molds are the best for achieving a superior finish on the chocolate and they are much easier to work with. Custom polycarbonate molds are best suited for long run production.  They are complex to make, requiring the use of computer aided design, CNC milling, and injection molding.

So then, how much do they cost?  Well, Micelli Chocolate Molds in New York has an Artisan Mold Program.  Here is what they state on their website:

"Custom Polycarbonate Injection Molds for the Artisan or Chocolatier

 • Custom bar/tablet size design with or without your logo 

 • 3d rendering for your approval

 • Prototype mold to test the cavity

 • Mold layout drawing for your approval

 • Custom injection mold tooling to meet your requirements

 • Polycarbonate injection molds in size 275mm x 135mm, 175mm, 205mm or larger if needed

 • Complete custom bar/tablet projects starting at about $4,500

All prototypes and final mold orders ship via UPS directly from our New York, U.S.A. factory.

UPS charges estimated at $75 to $200 to most areas in the US and Canada."

As you can see, you need a to have a high volume need to justify the cost of making a custom polycarbonate mold.  But, if you do have that need and can afford it, your finished product will be dramatically better.

How Much do Custom Chocolate Molds Cost?

The cost of a custom chocolate mold greatly depends on the design and mold material.  For example, the least expensive type of custom chocolate mold is going to be a simple logo put on a bar of chocolate.  The price will start at around $150, though it varies greatly.  Most will charge around $300 for this type of mold.  The type of mold you will receive for this price is a thin plastic vacuum formed hobby mold that is good for short term use. 

Many people want a professional style chocolate mold, hard polycarbonate.  No doubt polycarbonate chocolate molds produce the best results and last the longest.  However, these molds are made by injection molding and the price is in the thousands.  Unless you are having these made for long term, high volume production, you simply cannot justify the cost.

The middle of the road is a silicone chocolate mold, or there are other food grade epoxies that can be cast.  These molds will start around $400 and are a good option for getting a higher quality mold, yet not going full blown into an injection mold. 

Generally the time to make a mold takes 3 weeks or more.  The design process takes the longest in order to make sure the chocolate de-molds properly and that the artwork is satisfying to the customer.

Making Custom Chocolates Using Logo Plates that fit into Master Molds

I was just reading an article about how some companies make mass custom chocolates from a company called Gourmet Gift Food People.  Apparently they sell customized chocolate products.  At any rate, they described the process of making custom chocolates and the reasoning behind set-up fees as follows:

" One of the questions we often hear is if the customer can keep the logo or company message chocolate mold when purchasing corporate logo chocolates, since they paid for the set up fee.

Answer: When you order a piece of chocolate from a catalog or website, the actual chocolate molds have already been created by the factory and the master plates are already made. When you add your logo or text message, a tiny plate, the size of the logo or text is created to fit snugly in to the master plate and this is how your logo or message is added to the chocolate. The chocolate mold plate created with your logo or message would not be useful for any other purpose as it was only created to fit in to the master chocolate plate for the item you are ordering this time. If you re-order again later in the year or even next year, the exact same chocolate item, your plate should be made available to use again without paying an additional set up fee.

However, if you choose to go with a different piece of chocolate, - something that would require your logo to be larger or smaller than the piece already created or shaped differently than the original to fit in a master mold, you more than likely will be required to pay a new set up fee."

Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/combined-pricing-for-corporate-logo-chocolate-gifts-2830984.html#ixzz0u5vaDxuM


Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

I have tried to do this before and you must be precise about getting the logo plate to fit very snugly into the master mold.  If anyone has information about this process, I am interested in learning more.

Silicone Molds to Make Large Artisan Chocolate Pieces

Jumble Box 10"

Jumble Box 6"









Confectionary Casting Frames





If you need to cast a large piece of chocolate, the use of a silicone box mold can be of great assistance. They are quite expensive, but can be used to mold many shapes and sizes of chocolate that would otherwise be difficult to find molds for. In the long run, you will save money as opposed to the cost of making multiple molds. For example, you can make a bases for chocolate showpieces, diagonal pieces, cubes, and wedges. If you had to make a new mold for each project, well, that would also be very expensive both in terms of material and labor costs. It is said that the boxes can be used to make over 100 shapes. An added bonus is that the slots on the 10" jumble box are actually molds to make two differnet sizes of cylinder shapes and with the 6" box, you can make triangular posts.

These molds are made by Chicago School of Mold Making. On the "Tips and Tools" section of their website, they have pictures showing many of the different ways to position the movable sections to make a variety of shapes. If you have both of the boxes, the 6" can fit inside the 10" box for expanded possibilities. You can also use flexible silicone confectionery casting frames inside the 10" jumble box to make curved shapes, as well as a wide variety of other linear shapes.

Click on the links above to see these items at Amazon.com or go to our main website to see these products plus all of the other artisan silicone molds available.

Silicone Plastique / Culinart

I often receive emails from people looking for some odd shaped mold. Most people assume that you have to pay a fortune for a custom vacuum formed plastic chocolate mold. However, there is a much simpiler and cost effective method.

I highly recommend going to the newly designed MakeYourOwnMolds.com website to look at their silicone moldmaking products. MakeYourOwnMolds.com is a part of Culinart. Amongst their product line up is Silicone Plastique, which is a putty food grade silicone; Silicone Spread, which is a thixotropic food grade silicone that is thick and spreadable; and CopyFlex which is a liquid food grade silicone. They also sell supporting supplies such as sealants and release agents. We will just talk about the Silicone Plastique for now since it is the easiest and cleanest to use.

One example of a common inquiry is a letter in a certain font. If you look at the stock plastic chocolate molds for sale, you will see that there aren't many choices. So, I try to tell people to go to a hobby store and find the letter that you want as a model to make a mold from. This can be made out of wood, clay, or even fabric. It just needs to have some degree of thickness to it.

The model must first be prepped before the Silicone Plastique can be used. Usually this will involve adhering the item to a board using kneading clay. Make sure whatever you are using is FDA approved, or at least non-toxic. The item must also be sealed so that the mold making material doesn't penetrate the surface of the model. Depending on the item you may want to also use a release agent so the silicone does not stick to the model. Again, since you will be using this in the preparation of food, you want an FDA compliant material. These products can all be obtained from the folks at Culinart.

Once the model is ready, you will mix the two parts of the putty together to activate the mold making chemicals. You must work fairly quickly before the materials begin to harden. According to a video on their website, you have about 10 minutes to make your mold once you have mixed the two parts together. If your mold is large, you may want to mix the putty in steps so you can take your time. At any rate, now that the putty is mixed you will want to apply it to your model. It is important to lay the silicone on the model in a manner that does not trap air. After you have applied the materials, it will take approximately an hour to cure, or completely harden. You will need to thouroughly wash and dry the mold prior to use.

I highly recommend that you go http://www.makeyourownmolds.com/ and watch the lace mold making video. It is an excellent demonstration with very good tips that you can use when making any mold.

Jujups Personalized Chocolates - Special Offer

There is new personalized chocolate product offering on the market from a company named Jujups.  The finished chocolate product is very similiar to that of Chocolography, but the JuJups online personalized chocolate design and order process is revolutionary.  Jujups has developed online design tools that enable non-designers to create personalized chocolates effortlessly using its easy-to-use drag and drop design tools. Users can design, create and order chocolates with pictures, text or graphics. Chocolates are priced from US$20 onwards and would be shipped by the 2nd day.  Jujups has kindly offered a 5% discount for The Chocolate Mold Factory readers, use code VDAYCHOC5.  It is valid till 11Feb, the last day to order for Valentine's Day.

To order your chocolates, you simply choose from one of the many chocolate shapes available.  Then you can completely customize the chocolate using the JuJups online system.  Once you have added all of your personal design elements, you are able to preview your finished chocolate.  It is very user-friendly and I am unaware of anyone else with a similiar system. 

Jujups was launched in November 2008, as an online platform to make designing easy and fun. Jujups allows users without any designing background to create and share their designs online. Products that can be designed include mugs, t-shirts, photo frames, cards, gift tags and badges.  JuJups operates globally with partners in many countries who are able to print and deliver the designed products locally. Printable chocolates are a recent addition to its portfolio in Singapore and in the US. The company also enables users to create 3D printed products such as frames. JuJups online tools are free to use. While there are other template-based design services available online, the creative freedom afforded by JuJups is very significant making each design very different to each other.

Chocolate Graphics Presents Presidential Chocolates

Well, I guess chocolate is not even immune from getting caught up in the Presidential race.  These photo realistic chocolates were presented to the candidates by Katrina Neylon, Master Licensee for Tennessee, and her Team.  The Tennessee Chocolate Graphics Team expressed their support for the recent Presidential Debate held at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee on October 7th by supplying chocolates that were a special favor given to all the attendees at a huge after-debate party which took place following the debate at AT&T headquarters in downtown Nashville. In addition, Chocolate Graphics Tennessee made large chocolate portraits of the two presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain.

Chocolate Graphics is a company that produces chocolates made with hi-definition, computerized laser images.  Their process is patent protected.  According to their website, the image is a raised embossed design that is made entirely of chocolate.  They say it is not simply printing on chocolate. 

An Australian inventor originally conceived the Chocolate Graphics process in 1988. His method was rudimentary and extremely slow, and no effective marketing action was adopted until 1996 when three local businessmen purchased the rights to his process.  In July 1999 the patents, applications and manufacturing rights were purchased by John Taylor, an experienced international businessman who had kick-started many small businesses both in Australia and overseas.

Since that time the process has been significantly upgraded to incorporate state of the art computerized laser and automated technology. Now, with the new automated machinery having been designed and tested, the production capability of a 'manual' Manual Production Centre (PC) is 18,000 pieces daily, with a 'fully automated' process expected to produce 250,000 chocolates per day.  Recently the company reached new heights, with the introduction of technology that allows the embossing of photographic images onto chocolate with chocolate. Additionally, by using the same technology Chocolate Graphics can now also produce 3 dimensional images onto chocolate with chocolate.

Chocolate Graphics can offer customers products with unparalleled definition and assortment in embossed chocolates.  Here are some examples of the type of products they can produce:

Chocolate Graphics has a few licensees in the U.S. and is looking for more.  There are several different levels of franchises ranging from a salesperson to a full blown production facility.  They provide all the training.  For more information, go to their website.

Silk Screening (Screen Printing) on Chocolate and Transfer Sheets

Recently I have been doing some research into how to screen print with cocoa butter to either make custom transfer sheets or to print directly on chocolate. Let me tell you, I have found that although alot of people seem to be doing this already, there is still much confusion about the subject. Equipment can run from the very simple to quite complex. Even if you can get the equipment side right, getting the cocoa butter to be the proper temperature and consistency is a science unto itself.

First, a screen printing, aka silk screening, primer:

A piece of mesh is installed into an frame, together called a screen. The mesh is then coated with a photosensitive emulsion and let to dry. A black and white image is prepared, printed on a transparency, which is then taped onto the coated mesh. The screen is then exposed to light for a certain period of time. Everything that is exposed to the light, ie everything but the black parts of the image, will cure. The transparency is removed, then the mesh is washed. The emulsion under the black parts of the image will wash out, leaving a stencil of the image on the mesh.

If you want a multiple color image, a screen will need to be made for each separate color. You will have to make your graphics for each part. To make sure it all lines up in the end, registration marks are used.

To use the screen, the chocolate piece or acetate transfer sheet is put under the screen. The "ink" or cocoa butter mixture is poured on top of the image and dragged across the screen using a rigid squeegee. The cocoa butter will fall through the screen depositing the cooca butter in the exact shape of the image.

Ok..so how do you get the supplies to do all this and how much does it cost? Well, there are many equipment options. First, the simple route might be to have someone make the screens for you. Chef Rubber can have these made for you; however, the price listed is around $180. If you want to save some money, you can try to make the screens yourself. There are many places to buy silk screens on the Internet or maybe at a local art supply house for less than $30. If you are going to buy pretreated screens or are going to coat them yourself, make sure that the emulsion/diazo is non-toxic. Someone in a different chocolate thread wrote that Ulano TZ/CL is non-toxic. It can be purchased for around $30 and used to make multiple screens. Caution: I don't know of any emulsion which is approved by the FDA. There seems to be some concern around this issue; however, I have been told that the emulsion is safe when dry. I don't know. People are doing it, so you be the judge.

To use the screens, you can either lay them flat over the acetate or chocolate piece and go for it. You could also purchase a screen printing apparatus that holds the frame in place. This is the best option for lining the image up consistently. You can buy one color system for $100 - $200. They also sell systems that can do as much as 6 different colors. These cost over $1,000.

A cheaper alternative I have found is a toy called Silk Screen Factory by Alex Toys. The Silk Screen Factory is neat, but instead of using the photosensitive emulsion, it uses stencils. It only costs $25.

Stencils are an interesting alternative around the food safety issue. Acetate, the plastic used for commercial transfer sheets, can be cut with knives or can be laser cut. You could find a local sign maker or awards place that has a laser. If a stencil could be put on a mesh screen tight enough to ensure that the cocoa butter does not leak, I think this would be the most food safe route.

The most expensive option for commercial purposes is to buy a semi-automatic screen printing machine. Two companies that I have been talking to are Deco Tech and Systematic Automation. According to Deco Tech, you can only use their system to print transfer sheets. Systematic Automation says that their system can be used to make transfer sheets or print on chocolate. I have been told that these systems use a heated screen to keep the cocoa butter at the proper temperature. Cost is several thousands of dollars.

Whatever option you choose, you will have to play around with the cocoa butter and colorants to get the proper mix. It seems that most people advocate the use of powdered colors and titanium dioxide. It appears that many have difficulty getting the color on the cocoa butter to be bright enough once it on the chocolate.

If anybody has experience, please share. Your insight would be greatly appreciated.

Personalized Chocolate and Custom Transfer Sheets

This morning I had the pleasure of speaking with Susan Van Dusartz, of Prints on Chocolate. Susan produces personalized chocolates with photographs, logos, custom greetings, or other color images. Her chocolates start with a layer of milk or dark chocolate. Then each piece is topped with white chocolate imprinted using edible ink with a custom design. Some of the available shapes are squares, circles, rectangles, medallions, lollipops, hearts or business cards.

In addition to selling finished chocolate pieces, you can also order custom chocolate transfer sheets from Prints on Chocolate. Using their transfer sheets, you can put full color graphics on chocolate. The images are transferred in the same manner as all other transfer sheets and can be used in combination with magnetic molds. The minimum order requirement is lower, making this service more attractive for a wider range of projects. The only caveat is that these transfer sheets must use a white chocolate base.

If you would like to make your own printed chocolates or transfer sheets, Susan also is the U.S. distributor of Cake Art products. Cake Art makes edible ink cartridges and printing sheets that can be used with a standard printer. Magnetic molds to make the custom chocolates and bonbons are also available. The Cake Art Chocosheet product is an actual cacao butter product that is transferred onto white chocolate. This differs from other methods of getting full color graphics on chocolate, such as using frosting sheets. Using the transfer sheet method, the final product consists of only chocolate products, which is generally preferable to many.

Susan is in the process of launching a new website for the sale of the Cake Art products. I will post that information when it becomes available. Until then you can contact her through the Prints on Chocolate website.

Chocolate Replicas of Buildings and Landmarks

I saw this story about a father/daughter team in the UK that are making chocolate replicas of buildings and other landmarks. Their work is incredible.

Pictured: The intricate chocolate replicas of British landmarks and celebrity homes

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:41 PM on 24th July 2008

It's the perfect gift for the person who has everything - an edible replica of their home. But at £2,000 each they'll set you back a bit more than your average box of chocolates.

The intricate creations are being snapped up by the rich and famous with Prince Charles, Sting and Nicolas Cage among those who have commissioned carvings.

Chocolate artists Flo Broughton and her father Kerr Dunlop created this 'edible sculpture' of Highbury for Prince Charles. Prince Charles was so impressed with the replica he now sells them at The Highgrove Shop.


The replicas made by Father and daughter chocolatiers Kerr Dunlop and Flo Broughton , measure around 20cm x 10cm and take three weeks to make using intricate moulds. The pair spent five years perfecting their technique for making the 'edible architecture', which has also been used to recreate British landmarks.

Flo Broughton, and father Kerr Dunlop, spent five years perfecting a technique for the chocolate architecture. Now they have released pictures of their work for the first time, including the sculpture of Prince Charles' Highgrove country estate in Gloucestershire.

They also show Midford Castle near Bath, Somerset - recently bought by Nicholas Cage - and Stings's Lake House mansion at Wilsford-cum-Lake in Wiltshire.

Retired inventor Kerr, 64, said: 'It's very difficult to make them. We have to build them up in different stages as you would a model. 'There are different colours for different parts of the building. If there's a portice on the door we would do that separately then add other features like windows. 'It's neither a quick nor an easy process but we pride ourselves on offering beautiful and original chocolates for our consumers. 'A mould for something like a house can take two or three works and hard to do occasionally stopping for breaks.'

The family launched their company Chocolate on Chocolate five years ago and converted a barn at their home in Rode, Bath, into a chocolate factory. They started selling a range of just 12 chocolates at trade shows and quickly landed orders from upmarket shops such as Harrods.




Nicholas Cage commissioned a chocolate replica of his Somerset estate Midford Castle.

Inventor Kerr then designed a method of sculpting buildings using moulds made out of plastic.

He made replicas of the Town Bridge in Bradford-upon-Avon, Wiltshire, and the Devil's Bridge in Kendal, which were spotted by a member of Prince Charles' staff at a show three years ago.
Charles then commissioned a chocolate replica of Highgrove and his three-feathered Royal crest.



Landmark: Bristol shopping super centre Cribbs Causeway has been re-created in luxury chocolate.


He was so impressed he recently started selling them at The Highgrove Shop, which sells produce from the Prince's land near Tetbury and other local producers.

The Highgrove replica - 20cm x 10cm with 250g of chocolate - retails at £12 and the Royal crest - which is 10cm squared and uses 110g - is £6.

Making the chocolates takes up to three weeks starting with photographing the buildings and making several moulds and costs up to £2,000 per commission.



Intricate: Each replica takes three weeks to make using moulds with extra pieces intricately hand-carved for different parts of the building.

Giant machines spin gallons of different flavoured dark, milk, white and red chocolate which are poured into the moulds.

Extra pieces are then intricately hand-carved for different parts of the building.

The luxury treat business has boomed - now making 200 different products - and they now plan to expand into a factory four times the size including a chocolate cafe.

Graphic Designer Flo, 29, said: 'We started when I finished my degree and had a brief discussion about how cool it would be if I came up with some imaginative designs and then dad carved the moulds out of plaster. 'Dad has experience as an inventor and can carve amazingly intricate moulds and we just thought we'd give it a go.

'It's a dream come true to be surrounded by chocolate all the time. 'It's hard to resist eating the chocolate all the time because it smells so good, but I've got used to it.'

Custom Chocolate Transfer Sheets and Dessert Wafers

Many people seem to be looking for a company or product to make custom chocolate transfer sheets, so I thought I would let you know about American Chocolate Designs of Atlanta. American Chocolate Designs® is a division of Gadoua Chocolate Designs and is a woman owned business. Gadoua Chocolate Designs prints designs, photographs, and logos directly onto a fine Belgian dark milk and white chocolate. If you want a chocolate transfer sheet or dessert wafer with a custom design or logo, I would refer you to them.

Ordering Custom Transfer Sheets

You will need camera-ready black and white artwork or a high resolution jpg file for a one-color-print. There may be additional requirements for multiple color artwork. There is a one case minimum (one hundred transfers) for custom chocolate transfer sheet orders. The set-up charge is $100 per color. For designs with more than one color, the price may vary due to the number of colors and design complexity. I am not sure of the case price for custom orders, but the case price for their standard designs are 10" x 11"

100 sheet case $195.00; 10" x 16" 100 sheet case $299.00. So, it would cost at minimum $295 for a one color custom chocolate transfer sheet.

Ordering Custom Dessert Wafers

The artwork, set-up charges, and ordering minimums for custom dessert wafers are pretty much the same as for the transfer sheets. They have several different shapes from which to choose including square, circle, oval, and heart. You can choose white chocolate or dark milk chocolate. Recommended colors for logos on white chocolate wafer include: brown, black, red, green, blue and burgundy. Recommended colors for logos on dark milk chocolate wafer are white and gold. The price for one color custom dessert wafers would be $100 plus -

30mm square 1232 per case $258.72

3 1/4" round 102 per case $96.90

2" round 506 per case $141.68

1 1/4" round 1008 per case $211.68

1 5/8" x 1" large oval 1056 per case $274.56

1" x 3/4" small oval 1936 per case $271.04

2" heart 500 per case $180.00

The ordering time is three weeks from finalization of the order and proof approval. Payment can be made by credit card.

Chocolography - Chocolate Printing Company

In the digital age people have been looking for different methods of getting detailed images on chocolate and candy products. There are various ways to accomplish this, but it is difficult to actually print directly on chocolate. Historically this has been done by applying some type of sugar base to the chocolate and printing on that. Now the Chocolate Printing Company of New York has invented a food imaging system that can print high resolution, color images directly on the surface of chocolate and other food products.

The Chocolography food imaging system consists of hardware, software, and pre-molded food products that are ready for you to customize with text, graphics, logos, and pictures in full color. The system does not only work on chocolate, but can also be used on marshmallows, sugar, fondant, marizipans, fudge, and gum pastes. The products availiable for printing on are chocolate coins, chocolate bars, lollipops, greeting cards, portraits, cookies, hard candies, truffles, bakery decorations, and much more. According to their website, the system is capable of producing up to 620 pieces per hour. It fits on a 6' table and is easily portable enabling live printing on chocolate at any event.

Those who buy into the system receive more than just the machinery and software. As part of the licensing, you also receive marketing materials, a lifetime website, and training. Currently the complete package costs approximately $49,000 and includes a special bonus of 5 years free ink.

To learn more, go to the Chocolography website.

Personalized M&M's, Hershey Kisses, and Dove Promises

The trend for customized or personalized chocolate is going mainstream. Here is a copy of a story from The Chicago Sun Times about the All Candy Expo.

May 21, 2008

BY CHERYL V. JACKSON cjackson@suntimes.com

Candy makers are getting personal. That's one trend clear from this week's All Candy Expo at McCormick Place. Some 2,000 candy and snack food items are being shown to buyers Tuesday through Thursday at the National Confectioners Association show.

James Cass, V.P. and General Manager of MARS direct, holds a MandM candy with his picture on it. This new product can be ordered with either pictures or praises printed on them. Among the new offerings were ways to customize your candy.

You can create a special Kiss. The Hershey's Co. is offering the ability to customize its chocolate Kisses, letting customers pick from a collection of messages to be printed on the paper plume.
The company is exploring allowing the customers to create original messages, said Jody Cook, a spokesperson.

Mars is taking its already popular special-order M&Ms beyond messages or custom colors. How about your own picture on M&M's chocolate candies? You can do that starting next month, when Mars Snackfood U.S. allows customers to have the candies imprinted with their images. Upload a photo portrait at MyMms.com, create a message and choose from about 17 colors.

In addition, Mars' Dove Promises chocolates can be ordered with personalized messages on the wrappers, at Mydovechocolate.com. Mars also is courting chocolate lovers with a premium version of M&Ms, which will have a softer candy shell, the company announced Tuesday.

Custom Molds Made from Rubber Stamps

At The Chocolate Mold Factory main site, there are articles about using photopolymer plates to make custom chocolate molds with logos, text, and other computer graphics. In the same line of thinking, one can also use rubber stamps. The process of making rubber stamps is very similar to photopolymer plates. In fact, many rubber stamps are made of photopolymer, a chemical which is sensitive to UV light.

To use a rubber stamp to make a chocolate mold, you can take a finished rubber stamp and attach it to a base in the shape you want your chocolate. Say for example you wanted a bar. Well, you could take a plain chocolate bar mold and attach the rubber stamp to the top of it. Next, to make the mold you would pour food grade silicone rubber over the mounted stamp. When it has cured, remove the rubber stamp and base. Now you have a custom chocolate mold.

If you are going to be making chocolates for your own use, you can go to the craft store and buy rubber stamps. However, I wouldn't recommend doing this if you intend to sell the chocolate or the mold. The rubber stamp industry is very sensitive to copyright infringment. Check with the rubber stamp manufacturer's "angel policy". An angel policy is a rubber stamp company’s established permission for use of their images by the consumer or copyright use policy. Each company has its own policy. Some images, such as licensed images have different, usually more restrictive policies.

If you want to do logos or custom graphics, you can have a rubber stamp company make custom unmounted rubber stamps for you. One of the many companies that provides this service is Picture My Stamp. Their premium custom rubber stamps are made with natural gum rubber. The deeply etched image is twice as deep as regular stamps. You can email them your custom artwork and they will make rubber stamps for you. You can buy them unmounted and then just cut them to the size you want. You could also have them cut it for you.

Using rubber stamps to make custom chocolate molds in this way is generally a bit more expensive than using photopolymer plates or magenesium hot stamping dies. However; they are much easier to work with and there are more companies you can order them from. You may even be able to contact someone in your local area that can make the rubber stamps for you, which would save alot of money on shipping costs, not to mention that you would probably get it in a shorter period of time.

Using Edible Ink and Frosting Sheets

If you want to put photos and images on chocolates, consider edible inks and frosting sheets. I spoke to a representative from Kopykake, a leading company selling the products, and it was explained to me how their system can be used to make custom chocolates.

Basically, you would take a frosting sheet (icing sheet) and put an image on it using edible inks. The sheet is layed into a chocolate mold and a layer of chocolate is added. (According to Kopykake, it is best to use white chocolate as the colors may be affected if milk or dark chocolate is used) The sheet will asborb into the chocolate, leaving a seamless image.

There are many different ways to get an image on the frosting sheet. You can simply draw on it using edible ink markers, you can trace a picture or logo and color it by hand, you can airbrush it, use a rubber stamp dipped in edible inks, or best of all use a printer or scanner. Using a printer or a scanner, an image is transferred to the frosting sheet in brilliant color just like printing on a piece of paper. You can do photos or whatever type of computerized image you want.

The Kopykake system is great because the frosting sheets are already made in pre-formatted shapes such as circles, squares, hearts, and business cards. They also have free software that allows makes it easy to add text and graphics. They also sell edible ink cartridges that fit into many Epson and Canon inkjet printers that can be bought off the shelf at any store.

One really neat project is to make an edible photo in a chocolate picture frame. To do this, you would get a picture frame mold and a print a photo onto a frosting sheet. Put the printed frosting sheet in the mold frame where the picture would naturally go, add the chocolate, and you're left with an edible picture in a photo frame.

If you don't want to get into making the frosting sheets yourself, there are companies on the internet that will make them for you. It is much less expensive than having a custom tranfer sheet made. A transfer sheet is different in that it is an image actually printed in cocoa butter. Only the cocoa butter image is transferred onto the chocolate if you use a transfer sheet. A frosting sheet is a bit different, but it still provides the roughly the same result.

Personalized Chocolate Options

There are many different reasons for wanting a personalized chocolate product. Some people want them for corporate promotions, weddings, baby showers, non-profit fundraisers, and the list goes on. Depending on your budget, there are many options available ranging from a personalized wrapper to a full custom 3d chocolate.

• Personalized Wrappers: You can have a custom printed candy bar wrapper or a custom printed label on a candy package. The printing can be text, logos, and photos. With this, the actual chocolate product is not customized, rather only the label is. You can buy only the wrappers, or the completed chocolate product already wrapped or with your custom label.

• Personalized M&M's: Another simple method is to order personalized M&Ms. There are many different color, message, and packaging options to choose from.

• Custom Foil Embossed Wrapper: Foil stamping is usually done to customize chocolate coins, although it can be done with other shapes and sizes. You can have the foil embossed with text and logos. Usually there is a set-up charge for foil stamping.

• Custom Chocolate Transfer Sheets: A transfer sheet creates an image on chocolate by using edible inks. The food grade coloring is printed on a acetate sheet and is transferred to the chocolate during the molding process. This process creates a trendy artisan chocolate. There is usually a set-up charge for printing the transfer sheets, somewhere around $100 - $200, and a minimum order. Plus, you will have the cost of actually making the chocolates and packaging.

• Custom Molded Chocolates: Molded chocolates are the most customized type of chocolate. For this type of chocolate, a custom chocolate mold needs to be made. There are basically two types of molded chocolate - flat and 3d. Flat chocolates are only molded on one side. Examples include, chocolate business cards, chocolate suckers, and many novelty chocolates. There are many companies who can make flat chocolate business cards and other shapes and this is the least expensive type of custom molded chocolate. It can usually be done for a set-up charge of $100 - $200. Again, this does not include the cost of actually making and packaging the chocolate. Custom novelty chocolates, whether flat or 3d, are more involved. An example might be if a company wants a chocolate replica of its product. This type of molding usually requires hand sculpting, computer aided design, and/or computerized machinery. The set-up charge on this type of mold can become very expensive even running into thousands of dollars.

As you can see, the cost of ordering custom chocolate products can become very expensive. To reduce the cost you may want to consider trying to make them yourself. At The Chocolate Mold Factory's main website you will find many free tutorials and videos explaining how you can do this. Many times you can make the molds yourself for under $100.