Everclear Alternative?
We all know what it is like to walk into a liquor store to buy a gallon of Everclear at 8 in the morning and get those odd looks. If you have been on an all night cake bender the store clerk might even ask you a couple questions for 'safety" concerns. As a cake decorator who has found the joy and magic in that gallon of clear gasoline fueled bottle of Everclear, I completely understand what that feels like. I live in a small town that has a liquor store that has ours that do not fit my schedule, it is closed on sunday and to be honest sometimes I just cant get my hands on it.
Other concerns may arise depending on your area or beliefs too. So what do we do? I have a solution!
Artisan Accents recently released a new product called the "Dilution Solution" and let me tell you that it is one heck of a problem solver! The purpose if the product is to dilute your Artisan Accent gel colors so you can use them as airbrush colors. It works perfectly for that but lets be honest who wants another one trick pony in the tool box? I set out to test what this ALCOHOL FREE solution could really do! This blog post will focus on a watercolor unicorn cake I made. Make sure you are subscribed to all my social medias linked at the end of this blog. Let the testing begin!!
Airbrush color mixing but only with Artisan Accent colors??
I tried the dilution solution with Artisan Accents breakfast blue color with no problem. Worked beautifully! So what about other brands of colors? Real Talk: I have about 8 different brands of gel colors in my arsenal right now but I do not have an airbrush color to match or do I? I tested various gels and they all worked well with the dilution solution!! Holy banana hammock people we can make literally any gel paste into a airbrush color!!!! Yeah but you can make them with everclear too so whats the big deal? Clump free means I do not have to strain my colors to get the clumps out when I use Everclear. Less mess and it is faster too. I added a drop of Americolor gel color to the color vials provided and filled the rest with the dilution solution then shook it like a dirty martini on a hot summer day. I used Breakfast Blue from Artisan Accents and from Americolor I used Deep pink, Regal Purple and yellow for the cake. Just those four colors! I airbrushed the icing sheets with half of the mix I made in the vials to get the desired colors. After that I popped them into my Cricut Explore Air 2 machine to get strips. The colors dried fast and were not tacky. I used them to create my striped tier of my watercolor unicorn cake.
Watercolor that will not evaporate quickly?
My next tier was a sponge painted watercolor tier. When I usually watercolor I am fighting the evaporation, so you have to work fast or use small amounts of your mixed color at a time. I need something that gives me working time without having to add more liquid while I work. This will give me consistency of colors and I like that. So I grabbed a lid and dropped in my four colors into their respective corners, added a splash of dilution solution and went to work. First thing I noticed was that the colors were not getting over saturated by the gel paste. I was not getting a bunch of little clumps of gel floating around either. Since I did not shake it up I thought maybe I would have a bunch of floaters in the mix. I started working but had to stop to make dinner. I left the colors uncovered for over an hour. I came back to see if all I had was dried up gel paste but to my surprise I found the colors as I left them. I was able to finish my cake plus two other tests with no problem. The next day was when the liquid had finally evaporated! I was smitten!
What else does can you use with the Dilution Solution though?
I decided to try using dusts. As we know we are in the year of the unicorn and that means gold horns EVERYWHERE! I grabbed by fave gold dusts, paint brush, and a cake board. I popped some dusts onto the board then a splash of the magic solution that at this point was yet to fail me, or so I thought. The splash of dilution solution just beaded up on top of the dust :/ Was this the kryptonite? I grabbed the paint brush to start incorporating it but the bead just separated into small beads, I let out a big sigh. I gave it one last go and I'll be a monkey's uncle it worked! It came together plus it was perfect paint consistency. I had a crazy idea, what if I added more solution so I could airbrush the dust. I figured if it worked than it would be great but if it did not my airbrush would be essentially ruined. I added some dusts to the mixing vial, added the solution then gave it a really vigorous shake before I added it into my airbrush gun. I pulled back the trigger and it actually WORKED! I used an icing sheet to test (the orange strip is the dust airbrushed) then let it dry for a bit so I could give it the rub test. I rubbed the icing sheet to see if the dust would rub off but it didn't. When I use it next time I will add more dust so I can get a more saturated color. Make sure to clean your airbrush after you use the dusts!! See the airbrushes I like by clicking here on my Amazon Affiliate List.
I am seriously loving this Dilution Solution! I have a couple more tests for you guys to see. I will be spilling the details on what really blew me away in the next blog post so make sure you are subscribed below! Check out all my other Social medias here:
Check out these great products:
Caljava for fondant and luster dusts. Click here to save 25% and get 1,000 reward points on your first purchase!
More info on how I use my Cricut Explore for cakes and more tools on my Affiliate Amazon Wishlist.
