Wafer Paper or Icing Sheets – Which Should I Choose for Edible Printing?
There are essentially 2 categories of edible papers that are widely used for Edible Printing. Wafer paper (also known as rice paper) or Icing sheets (also known as frosting sheets or sugar sheets). We often get asked what’s the difference between the two and which should I choose for? We have printed the same image on Wafer Paper (Left) and Frosting Sheets (Right) to show the real difference.
| Quality Differences | Frosting Sheets | Wafer Papers |
| Color | Pure White | Opaque Translucent |
| Smooth | Yes | No |
| Plastic Backing Layer | Yes | No |
| Taste | Vanilla Flavor | Tasteless |
| Cost | Expensive | Cheaper |
| Print Quality | Very High & Vivid Colors | Dull Appearance, Blurred |
| Thickness | 0.45mm | 0.27mm,0.40mm,0.60mm |
| Uses | Cookies, Cakes, Chocolate Covered Oreo's, Rice Krispy Treats, Candy Apples, Cake Pops etc. | Cakes, Cookies, Jell-O's, 3D Patterns, Butterflies, Pre-cut wafer designs, Leaves |
| Ingredients | Tapioca or cornstarch, with added sugar and gums. | Potato starch, oil, and water. |
| Melts | Sheets "melt" onto the frosting | No |
| Large Edible Image with More ink used | It will not curl up | It will curl |
| Cut | Yes, with the scissor, Knife, Blade, Cricut Cutter, Silhouette Cutter | Yes, with the scissor, Knife, Blade, Cricut Cutter, Silhouette Cutter |
Edible printing for cakes, cookies, and other confectionaries are done on edible sheets like frosting/icing sheets or wafer papers. Using either of these generates different kinds of results. There is a difference in color, texture, effect, and price of the paper when you opt for either one of them.
Wafer paper, also known as rice paper is usually made of potato starch, oil, and water while icing sheets are thin layers of white icing pressed hard on a backing paper so that it can be used as standard printer paper. Icing sheets are usually thicker than wafer papers.
Wafer papers have a distinctive tint to the printed images and are less flexible than icing sheets. They produce a pale shade of images when printed. The icing papers, on the other hand, are smoother and whiter, capable of producing high-quality images without any distortion or pixelation.
Wafer paper is not attached to backing paper and therefore, has a tendency to curl if you apply them on the wet icing. Hence, it is advisable to use icing papers on cakes with minimal or no icing as it would work perfectly for such cake decor. Icing sheet, on the other hand, is really easy to use on any kind of cakes. All you have to do is to remove the backing sheet, moist the iced cake with a light spray of water, and paste the icing sheet on it. it blends perfectly with any surface.
There is no added flavor in wafer paper that works as an advantage as they don’t affect the original flavor of the cake. The frosting sheet comes with a slightly sweet vanilla flavor, though it is not much noticeable.
The most primary difference between wafer paper and icing sheet is that of the price difference. Wafer paper is significantly cheaper than the icing paper. However, it has a distinctive printing impression and it depends individually on what the users prefer.
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