Tutorial: Coloring cheese

I love reading all the wonderful bento blogs online. Blogs such as Hawai'i's Bento Box, Bentolicious, and BentoLunch.net leave me in awe. I get so many great tips and tricks from them. I also have a growing collection of Bento books which I love to leaf through time and again for inspiration. I wish there were more out there in English (though my husband is glad there isn't!).

One helpful tip I learned recently was from Pikko on how to color cheese with food coloring. There are other ways to do it, such as using food-safe markers, but for some reason they don't work for me. I think I need to buy some new markers. It just tends to leave a blotchy, 'colored-in' look. So when I saw this method, I had to give it a try and ... it worked great!

When making Willow's lunch earlier today, I took some photos so you guys can see for yourselves.


You just need a cookie cutter, slice of cheese (I used White American), a toothpick and some food coloring (mine's neon yellow ...or is it green? I dunno, but it came out green so it's good)


Cut your cheese with whatever cookie cutter you're using. I chose a froggy.


It's a good idea to place it on some paper towels or something you don't mind getting dye on.


Add a few drops of food dye to the cheese


Then roll it in as evenly as you can with a toothpick.


I let it sit a few seconds and then wiped the excess off with the same toothpick, until it looks smooth, sorta. Then allowed it to dry fully. Drying will also smoothen it a little I found, so the lines aren't so visible.


Lastly, add your features or any other additions and place it in your lunch box! I think this will be a neat thing to do at Christmas time. Picture red stockings, green Christmas trees ... so many fun possibilities.

And that little thing above the frog is a fly :b