Macarons are transformed into individual promotional items
A Slovak baker creates individual highlights in no time with the help of Eddie Edible Ink Printer. Find out how Domčine laskonky produces personalised macarons for its B2B customers with the help of the direct-to-food printer.
Dominika Onofrejova from Blatné in Slovakia has always been a passionate baker and loved trying out new recipes, so she soon tried making macarons herself. After many attempts, she found a recipe that made the macarons perfect and since then she has been making them by using the Italian method.
In December 2016 she founded “Domčine laskonky”, which means “home-made treasures”, as a small one-person baking dream producing macarons. Under the company name M+L GROUP, spol. s r.o. she and her team of four employees plus part time workers are now baking and selling a wide range of products including macarons, tartes, cakes and desserts for anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, christenings and B2B corporate events. They create individual candy tables and sweets boxes according to customers’ wishes. In addition, they have an online shop offering country-wide delivery with their own vans with cooling systems and drivers.
“As the B2B sector is a great part of our business, we were searching for new opportunities to offer customers added value and found it in macarons with an edible logo print”, describes Dominika the new business focus. “Companies love the uniqueness which is connected with this service. Macarons are very flexible, you can adjust the colour of the shell, as well as the filling in order to match the logo of the company. They look great in huge macaron towers as well as packed by one or two in small cute packages that are distributed at fairs, exhibitions or other events.”
In summer 2022 they bought an Eddie Edible Ink Printer from DTM Print. Unlike other available printers on the market this direct-to-food printer from US manufacturer Primera Technology, Inc. prints directly and in full-colour with food certified ink onto cookies, candy, white chocolate, biscuits, macarons, marshmallows, smarties-like sweets and much more.
Using the included carousel, Eddie holds up to twelve items from 63.5 mm to 110 mm in diameter with a maximum thickness of 19 mm. To print on taller, special shaped confections or multiple items in one run Eddie’s manual feeding option combined with DTM Trays extends the width to 120 mm and allows thicker items with a maximum height of 27 mm. The third option is to use the Eddie Platform Kit for items up to 50.8 mm high and up to 114 mm wide. Once installed the kit replaces the standard platform.
“We did print on our shells before, but we had it done by an external company, so we really had the experience and the positive feedback from the customers. We saw the opportunity and the great profit it brings to the company, so we decided to invest into the machine and print on the macaron shells in-house,” Dominika explains her decision to use Eddie from now on.
This way they save a great amount of money and also time as they no longer have to bring the shells to the external company. They decided to fill the shells only after printing as the flat bottom of the shell itself is much more stable for printing and filled macarons caused dancing and therefore damaging of the macarons. It makes the whole production process much quicker and they can adjust the printing as needed. With Eddie in-house they can also modify the prints to their customers’ liking and as they always look for new trends online, they can offer many seasonal products, too.
A wide selection of acrylic food trays including custom-shaped trays are designed especially for Eddie by DTM Print. As an international OEM and solution provider for printing systems DTM Print not only offers their own printing solutions, but also works closely with well-known manufacturers like Primera Technology, Inc. The company then sells these products and services in the entire EMEA region including Slovakia through authorised resellers and distributors.
As Dominika’s macarons are bigger than usual she uses the so-called Oreo tray1 instead of the Macaron tray2 DTM Print is also offering. Just before Christmas season 2022 they got a big order for thousands of macarons, so they decided to buy another tray in order to make the process quicker and to help with the work flow.
When deciding on Eddie, it also played a role for her that DTM Print is based in Germany and therefore in the European Union. The entire handling and communication before and after the purchase of Eddie was a smooth process, so that the worries she had concerning buying, payment, delivery and re-ordering of inks were unfounded.
Installation and setup were done with the help of the comprehensive user manual and the DTM Print support team. During the set-up process, it unfortunately turned out that the device had a fault which meant that the device had to be replaced. This was organised quickly and easily by the support team so that Dominika had a new printer on-site within a few days. For all customers buying Eddie via DTM Print or one of its authorised partners the company not only offers free lifetime support for the printer through their local partners and the head office, but also three years warranty, DTM Print approved products and accessories as well as customised carefree all-in-one solutions.
One thing positively surprised Dominika when working with Eddie: the large printing capacity of the ink cartridge. As a precaution, she ordered additional cartridges for the already mentioned Christmas order. ”After this large one and many more B2B orders we still had 70% of the second ink available which is something we really did not expect. It lasts forever.”
“We really love the price/quality ratio of the printer. The money was really well invested,” she summarises her experiences. “Eddie definitely brought us more B2B customers, which is good because companies love to spend money on new, surprising brand promotions.”
Since the company started offering personalised macarons, it has inspired other suppliers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic to do the same. As trendsetters in this field, Domčine laskonky offers macaron baking classes and shares its experiences with its followers on social media.
