World’s first digital bakery 3D prints candy and chocolates for Valentine’s Day

By Brelaun Douglas via SWNS

The “world's first digital bakery” has produced a line of 3D printed chocolates, SMS text hearts and complex colorful candies just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Sugar Lab is a digital design bakery based in Los Angles, California, that works with chefs to create 3D printed pastries, candies and desserts.

“Instead of being a design firm for houses we’re a design firm for amazing cakes, candies and pastries,” said Kyle von Hasseln, 39, who co-founded the hyper-modern bakery in 2012.

In response to COVID-19, the company launched a public retail site, moving away from working exclusively with chefs in restaurants, hotels and other food spaces.

“The e-commerce site was a bit of a pivot for us in response to COVID to make sure that we were actually delivering food and it became really popular,” Kyle said.

After a successful launch and Christmas range, Sugar Lab decided to do their first-ever Valentine’s Day line last year.

Already offering vegan 3D printed décor like roses and teddy bears and colorful candies, they then added chocolates and cocktail bitters, two things that are also new to the 3D printing world.

“We're really proud to introduce the chocolates and cocktail bitters categories because we think those are two new firsts in the 3D printing space and it’s a great example of what the technology can do,” he said.

3D printing the sweets works in much the same way as traditional confectionary creation but mixes ingredients together in a robot instead of a bowl.

“If you've ever made frosting at home and you leave it overnight it basically firms up and that’s the exact same process that we use, we just have a robot doing it for us so it’s super precise,” Kyle said.

Printing time depends not on complexity but instead on the height of the piece.

“The little candies that are about an inch tall we can print about one per minute,” Kyle said.

“Two objects that are the same height, even if one is really complex and the other simple, take the exact same time.

“It would take maybe six hours to build something eight inches tall like a wedding cake topper.”

An architect by trade, Kyle attributes much of the company's success to the chefs they work with.

“Pastry chefs have been the people who have really buoyed the company and helped us set direction because they really understand the technology and how it will affect the culinary arts and food broadly,” he said.

The company hasn’t received pushback about 3D printed foods, which Kyle credits to their carefulness in deciding which ingredients to choose.

“It’s really important to respect traditional food processes and we believe we do that by making chefs and pastry chefs leaders in the company,” he said.

“It’s important to not be arrogant and think you can take over categories that have a really storied tradition but be open-minded to the ones that are open-minded and playful, and desserts and cocktails are the perfect examples of that.”

Sugar Lab’s Valentine’s candies and other treats can be found at sugarlab3d.com.