Liz and Kyle von Hasseln are changing the face of sugar. Literally.
Two years ago, the husband and wife team were grad students in architecture living in a tiny, oven-less apartment in Echo Park, Calif. When their friend Chelsea’s birthday rolled around, the creative couple challenged themselves to create a 3D printed birthday cake.
After a period of trial and error, which went well beyond Chelsea’s birthday, the von Hasselns managed to print one sugar cupcake topper that spelled out their friend’s name in cursive.
Chelsea loved the belated 3D cupcake topper, and Liz and Kyle knew they were onto something sweet. After graduation, the couple launched The Sugar Lab to optimize their 3D sugar printer.
“If you’ve ever made frosting and left the mixing bowl in the sink overnight, you know that moistened sugar gets quite hard,” says Liz. “That’s the underlying concept of 3D printing with sugar.”
Printers work by spreading out a very fine layer of sugar, then jet water very precisely onto that sugar, wetting that particular cross-section of the sugar model. The moisture re-crystalized the sugar and allows it to harden. The printers do this over and over, often many thousands of times per sugar model, building the model up layer by layer.
It’s been a wild ride for Kyle and Liz. In September 2013, The Sugar Lab was acquired by 3D Systems where the couple now head up food printing and market two consumer printers, the ChefJet and the ChefJet Pro. Four months later, The Hershey Company entered into a multi-year joint development agreement with 3D Systems to further develop innovative opportunities for confectionery treats. And, now on Cubify.com, Liz and Kyle create and sell limited-run 3D printed candies like Geometric Peppermints and Neon Ombre Sours. (3D candies are only available for delivery to Los Angeles County, but plans are in the works for expansion within the coming months.)
“The most exciting thing for us,” says Liz, “is that the ChefJet and the ChefJet Pro are opening up a whole new territory for 3D printing.”
Buckle in.
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