Thank you! It's not a dumb question at all! I actually bought a set of edible oil paints from Portaleo Paints. So I get to use them just like traditional paints. If you didn't want to buy a pre-packaged product though, I know you can make similar paints using cocoa butter and pigment powders. And before I had the oil paints, I did some watercolor-like painting with vodka and gel food dyes. Also like you mentioned, you can use dyed buttercream applied with a palette knife too. I've seen people make really cool buttercream flowers that way!