Toasting your selfie onto a piece of bread takes a lot more technology than you might think.

Vermont Novelty Toaster Corp. has been making image-burning toasters for four years. It specializes in sports logos and last year had a big hit with Jesus toast, but company President and CEO Galen Dively had long dreamed of making truly customized designs, including toast with peoples face on it. It was, until recently, an impractical dream. Another company made Vermont Novelty’s toaster plates and at a pretty hefty cost.

Then Dively bought his own CNC Plasma Cutter from Colorado-based GoTorch. It's essentially a computer-guided metal cutting machine that can create the requisite plates in just a few minutes. Dively, by the way, is the other part of the Selfie Toaster equation.

Step 1

Dively starts in Photoshop. Image: Galen Dively

Starting with a digital photo of you, which you upload on the Vermont Toaster site, Dively puts the image in Photoshop and gets to work. He told Mashable that a typical photo needs roughly 15 to 30 minutes of work. "It depends on how much time I have to spend on Photoshop to make the picture work," said Dively. "I'm pretty good at Photoshop. I can get the background out." However, he does prefer a high-resolution image of your entire face on a white background. "That would help me. That would save some time."

Step 2

Dively than put the photo in a Computer Aided Design (CAD) program.

The edited photo goes to Dively's CAD (computer aided design program), which figures out what cut lines the CNC plasma machine needs to make to create a reasonable facsimile of you in toast.

Step 3

This is the GoTorch plasma cutter preparing to make a plate. Image: Galen Dively

That information is then fed to the CNC machine which, like a blow torch, uses a combination of compressed air and electricity to create high-heat plasma and blaze its way through metal. The GoTorch usually takes just a few minute to cut the plates. The team cuts one plate, uses it to make a piece of toast and, if they're happy with the result, makes the second plate.

My selfie toaster plate face being cut by the CNC plasma machine. Image: Galen Dively

Step 4

Next, Vermont Novelty polishes all the rough edges off the plate with a hand sander.

They have the polish the plate before it can be used. Image: Galen Dively

Step 5

Into the toaster my selfie plate faces go. Image: Galen Dively

The finished plates are put in custom-designed toasters (made in China), that feature special rails to support each plate. The toaster makes two slices and each slice gets one selfie face. Dively told me that toasting both sides with the image could, depending on the design, result in toast that's significantly under-toasted on one side.

Selfie toast

This is what a Lance Ulanoff selfie toaster and toast looks like. Image: Galen Dively

Dively, 49, is a long-time entrepreneur and has a 35-year background in tie-dye shirts. He thinks he has the perfect description for what happens to the bread inside the toaster: "It's a lot like silk screen, but you’re using heat for the ink and bread as the t-shirt."

Even with all this technology, there are limitations to what Vermont Toaster can put on a piece of toast. Dively, for instance, wasn’t so sure about the idea of four head shots on one piece, though he also admitted that he has yet to come across a design that he can't do.

If you want selfie toast, it’ll cost you $75 for the first toaster. Dively said he offers discounts if you plan on ordering more than one. Toast with your face on it for everyone!