Cake Decorating Archives - Page 6 of 18 - Sugared Productions Blog

3D Baseball Glove Cake

September 4, 2014 by Sharon Zambito Leave a Comment

It’s baseball season! Perfect occasion for a tutorial. Today we have a guest blogger Sandy Thompson to share with us her super cute baseball glove cake!

Materials needed:

(2) 9×13” cakes 2” tall

Foam Core Board for cake base

Cake board for final cake display (Tutorial has a 16” round base)

Ivory or White fondant and small amount of Black fondant

Buttercream (White and Black)

Airbrush machine

Airbrush colors: Yellow, Orange, Ivory

Palette knife

Xacto knife or scalpel

Veining tool

Stitching tool

Clay gun

Gold luster dust

Clear alcohol or lemon extract to mix with luster dust

Paintbrushes (one for painting with luster dust and one for water to glue fondant pieces)

Small amount of water for gluing fondant pieces together

Carving knife (I use a steak knife)

Round circle cutter (1 ½ inches…I used the end of a big icing tip)

Piping tips: 1, 2 3

Turntable for airbrushing

Transparency or acetate paper

Dowels

Modeling chocolate or Rice Crispy Treats

Red nontoxic marker

Step 1 – Using (1) ½” thick Foam Core Board or (2) ¼” thick Foam Core Board glued together draw two templates. Use the “back” of the glove to draw your first template and the “top” of the glove to draw your second template.

Step 2 – Bevel the sides of your templates – this will give the glove a “rounded” appearance on the side.

Step 3 – NOTE: Anytime you carve a cake, it should be very firm. Either refrigerated overnight or in the freezer for an hour or so. Position one of your 9×13 cakes face down, then lay your “back” template face down on the cake…now you’re ready to start carving along the outside edge. I like to carve an inch or so away from my template…that way if I make a mistake it doesn’t cause any issues. Once you’re done carving, then you can turn your cake right side up.

Step 4 – Position your knife at an angle so it lines up with the angle of your Foam Core Board and begin beveling the edge of your cake.

Step 5 – For the top of the cake, position your knife once again at an angle to smooth out the fine lines. We’re going for a rounded look along the top.

Step 6 – Making small cuts at first, carve a notch along each “finger”. Since you’ll be adding icing and fondant later, you’ll want to make the notches more pronounced during this step. At this point if your cake looks like an oversized “Big Foot” impression, you’re doing the right thing!

Step 7 – On the left side of the cake, cut an angled slice off the top, down towards the side of the cake. This will allow you to place the other 9×13 cake on top at an angle. (See side view of Step 7 for a visual)

Step 8 – Ice the cake. Icing a curved cake can be tricky so see the next step for a helpful hint.

Step 9 – Using transparency paper (also known as Acetate paper), cut a 3” square piece, then round the corners – you don’t want any sharp edges. Cup the paper in your hand as shown in the picture and gently smooth your icing. Be sure to wipe the paper after each smoothing…if you get icing build up on the paper, it will end up removing the frosting from the cake.

Step 10 – Note: Before rolling out your fondant, add about a teaspoon of food grade glycerin for every 2 lbs of fondant. This will keep the fondant more pliable and give you more time to work. Roll out white or ivory fondant in a rectangular shape.

Step 11 – Taking your time, smooth out your fondant and using your palette knife or other tools, tuck the fondant along the Foam Core Board. If you happen to get a little “elephant skin” that totally works for this cake…it is after all a well-used leather glove so it only adds character.

Step 12 – Using your stitching tool, make stitch marks along the entire edits of the cake and in between the fingers.

A quick note about airbrushing…..when it comes to airbrushing there are a few things to keep in mind:

Airbrush colors are transparent. Why does that matter? This means you can “layer” colors and achieve a very realistic effect.
This also means you can always add more color to achieve a dark color but you can never start with a dark color and go all the way back to a white color.
Whatever colors you use for your project, you’ll want to start with the lightest color first working your way to the darkest color last.
You’ll always want to test your colors before you use them. Sometimes a color may ‘sound” right but after your spray it, it looks different than you imagine. For example, for this piece the glove is a brownish color but to achieve the look, I actually went with Ivory rather than Brown.

Step 13 – Airbrushing fun starts now! This may sound crazy, but we’re going to start with a Yellow airbrush color. It may take several passes to achieve an allover yellow so take your time. You may even need to let the cake sit for a few minutes for the color to dry.

Step 14 – Next, spray a little Orange. It won’t take much…just a light layer over the entire cake…on the edges that would normally have “wear and tear”, go even lighter in those places and darker in the creases and stitching areas.

Step 15 – Now for your final coat on the bottom cake, using Ivory spray the entire cake until you achieve the desired color. Be sure to spray a little heavier along the stitching, crevices and the very bottom of the cake. You cake should now look like a giant ‘Bear claw” you get at the donut store.

Step 16 – While your airbrushed cake is drying, you can create your “baseball”. I used Modeling Chocolate but you can also use Rice Krispy Treats. Either way, shape your “baseball” then cut a slice off the top and the bottom so it will rest correctly in your glove. The bigger the ball, the wider the opening of your glove will be. Set your ball in place so you can mark where a dowel needs to be place. You’ll also want to dowel the left side of the glove so your top layer will be supported.

For the top layer of cake, just follow the exact same steps above (Steps 2-9).

Step 17 – Before placing the top layer of cake on the bottom cake, remove your baseball (we’ll add it back later).

Step 18 – Roll out more fondant in a rectangular shape and drape it over the top cake. Be sure the fondant goes all the way down the back of the cake. (This means you’ll have a double layer of fondant in the back)

Step 19 – Using your tools, tuck the fondant under the top cake (you can use a little shortening on your board or the back of the fondant to make it stick). At either end, fold the fondant so the edge has a nice appearance. Then make your lines on the fondant (based on your glove design).

Step 20 – To make the “webbing” of the glove, roll out more fondant and cut 1/4” strips. Then interlace the strips as shown.

Step 21 – Make the “facing” that goes slightly over and around the webbing. (It will look like an oversize pocket). Then cut out the center of the “pocket”.

Step 22 – First place the “webbing” on the cake, then lay the “facing” over it. Finally, airbrush your top layer of cake just as you did in Steps 13-15. If you airbrush a little on the bottom layer, no problem. To make the stitching and webbing really stand out, be sure to go a little darker in those areas.

Step 23 – Now CAREFULLY add your baseball back in (my baseball is small so the glove opening isn’t very big. If you go with a bigger baseball, you may want to color the bottom of the board holding your top layer. In other words, you wouldn’t want someone to see the white board).

Step 24 – As great as your cake is already looking at this point, now the real fun starts…adding all the details! Using your clay gun and the 2^nd to largest round disc, make the round “roping” that goes on the “glove”. Next, using the smallest rectangular disc, make the “laces”. Use your pictures or real glove to guide the placement.

Step 25 – Add more “lacing” along the top and use your veining tool to add “sew” marks.

Step 26 – Still using your rectangular disc, make a knot in the fondant strip and attach to the cake.

Step 27 – Work your way around the cake to add all the details.

Step 28 – More details….feel free to use your veining tool to make indentations at the end of the laces.

Step 29 – The glove I based my design on had black “grommets” on some of the “laces”. I used fondant but you can also use black icing.

Step 30 – Final fondant details…don’t forget your red logo circle, make your red stitching lines on your baseball and paint the gold buckle for the back strap. For small items like the red logo circle it’s hard to use a stitching wheel, instead use a toothpick.

Final cake – Using white buttercream and Tip #2 or 3, add the “R” logo to the red circle. Then using black buttercream and Tip #1 or 2, add the writing to the cake….this would be a great place to write a message to your customer as well.

Thank you Sandy!

What a great cake! If you guys make one I would love to see it!

Sharon,
SugarEd Productions

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Gelatin Sequins by Kara’s Couture Cakes

August 24, 2014 by Sharon Zambito Leave a Comment

Today we have a guest post by the Amazing Kara Andretta of Kara’s Couture Cakes:

About the Author

I am a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and have studied under some of the best pastry chefs and cake decorators in the world. I specialize in fondant covered cakes, gourmet cupcakes and cookies, custom designed to perfectly fit each client’s unique occasion. The only thing better than how my cakes look, is how they taste! Ask me about cake!

Kara’s Couture Cakes
making the world sweeter, one cake at a time.

Kara’s Facebook

Kara’s Blog

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Edible Gelatin Sequins

Oooh how I have been waiting for a project to use these beauties on! I first created these in January of this year while I was experimenting with gelatin for my She Dragon cake. It was a whim and mostly because I had some left over gelatin. But. BUT! I stumbled upon something awesome! Here it is 🙂

*** A side note before you begin: I used sheet gelatin simply because I have lots of it around. You do not need to have the sheet gelatin, it’s more expensive than powdered in general, and less available. If you have powdered gelatin readily available use that! I like to demonstrate how to use sheet because lots of people don’t know how to properly hydrate it. To substitute powdered gelatin click here for the how-to!

I’m using sheet gelatin so my method to hydrate will be different from the powdered. Begin with a bowl of cold water that is deeper than your gelatin is wide.

I used one weighed ounce of silver strength sheet gelatin. One weighed ounce of any strength gelatin will do.

I roll the sheets one by one and submerge them individually into the water so they don’t stick together and hydrate unevenly.

While your gelatin is hydrating (which takes about 7 minutes for sheets) gather the rest of your supplies. I used Americolor Super Black to match my fondant, American Silver Disco Dust, and Super Pearl dust. Now… Before anyone gets worked up about ingesting disco dust or petal dust (especially after the news story recently of the wack-a-doo selling plastic pieces as edible glitter) know that they are non-toxic and can simply be scraped from the outside of the cake at service if you use them in your gelatin mix. You DO NOT need to add them to get the shimmery quality of the sequins. I just go overboard. And to be honest, since the little gelatin sequins are flavorless and mildly tough, people will most likely choose not to eat them anyways. But hey. We don’t eat cupcake wrappers either. Just take it off. (The wrapper and/or sequins. I’m not asking you to get nakey. You can if you want. Just keep it yourself. 🙂 )

A number 1 Wilton tip will restrict the flow of the gelatin when you’re dropping it so you don’t get puddles. It’s still big enough, however, to allow disco dust particles easily through.

If you use sheet gelatin you’ll need to squeeze the excess water from it as best you can. In the end you get less shrinkage and curling in the final dried sequins if there is less water that needs to evaporate. The more water, the more the drop will contract causing irregular waves and curls.

Place your squeezed gelatin immediately into a microwave safe bowl and warm it until it is just melted and there are no lumps.

You’ll want to skim these bubbles off the top of the gelatin before adding your colors. They can get mixed back into the liquid gelatin and create a foamy look to your droplets if it’s not removed. Unlike water or thinner liquids, the bubbles will not just settle out. They get themselves all tucked in cozy and stay put. Kind of like the in-laws. And y’all know how much you LOOOOOOOVE that.

Add drops of color sparingly until you get the desired strength. It really doesn’t take much. Keep in mind that they will seem to intensify in color as they dry.

After stirring in your color add any other sparklies that you may want. Again, you don’t have to.

Stir it up.

Pour into your squeeze bottle and drop by single drop size onto a non-stick surface like a SilPat.

Fill your sheet with little droplets. The less water in your gelatin the more you can fit on each sheet without them running into each other.

Let the drops dry over night…

And by the next morning they will be dry and mostly flat; some will be slightly curved.

Use a thin metal artists palette knife to scrape beneath the sequins to gather them into a pile. Keep you knife as flat as you can to the sheet or they will jump up at you. Spritely little buggers…

Ta-da! Sequins.

These are light, sturdy, shimmery, and ready to use!

See Part 2 coming soon on how to use powdered gelatin.

Enjoy!

Kara

Grazioso Cake by Leyda Vakarelov

July 21, 2014 by Sharon Zambito 3 Comments

Hello everyone! Today we have a guest blogger! Leyda Vakarelov from Custom Cakes Atelier shares her gorgeous Grazioso cake!

Isn’t it stunning?

Leyda will share her technique on making this cake with Marvelous Molds’ new onlays, and a stenciled “sheet music” that encases the middle tier! Take it away, Leyda!

Below are most of the tools that I used throughout this project. In this photo you will see the two colors of the fondant/gum paste mixture that I used. I advise you not to use pure fondant with these onlays. Fondant can be a bit sticky and this will prevent it from dislodging nicely from the onlays. Use a 50/50 mixture of fondant and gum paste to give the fondant some stability.

*Please note that when I work with the onlay molds and I say “fondant”, I really mean the 50/50 fondant/gum-paste mixture.

If you are new to Silicone Onlays™ you can watch the free master class video here.

Fleur de Lis Pattern Silicone Onlay™
Bird with Blossoms Silicone Onlay™
Rise Silicone Onlay™
cornstarch
black royal icing
edible glue (3 parts corn syrup to one-part water)
purple music sheet mesh stencil
Pasta Rolling Machine
pizza wheel
large dusting brush
small paint brush
wax paper
scissors
food safe blade
food safe pins
small roller
small spatula
rubber scraper
extruder
wooden skewers

I pre-made these fleur-de-lis with a single onlay (you will see the onlay later on), and then I airbrushed them in gold. These can be done a few days ahead.

SECOND TIER:

This is an 8’’ by 6” double cake tier covered with fondant. Here I used the Bird with Blossoms, and Rise Onlays.

I began by dusting generously the entire onlay with cornstarch. Then, I removed most of it by shaking off the onlay. You just need a thin layer of cornstarch to prevent the fondant from sticking. It is crucial not to rush this step if the onlay is new. The fondant will stick less to the onlay after using it several times.

The fondant needs to be thinned down before laying it on the onlay. I used a pasta roller to get it very thin consistently throughout. But first, I used a rolling pin to thin it enough to get it through the lowest setting of my pasta roller.

I started with setting 0 and past the fondant through to level 5. The fondant needs to be thick enough so that it is at the same level as the edges of the onlay once it is pressed down. It shouldn’t be below the edges, because otherwise it will not be high enough to touch the surface of the cake to stick to it.

I took the sheet of fondant and carefully laid it on the onlay. First, using my fingers, I gently pressed on it throughout the surface to secure the fondant to the onlay.

With a small rolling pin, I gently rolled on top of the fondant. I rolled through the entire onlay working on sections at a time. Don’t go from one end to the other in one shot. Take your time to work the fondant in every single grove in sections.

I removed the outer excess fondant once it cut through the edges of the onlay, and then I continued rolling the rest.

Once all fondant has been worked in to the same level of the onlay, then you can start removing elements of the design if you desire. A good way to know that you have rolled enough is when you can see and feel all of the teeth of the design. Here I am removing some strips and I will replace them with new ones.

For accent purposes in my design, I am replacing some strips with some gold ones that I prepared and airbrushed ahead of time using the same onlay. Right after I replaced these strips, I brushed the entire surface of the onlay with the glue solution and then I adhered the entire onlay onto the cake. I will show this step on a later photo.

On this tier, I used two different onlays: The one with the stripes and the one with the bird on the branch. I created this template and I placed it on the cake with pins to save the space for the bird onlay, and to also use it as a guide for cutting the stripes that will surround the bird. You will see this on the other photos.

Here I am laying the stripes that will surround the entire tier. This cake is 8’’ tall. So, two applications upwards of the onlay are required to reach the full height of the cake. Once you apply the first set of stripes, it is important to match up the second application lengthwise as close as possible with the first. In order to be accurate, I placed a pin that marked the end of the onlay during the first application. You can see this pin on the right side of the photo.

With a sharp blade and the template as a guide, I cut the strips on both sides into perfect curves.

With a straight edge and a sharp blade, I cut the strips on the back to fit nicely. Note that since the cake is covered in fondant and this adds thickness to the surface of the cake, it will almost always be necessary to make your own adjustments at the end. If things do not match up nicely, you can make this the back of your cake.

Here I am working with the bird onlay. I followed all of the earlier steps as with the stripes onlay. I am removing excess fondant and I am just leaving the shape of the design. It is important to roll the fondant carefully into the onlays that have more intricate detail so that you don’t distort your design when you are removing the excess.

If you look at the bird, you will see that I removed some segments of fondant to create more interest. This of course, is optional!

In order to place the onlay on the cake at the proper height, I used a strip of wax paper as a guide. I pre-cut this strip to my desired height (5 cm.) and I adhered it to the cake with shortening (not with glue). I also placed a mark on the side of the onlay and on the wax paper strip to keep everything centered.

You can see the final image on the cake. If it is a bit shiny where you had the wax paper strip, you can gently wipe the area with dry paper towel, and then you can mildly buffer it up with cornstarch.

FIRST (BOTTOM) TIER:

This is a 16” by 4” cake covered in fondant. Here I used the Fleur de Lis, and the Fleur de Lis Medallion onlays.

With this tier I wanted to add more interest to my onlay design by “printing” musical notes onto my fondant before laying it on the onlay. First, I rolled the fondant as before on the pasta roller through setting 5. Second, I used the sheet music mesh stencil to print the notes onto the fondant with black royal icing. The consistency of the icing should be thin, but still of piping consistency.

First, I applied the icing generously with a small spatula, and then I scraped most of it with a small rubber scraper.

I removed the mesh stencil gently, and then with a medium pizza cutter I removed the messy edges.

You can see the clean image on the fondant. The onlay is already dusted lightly, but thoroughly with cornstarch.

As I stated earlier, press the fondant onto the onlay with your hands first and then use a small rolling pin to work it all the way in. Make sure to do this all around the onlay.

After rolling everything nicely in the silicone onlay, I applied the glue all around.

After applying the glue, I removed parts of the design that I did not want. You can also apply the glue after you remove these parts out, but I find it easier to remove fondant once the glue has been applied even though you end up with some sticky fingers!

Here I am just doing some final touch ups before adhering the onlay onto the cake.

I am replacing one of the large fleur-de-lis with a pre-made gold fleur-de-lis. Again, this step is optional! If you do this step, remember to apply glue to this new fleur-de-lis too. If it is a bit stiff, microwave it for 15-20 seconds to make it a bit bendy.

This bottom tier is 4’’ tall like the height of the onlay. Notice how the bottom of the onlay has to be in direct contact with the table.

Note how the wavy edge of the side of the onlay fits nicely around the fleur-de-lis that is already on the cake. It is important to do this alignment carefully so that you do not end up with obvious gaps from one application to the next. Practice on a different surface before you do this on the cake. You can use the little openings on the onlay to guide you with this alignment. Before you remove the onlay, with your fingers press all around the surface of the onlay to force every piece of fondant to adhere to the cake.

Slowly take one end of the onlay and start removing it from the surface of the cake. Again, try not to rush this step and watch what is happening with the design the whole time. I found it helpful to exert some pressure on the onlay with my left hand as I remove it with the other hand. By doing this you are securing the covered part of the design to stay in place.

THIRD (UPPER) TIER:

This is a 6” by 4” cake covered with fondant. Here I used the Fleur de-Lis Medallion onlay.

I used this single onlay to make the gold fleur-de-lis.

I also used the single onlay to attach the fleur-de-lis properly on the cake. If the fleur-de-lis tends to dislodge from the onlay as you lift it up, dab a little bit of shortening on it just to help it stay in.

After pressing the onlay for a bit on the cake, the fleur-de-lis adhered perfectly.

FINAL TOUCH-UPS:

Here you can see the designs and minor alterations on the back of the bottom and middle tiers.

I extruded a thin fondant string to close the gap of the second tier. I did the same thing with the small upper tier with its respective color.

SHEET-MUSIC WRAP:

I created gum paste sheets (9” by 6”) with the pasta roller, up to setting 5. I printed the same notes design with the mesh stencil (surrounded with paper to prevent leaking). Then, I frilled all of the music sheets that will embrace the second tier. I chose gum paste (colored off-white) so that the strip they will make stays in place with very little support.

All the sheets were prepared just like this one. Note that I cut the sheets into trapezoids before frilling.

The sheets were joined together with glue to form a long arch that will then fold into a cone on the cake.

I placed some supports to hold the cone formed by the arch until it dried completely overnight.

Flawless!

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Leyda Vakarelov is the owner of Custom Cakes Atelier, located in Chapel Hill, NC. This small cake atelier specializes in unique artistic cake design with strong emphasis on artistic composition and detailed work.

— Leyda’s website

— Facebook page

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Agbay Leveler Giveaway!

June 29, 2014 by Sharon Zambito 1 Comment

DON’T MISS OUT! GIVEAWAY ENDS FRIDAY!

We are having a giveaway on our Facebook page!

Agbay Single Blade Leveler (full size)

Retail value $230!

Enter Giveaway Here

*Earn up to 16 entries!

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Don’t have a Facebook account? You can enter the giveaway

by entering your e-mail address in the sign-up box on our

website home page. (One entry only.)

Alternative Entry Here

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*Note: Agbay is available for shipping to USA and Canada only. If an international entry is drawn, a $50 gift certificate to the SugarEd Online store will be awarded and another entry drawn for the Agbay.

GOOD LUCK!

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4th of July Round Up

June 29, 2014 by Sharon Zambito Leave a Comment

Hey y’all! It’s finally summer and with summer comes, picnics, barbeques, pool parties, and beach parties! What is more “summery” (if that’s even a word) than the 4th of July to celebrate our Nation’s Independence Day? And, well, you can’t just arrive empty handed to one of these functions, right? So, we’ve decided to help you with some fabulous ideas and tutorials from some of our valued contributors and some other neat ideas so that you will look like the hero of the party! Enjoy!

From Hungry Happenings:

Red, White and Blue Tie-Dye Cake

Red, White and Blue Fudge Stars

From Haniela’s:

Patriotic Star Cookies

4th of July Cupcakes

From The Partiologist:

Firecracker Cake!

Star Ice Cream Bars

Uncle Sam Cookies

From Woodland Bakery:

July 4th USA Flag Cupcake Cake

From Cookin’ Cowgirl:

Firecracker Cookies

From A Farmgirl’s Dabbles:

Patriotic Ice Cream Sandwiches

From Bakerella:

Snow Cones

From The TomKat Studio:

Patriotic Pinwheels

From Blooms Designs:

Patriotic Popcorn

And for my Canadian friends celebrating Canada Day on July 1st:

From Multi-Testing Mommy:

Canada Day Sugar Cookies

I hope this helps! I’m off to watch more fireworks! 🙂

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Standing Letter Cake

May 27, 2014 by Sharon Zambito 13 Comments

Hello everyone!

I want to share with you this cake I made for my son’s high school graduation. I was very pressed for time in getting it done, as well as preparing for the big party we threw for him, so this is not a high quality professional photo tutorial by any means.

It is more of an explanation of how I created the cake with a few craptastic photos that I took added in. This in no way represents the quality of tutorials I deliver in my online cake decorating school, LOL.

The method that I used would not apply to every letter of the alphabet, but hopefully you will be able to take away some techniques from this tutorial that you can apply to other cakes. So here we go!

(click to enlarge:)

The diagram above basically shows how the cake was constructed. The very bottom portion was Styrofoam cut from a 2 inch thick sheet cake dummy. Because the bottom of the letter has those cut angles on each side, I wanted to be sure that the base was strong enough to support the weight of the tall side of the J. I put a piece of regular cake cardboard on top of the Styrofoam for food safety reasons. Then I built the cake above that. This cake was about 17 inches tall, and after it was ganached and covered in modeling chocolate it was about 3 inches deep, (front to back). So it was basically a very tall and skinny cake. (caps and I would say it served 15 – 20).

I baked 2 inch high dense chocolate cakes in two pans: a 9 x 13 and a 12 x 18. I overfilled the pans so the cakes would bake over the top, so that when I leveled the cakes they would be as close to 2 inches tall as possible. I then cut pieces from those sheet cakes as I built the cake.

I used ¼ inch foam core to support the “tiers” of the cake. I did not want to go any higher than 6 inches of cake without internal support. I used bubble tea straws for support as indicated in the diagram above.

NOTE: I built the cake while it was actually lying flat on its back on a big board. Then I ganached it, partially covered it in modeling chocolate. And not until then did I stand it up, secure to the base board and finish it. You will see more of this process in the photos that follow.

I made a paper template in the actual size I wanted the finished cake to be. (photo above). I then used this as a guide to to make the foamcore ganache templates, and also used this as a guide to build the cake.

The photo above shows the section of Styrofoam cut out for the bottom of the cake. IMPORTANT: the size of this Styrofoam base is about a1/4 -1/2 inch smaller all the way around than the paper template itself.

The reason for that is that there has to be enough room around the cake, once built, to apply a thick layer of ganache. If you cut this Styrofoam piece exactly the same size as the template, and build the rest of the cake to the exact measurements of your paper template, you will have no room for ganache later when you use the cardboard templates.

Above you see two templates made from one quarter inch foam core. These were my ganache boards. These were covered in press and seal plastic wrap, and used as the guide for the bench scraper to ganache the cake after it was built.

This next portion I am going to explain, I do not have process photos of:

I built the cake lying flat on the bottom foamcore template. I had the entire thing lying on the larger foamcore board (that you see in the photo below). Once the cake was all “stacked” and built, I then put a layer of ganache on the entire top surface of the cake. While the ganache was still very soft, I put the top foamcore template (covered in press and seal) on it and pressed firmly down. I used a level while pressing down on the top template to get it as level as possible. I then left it alone for a while so the ganache would firm up. Then I took a larger foamcore board and put it on top of the entire cake and flipped the entire project over. I removed the previously bottom, but now on top, foamcore template. Repeated the process of applying a layer of ganache, putting the (press and seal covered) template board back on, pressing firmly and getting it level. I left that to set up until firm.

Then I ganached the sides of the cake and used the edges of the two templates on the top and bottom of the cake to guide my bench scraper, to give me the sharp outline of the letter. (We have instructional videos in our online school on making spreadable ganache, as well as using two template boards like this to create a perfect shell.)

I put a very thick layer of ganache on all sides of the cake, because I wanted it to be super stable once I stood it up. I wasn’t sure how the cake was going to react to standing up straight, so I went really heavy with the coating of ganache. (You can see here why it is important that the Styrofoam base and the entire cake once built, was smaller than the actual template boards. It left space for ganache to be applied around the outer perimeter of the cake.)

Remember that the top and bottom templates are covered in press and seal plastic wrap. The smooth sides of the plastic wrapped templates are against the ganache. Once the whole cake was covered in ganache, (as you see in the photo above), I left it overnight to totally set up. The next day, the templates popped right off and I repaired any divots in the surface of the ganache with some fresh ganache and let that set up totally before starting to cover the cake.

Next came the covering of the cake. I decided to use modeling chocolate so that I would have more workability time and be able to blend seams and such better than if I had used fondant. In retrospect, I’m not sure I would do that again. The modeling chocolate showed a lot of blemishes and was rather “delicate”. I wonder if I could have gotten a cleaner looking surface using fondant with tylose. (I realize that these photos do not show the imperfections in the surface of the cake, but there were many.)

Back to the covering of the cake: I first covered the sides of the letter. I rolled out strips of modeling chocolate and wrapped them around the sides of the cake. I did not cover the whole perimeter of the cake in one strip of modeling chocolate. I did it in sections and placed the seams in the inside corners of the letter as indicated in the photo above. Next, I covered the top surface with modeling chocolate, trimmed it, and blended the seems joining the side strips to the top piece with my finger.

Note: notice in the photo above that I did not cover the Styrofoam at the base of the cake. I did not want to stand the cake up onto modeling chocolate, because the weight of the cake would have caused it to squoosh out the bottom and not given a clean look.

Then it was time to stand the cake up. I slid the cake a bit so that the bottom edge of the Styrofoam was even with the bottom of the rectangular cardboard you see in the picture above. Then I put my hand under that cardboard and used that to stand the cake straight up onto the wood grain fondant covered baseboard. I put some melted white chocolate on the cake board where the bottom of the J would be standing on it.

Here is the back of the letter, right after the cake was stood up onto the board. Two wooden dowels were then driven through the cake and down into the baseboard as indicated above. I decided not to put a long wooden dowel down the tall side of the J because I was not traveling with this cake. If I were going to have to bring it to another venue, I would recommend doweling that side too. That being said, the cake was pretty stable once it was all assembled. I think the ginormous amount of ganache surrounding the cake made it very stable.

To cover the back of the cake: I rolled out modeling chocolate onto a piece of foam core, popped that into the freezer for about 10 min., then cut out the letter shape using my paper template. I popped that back into the freezer for another 7 min. or so to get it super firm. I used shortening, applied liberally, (as you can see in the photo above), as the glue to hold the back panel on. The back panel was very firm from being in the freezer, so I just stood it up and attached it to the back of the cake, being careful not to put too much pressure onto the precariously standing cake. I then used my fingers to smooth the seam where the back panel and the side strips of modeling chocolate met.

Here is a photo of the cake after it is standing up and doweled into the baseboard. The holes on the top of the cake created from the wooden dowels were plugged with little pieces of modeling chocolate and blended in as well as possible. (However, they were visible.)

NOTE: I wanted the front of the cake to have some dimension and have that “collegiate font” look. So I actually created another panel with red modeling chocolate in the shape of the J, but made it a bit smaller then the front of the cake. I applied that to the front of the cake, then I outlined that with black fondant using the semicircle disc of my clay gun.

NOTE: the woodgrain fondant board was made by putting fondant onto a cake drum. I scored it to create planks, used a wood grain impression mat, and painted it with airbrush color diluted with vodka. Once that was dry, I dusted it with brown petal dusts to give it more dimension. Glued a 5/8 inch black ribbon around the side of the board. (We have video tutorials on woodgrain boards as well in our online school. Shameless plug #2, LOL)

This photo shows the (broken) tassel laying on the board after we cut the cake. The tassel was made using a clay gun. I built it on an 18 gauge wire in the shape of an upside down L. That allowed me to insert the wire into the front of the cake, to give the illusion that the tassel was actually dangling in front of the cake. ( The wire was coated in white chocolate before being inserted into the cake.)

The bulldog was simply an edible image applied to a piece of fondant, and allowed to dry to create a plaque.

Now to cutting and serving:

The first piece was cut where indicated.

Then cut horizontally right along the top of the ¼ foamcore board that was holding up the top portion of the cake.

Continued to serve the top portion.

Then after the top foam core support board was removed, I just cut across to create pieces from the tall side of the cake. You can see the wooden dowel sticking out on the shorter side. All the cake has been served on that shorter side and right under that little bit of brown is the Styrofoam.

(I call this an action shot. I was moving so fast, the camera couldn’t keep up with me!) Terribly blurry picture, but you can see me removing a bubble tea straw as I came across it while serving.

Cake to ganache ratio is ridiculous. I did have emergency syringes of insulin on standby.

And in case that wasn’t enough sugar, I served it with whipped cream and caramel sauce 🙂 I had 911 on speed dial.

If you look close enough, you can see the patch on the top of the modeling chocolate where the other wooden dowel was inserted. They were visible and it did bug me LOL. The way to avoid that would have been to stand up the cake and dowel it to the baseboard before any modeling chocolate was applied. But I did not want to cover the entire cake with modeling chocolate in the standing position, so I chose the lesser of two evils. (But the patches still bugged me, LOL)

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And so that is it! I hope that this gave you enough information to help you to try to create your own tall, skinny standing cake.

Please consider joining our online school!

$5 for 30 days of full membership. Use coupon code OFF50

www.sugaredproductions.com

Happy Caking!

Sharon

Modern Mother’s Day Cake by Lisa Bugeja

May 5, 2014 by Sharon Zambito Leave a Comment

Today we have a guest post by the very talented Lisa Bugeja of Flour Confections:

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Make Mom something special – something she will remember. This modern Mother’s Day cake features a sophisticated houndstooth pattern created with my new houndstooth cutter set from my Flourishes line. It’s adorned with fabulous sugarpaste poppies – also made with my new life-sized poppy cutters.

Want to know how it was done? Here is a quick tutorial for you to learn & share! Enjoy

All supplies for this project can be found at our store www.flourconfections.com

You will need:

Black Confectioners Choice Gumpaste

Red Confectioners Choice Gumpaste

Groove Board

Poppy Cutter Set

Houndstooth Cutter Set

Corn Husk Veiner Set

20g White or Green Wire

Variety of Petal Dusts: Red Velvet, Red Rose & Poppy

Gum Glue & Glue Bottle

Small Scissors

Gelatin tinted with Red Velvet Dust

Fondant covered cake

For centres, use #9 ball of black CC gum paste & 20g wire – create a hook on the wire, dip in glue & wipe off excess, secure ball of paste to wire by inserting hooked end into paste.

Pinch a star like pattern on top of ball of paste using tweezers. Apply glue to pinched areas and dip into a mixture of gelatine and red velvet dust to create pollen centre.

Tape bundles of stamens around the dried centre – it’s easier to control smaller bundles at a time rather than the entire amount. When all taped, trim off excess at base to avoid build up and tape to completely encase stamens and wire.

Roll out a sausage of Red CC gumpaste and place along grooves of the groove board. Roll out until it’s thin, then flip over and cut out petals ensuring that the groove is 1/2 – 2/3 up the centre of the petal. You will need 4-6 petals per flower depending upon the variety of poppy you are creating.

Using 24g white wire, dip wire in glue, wipe off excess and insert into petal 1/3 of the way in. Thin edges on foam pad with a ball tool.

Place wired petal on one side of corn husk veiner, place other side on top and sandwich together, pressing firmly to get impression. Remove from veiner, place on foam pad and go over edges with ball tool to ruffle. Place petals in flower former to dry.

Using floral tape, tape dried petals tightly around centres. Adjust petals as you go to create the look you want.

Using petal dusts – colour petals front & back paying attention to highlights and shadows. Steam flower to set colours when done colouring.

Left: dusted & steamed completed flower. Right: un-dusted flower

Modern Mother’s Day Cake

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Lisa Bugeja is the award winning artist & creative force behind Flour Confections Inc. in Toronto, Ontario. Her work has been featured in numerous publications such as Brides magazine, Toronto Life, Fashion Magazine, American Cake Decorating, Bakers Journal, People.com and many more. She has also been seen on CTV’s Canada AM; and as assistant to Ashlee Perkins on Food Network Challenge, and assistant to Matthew Somers on Cake Walk.

Flour Confections

Easter Round Up

April 12, 2014 by Sharon Zambito 1 Comment

It`s Spring! It`s Spring! With Easter a bit later this year, we`ll finally have a chance to see the flowers and trees in bloom while celebrating! Speaking of celebrating – I`ve rounded up some super cute ideas that I`d like to share with you to make your Easter table very festive! Please enjoy!

From SugarEd Productions:

butt2s2

Bunny Butt Cupcakes

Blossom Bunny Cake

From The Partiologist:

Mini Easter Basket Cakes

Easter Bunny Cake Pops

Chick Magnets

By Montreal Confections:

Easter Cookie Bouquet

Fondant Easter Egg Cookies

From Taste Of Home:

Folded Bunny Napkins

Traditional Hot Cross Buns

From Hungry Happenings:

Easter Cheesecakes

Baby Chick Cheeseballs

From UncommonDesginsOnline.com

Carrot Patch Easter Treats

From Kailo Chic

Easter Egg Popsicles

HAPPY SPRING!

Easter Bunny Cake by Ashley Verhagen

April 11, 2014 by Sharon Zambito 1 Comment

Happy Easter everybody!

Today we have a guest blog post by the very talented Ashley Verhagen. She shows us how to make her precious Easter Bunny cake:

What’s more fun than sweet little bunnies lounging near Easter eggs? Perhaps they’re all dreaming of the lovely Easter candy to be had soon? Let’s learn how to reproduce this cake, shall we?

Supply List:

Cake: 9” round iced in yellow, 6” round iced in white
Skewers
½ ” Foam-core board, cut in a circle with a 14” diameter, covered with wrapping paper of your color choice and food safe cellophane
Icing
Piping bags
Tip 5, 104, 233
Various round tips
Fondant tinted in your desired colors
Gel colors (pink, lime green, purple, yellow)
Exacto knife
Clay extruder
Gum Glue
Paint brush
Dresden Tool
Toothpicks
Small Daisy gumpaste cutter
Small rolling pin
Floral Wire
Plastic Wrap
One larger and two smaller styrofoam egg shapes
FMM ribbon cutter
Edible glitter
Shortening
Decorative ribbon to match your cake
Styrofoam Dummy
Hot glue gun

After you’ve assembled all of your tools and supplies, it’s time to decorate your cake board. Take your ½ ” foam core board and rest it on your counter top. Roll out a small fist sized ball of pink fondant thinly (I like to do this ON the board). Using your exacto knife, trim the fondant in an undulating pattern around the edge of the cake board. Then, using the fondant extruder and a small round disk, extrude a band of hot pink fondant and attach it to the undulating edge with gum glue. Tip: to make the fondant easier to extrude, knead some shortening into it.

Now that we’ve got the housekeeping out of the way, it’s on to the fun part… the cake! Take your 9” yellow round and transfer it carefully to your board. Dowel, then stack the 6” white on top of this centered evenly. Take your piping bag fitted with the 104 tip and fill it with yellow icing. Beginning at the back of the cake, begin to pipe the border. The technique to make the border is basically the same as that of piping rose petals… just repeated across the bottom edge of the cake. Do this for the base of both cakes. Now, fill a piping bag with white icing and fit it with a 5 tip. At the top of the petal border, add small dots of icing. Tip: For a polished look, go back with a finger dipped in powdered sugar and touch the top of each dot lightly to knock down any icing tips that may have formed.

Let’s make flowers, y’all! Rub a small amount of shortening on your work surface to ensure the fondant doesn’t stick. Roll a small ball of white fondant thinly. Using your flower cutter, cut several blossoms and set them aside to air dry for a few moments. Take a good bit of your plastic wrap and bunch it up tightly, then open it back up a bit. Shape is not important, we’re just using it as a flower former. Using your Dresden tool (or a toothpick), draw a line down each daisy petal. Roll a small ball of yellow fondant and attach it with gum glue into the center of the flower. Lay it carefully to dry somewhere in a crevice of the plastic wrap.

It’s on to the eggs now! Take your egg and rub it with a bit of shortening so that the fondant adheres well. Roll out each base color of fondant to less than ¼” thickness. Lay the fondant over each egg, working it down the sides. Don’t pull the fondant, just guide it down the sides. If you end up with too much excess fondant along the bottom, trim it away with your exacto knife. Since covering round 3D shapes with fondant is tricky, you might have to use scissors to trim away some of the side excess as well. When trimming with scissors, try to get close to the edge of the egg. Continue smoothing your fondant over the egg until it is all covered and trimmed.

To make the bows for each egg, roll out and cut 4 strips of fondant in your desired width and several inches long. Using two of the strips, cut your bow tails into the desired length. Notch the ends of one side of the bow tails with your exacto knife, then pinch the opposite side. With the remaining two lengths, cut each one to 1 ¼” long. Pinch each side of each strip, then fold the strip lengthwise, bringing the pinched ends together. You’ve got your bow loops. Set them aside to dry for a few minutes while you decorate your eggs. If you find they’re getting too ‘set’, put them under plastic wrap as they still need to be somewhat elastic.

Using your FMM ribbon cutter and your various round tips, decorate each egg with stripes and/or dots. To attach them, use a small it of gum glue and your paintbrush. Vary up your design and be creative! Use different sizes of round tips to get smaller or larger circles. Use the straight ribbons or the wavy… or even the ones with stitching. Carefully attach each bow tail and bow loop to your egg using small dabs of icing. For the center, slightly flatten a small ball of fondant and attach it to the center using icing or gum glue. There’s no right or wrong way to decorates these cuties!

Now, let’s move on to the bunnies, shall we? They’re actually really easy to do, as long as you can master some basic figure modeling techniques. Most of the techniques used involve forming fondant into ball shapes, then tapering one end of the ball shape into a carrot shape. I do most of my modeling on a styrofoam dummy since I can stick my skewer into the dummy and hold the figure still as I model it.

Let’s start with the yellow bunny for the cake topper. The instructions will be mostly the same for each bunny, with possibly a few exceptions in the way we pose them. Take a small bit of yellow fondant and form it into a 2” round ball by rolling it around in your hands. After you’ve formed the ball, taper one end of the ball by rubbing your hands back and forth along one end of the ball. This will be the body of the rabbit. You’ll want to flatten it a bit so it doesn’t look like a fat little bunny. At this point, stick a toothpick through the body of the rabbit, leaving approximately 1” protruding through the tapered end. This is where we’ll attach the head in a few moments.

For the rabbit’s appendages, you need to shape small balls of fondant into carrot shapes. At the rounded ends of the carrot, you can pinch around the edges to flatten it a bit. Make four of these roughly the same sizes. For each arm, roll a small ball of white fondant, then flatten it out into a small circle. Use gum glue to attach the white circle to the rounded end to make the ‘hands’. For each foot, form three teeny pieces of fondant into round balls, flatten them slightly, then attach them with gum glue to the rounded end to make the ‘feet’. Attach the arms and legs to the main body using gum glue. For the arms, it’s sometimes helpful to flatten the tapered end a bit so you don’t have a lot of bulk at the shoulder Don’t forget to give them some personality when you position them!

For the rabbit’s head, roll a small ball about ½” in diameter into a ball. Taper one end very slightly to almost get a rounded triangle shape. Stick it on the toothpick protruding from body and attach it with gum glue. For the ears, take two ¼” balls of fondant and form them into a carrot shape. Slightly flatten each carrot shape along then entire length of the piece. Take a 1” piece of floral wire, brush it with gum glue, and insert it about halfway into each ear. Stick each wire onto either side of your tapered head and attach it with gum glue. You can position the tips of your ears so one is sticking up and one is curling over. For the cheeks, take two small balls of white fondant and flatten them slightly. Attach them to the face using gum glue near the middle of the face. Use a toothpick to poke small holes in them to simulate puffy cheeks. For the nose, take a very small ball of pink fondant and attach it using gum glue above the cheeks. Use your toothpick to poke small holes for the eyes. You can also use your exacto knife to make eyebrows and eyelashes.

For the pink and purple bunnies, form them roughly the same as you did the yellow one with a few exceptions. Instead of using a toothpick for the body support on the pink bunny, use a skewer cut to approx. 7” long. An easy way to do this is to poke a hole in your dummy and insert your skewer all the way through. Make sure it’s loose enough so you can pull it out easily as you will remove it later. When you insert the body into the skewer, leave approx. 1” of it poking out of the tapered end. If you end up making a larger body and there’s not enough room for the 1” of clearance, you can always insert a toothpick into the body, as well, to hold the head on. Continue making your pink bunny in the same method as the you used with the yellow bunny. For the purple bunny, form it in the same manner as you did the yellow bunny using a toothpick. Since it’s resting on the cake board, it doesn’t need the long skewer. You may simply use a toothpick to hold the body and head together.

For the cute little chicks, take a small amount of yellow fondant and form it into a ball. Taper one end very slightly into a rounded triangle as you did for the rabbit’s head. Take two very small pieces of yellow fondant and form them into a carrot shape. At the tapered end, flatten it slightly. Attach the wings with gum glue to the body with the tapered end towards the top and the rounded end pointing down. Take a teeny bit of orange (or pink) fondant and form a small, small carrot for the beak. Attach it with gum glue. Use your toothpick to punch holes for the eyes. Voila! Cute baby chicks.

Now that everything has been made, let’s assemble our decorations on the cake. Fit a piping bag with a tip 233 and fill it with lime green icing. Oh the top tier of your cake, pipe a small circle of grass a bit wider than the largest egg. Take the large egg and place it on the top tier. You might want to anchor it with a skewer for support. Take the yellow bunny and attach him to the cake using a bit of icing, as well. You can choose to stick a small toothpick into the cake and into the underbelly of the bunny if you’d like to further anchor the bunny to the cake. Use a small dab of icing to attach one of the small daises and one chick next to the bunny.

Use the green icing bag to also pipe grass on top of the bottom tier where you’d like to place one of the smaller eggs and the pink bunny. Place the egg in the grass, then take the pink bunny skewer off the dummy carefully and stick it into the cake, as well. Use a small bit of white icing to attach several flowers and a chick around the pink bunny and small egg.

Pipe green grass in a circle shape on the cake board, then place the egg in the grass. Place the purple bunny near the last egg, anchoring it with a small bit of icing. Attach the last chick to the bunny’s tummy with icing. Scatter the remaining daisies around the cake, using icing to attach them.

If you’d like, you can hot glue coordinating ribbon around the ½” cake board lip to complete your cake. Sprinkle the cake with edible glitter for a little sparkle.

You’re done! So simple!

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Ashley has enjoyed being in the kitchen from an early age, especially baking with her mother and grandmother. She’d always been intrigued by beautiful cakes, and took her first leap into the world of cake decorating 13 years ago. Currently, she lives in Frisco, Texas with her husband and four lovely daughters. Pictures of her work can be found on her Flickr photo stream.

Chocolate High Heel Shoes by Jennifer Dontz

January 28, 2014 by Sharon Zambito 7 Comments

Hello my sugar friends!

Today we have a guest blog post from the talented Jennifer Dontz of Sugar Delites. She is going to show us how she makes her elegant and beautiful chocolate high-heeled shoe. Take it away Jennifer:

How do I make that???

This tutorial is on how to make a lifesize (about a size 6) chocolate shoe. These are SO much fun to make and your imagination can run wild.

Supplies Needed:

Shoe mold MOL012
JEM bow mold CUT069
#4 pearl maker MOL010
Floral Lace press PRE005
Mercken’s Super White Candy Melts TOL012
Base Mold (If you want to attach the shoe to something solid) MOL031 (I like to fill these with truffles after attaching to a base, then wrap in cellophane to give as a gift.)

Step 1 – This is the mold that you need. High Heel 3-d Mold

Step 2 – You will need to trim the mold and cut out the section that you would place your foot into if it were a real shoe. I normally write on the mold for customers so there is no doubt which parts need to be removed. I trim about a good inch to inch and 1/2 all the way around the mold. This allows you to clamp it tighter.

Step 3 – Melt your chocolate and pour into the mold. I kind of swirl it around to get to the edge of the mold, then pour it out leaving a thin shell in the mold. I put the mold in the frig JUST until it gets hard. Prop the mold upright…don’t leave it in there to long or the really thin shell will crack. Just until it’s setup. Then you do the pouring process 2 more times, for a total of three layers. You don’t need to be quite as careful with the refrigeration time on the other two layers. Once it starts getting thicker, it really shouldn’t crack. The heel part will be fully filled in by the time you do three layers of chocolate.

Step 4 – Remove the mold from the fully setup shoe. You will have some rough edges.

Step 5 – Trim down the seams with an exacto knife. I like using the cotton chocolate gloves (on the site). You don’t get any finger prints on the chocolate when using these.

Step 6 – Add whatever your imagination comes up with. I love to use the Jem bow makers and pearl molds. The # 4 pearls are nice and delicate, perfect for outlining the edges of the shoe.

Finished shoe 🙂 This was dry dusted with silver hi-liter dust. I used the Jem bow maker and some of the 2mm dragees. I also mounted it to a chocolate base. The “base mold” I sell in the mold section works great. I unfortunately cannot get the base mold that I used in the picture. But the oval one works great as well.

This is another gorgeous design. I think this one looks like a bridal shoe.

Again, I used the Jem bow cutters. If you don’t have them, they are SO much fun to use. I also used the # 4 pearl mold.

If you would like to know how to make awesome chocolate pearls, the instructions for my pearl clay + many other cool techniques, including step by step making of pearls, are on my Fun With Fondant Frills DVD.

I also used a section of the floral lace press on the shoes above. It really makes for a very stable shoe to add the base mold. You can fill it with truffles and place on the tables OR wrap with pretty cellophane for a beautiful gift or give away at a bridal show.

Hope you enjoyed the little mini class 🙂 Happy shoe pouring!! Jennifer 🙂