cake2decmeasy

Cake Decorating Made Easy!

Volume 2An Intermediate-Advanced Guide to

Decorating Unbelievable Cakes

By Samantha Mitchell & Michael Prudhomme

Copyright NoticeYou do not have resell rights or giveaway rights to this book. Only customers that have purchased this material are authorized to view it. If you think you may have an illegally distributed copy of this book, please contact us immediately. Please email [email protected] to report any illegal distribution.

Copyright © 2006 Michael Prudhomme and Randy Pryor All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by in-formation storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the pub-lisher. Requests for permission or further information should be emailed to: [email protected]

Legal Notices

While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. The Publisher wants to stress that the information contained herein may be subject to varying state and/or local laws or regulations. All users are advised to retain competent counsel to determine what state and/or local laws or regulations may apply to the user’s particular operation. The pur-chaser or reader of this publication assumes responsibility for the use of these materials and information. Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations, both federal and state and local, governing professional licensing, operation practices, and all other as-pects of operation in the United States or any other jurisdiction is the sole responsibility of the purchaser or reader. The publisher and author assume no responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials. Any perceived slights of specific people or organizations is unintentional.

Cake Decorating Made Easy! Vol. 2 2

mailto:[email protected]


Table of ContentsVolume 2

Introduction – The Art of Cake Decorating __________________ 6

Chapter 1 – SUPPLIES FOR THE EXPERIENCED STUDENT ____ 7

The Royal Family of Icing ________________________________ 7

Royal Icing _____________________________________________ 7

Buttercream Icing ________________________________________ 8

Fondant _______________________________________________ 8

Gum Paste _____________________________________________ 9

Supplies for Experienced Students __________________________ 9

Where to Buy Specialty Supplies? __________________________ 14

Chapter 2 - FONDANT 101 ________________________________ 15

Traditional Fondant ______________________________________ 15

Rolled Buttercream ______________________________________ 16

Marshmallow Fondant ____________________________________ 17

“Mixing MMF” VIDEO _____________________________________ 17

“Preparing MMF 1 & 2” VIDEOS ____________________________ 18

Cover Cake with Rolled Fondant ____________________________ 18

“Preparing MMF 3” VIDEO ________________________________ 19

Poured Fondant _________________________________________ 19

Looking Good with Gum Paste! _____________________________ 21

Mixing Gum Paste _______________________________________ 21

Gum Glue ______________________________________________ 22

Preparing Gum Paste for Cut-Outs ___________________________ 22

Modeling with Gum Paste _________________________________ 23

Storing & Freezing Fondant ________________________________ 25

Chapter 3 - THE PIED PIPER ______________________________ 26

Decorative Borders ______________________________________ 26


“Fleur de Lys” & “Ruffle Swag” VIDEOS ______________________ 26

Decorative Techniques ___________________________________ 27

Basketweave ___________________________________________ 27

“Basketweave 1 & 2” VIDEOS ______________________________ 28

Lattice Hearts VIDEO ____________________________________ 29

“String Work” & “Apple Blossom” VIDEOS ____________________ 30

“Daisy” & “Daffodil” VIDEOS _______________________________ 31

“Pansy” & “Poinsettia” VIDEOS _____________________________ 32

“Primrose” & “Rose” VIDEOS ______________________________ 33

“Sweet Pea” & “Violet” VIDEOS ____________________________ 34

Chapter 4 - A SPECIAL CLASS OF CAKE ___________________ 35

Black Forest Cake _______________________________________ 35

Bûche de Noél __________________________________________ 36

Cherry Cheesecake ______________________________________ 40

Chocolate Mousse Cake __________________________________ 41

German Chocolate Cake __________________________________ 42

Swiss Roll _____________________________________________ 44

Chapter 5 - PARTY CAKES _______________________________ 46

Two-Dimensional Cakes __________________________________ 46

Happy Bird-Day, Monkey Cake _____________________________ 46

Racetrack Cake _________________________________________ 47

Hawaiian Beach Cake ____________________________________ 48

Three-Dimensional Cakes _________________________________ 50

Big Island Volcano, Doll Cake ______________________________ 50

Golf Ball Cake __________________________________________ 52

Cake Sculpture _________________________________________ 53

Flower Pot Cake ________________________________________ 53

Hat Cakes _____________________________________________ 54

Madeline Hat ___________________________________________ 54


Baseball Cap Cake ______________________________________ 55

Baby Shower ___________________________________________ 56

More Special Occasion Design Ideas ________________________ 56

Chapter 6 - WEDDING (Tiered) CAKES _____________________ 58

Cakes Fit for a Wedding __________________________________ 58

Butter Cake ____________________________________________ 58

Carrot Cake ____________________________________________ 59

Chocolate Groom's Cake, Classic White Cake _________________ 60

Traditional Fruit Wedding Cake _____________________________ 61

How much cake should you make? __________________________ 62

Baker's Wedding Cake Chart _______________________________ 63

Design Ideas ___________________________________________ 65

Wedding Cake Jewelry and Ornaments ______________________ 67

Cake Building Systems ___________________________________ 69

“Stacked Construction” VIDEO _____________________________ 70

“Classic Pillars” & “Push-In Pillars” VIDEOS ___________________ 70

“Pillars & Plates” VIDEO __________________________________ 71

Combination Stacked & Tier _______________________________ 71

Transporting Tiered Cakes ________________________________ 71

Storing & Preserving _____________________________________ 71

Icing Storage Requirements _______________________________ 72

Chapter 7 - CAKE DIVA DESIGN IDEAS ____________________ 74

Airbrushed Cakes _______________________________________ 74

The Right Stuff _________________________________________ 75

Piping & Brush Embroidery _______________________________ 76

Victorian Brush Embroidery_______________________________ 77

Fondant Inlay & Cut Outs ________________________________ 77

Topsy-Turvy Cakes _____________________________________ 78

Class Dismissed!!


The Art of Cake Decorating

Nothing tops off a celebration like a great cake. Everyone knows it would be a lot easier to buy a ready-made cake and be done with it. But every cake decorator, from the be-ginners to the pros, knows that the extra time and effort that go into making a homemade cake are worth it. Time is our most precious gift and when we choose to spend it making a personalized cake for someone special, the cake is no longer just a cake; it’s a gift.

There is a certain pride that comes from creating a spec-tacular cake from nothing more than a picture in a book or a bright idea. Cake decorating is a wonderful way for ex-

pressing and challenging the artist in each of us. There’s a great sense of satis-faction that comes from making a cake fit to stand on display whether at a birth-day party for a bunch of cake-crazy kids or at a wedding for a blushing (and stressed out) bride.

The information in Volume 2 of “Cake Decorating Made Easy! will build on the basic techniques you learned in Volume 1 (or from your mother …) and hopefully inspire you to move ahead and try some of the more advanced techniques. There are dozens of video demonstrations for you to practice along and see how it’s done. Our hope for each of our readers is that you would learn enough new tricks to boost your confidence (and maybe eventually sales!) and expand your knowledge and expertise when it comes to cakes. Who knows? If you continue slowly building up your skills, you may just decide to make a business out of your passion for cakes!

Happy Decorating!


Chapter 1 – SUPPLIES FOR THE EXPERIENCED STUDENT

Before we make that last trip to the supply store, let’s look at the three main types of decorative icings to give you an idea of what we’ll be working with. Royal ic-ing, rolled fondant and gum paste are each suited for specific design and deco-rating techniques. We provide for you here a brief description to better explain their purposes in life and to help you decide which one to use to ice and decorate your cake.

The Royal Family of Icing

Royal Icing

Royal icing is limited by its cement-like quality to being used for making icing flowers and other decorations that look great but taste, well, not so great. It can be made with either raw egg whites or meringue powder well in advance of a decorating project.

Made with egg whites, this icing must be kept in a closed container and stored in the refrigerator, but if made with meringue powder, can be stored at room temperature. Once dried, royal icing decorations will literally last forever.

Pros

• Easy to work with. Piped flowers generally require less time to make than hand molded gum paste flowers.

• Makes a great glue for cementing decorations on a cake.

• Its pure white color tints easily and produces true colors.

Cons

• Not suitable for icing your cake’s surface because it dries to a brittle hard-ness.

• Extremely sweet and rather tasteless.

• Sensitive to both high humidity and grease and will soften.


Buttercream Icing

Buttercream is the most versatile of all the icings. It can be used to fill and cover a cake, pipe decorative borders, and make icing flowers and other decorations. It performs all these functions and tastes great too! Buttercream decorations are extremely vulnerable to heat and humidity and will melt away to nothing so treat your cake kindly and keep it in a cool dry place.

Pros• Can be spread and molded to a perfectly smooth finish.

• Tastes great! And can be flavored to match the type of cake.

• Suitable for every aspect of cake decorating and is easily spread, molded or piped.

Cons

• Most susceptible of all the icings to heat and humidity and will melt.

• Fat content in the icing produces thicker and heavier decorations with less definition and fine features.

Fondant

Fondant is a type of icing dough that can be used both for covering cakes and for making icing decorations. It is manipulated much in the same way as play-dough.

It can be rolled into sheets and draped over cakes or cut and shaped to make icing decorations such as flowers, ribbons and bows. Fondant can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Pros

• Dries to a smooth and satiny finish and is easier to decorate than softer ic-ings such as buttercream and cream cheese icings.

• Dries to a softer finish and is less vulnerable to chipping than royal icing or gum paste.

Cons • Rather pasty and tasteless.

• Its leather-like consistency means few people actually enjoy eating it. It is common for guests to peel off the fondant layer before eating their cake.


Gum Paste

Gum paste is fondant with a little added ‘gum’ to make it more pliable. If fondant is the play-dough, gum paste is the modeling clay. It is ideal for molding and sculpting intricate figures and shapes. Gum paste not only could, but should be made in advance as it gets better with age. Properly packaged and stored, dried gum paste flowers will keep nicely for many years.

Pros • Easily molded into three-dimensional decorations and makes for the most

life-like flowers.

• Can be rolled out much thinner than fondant making it the better choice for finely detailed decorations.

Cons

• Maybe THE most tasteless of all the icings!

• Dries to a brittle hardness and is susceptible to chipping and breaking.

• Vulnerable to heat and humidity. Gum paste decorations will droop if re-frigerated or left to stand out in the heat and humidity.

Supplies for the Experienced StudentNow it’s time for that last visit to the supply store to purchase a few pieces of spe-cialty equipment to handle more advanced cake decorating projects. The following list of equipment and supplies has been grouped according to their corresponding craft. Royal icing, fondant and gum paste all require special tools and supplies to transform bowls of icing and lumps of dough into beautiful cake creations.

Royal Icing Supplies

Bags Fit for Royalty – Due to royal icing’s sensitivity to grease, it’s a good idea to reserve a set of permanent icing bags, or use a new clean disposable bag, for your royal icing. Even the slightest bit of greasy residue leftover from buttercream or cream cheese icing will cause your royal icing to go soft and runny.

Specialty Decorating Tips – Specialty tips come in a variety of shapes and sizes each designed to produce unique designs and decorations. Maybe the


most popular are the Fluted tips (numbers 79, 80 or 81) which have a tightly curved opening and are used to make Lily of the valley and scalloped or ribbon borders. Another fun specialty tip is the Hair tip (233 and 234) which make clus-ters of fine strings and are fun to use for making hair (of course) and grass on novelty cakes. There are dozens more specialty tips to experiment with. Pick some with odd shaped holes and see what you get!

Flower Forms – These are curved plastic cylinder halves used for drying icing flowers of any kind. The curve of the plastic allows for the flower to dry with a more natural looking curve. Depending on whether the forms are placed U curve up or N curve down, the flower petals will dry with either an upwards or downwards curve.

Flower Nail – This is a MUST for piping roses and other intricate designs. Flower nails look very similar to long, slender nails with a very large, flat head and come in metal and plastic. They are used to support and rotate the flower while it is being formed.

Cups and Bowls – Glass, metal or ceramic soup bowls or good choices for mixing icing. Plastic bowls or containers can be used for mixing buttercream ic-ings but are not recommended for mixing Royal icing (grease factor again!). Plastic tends to hold onto grease and even a clean plastic bowl can have just enough greasy residue to ruin your icing.

Vinegar – This may seem like a strange addition to the list of icing supplies, but vinegar is very effective degreaser. A 50/50 mix of vinegar and waters works well for cleaning your icing spatula and decorating tips. To properly clean tips, set them to soak in the 50/50 solution to remove any leftover grease, especially if you are switching from buttercream to royal icing.

Baking Paper – Parchment and waxed paper seem to follow us from activity to activity! That’s because it’s useful for lining baking pans, smoothing icing on a cake and also for covering the flower nail so you don’t need to clean the nail in between each flower. You’ll notice in the upcoming videos that a small 1-inch square of waxed paper is ‘glued’ to the flower nail to hold the flower. Once the flower is formed, paper and flower are carefully transferred to the flower forms to dry.

Buttercream Supplies

Stencils –Stencils are a great time saver and are found on all kinds of cakes, from fun, brightly colored birthday cakes to elegant wedding cakes with lacy, powdered sugar designs. To use a stencil, allow your buttercream icing to crust over and then position the stencil on the surface and dust, sprinkle or spray with


powdered sugar, candy sprinkles or color spray icing. Add just enough to cover the stencil or the excess will spread outside the lines when it’s removed.

Tip: Spray the stencil with a light coating of cooking spray. When the stencil is lifted off the cake, any loose bits and sprinkles will adhere to the stencils and not fall off onto your cake.

Stencils can be purchased at craft and baking supply stores, you can easily cre-ate your own from baking paper (there it is again!) or paper doilies.

Impression Mats – Used to impress your buttercream! This is a quick way to apply a design pattern to your cake. Impression mats also work well on rolled fondant or gum paste to create designs such as basket weave, cobblestone or brick.

Clear Flavorings – Add rich flavor such as vanilla, butter or almond to your but-tercream icing without compromising its whiteness.

Brushes – Decorating brushes are used for smoothing icing details as well as drawing and painting designs. They are useful when it comes to applying very fine and shiny dusts and powders to highlight your icing decorations.

Comb – Another great grooming tool for smoothing your icing. The cake comb is typically about the size and shape of ruler, except for its comb-like edge. You can create various designs with this tool by pressing it into the buttercream and drag-ging it across the top or sides of the cake.

Rolled Fondant Supplies Pasta Machine – Another strange addition to our shopping list! As the name implies, this machine is used for making pasta, but cake decorators have found another use for this machine and that is to roll and press out perfectly even sheets of fondant and gum paste used to cut out fine flower petals. Especially suited for making long strips of fondant/gum paste for fashioning ribbons and bows

Rolling Pin – We’re back to rolling basics with the rolling pin! A rolling pin is an essential tool to have if you’re planning to work with fondant or gum paste. You’ll be rolling out large sheets to drape over your cake and smaller swatches to cut out your flower shapes. A wide rolling pin with an extra smooth non-stick surface will work well to roll out sticky sugar paste. Plastic fondant rolling pins crafted es-


pecially for this purpose are available at specialty baking supply stores. Textured rolling pins are also available for imprinting designs into your sheet of fondant - smocking, polka dot, floral or fabric.

Roll & Cut Mats – Measuring your rolled out fondant will be much easier if you use a mat with pre-marked grids and circles. The non-stick surface makes this mat also perfect for rolling out and cutting out fondant cookie-cutter shapes and transferring the sheet of fondant from the table to the cake.

Fondant Cutter/Embosser – With this tool you can create fun or elegant shapes. Shaped something like a combination paint roller and pizza cutter, it en-ables you to easily add beautiful textured fondant ribbons, stripes and bows to your cake. Simple roll the cutter/embosser across your sheet of fondant and it will simultaneously cut and emboss perfectly even ribbons of fondant.

Punches – Pack some punch into your decorations! These tools allow you to quickly press out detailed two-dimensional shapes from rolled out strips of fondant (or gum paste). Punches are come with interchangeable shaped discs and are used to make everything from elegant diamonds and pretty paisleys to hearts and flowers.

Smoother – Once you’ve draped the fondant sheet over your cake and pressed it to fit, you will find bubbles, bumps and other imperfections. This is where your smoother will come to the rescue. This tool, with its super smooth flat surface and beveled edge will help to iron and buff out any imperfections to create a perfectly smooth and shiny surface.

Gum Paste Supplies

Confectionary Tool Set - You will need a basic set of confectionary tools for shaping, imprinting and stenciling beautiful life-like gum paste flowers, leaves and other decorations. You’ll also need them for modeling with marzipan and other rolled icings. The basic set includes what decorators call the dog bone, umbrella, shell, bat and veining tool. These tools are used to pinch, crimp, ruffle, design and otherwise shape the edges of ribbons and bows and the tips of flower petals.

Cut-Outs – Think of these as mini cookie cutters for your fondant and gum paste. Roll out your gum paste or fondant and simply cut out your shapes. If you have used a roll & cut mat, your shapes will be easier to lift up and transfer either di-rectly to the cake or to the flower former.

Cut-outs come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes (and prices!) The list of floral cut-outs is almost endless! You can create life-like and life-size flowers from large


tropical beauties to summer time morning glories and springtime forget-me-knots. Be prepared for a wide range of prices too, from $3 for some of the smaller flow-ers to over $30 for a large anthurium cut-out!

Cut-outs are also available in non-floral designs such as fruit, lace designs, spe-cial occasions and holidays.

Wires – Having a supply of cake decorating wires on hand is a must for anyone modeling with gum paste. Wires are used for may different tasks; they are used for hanging gum paste flowers upside down to dry, as underlying support for gum paste “sculptures” such as fairies or trees, and for creating stems for your flow-ers. Individually wired flowers and leaves can be twisted and tied together to form dainty gum paste floral bouquets. You’re sure to find many other uses too!

Decorating Dusts – Also known as dusting chalk and dusting powder, decorat-ing dusts are used to enhance the natural features of gum paste flowers and pro-vide special highlights for fondant cakes.

Dusting chalks can be blended with luster dust for a satin or pearl finish, or they can be used more subtly for shading on flowers, bows, foliage, etc. Decorating dusts can be used on anything that is made of a gum paste substance, including marzipan and fondant. Dry gold and silver may also be added for a dramatic effect.

Like an artist’s paints, decorating dusts can be blended to achieve any color of your choice. They can be applied either with artist brushes or airbrushes. They can also be added to powdered sugar or mixed with flavorings (water, alcohol or oil based) and then used for painting or highlighting sugar paste decorations.

Please note: While these are a mainstay in European cake decorating where they are considered non toxic, they are not FDA approved in the United States. They are intended to be used in their dry power form, but are frequently blended with flavor-ings, alcohol and piping gels to create a liquid medium for painting and highlighting.

Gum Paste Ingredients – The following ingredients are what put the ‘gum’ into gum paste. They are useful supplies to have on hand in case you need to adjust either the moisture or elasticity of your gum paste. Gum paste can be purchased ready-made or you can mix your own at home.

Glucose makes gum paste more pliable and slows the drying time.


Glycerin – If you make homemade bubbles for your kids, you’ll already have this on hand. Glycerin works like a lotion to restore the moisture and smooth consistency to dried out gum paste, fondant or icing.

Gum tragacanth is what adds the elasticity to gum paste.

Where to Buy Specialty Supplies?

Now that you have your list, it’s time to hit the shops! You may get lucky and find all that you need by visiting your local specialty cake or kitchen stores, or the de-partment store kitchen section. For the harder to find items, you could save some running around and do your shopping online at www.CandylandCrafts.com.

Based in New Jersey, United States, Candyland Crafts ships world wide and of-fers a much wider variety of cake decorating supplies than you will find when you walk into a store. So bookmark that website and if you ever get stuck, help is only a click away!


http://www.candylandcrafts.com/cgi_bin/cart/cart.cgi?referrer=CDSR&url=http://www.candylandcrafts.com

Chapter 2 – FONDANT 101

Rolled fondant is a relatively quick and professional way to cover a cake making a perfect background for either simple or elaborate decorations. Rolled icings can be applied in one coating, unlike buttercream icing which requires several coats for a really smooth finish. Here we introduce three of the more popular rolled ic-ings – traditional fondant, rolled buttercream and marshmallow fondant. Using rolled icings is becoming increasingly popular thanks to the increased availability of ready-made fondant mixes and some easy homemade recipes.

Traditional Fondant

Traditional fondant is expensive to buy, and it can be a chal-lenge to make. The beauty of fondant covered cakes is, for one, they look so smooth and professional, and two, a fon-dant covered cake will keep for days if stored in a cool dry place. One exception - if your cake contains perishable fill-ings or other frostings, it must be stored in the refrigerator. Fondant is the best choice for cakes that will be sitting out in hot weather for a beautiful summer wedding.

1 Tbsp. unflavored gelatin1/4 cup cold water1/2 cup Glucose1 Tbsp. Glycerin2 Tbsp. solid vegetable shortening2 lbs. confectioners’ sugar2 to 3 drops liquid food color and/or flavoring, optional

Stir cold water into gelatin and let mixture stand until thick. Using a double boiler, heat this mixture until dissolved. Stir in glucose and glycerin, mixing well. Add shortening and stir. Just before the shortening completely melts, remove from heat. Cool mixture to a lukewarm temperature.

Place 1 lb. confectioners’ sugar in a large bowl and make a well. Gently pour the warm mixture into the well. With a wooden spoon, blend in the sugar, stirring until the stickiness disappears.

NOTE: Don’t worry if your fondant isn’t snowy white. It will turn white during the kneading process. The kneading action will add air into the dough and bring it back to white.


Knead in remaining sugar (and icing color and flavoring if being used) and con-tinue kneading until the fondant becomes smooth, pliable and does not stick to your hands. If fondant is too soft add more sugar; if too stiff, add more water one drop at a time.

You may use immediately or store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If refrigerated, the fondant must be brought back to room temperature and kneaded until soft before using.

This recipe yields enough fondant to roll out and cover a 10" x 3" high cake.

Rolled Buttercream

Rolled Buttercream is an icing dough that can be rolled, molded or shaped rather than spread like regular buttercream icing. It’s a little softer and more prone to tearing than Traditional fondant making it more difficult to work with, but it tastes a whole lot better!

1 cup solid vegetable shortening (Crisco)1 cup clear corn syrup1/2 teaspoon fine grained salt1/2 teaspoon citrus (orange,lemon) oil 2 lbs confectioners’ sugarPaste food coloring, optional

Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl (including paste food coloring if de-sired) and beat until just blended. Reserve a small amount (1 cup) of the mixture and keep it tightly wrapped in plastic to be used to soften the icing if it ends up too thick. (Rolled buttercream cannot be thinned with water.)

If using a stand mixer, attach dough hook and knead at low speed for 2-3 min-utes. If kneading by hand, turn buttercream out onto a countertop lightly dusted with confectioners’ sugar and knead for 2-3 minutes until well mixed.

To check the consistency, pinch off a small piece and roll it in the palm of your hand. If it’s sticky, add more sugar. If it’s smooth and glossy and doesn’t stick, it’s done!

To store rolled buttercream, wrap in 2-3 layers of plastic wrap and then put it in a re-sealable plastic bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible. It will keep very well in the refrigerator for weeks. Recipe makes enough to cover a 9" x 3” high cake.


Marshmallow Fondant

Here's the recipe for Marshmallow Fondant which is the latest and greatest fondant to work with. The recipe is easy enough to follow and promises a better tasting and better performing icing than Traditional fondant.

1/4 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco) 1 pound of white mini marshmallows1 teaspoon clear vanilla flavor1 teaspoon butter flavor2 tablespoons water2 pounds powdered sugar

Grease the inside of a large microwavable bowl with solid vegetable shortening (Crisco™).

*Note: Be careful with this first step. The melted marshmallows can get extremely HOT!

Put marshmallows, flavorings, and water into the bowl. Microwave on high for 60 seconds. If marshmallows are completely melted, you’re ready to move on. If not, stir and return them back into the microwave for 30-second intervals – stirring after each - until the marshmallows are completely melted.

Put powdered sugar into large mixing bowl. Fit stand mixer with dough hook. (If not using a stand mixer, use a wooden spoon.)

Add liquefied marshmallow mixture to powdered sugar. Process at low speed un-til well incorporated, then turn speed up slightly and allow dough hook to “knead” mixture until sugar is fully blended into the liquid.

Click here to watch the “Mixing Marshmallow Fondant” VIDEO

Turn your Fondant out onto your work surface that has been dusted with equal parts of cornstarch and powdered sugar. Make sure your hands are well dusted too. (If fondant is still sticky, knead in some more powdered sugar.)

Knead fondant into a loaf. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and let cool for at least one hour before using.


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=mixingmmfondant

View this process here: “Preparing Marshmallow Fondant 1” VIDEO

And, here: “Preparing Marshmallow Fondant 2” VIDEO

To store fondant, wrap in plastic wrap and then put it in a re-sealable plastic bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible. Marshmallow Fondant will keep very well in the refrigerator for weeks.

How to Cover a Cake with Rolled Fondant

Working with rolled fondant is a fine art and requires a LOT of practice to get perfect results. So if this is your very first experience with rolled icings, start with a smaller project, covering petit fours or other small cakes, and have some pa-tience with yourself!

Rolled fondant is ideal for cake decorating because it creates a silky smooth canvas and flawless background for your cake creations. No lines, no seams, no cracks. In theory, anyway. The truth is that there is no such thing as a perfect cake; the pros just know how to either correct or camouflage their mistakes! But to create a close-to-perfect fondant cake, the surface of your cake must also be close-to-perfect since any imperfections will show up under the fondant. Begin by leveling the cake and then glazing it to seal in the moisture. This under-glaze will also work as a glue for adhering the fondant.

Once the glaze has dried, plaster the cake with a 1/4 inch layer of buttercream icing. And I do mean plaster, just as you would plaster a wall to prepare it for painting. You are trying to fill in every crack and cranny and smooth over any bumps.

When you are satisfied that your cake surface is as smooth as possible, allow the buttercream to harden. Your cake is now ready to receive its blanket of fondant!

Dust your working surface with confectioners' sugar and knead the required amount of fondant into a smooth shape.

To determine the amount of fondant, measure the top and sides of the cake, add an extra inch or two for good measure and roll out to this diameter. For


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=preparingmmf1


example, an 8-inch round cake with 4-inch deep sides requires fondant rolled out to a diameter between 17 and 18 inches.

Unless you’re using a pasta machine, roll the fondant out on a roll and cut mat with a rolling pin, lifting and moving it as you roll, to a 1/8 - inch thickness. Add confectioners' sugar as needed to keep the fondant from sticking. If it becomes too dry, knead in some water, a drop at a time, to keep the fondant pliable. You will know you have mastered the art of rolling fondant if your fondant is neither too sticky nor to dry and lifts easily without tearing or cracking.

Gently lift and drape the fondant over the rolling pin, or lift it with both hands, taking care that it does not tear. Do NOT fold and do NOT press down! Position the fondant loosely on the cake. Gently use your hands to smooth outward and down the sides of the cake, being careful not to get any folds or creases, to shape the fondant to the cake's surface. Make sure to smooth out any rolling pin or other marks!

You can use a smoother to gently press the fondant to the sides of the cake, but be careful not to damage the fondant's finish. Tuck and trim any excess fondant with a sharp knife or a pizza cutter. If the edges are not as clean as you would like, you can always add a fondant rope or pearls, or pipe a decorative edge with buttercream icing.

Watch a demo on rolling out fondant and placing it on your cake in the “Preparing Marshmallow Fondant 3” VIDEO

And voilà! You will have yourself a close-to-perfect fondant cake!

NOTE: It's best to let the cake stand until the icing sets before decorating. If the cake must be decorated immediately, handle with care to avoid marking the still soft surface.

Poured FondantPoured is the traditional topping for those pretty petit fours we see at luncheons, afternoon teas and wed-dings. Unlike traditional rolled fondant, this fondant glaze is quite palatable, making these miniature cakes as scrumptious to eat as to view. Poured fondant pro-vides a beautiful alabaster finish for showing off deli-cate and dainty decorations – Swiss dots, flowers, bows and butterflies.



Here’s a simple recipe and the instructions for covering Petit fours with poured fondant.

Petit Four Fondant

2 pounds sifted powdered sugar (8 cups)2/3 cup water3 tablespoons light corn syrup 2 teaspoons clear vanilla or almond flavor. Food color (optional)

Combine all of the ingredients, except for the food color, in a saucepan. Warm the mixture over low heat just until the sugar dissolves and becomes smooth.

If you want to tint your fondant, add the food coloring, one drop at a time. Use very sparingly; a little color goes a long way and will darken as it dries.

Keep the icing warm while in use, but don’t let it go over 100 degrees F. You can either dip or pour fondant to cover cakes.

The Big Dipper

• Using a dipping fork, lower the petit four into the fondant until it’s com-pletely covered, and then slowly lift it out.

• Tap the bottom of the dipping fork on the pan to allow excess fondant to drip back into the pot.

• Gently set the petit four onto waxed paper, using another fork to gently slide it off the supporting fork.

• If the fondant is too thick stir in some water, a teaspoon at a time, until you have the right consistency and try again.

• Between dippings, stir the fondant as much as necessary to keep a crust from forming. If a skin does develop, pour in just enough hot water to cover the top of the fondant and let sit for a few seconds. Pour off the water, stir the fondant and continue dipping.


The Pouring

• Line up your pieces of cake about an inch apart on a cake rack positioned over a clean baking pan lined with waxed paper.

• Slowly pour the warm fondant making sure to completely cover each piece of cake.

• Carefully transfer your cakes onto a sheet of waxed paper to dry.

The drippings can be collected, reheated and used.

Let the fondant set completely on your petit fours before decorating or moving them.

Store your glazed petit fours in a covered cardboard box in a cool dry place such as an air-conditioned room. If they contain perishable fillings, they must be stored in the refrigerator. But due to the high sugar content, fondant is vulnerable to moisture and will soften or dissolve with a build up of condensation.

Allow your refrigerated cakes to gradually warm up to room temperature. It’s best to place them in an air-conditioned room but if that’s not possible, set them up in front of a clean fan. An hour or two in the gentle blowing breeze should dry up any extra moisture.

One Final Note …

Poured fondant can be used to dress up full size cakes too. True to its name, it can be poured, as well as drizzled or brushed onto any cake for a fancy finish!

Looking Good with Gum Paste! If you enjoy crafting or modeling with clay, you’re going to love gum paste! The design possibilities are limited only by your imagination. With your new set of gum paste tools, you’re well equipped to create any number of realistic figures and flowers.

Mixing Gum paste

While you can buy ready-made gum paste, you can also make your own at home.


Gum Paste Recipe

1 heaping Tbsp Glucose 3 Tbsp warm water1 Tbsp Gum-Tex™ or tragacanth gum3 cups sifted confectioner's sugar 1 cup sifted confectioner's sugar (save for later)Paste Food Color (optional)

Place 3 cups of the sifted powdered sugar in a large bowl. Stir in the Gum-Tex™ (or tragacanth gum). Form a well in the center and set aside.

Blend water and glucose in a glass measuring cup, then heat in microwave on high for about 30 seconds. Mixture will be clear when it is ready. Pour the water/glucose mixture into the well. Stir until well blended and very soft. Seal the paste in a plastic bag and let sit for eight hours at room temperature.

Knead the remaining cup of sifted confectioner's sugar into the paste. As you knead in the sugar, the gum paste will whiten and soften. If you want various col-ors, you can knead in the paste food colorings to separate portions. Wear latex gloves unless you want purple, green or some other oddly colored hands! For one uniform color, add the food coloring with the water when mixing the paste.

Gum Glue

Used to assemble gum paste figures and flowers or to secure gum paste decora-tions to cakes. Here's the oh, so very complicated recipe for gum glue:

2 tsp Gum Arabic2 ounces water Mix them together and voilà! Gum glue fit to glue your gum paste figures together!

How to Prepare Gum Paste for Cut-Outs

Using a variety of shaped cutters, gum paste can be stamped to make all kinds of shapes for decorating cakes. The proce-dure is similar to making either pies or cut out cookies where the dough is rolled and the shapes are stamped out using cut-ters. It’s an easy way to make perfectly formed flowers and other figures and shapes.


1. Begin with a smooth flat work surface, ideally covered with your plastic roll and cut mat.

2. Some cake decorators advocate dusting the work surface, rolling pin and hands with cornstarch, while others advocate using a white vegetable shortening, such as Crisco™. If you’re going to be working with delicate creations, you may prefer using shortening which helps prevent the gum paste from tearing.

3. Break off the amount of gum paste you want to roll out, leaving the rest in a closed, plastic or glass container.

4. Knead the gum paste with your fingers. If you’re tinting this piece, add a bit of color with a toothpick, kneading it in until evenly colored. Or not if look-ing for a marbled or cloudy look. Form a ball with the gum paste.

5. Roll out the gum paste, turn it over, and give it a quarter turn on the work surface. Then roll again. Repeat about two or three times until it’s the thickness you want.

Use a small spatula to gently lift each decoration onto a sheet of waxed paper to dry. If you’re making flowers, dry them in the flower forms to give the petals some natural curves.

Once your gum paste creations dry and harden, you can use food coloring to paint in some details or brush on some highlights with a little decorating dust blended with clear lemon or almond extract. Once set and dried, glue your deco-rations in place on your cake or petit fours with small dabs of either royal icing or gum glue. Beautiful!

Modeling with Gum Paste

More versatile and stronger than fondant, gum paste is a good choice for modeling three-dimensional figures and shapes.

You can shape gum paste with your hands as you would modeling clay, using the confectionary tools to carve in fine details. When you are creating something with more than one part, such as this cute bride and groom, you create one part at a time and then assemble them all together.


The individual pieces to make this wedding couple include:

Molded pieces:

Bride – Body (wedding dress), arms, head, hair, eyes, nose and green flower stems.

Groom – Black pant legs, white body, black sleeves (arms) hands, jacket buttons, head, ears, eyes, nose, hat (in two pieces), and hair.

Rolled and cut pieces:

Bride – White flowers for bouquet and hair band.

Groom – Black jacket, triangle shirt collar, tie and boutonniere.

And the smiles were carefully engraved. The pieces were assembled and glued in place using gum glue and ta-dah! The happy couple was born!

Gum paste is so easily molded into shape that it’s possible to make anything that exists in nature (or in your imagination!) can be duplicated in gum paste form.

Here a just a few ideas:

• A cornucopia overflowing with miniature corn, squash and fruit for Thanks-giving.

• A Halloween scene complete with jack o’ lanterns, witches, pumpkins and ghosts.

• An Easter egg basket filled with pastel colored eggs, baby yellow chicks and spring flowers. You can add extra detail by decorating each egg with a different cut-out pattern or design.

• Add gum paste ornaments to an iced Christmas tree cake.

• Create a winter wonderland with little snow people. People (snow, human or alien) are easy to make when you remember to make each piece sepa-rately and assemble with some gum glue.

• Give a river rat a birthday cake with gum paste rafts, paddles and little peo-ple atop fondant waves (create with small sheets of blue and white fondant).

• Add an elegant ribbon and bow to the top of a gift box shaped cake wrapped in fondant.

• Make a bouquet with gum paste flowers to suit the occasion.


Storing & Freezing Fondant

A buttercream or fondant covered cake will fair well enough in the refrigerator, loosely covered in a cake box, for about a week. Sugar paste decorations, on the other hand, do not fair well in the fridge. They tend to droop and lose their shape and should be stored at room temperature. The risk with refrigerating fondant in any form is the condensation that forms on its surface once it is returned to room temperature. To prevent condensation from forming, as soon as you remove the cake from the fridge, place it in an air-conditioned (low humidity) room to warm up. If air condi-tioning is not available, place the cake in front of a fan to dry up the moisture. Remember to rotate the cake often and allow a good hour or more before the fi-nal decoration and setting-up/presenting the cake. Gum paste decorations can be made well in advance and stored in a cool dry place ready to be used when you're ready to do the final decoration.


Chapter 3 – THE PIED PIPER

(Continued from Volume 1…)

The following fun techniques will allow you to create elegant, beautiful borders, figures and flowers on your cakes. While these are intended for royal icing deco-rations, many will work with buttercream as well. Keep in mind many of these skills take some practice, but the end result and the satisfaction of having done it are well worth it!

Decorative Borders

Fleur de Lys

Don’t let the fancy name frighten you. This traditional border design takes its name from the French word for iris or for an emblem in the shape of an iris with three petals. The fleur de lys is a variation of the basic shell border. Begin by piping out a basic shell: hold your hand at a slight angle slightly off the surface at about a 45-degree angle. If you’re holding your icing bag with your right hand, steady the bag with your left two fingers, squeeze and pull down.

The next step will be similar to creating the reverse shell, only instead of starting in the middle you start on the outside of the first shell (just at the bottom of it) and curl inward. Then you do the same on the other side, staring on the outside of the bot-tom of the first shell and curling inward. Begin your next fleur de Lys just at the bottom of the first, so they connect, and then continue repeating the above steps.

Click here to watch the “Fleur de Lys” VIDEO

Ruffle Swag

A tilting turntable cake stand is essential when making ruffle swags, as is the tip 104 and a medium consistency icing. But while you’re learning, practice on a flat surface so gravity is working with you, not against you.

The best form is to have the fat end of the tip touching the cake, and the skinny end lifted up just a bit. While you’re piping, jiggle while rotating your hand around. The rotating makes it much prettier. Then if you want, accentuate every swag with a zigzag on top using a number 16 tip.

Click here to watch the “Ruffle Swag” VIDEO


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=fleurdelys

http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=ruffleswag

Decorative Techniques

Basket weave

These cakes are a lot of fun, and a big hit during the holidays, such as Thanks-giving and Easter. While basket cakes are usually piped with two contrasting col-ors, white on white is also lovely, especially on wedding cakes.

These instructions use pink and white icing, but feel free to experiment with your own colors. In the video demon-stration we’ll be using a 48 tip with white icing, and a 5 with pink. But you could use a 47 instead of a 48, or you could even use a 5 for both. Just keep in mind, that the smaller the tip the more work and time it will take to cover the cake!

Start with a round cake that has been iced on top and crumb-coated on the sides. Before beginning the piping, you’ll need to mark your cake with even divisions. Use a spatula to do this, holding it vertical to the cake and pressing with the long edge. There’s no set rule for divid-ing your cake. For a tighter basket weave, mark your divisions closer together, or for a looser weave, farther apart.

Here’s a few different ways it can be done:

• A cake board with scallops makes marking easy. If you make a mark on your cake at every scallop, then you can rest assured you’ll have an even number of divisions.

• Some decorators can eyeball a cake for even divisions.

• Or you can “divide” it in half, marking with your spatula, then quarters, and so forth.

• Another sure way to divide the cake evenly is to take a piece of parchment and your pan, then trace around the pan onto your parchment and cut out this shape. You can quickly then fold the parchment in half, then quarters and so on. Then place this parchment on top of cake, and mark the cake wherever there is a fold.

• Divide and mark with a ruler to create basket weave on a rectangle or square cake.


Now that you’ve marked your cake, you’re ready to being piping. One word of caution: Let your hand rest occasionally or it will shake and your basket weave will uneven. So, allow yourself rest breaks! You’ll be using a tip 5, pink icing for the vertical strokes and a tip 48, white icing for the horizontal ones. Using a tilting turntable will greatly help speed your work.

Begin piping with tip 5. Start with a smooth down stroke, piping from the top of a marked line and then down, leaning in at the bottom where you finish.

Then use tip 48 to draw side to side. Begin at the mark to the left of your pink vertical line, continue piping across that pink, and end at the mark just to the right of the pink. Then begin a second sidestroke at the same mark on the left, but skipping down a row. Pipe a mark on each side of the row you will skip. You will be alternating, piping a horizontal row with the white, then skipping a row, and then piping another row, and so on until you get to the bottom. How many you create depends on the size of the cake.

Then, returning to the pink, make a down stroke over the horizontal white icing where you ended on the right.

Now, with the white icing, starting next to the pink vertical line furthest to the left, go side to side again, bringing the white icing over the second pink line ending at the marking to the right.

Then drop down just below the white icing vertical line you already made. Again, beginning to the right of the pink line furthest to the left, bring the icing side to side, over the pink horizontal on your right and ending at the marking.

Continue this process. All the white horizontal lines you just made should be parallel.

Next, look at where you ended the white, take your pink and do another down stroke just over the ends of the white. Then repeat the process around the cake with the white horizontal sidestrokes going over the pink vertical ones.

If you have an even number of divisions, the basket weave should all line up. If it doesn’t, that is you have an odd number of divisions, don’t despair. Remember, a good decorator makes things aesthetically pleasing, not necessarily perfect. So if your final basket weave stroke is not going to match up, bring it down on a di-agonal to finish. Turn it into the back of the cake, or better yet, cover it with some cascading flowers, and no one will know!

Click here to watch “Basket Weave l” VIDEO

Click here to watch “Basket Weave 2” VIDEO


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=basketweave

http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=basketweave2

Lattice Hearts

A heart shaped cookie cutter makes this easy, but you can draw them freehand if you choose. Trace or draw your hearts on a piece of stencil paper. Make a few be-cause the delicate lattice hearts are prone to breakage, and this way you’ll have a couple back-ups. Then tape your paper over the outside curve of a concave piece of plastic, such as a PVC tube that has been cut lengthwise or a flower tray. Be sure to place your stencil paper around the outside of the curve. Then overlap in-side for taping. Make it tight enough that it pulls out any wrinkles or folds.

For the piping, you’ll be using a 14 tip (small star tip) and a 2, plus any color of your choice. In the demo, we’re using white. Remember to keep the bowl of royal icing covered with a damp cloth as well as the tips of the bags you’re not cur-rently using to prevent hardening.

Start with the string work, using tip 2 and a thin consistency icing. At the right hand top curve of the heart, pull down at a slight diagonal to the right hand side curve of the heart below. How close together you pipe your strings together de-pends on your personal preference. Keeping them tight helps to strengthen the finished piece. Continue with your lines from top to bottom on a slight diagonal, and then switch directions, bringing the strings across the heart. Turn the tube towards you if this makes it easier.

When your string work is completed, add shells around edges with tip 14 and medium consistency icing. Around the border, make small swirling shell motions with loops going outwards. As always, remember to frequently wipe your tip. Then again starting at the top go to the right. Move your tube around so that your hand is comfortable. Let your lattice work dry for several days before removing very carefully.

Click here to watch the “Lattice Heart” VIDEO

String Work

To perfect this technique, practice on a real cake or a work surface that is set up in an easel type holder so that you are working against gravity. A flat surface is easier, but this won’t prepare you for the real thing. Using tip 3 filled with thin consistency icing, touch the cake and pull out and away from the cake and let gravity let it dip and then touch to end. Pull away from the cake and let gravity cause the dip rather than putting the tip to the cake. Touch to end single drop string.


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=latticehearts

For double drop string go back and make a second string beginning at same be-ginning point for first but letting the string dip down below the first and then pull-ing up to touch at where the first string ended, and then again pulling out and let-ting it dip down below the first string.

You can also make these loops larger. And you can make them overlap begin-ning the second one in the middle of the first one. The effect is quite spectacular.

Click here to watch the “String Work” VIDEO

Flowers

No matter the occasion – housewarming, birthday, wedding, Christmas – you can’t go wrong with flow-ers, the most popular decoration for a cake. Each flower is made using a flower nail. Start by squeezing a small dab of icing on the nail and press on a small square of waxed paper, so when you’re masterpiece is complete you can remove your flower leaving on the waxed paper until dry and safer to move.

Except for the rose, which is made directly on the nail, without the waxed paper, and is transferred directly onto the cake, you will want to slide each flower, with the waxed paper underneath it, onto a curved flower tray to dry so that the petals form a natural curve.

Also, have your Styrofoam™ block or upside paper cup ready, so you can stick the flower nail into it when you need a free hand to wipe your tip.

Apple Blossom – These five-petal flowers, each about the size of a dime, are a delight to make and look at. Using your number 101 tip with pink ic-ing, squeeze and pull up slightly, turning the nail after each petal is formed. You may need to wipe your tip at this point. When completing the fifth petal in the circle, twist up, so that your icing doesn’t drag through the first. You can use your fingertip to add highlighting by dotting with cornstarch in a few spots. Then with tip 1, pipe five tiny, yellow dots.

Click here to watch the “Apple Blossom” VIDEO

Daisy – This versatile flower is a nice pick for a summer cake, used with other flowers or for a daisy chain that can encircle your cake.

We’ll be using tip 104 with yellow icing and tip 5 with white, but daisies are beautiful in many combinations of colors. As always wipe your tip fre-


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=stringwork

http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=appleblossom

quently, but more so with this flower. Hold your tip at a 45-degree angle, fat side facing out. Place it down, squeeze and pull inward for the petal, from out to center.

Keep adding petals, turning your nail as you add them. Then set the nail in a Styrofoam holder while wipe your tip. Continue pulling all petals to the center until the flower is solid and doesn’t break. Using tip 5, pipe a dot in the middle, letting it build a bit and then lifting. Pat this down with a little cornstarch on your fingertips (to prevent sticking) and you’ve got a daisy!

Click here to watch the “Daisy” VIDEO

Daffodil – This flower takes a little bit of work, but its major ‘wow’ factor makes it so worth it!

Try tips 1, 3 and 104 with parchment bags packed with yellow icing. Re-member to keep the two not currently in use underneath a damp cloth so the royal icing doesn’t dry out in the tips. Using tip 104 and beginning at what will be the flower’s center, squeeze the icing bag and pull in for each petal, continuing around, slightly overlapping each petal so they join.

Then dip fingers in cornstarch to prevent icing from sticking to your fingers and shape each of the petals so the edges fold up and the outer tips come to a point. Royal icing is very forgiving, so when you find little things that seem out of place, you can often push them into place with a little corn-starch on your fingertips.

Now for the details – Stick the flower nail into an upturned Styrofoam cof-fee cup or block. With tip 3, pipe a little spiral in the middle of the flower, starting tiny and getting larger as you come up to approximate a daffodil’s trumpet-like center. Make as many coils to the spiral as you wish. Use a cornstarch-covered fingertip to help you along. Then with tip 1, an itty, bitty tip, pipe a tiny zigzag all the way round the top of the coil. Now you’re ready to place your daffodil in the curved flower tray to dry.

Click here to watch the “Daffodil” VIDEO

Pansy - For this flower, you’ll need three parchment bags, yellow with a number 104 tip, purple, also with a 104, and yellow with a tip 1. Of course you can create pansies from several varying combinations.


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=daisy

http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=daffodil

Begin with yellow and tip 104. Make two yellow petals that take up half a circle. Then swap to the purple 104. Make three dips on the other half of the circle, so there are three purple petals opposite the yellow ones. Then switch back to the yellow 104, and make two small yellow petals on top of the two larger ones. Use tip 1 to add a little yellow loop in the middle. Voilà! You’ve got a pretty pansy!

Click here to watch the “Pansy” VIDEO

Poinsettia - Here’s an easy holiday decoration! You’ll need your tips 352 and 366. With red icing and tip 366 in your bag, squeeze and pull out for each petal, continuing around until you have five. The wider end of the petals will meet in the center. It’s ok if the middle is a little empty because you will be adding more petals.

For your second layer, stagger the petals on top of the first layer. And, then you may want to add a couple in between on the bottom layer. You may add as many as you like. Then to make your poinsettia look more natural, use tip 352 with green icing to stagger the green immature petals behind the bottom layer of the red. This sets off the red nicely and creates an authentic Christmas look.

Finally, using tip 3, pipe a few yellow dots in the center. Buttercream poin-settias can be created this right on your cake after a little practice.

Click here to watch the “Poinsettia” VIDEO

Primrose – Drop tips number 103 into one parchment bag and load with pink icing, and tip 14 into the second and load with yellow icing. You’ll be making five heart shaped petals on your nail. Hold your top so that the fat end is in the middle, not flat, not up and down, but at an angle.

To make each heart-shaped petal: Squeeze, pulling out, then dip in, then out, then in and close. The curves on the “heart” will face outward with the ‘point’ towards the center of the flower. Moving around, begin each one at the end point of the last. Remember to wipe your tip after a few. When closing the fifth petal, rotate upwards so the icing doesn’t mess up the petal beside it. Set your nail in a Styrofoam or upside down cup.

Finally, using tip 14, pipe a tiny, yellow star in the middle. Sweet pea - For this cute, country cottage flower, you’ll need a tip 104 with pink, medium consistency icing, and a tip 3 with green, thin consistency icing. Place tip 104, fat end down, skinny end up. You’ll want the flat part almost straight up and down, but tipped forward just a bit. Now, squeeze and pull back.


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=pansy

http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=poinsettia

Next, placing the tip in the same starting spot, squeeze and pull outward, and then squeeze and pull back on the opposite side. With your green ic-ing, tip 3, start in the middle, squeeze, and let it build up a bit, then draw downwards for a stem. There - you have an adorable sweet pea!

Click here to watch the “Primrose” VIDEO

Rose – This classic beauty is a cinch to make after a little practice. And it’s a good thing, too, because everyone will want one on his or her piece of cake!

This is the only flower that is made without using waxed paper because it is transferred directly onto the cake when completed. Instead you start with a base of icing on the flower nail. The trick is getting the base right. As the foun-dation, it’s the most important part. Your roses can be any color you desire. Starting with the base, take your filled parchment bag with tip 12, and holding the tip slightly off the surface of the nail, squeeze. Let the icing build up and then lift, slowly drawing upward and squeezing until you have a little cone.

Petals: Begin with tip 104, fat end facing down. You won’t be decorating around the base; you’ll be decorating on top of it. Set your tip right into the top of this cone, lean it in slightly and squeeze, wrapping it around itself, and then pull down to end. You’ve just created the center of the rose. If you got it right, the center will be on top of the base.

Now make rows of petals. • First row, three petals: Place your tip vertically (straight up and down)--

parallel to the cone you just created--so it’s slightly touching, squeeze and pull towards you for each petal. As you move around the rose, slightly overlap each petal as you begin a new one. Remember to keep your tip straight up and down.

• Second row, five petals: Repeat the process you did for the first row, ex-cept this time point your tip out very slightly, so it causes your petals to bloom, again pulling towards you for each petal.

• Third row, seven petals: Tip your tip out just a little bit more, and make seven petals, overlapping slightly. Don’t worry about the extra base that shows because that gets left on the nail when you slide your spatula under the rose and lift it off to transfer onto your cake. You may use a toothpick or your finger to nudge it off of the spatula onto the cake.

Click here to watch the “Rose” VIDEO


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=primrose

http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=rose

Sweet Pea - For this cute country cottage flower, you’ll need a tip 104 with pink medium consistency icing, and a tip 3 with green, thin consistency ic-ing. Place tip 104 fat end down, skinny end up at 90 degrees, straight up and down, but tipped forward just a bit. Now, squeeze and pull back. Next, placing the tip in the same starting spot, squeeze and pull outward, and then squeeze and pull back on the opposite side. With your green icing, tip 3, start in the middle, squeeze, and let it build up a bit and draw down-wards for a stem.

Click here to watch the “Sweet Pea” VIDEO

Violet – Blue violets are perfect for a wedding or anniversary cake be-cause they carry the message, “I’ll always be true.” These dainty but bright flowers are a nice addition to a spring bouquet cake, too. This flower is made with the 59 or 59 s tip. You’ll only need a tiny strip of waxed paper on your nail for this very tiny flower.

Poise your tip fat end down at about a 45-degree angle. Pipe out and in, creating two super tiny petals. Then create three more that are just a bit larger. Place on a Styrofoam cup or block and add two tiny yellow dots with a number 1 tip. Don’t worry if these don’t look perfect. You can cluster them for greater impact. Violets are great as an accent or filler between spaces left by larger flowers.

Click here to watch the “Violet” VIDEO

One Final Note …

Royal icing dries hard as a rock and presents better details than the tastier but-tercream. Be sure to use royal icing for details that need to dry hard, such as the lattice heart. Just remember not to put one next to the other, or the grease in the buttercream will dissolve your royal icing. Also, remember to place a damp cloth over your bowl of royal to prevent crusting and a damp cloth over the tips of filled parchment bags.


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=sweetpea

http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=violet

Chapter 4 – A SPECIAL CLASS OF CAKE

(A collection of World famous cakes!)

Black Forest Cake

The Black Forest region of Germany has brought us the cuckoo clock, beautiful scenery, a rich mythology, and last but not least the Schwarzwälder Kirsch torte—the world famous Black Forest Cake. This scrumptious cake is a beauty to behold and a dream to make. While recipes vary from Americanized to traditional German, the following is an authentic recipe translated and adapted from German cookbooks.

Ingredients

Cake Layers

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour1 1/2 cups sugar2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder1 1/2 tsp baking soda1 tsp salt1 1/2 cups milk or buttermilk1/2-cup shortening2 eggs1 tsp vanilla extract1/2-cup kirshwasser (cherry schnapps)

Filling/Frosting

1 cup confectioners, powdered sugar 1 pinch salt1 can (0.5 liter) pitted cherries, drained1 cup heavy whipping cream1/2 tsp vanilla1 Tbsp kirshwasser

Decorating

1 square semisweet chocolate for grating


Preparing the Layers

Preheat oven to 175 C (350 F). Line the bottoms of two 8-inch round pans with parchment paper circles. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Cream together shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, beating well. Blend in vanilla. Add the flour mixture and milk, alternately, beating until thoroughly combined.

Pour batter into cake pans. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. An inserted toothpick will come out clean when done. Cool completely on wire racks, and then remove parchment paper from cakes. Level layers and then torte them (refer to Vol. 1), creating four out of the two. Finally, sprinkle your layers with 1/2 cup of the kirshwasser.

Preparing the Filling/Frosting

In a separate bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks form, and then blend vanilla and kirshwasser, and finally confectioners’ sugar with a pinch of salt. Beat until all is mixed thoroughly.

Putting it Together

Spread the first layer of cake with one fourth of the filling. Then cover the filling with one fourth of the cherries. Repeat with the next two layers. Frost top and sides of cake with remaining whipped cream filling. Top cake with remaining cher-ries and garnish with chocolate curls.

Guten Appetit!

Bûche de NoëlAccording to legend, France carried on the tradition of the Win-ter Solstice bonfire by cooking Christmas Eve dinner over a Yule log in the fireplace. The logs’ ashes were believed to hold magi-cal and medicinal powers that would ward off evil spirits in the coming year. The classic Christmas cake known as Bûche de Noël was born, according to culinary lore, when many new

homes were built without fireplaces in the late 1800’s, and a symbolic cake was created to carry on tradition.

Most pastry chefs make Bûche de Noël by filling Génoise (chocolate sponge cake baked in a jelly-roll pan) with a chocolate, mocha or chestnut flavored but-


tercream and rolling it into the shape of a log. Traditionally the cake is frosted and ridged with a fork or comb in the fashion of the tree bark. The Yule log is then garnished with meringue mushrooms, marzipan holly and a light dusting of confectioners’ sugar snow. Holly leaves are crafted with gum paste, and red candies provide the holly berries.

Cake Ingredients

1/4 cup and 2 Tbsp white granulated sugar 6 large eggs (keep in refrigerator until ready to separate)1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces3/4 tsp cream of tartarDutch-processed cocoa powder or powdered sugar for dusting

Preparing the Cake

Place the oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 F. Grease a 17 by 12-inch jellyroll pan, line with parchment paper, and then grease and flour. Set aside.

Separate your eggs, placing the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Bring the eggs to room temperature by covering the bowls with plastic wrap and letting them sit about 30 minutes. While you’re waiting for the eggs, melt the chocolate in a stainless steel double boiler with simmering water and set aside.

Combine the egg yolks and 1/4 cup of sugar; beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes. Test for readiness: When the beater is slowly raised, the batter should fall back slowly in ribbons. Next, blend in the va-nilla extract. Then add melted chocolate, beating only enough to combine. Set this mixture aside.

Using a clean mixing bowl and whisk attachment beat the egg whites until they are foamy. Add the cream of tartar, beating at medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Then gradually add the 2 Tbsp of sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.

Now, lighten this mixture by gently folding into the egg yolk mixture a small amount of the egg whites. Use a rubber spatula or whisk to do this. Then fold in the remaining eggs whites, but be careful not to over mix. You just want to incor-porate the whites into the yolk mixture. If you over mix, the batter will deflate.

Spread your batter, using an offset spatula, evenly into the prepared pan. Bake until the cake is puffed, springs back when gently pressed, and has lost its shine. This takes about 15 to17 minutes. Remove from oven, place on a wire rack to cool, and cover with a slightly damp, clean towel.


When your cake is cooled, it’s ready for rolling. Spread the cake with 2 cups of your whipped cream frosting. Then gently roll the cake, peeling the parchment of as you go. Frost, accent with meringue mushrooms and decorate. This cake can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days.

*Filling/Frostings

The recipes for the whipped cream filling, its chocolate variation, and the butter-cream frosting are in Vol. 1 of this book. For the raspberry whipped cream filling, follow this variation of the whipped cream recipe:

When beating the basic whipped cream filling, do so only until soft peaks form. Add, a little at a time, a sweetened raspberry puree. Beat just until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised. If necessary, fold in more sugar or puree to taste.

Sweetened Raspberry Puree (for raspberry whipped cream)

2 - 12 ounce bags of frozen, unsweetened raspberries 1/2 cup granulated white sugar, to taste1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (optional)Raspberry liqueur to taste (optional)

Place a large finely meshed strainer over a large bowl, then place the raspberries in the strainer and allow a few hours to thaw. After they are completely thawed, create the puree by gently pressing the raspberries with the back of a large spoon until all that remains in the strainer are the seeds, which you can discard.

Add the lemon juice, if using, and the sugar to the puree and stir. A bit of rasp-berry liqueur can be added to taste. Leftovers can be kept covered in the refrig-erator up to a week, or in the freezer up to a year. You may want to use some of this for the Swiss Roll. Makes approximately 1 cup.

Meringue Mushrooms (for garnishing)

2 large egg whites (room temperature and free of any speck of yolk)1/4 tsp cream of tartar1/2-cup superfine white sugar

TIP: If you don’t have this type of sugar on hand, you can grind regular granulated sugar down to superfine by running it through a food processor for about half a minute.


Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (don’t use waxed paper because the meringue may stick to it) and set aside.

Prepare two icing bags, one for piping the mushroom caps and stems and one for gluing them together. Use a number 6 tip to pipe the meringue into stems and caps, and use a number 3 tip to glue. To ease the transferring of the meringue to the icing bags, fold down the top to forum a deep cuff on each bag, and then place each bag in a tall, narrow glass for support.

Preheat oven to 225 F and place two oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Beat the room temperature egg whites at a moderately slow speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar, beating at medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, while continuing to beat. Gradually increase the speed to high, beating the mixture until the whites are very stiff and glossy. To make sure the sugar has dissolved completely, rub a bit of the meringue between your fingers.

Use a rubber spatula to place about 1/4 cup of the meringue in the icing bag with the number 3 tip. Then place the remaining meringue in the bag with the larger tip.

Piping the Mushroom Caps

Holding the pastry bag with the number 6 tip upright and close to the parchment paper, squeeze the bag with even pressure and pipe the meringue, allowing to build into an even round shape that is about 1 1/2 - 2 inch diameter and about 3/4 -1 inch high.

To finish the cap, sharply twist the bag and stop the pressure as you slowly move the tip off the meringue. Dip your fingertip in a bowl of water and use to smooth out any bumps in the top. Repeat this process until you’ve made all your caps. Place the caps evenly on the baking sheet to encourage even baking.

Piping the Stems

Holding the pastry bag with the number 6 tip, position the bag upright with the tip close the parchment paper. Squeezing with even pressure, pipe the meringue into a cone shape, build up for the base and then lift up so the top of the stem is narrower than the base. The stem should be about 1 inch high and standing as straight as possible. As some may fall over while baking, this recipe provides for more than you’ll need for your cake.

Baking the Meringue Mushrooms

Your meringues will need to bake for about one hour. They are done when they are firm enough to be easily lifted from the baking sheet without sticking. To en-sure they bake evenly, rotate the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to


back. Wait about 45 minutes before rotating because opening the oven door to soon can cause the meringues to crack.

When your meringues are done baking, leave the oven on. Use a small, sharp knife to remove them from the pan. While doing this, make a small hole in the middle of the underside of each mushroom cap where you will insert the stem. Then pipe, using your tip 3, a bit of meringue into this cavity and gently press in the top of the stem.

Once all of caps and stems are joined, place the mushrooms, caps down, on a parch-ment lined baking sheet. Bake until the mushrooms have dried, about 15 minutes.

Variation: Instead of gluing with meringue and returning to the oven, you can glue the caps and stems together with melted chocolate. Spread a thin layer of chocolate over the underside of the cap and attach the stem. Leave the mushroom (upside down) until the chocolate hardens.

Lightly dust the tops of the mushrooms with cocoa powder. You can use a small paintbrush or pastry brush to give the tops a more natural look by smudging the cocoa powder. Depending on size, this recipe makes about 24 to 30 mushrooms. The meringue mushrooms can be stored in an air-tight container for several weeks.

Cherry CheesecakeThis old-fashioned Southern variety is as sinfully easy as it is delicious.

Ingredients

Crust

1/4-cup confectioners' sugar 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs 4 ounces butter, melted

Filling

1 cup granulated sugar 3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese 1 tsp vanilla extract 4 eggs Topping

1 to 2 cups sour cream 1 can (21 ounces) cherry pie filling


Preheat your oven to 350° F. Mix together crust ingredients. Pack this mixture firmly into the bottom of an 8 or 9-inch, spring form pan. Then blend together all the filling ingredients and pour onto crust. Bake for 50 minutes and top with the sour cream. Return to the oven for an additional five minutes. Remove from oven and top with filling. Chill, serve and be ready to reply with a smile, “Why thank you, but it was really very simple!” And it was!

Chocolate Mousse CakeThis version of the French classic is made without flour and calls for very few in-gredients. The delicate crisp crust is a perfect complement to the moist chocolate center. Less is more? We say a resounding, “Oui!”

Ingredients

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces. 6 large eggs, separated 1/2 -cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 275°F with the rack in the center. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

In a microwaveable safe glass bowl, microwave the chocolate and butter on high for about 30 seconds. Stir. Microwave for another 30 seconds and then stir again. Continue this process until the chocolate and butter mixture is completely melted.

After cooling slightly, whisk in egg yolks and set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually add sugar to the egg white peaks. Beat until stiff and glossy.

Then to first lighten the chocolate mixture, whisk in one fourth of the stiffened egg whites. Now, very gently with a rubber spatula fold the chocolate into the rest of the whites. Pour mixture into the pan, using a spatula to smooth the top.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes. The cake is done when it has pulled away from the sides of the pan and is set in the center. Cool on a wire cake rack and dust with con-fectioners' sugar and serve.


German Chocolate Cake

Nicht Deutcher! This cake is not German! Found in almost every American bak-ery, this cake’s namesake is a brand of a chocolate bar called German’s, created for Baker’s Chocolate Company by an Englishman by the name of Sam German. This type of chocolate is similar to milk chocolate and sweeter than baking chocolate.

The first published recipe, submitted by a Dallas, Texas homemaker to a 1957 newspaper, swept the nation and is still a favorite in many families. Its buttermilk and pecan ingredients suggest Southern U.S. origins. In the following recipe we’ve kept original ingredients, complete with the baker’s preferred brand names, but we’ve reworded the steps for clarity.

Ingredients and Preparation

Layers

1 pkg. Baker's German’s sweet chocolate (4 oz.)1/2 cup water, boiling1 cup butter 2 cups white granulated sugar4 eggs, separated1 tsp vanilla extract 2 cups flour, all-purpose1 tsp baking soda1/2 tsp salt1 cup buttermilkCoconut-pecan frosting

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line three 9-inch pans with waxed paper.

Melt chocolate in water and cool. Cream butter and sugar together and then beat in egg yolks. Stir in vanilla and chocolate.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, soda and salt. Then incorporate this mix-ture, alternately with the buttermilk, into the liquid mixture. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, and then fold these into the batter. Pour batter into cake pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly pressed in center. Cool 15 minutes; remove and cool on rack.


Filling and Topping

1 can (14 oz) of Eagle brand condensed milk (or a similar sweetened ½ cup water condensed milk)3 egg yolks1 tsp vanilla extract1/2 cup butter 1 1/3 cups pecans, chopped, reserving 10 whole pecan halves for garnish.1 3/4 cup Angel flake coconut

Heat the milk, eggs and water over a double boiler until thickened. Whisk in vanilla and butter until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in the chopped pecans and coconut.

Chocolate Frosting (Optional)

¼ cup butter, softened9 squares (50 ml) Baker's German's chocolate, melted and cooled 1 1/2 cups confectioners, powdered sugar1 tsp vanilla1 1/2 Tbsp milk

Optional: For a richer chocolate flavor, add cocoa powder or more Ger-man’s chocolate.

Mix butter and chocolate, and then stir in powdered sugar. Beat vanilla and milk until smooth.

Assembly

After leveling your layers, spread one third of the filling over each layer as you stack them. The top layer will also be covered with filling. If you’re using frosting, only the sides get frosted. Garnish with the pecan halves by placing them around the top edge. A maraschino cherry half can go next to each pecan half.


Swiss RollWho can resist a pretty pinwheel design created by rolling yummy sponge cake around delectable filling? No one, it seems, is immune to the delights of this clas-sic culinary delight. This international sensation is known as a roulade by the French, a jelly roll by the Americans and a Swiss roll by no, not the Swiss, but the British! There are as many variations as currencies. Traditional fillings include lemon curd, whipped cream, flavored whipped cream frostings, and fruit jams, purees or preserves. You can use one of the fillings you learned to make in Vol. 1. The raspberry whipped cream frosting used in our Bûche de Noël rec-ipe is a fresh choice. Save some for a pretty garnish on top.

Sponge Cake

1/3 cup sifted cake flour. 3 Tbsp cornstarch 4 large refrigerated eggs1 large egg yolk 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp white sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 450 F and place oven rack in middle of oven. Grease a 12 by 17-inch jellyroll pan, line with parchment, and then grease and flour. Set aside.

While eggs are still cold, separate two of them. Place yolks in a large mixing bowl; whites in another. Add the additional yolk (see ingredients list) and the two remaining eggs to your first two yolks. Cover this bowl and the one with the egg whites with plastic wrap. Set aside for about 30 minutes.

While your eggs are warming up to room temperature, whisk together sifted cake flour and cornstarch, then set aside.

Once your eggs are at room temperature, place the egg yolks/whole eggs into your standing mixer bowl with paddle attachment. Add 1/2 cup of granulated white sugar, and beat on high for five minutes, or until thick, pale, and fluffy. It’s ready when you slowly raise the beaters and the mixture slowly falls back into the bowl in ribbons. Now, beat in the vanilla extract. Then sift half the flour mixture over the egg yolk mixture, folding in gently with a rubber spatula, just until the flour is incorporated. Sift the remaining flour mixture into the batter and fold in.


Next, set a clean mixing bowl into your standing mixer and attach the whisk. Pour in the egg whites and beat until foamy. Then add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Sprinkle in the remaining 1 Tbsp of granulated white sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. To lighten the batter, just as we did for the Bûche de Noël, gently fold a small amount of the egg whites into the batter. Gently fold in the rest of the whites. Don’t mix--simply fold them in until they’re incorporated. Now you can pour the batter into the prepared pan. Using an offset spatula spread the batter evenly.

Bake for only 7 minutes or until golden brown. Right after you put the cake in the over, spread out a clean dishtowel and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. When the cake is done, a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean, and the cake will spring back when lightly touched.

Timing is of the essence with the next step. Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven, invert the sponge cake onto the powder sugar sprinkled dishtowel. Then, very carefully remove the parchment paper and sprinkle confectioners’ sugar lightly over the cake.

TIP: If the parchment paper sticks, lightly brush the paper with a little warm water and let it stand for a few moments. The paper should peel off easily.

Begin rolling up the sponge cake while it is hot and pliable with the towel. Allow it to cool on a wire rack before unrolling. The towel will once again be underneath it. Spread the cake with the filling of your choice. Then re-roll, without the towel, of course!

Transfer your Swiss roll to a serving platter. You can serve immediately, but your cake will be much easier to slice if you cover and chill overnight in the refrigerator.

Just before serving, dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar. You may also want to garnish with raspberry whipping cream frosting or other filling. Toasted shaved almonds can be sprinkled on top. Toast the shaved almonds in a 350 F oven until lightly brown (about 5 to 7 minutes). Enjoy!


Chapter 5 - PARTY CAKES

The best ideas for party cakes usually come from the guest of honor. Their likes, dislikes, hobbies and favorite color generally make the choice and style of cake a no-brainer. But what if you’re just starting out and don’t know where to begin? Take a look at some of our deceptively simple starters in 2-D. You’ll be inspired! Look for additional clever design ideas at the end of the chapter about hobby, sport, and baby shower or birthday cakes.

Two-Dimensional Cakes

Happy Bird-Day Cake

With the ever-growing popularity of zoo-themed children’s parties, the trend in “Happy Bird-Day” cakes is taking off. These cakes can be the star attraction at get-togethers for all ages and will be enjoyed by anyone who gets a big kick out of birds and simple puns.

There are many ways to create a memorable Happy Bird-Day Cake. The simplest is to purchase a cake mold in the

shape of a bird and use a star tip to pipe in the design or for your budding natu-ralist, choose a rain forest feathered friend, such as a toucan or an owl with big, yellow eyes that glow with yellow decorating dust.

The cake at left was made by freehand carving the shape of the cake from a 16” square pan and iced with buttercream piped with the star tip.

Another method would be to purchase or make a buttercream stencil (see Chapter 1) that depicts your bird of choice, and then fill in the outline with frosting, sprinkles, confectioners’ powdered sugar, or piping (tip 2 makes nice feathers).

Whichever method you choose, be sure to leave space on your cake for piping “Happy Bird-Day!”

Monkey CakeHere is an example of how pieces of cakes can be assembled together to make a design, in this case, a cute monkey’s face. If it helps to look at a picture while doing this, find one of the Curious George books. Typically, this cake is created


by first frosting a round cake with dark brown frosting by piping dark brown stars on the top and sides. The star tip creates a furry effect.

Then for the face, a smaller round shape is placed at the bot-tom half of the cake’s surface by piping stars in a lighter brown or tan. The mouth will go here. To add the top of the face, cre-ate a shape like the top of a heart (or two eggs shapes) that rises to the top of the cake’s surface and at the bottom meets the circle. Use your star tip and light brown or tan icing for this and all the other furry parts as well.

The ears can be ovals cut from a second layer and attached with royal icing to the sides of the cake. Then go back with a round tip and pipe the facial features, using white for the eyes, dark brown for the rises of the eyes and two dots that make the nose, and for the mouth.

The mouth can be created by piping something similar to a V shape at the bot-tom of the face, with the bottom of the V’s curving, so it looks like a big open smile or laugh. Then with pink, pipe a small tongue at the bottom of the mouth, in the shape of a very rounded heart. Add semi-circles of pink to the ears, and you’re ready to serve a whole gang of little monkeys at the next birthday party!

Racetrack Cake

This cake is a sure hit with the “Ricky Racer” in your family. And, better yet, it’s as speedy to assemble as racecars in a pit stop. Ladies and gentlemen, start your ovens…!

Ingredients

2 baked 9" round cakes3 cups white frosting1 to 2 cups finely crushed chocolate cookie crumbs1 to 2 cups green sprinkles (or about ½ cup of green frosting) White Good & Plenty candiesCheckered paper or ribbon2 toothpicks and tapeNew toy cars, washed


Preparing the Cake

Cut a small semicircular notch from one cake, so that one layer “joins” the one beside it. This is to provide the base of your figure eight track. Cover the cakes with white frosting. Now to create the track, place a bowl (about half the diameter of the cake) in the center of each cake to use as a guide. The bowls must be the same size, or use one at a time. Sprinkle the black cookie crumbs around them to create the track.

After removing your bowls, create the grass on the insides of the track (where the bowls were). You can either pipe the grass with your tip 233, or you can create a grassy effect with the green sprinkles. Press the remaining sprinkles onto the sides of the cake or frost the sides in green.

To create the lanes on the track, lay a dotted line of white Good & Plenty along the track. Then pipe a white icing border around the edge of the cake.

For the racing flags, tape small squares of checkered paper (you can make the checks with a black ink pen or marker) or ribbon to the toothpicks, and place them on the track along with the toy racecars.

VARIATION – To make your racetrack cake completely edible, make the checker flags out of fondant, and the sticks out of gum paste. Model the racecars by using new, washed toy cars for gum paste molds.

Hawaiian Beach Cake

Make a big splash at a luau or birthday party. Instead of the suggested decorations found with this recipe, you can use your gum paste and fondant skills to create your own. If you’ve found you enjoy modeling with gum paste or marzipan, decorating this cake will be a fun adven-ture. Why not get the kids involved? It’s a fun introduc-tion to cake decorating! Either way—surf’s up!

Ingredients and Accessories

1 baked half-sheet cake in the flavor of your choice (What about pineapple, orange or lemon?) 2 1/2 cups blue frosting 1/4 cup white frosting (flavored with coconut if you like) 1 cup graham cracker crumbs Candy (or gum paste) rocks


Birthday candles Plastic hula dancer figurines (or gum paste figures)Candy flower sprinkles (or use your fondant/gum paste punch with a flower design disc)Plastic palm trees (or modeled with gum paste or marzipan)Fruit Stripe gum for the surfboards (or marshmallow fondant strips) LifeSavers for inner tubes Sour tape, cut into 1-inch lengths for the beach blankets (or multi-colored fondant strips) Paper cocktail parasols Small dolphin figurines and/or gummy fish (Or model your marine mam-mals and fish with gum paste)

TIP: A quick search on the Internet for luau decorations will bring you lots of online stores that sell specialty cake decorations.

After leveling your cake, cover top and sides with a thin layer of blue frosting. Add extra blue frosting to about two thirds of your cake, creating a curving shoreline. Swirl the frosting to make the ocean and waves. With your spatula bring the frost-ing up to peaks for the waves. Pipe white caps onto the waves you want to crest.

For the sandy beach, sprinkle graham cracker crumbs on the remaining third of the cake. Create white sand by mixing in some coconut flakes or confectioners' powdered sugar to the graham cracker crumbs.

Now you’re ready to decorate! Use your imagination (and the kids’ if you have helpers). Place some palm trees in the sand and park some beach blankets un-der them. Add a few surfboards, inner tubers, surfers, dolphins and gummy fish. There’s no set rule to how you decorate. It’s your beach! If you’re making your decorations with gum paste, marzipan and/or fondant, you may want to start early, making them ahead of time.

If your cake is for someone who loves the island of Hawaii (known as the Big Is-land), the one with the live volcano and black sand beaches, here’s a fun varia-tion: Create a black sand beach with chocolate cookie crumbs.


Three-Dimensional Cakes

Big Island Volcano

If you’re looking for more ‘Wow!’ factor, try an unforgettable Erupting Volcano Cake.

Preparing the Cake and Assembly

Bake six 8-inch round cakes, preferably chocolate. Using a small, thin juice glass, cut out a hole in the top two cake layers. Level cakes and stack on a firm cake board or plate using chocolate or green frosting. Trim edges pyramid-style to create the look of a mountain.

Cover glass exterior with aluminum foil and set into the well at the top of the volcano. Remove glass and leave foil lining. Roughly cover volcano in frosting and garnish, if desired, with chocolate cookie crumbs and crumbled sponge toffee for rocks.

For sure-fire crowd-pleasing lava

In a small bowl beat one egg white with 11/2-tsp sugar and three drops red food coloring until egg white is thick and foamy. Carefully, using tongs put a few cubes or chunks of Dry Ice (consult yellow pages for a supplier near you) into the foil-lined well and add the egg mixture just before you are ready to serve.

Fill your juice glass with hot tap water as guests gather around to sing Happy Birth-day. Before the final refrain, pour an ounce or two of water into the well and watch your cake smoke and erupt edible lava to loud cheers from your amazed guests!

Doll Cake

Every girl at heart will love this stylish cake with doll’s head and bodice above a floor length cake skirt. If you want to include a gift with the cake, you might build the cake dress around a full-sized doll however, this is a little more complicated to set up. Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to have a plan for decorating your doll, especially creating her dress before you begin.

If you don’t already have a style and colors in mind for the doll’s dress, you can find lots of inspiration by looking at pictures of doll cakes on the Internet. If you want to create a character doll, like Cinderella or Scarlet O’Hara, search for these characters online and check out their dresses. Or just use your own imagination and sense of style. Either way, your doll cake will be the bell of the ball!


Preparing the Doll

Wash with soap and water, a new, Barbie™ size doll. Use plastic wrap or foil to wrap the doll from hips down, the part that will go inside the cake. Then spray the wrapping with a non-stick spray. If you dress your doll in a blouse that will match the skirt you want to create, you can leave the top of the doll icing free, a nice idea if the doll is a gift. Otherwise, you can pipe on the doll’s blouse or top of her cake dress after she has been inserted in the cake.

Preparing the Cake

Bake two 8-inch, round cake layers, and then cool on wire racks. After cakes are cooled, slice each one into three layers, so you have a total of six layers. Now heavily frost, using a thick consistency frosting, in between the layers so the cake will be as tall as your doll is from hips down.

Once your cake is frosted, wrap it in waxed paper, keeping the layers straight. Freeze overnight or until solid. Working with a frozen cake helps prevent breakage.

Assembly

Now cut a hole, with the same diameter as your doll, into the center of your frozen cake, cutting all the way to the bottom. If you find when you begin to drop the doll into the hole that she doesn’t drop down easily, do not force. Forcing the doll will result in the cake cracking later as it defrosts. Instead cut the hole bigger.

Next, shape the doll’s skirt by trimming the top of the cake. Then drop the wrapped doll into the cake. Now remove the waxed paper from the cake. Then spread frosting over the cake, creating your doll’s skirt. Once the skirt is frosted, prepare your icing bags with the tips and colors you’ve chosen and you’re ready to dress her up!

VARIATION: For an easier to assemble, but not as scrumptious doll cake, use one cake instead of layers. Bake a sponge or angel food cake in a bowl or dome pan that is the desired size of doll skirt. The shape lends it-self to a hoop skirt. Then follow the above directions for preparing, insert-ing and decorating the doll and skirt.


Golf Ball Cake

Ingredients

1/2 sheet cake2 round cakes (8-inch)Green frostingBlue frostingLight brown frosting or graham cracker crumbsWhite icing Black airbrush coloring (optional)

Here’s an eye-catching cake—perfect for a birthday or get-together-- with a big enough “Wow!” effect to coax your golfer off the green. The tricky part is making the larger than life golf ball, which is created from two round cakes mounted on a half-sheet cake.

Preparing the Cake

Begin by covering your leveled, half-sheet cake with green frosting. Leav-ing room for the large golf ball in the center, swirl some blue frosting into a small section with a curvy border. This is your water hazard. You can cre-ate a small, sand trap with brown frosting or graham cracker crumbs. Fill in the rest of the cake’s topping with nice, green grass, which you can eas-ily pipe onto the cake with a tip 233 and green frosting. Don’t forget to make or buy toothpick flags.

Making the Golf ball

It is easiest to use a ball-shaped cake pan or baking bowl for a ready-made ball shape. Otherwise, use two round cakes and a lot of frosting. Setting the sheet cake aside, place your two 8-inch round cakes on a cake board. Cement the layers together with icing. Trim the top edge of the cake with a sharp knife. Then use these pieces to create a ball shape by mounding them on top of the layer you just cut. Ice the golf ball with white icing and smooth it.

Create divots (dimples) by pressing gently with the end of a wooden spoon or by dipping the rounded edge of a large pastry tip into black airbrush col-oring, and then drawing circles on the ball. These look more realistic then if you pipe them. Place your golf ball in the center of the sheet cake.

TIP - To add a message, pipe onto a piece of clear acetate cake band and then stand band on green in front of ball.


Cake Sculpture (You Won’t Believe They’re Cake!)

Flower Pot Cake

This is actually more of a pudding than a cake, but it’s a delightful treat for a bud-ding gardener at a garden party.

Ingredients 1 new non-toxic (plastic or non-glazed clay) flower pot, about 8-12 inch di-ameter. 1 decorative garden trowel, cleanedGummy worms or icing worms Flowers (plastic or some realistic, gum paste ones) 1 16-ounce bag chocolate cookies1/2 cup butter, softened1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened1 cup confectioners' powdered sugar1 tsp vanilla4 cups chocolate-fudge pudding3 cups milk1 1/2 cups whipped cream

Preparation

Crush cookies into “potting soil.” Mix butter, cream cheese, sugar and va-nilla; cream until smooth and fluffy. Set aside. Whip the cream until light and fluffy. Fold the whipped cream into the pudding. Gently fold pudding mixture into cream cheese mixture.

Assembly

Put a third of the cookie crumbs in the bottom of the pot. Top with one half of the pudding mixture, and then follow with another third of the cookie crumbs. Add the second half of the pudding mixture. Top with the remain-ing cookie crumbs. Refrigerate 10 to 12 hours. Remove from refrigerator and decorate. Serve within 30 minutes. Use trowel to serve.


Hat Cakes

There’s a hat cake for everyone—from the sports fanatic to the little lady next door—and for every special occasion. The Madeline cake can be improvised to create all kinds of pretty hats from Fourth of July birthdays to fancy teas and luncheons.

Madeline Hat

Top off a Madeline themed birthday party for a young girl with her famous French chapeau. Or create an elegant variation for a big girls’ luncheon or tea. Oh-la-la!

Ingredients

2 lemon flavored, baked round cakes, one 8-inch and one 9-inch. 4 cups of lemon frosting 1, 3-foot roll of strawberry fruit roll ribbon or, for a more elegant hat cake, make your ribbon from fondant (marshmallow for the tastiest)

After your cakes have cooled, trim around the 8-inch layer so it's 6 inches in di-ameter, but don’t level the mound off the top of this one. Leave the 9-inch one as is, except for leveling.

Place the leveled, 9-inch layer on a 12-inch cake plate or stand, and spread some frosting in the middle. Then place the 6-inch layer on top. Frost both layers, smoothing over entire hat. For a straw-hat look, score the frosting with a fork or confectionary tool.

Now for the ribbon: If you’re using the fruit roll, wrap around like a hat band and then loosely tie in a bow at the back, letting the ends trail down to the back of the brim. With fondant (use marshmallow for good taste) or gum paste, you’ll create your ribbon and bow separately and then attach with icing.

Variations: You can create various shapes by trimming the top layer even smaller, to allow for a wider brim. You can create different styles of hats by using different color schemes and decorations. For example, you might use for an Easter hat, pink and white, or yellow and white, and then grace the brim with pretty gum paste flowers. A Fourth of July hat could be red and white, with blue bow and rib-bon or have stars piped with white frosting. Well, you get the picture. Just have fun, using your imagination and your new cake decorating skills!


Baseball Cap Cake

Ingredients

1 baked 8-inch round cake 1 dome cake (baked in a 1 1/2-quart bowl or 6-inch sphere) 3 cups frosting (blue and red) Red shoestring licorice 1 red gumdrop Red candy coated chocolates

Cut the 8-inch cake into the shape of a ball cap’s brim. Then place it up against the bowl cake. With your spatula, frost the hat blue, and frost the brim red. Place the gumdrop button, top center of the crown. Bring six licorice shoestrings from the button down the crown, evenly space. Look at pictures of ball caps for an idea of how to make this look. On the front of the cap, outline the birthday child’s initial with mini candy coated chocolates.

Sports Cake Variations

Many of the ball sports cakes can made using the basic ideas from the golf ball or the baseball cap. For example, a soccer cake can be created much like the golf ball cake with a few variations, and football helmet can start with a dome cake and chin strap.

Cakes with water sports themes can make good use of blue frosting or blue fon-dant. A swimmer can dive into a half sheet swimming pool cake, covered with blue, marshmallow fondant. Use white and red (or other color that contrasts with blue) fondant to twist ropes for the swim lanes. Create a gum paste diving board with swimmer. Even if modeling with gum paste or marzipan is difficult for you, whimsical, stick figures aren’t too hard to make, with the emphasis on whimsy. Model them around cake wire for strength.

A river rat can plunge through a rapid made of high cresting blue frosting topped with white icing for the whitewater. Rafts and oars (or kayaks and paddles) and the people can be modeled with gum paste.


Baby Shower

Since baby showers usually have themes, find out what the theme is first and create a cake to match. Whether the host is using bold or pastel colors, follow suit. You’ll find many molded cake pans fitting for showers, including teddy bears and lambs. Or you can purchase/create a buttercream stencil and fill in the outline with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar or by piping in details.

Taking a cue from the monkey cake near the beginning of this chapter, you can create a yellow, rubber ducky cake by trimming two round cakes. Trim from one layer, the rounded body that comes to a point for the tail (find a picture of a rub-ber duck online if you forget how they look). Then trim the round head and the softly tipped bill from the other layer.

Assemble these together on a platter, frost with yellow and pipe cute details. You’ve just made a cake depicting one of the most popular baby shower themes!

Baby showers lend themselves well to petit fours. Follow the how-to in Chapter Two for the poured fondant, and pipe themed decorations onto these miniature cakes. If the shower doesn’t have a theme, use your imagination; keep the de-sign sweet, soft and cheery; and let your cakes lead the way!

More Special Occasion Design Ideas

With the skills you’ve learned and a few supplies, you can create a cake for any event and any sport or hobby lover. Here are some more ideas to jumpstart your imagination:

• Character cakes (like Scooby Doo, Sponge Bob, Little Mermaid) are al-ways a hit and are easy to make with character cake pans. You can find these separately or in sets, complete with directions, using the shopping resource list in Chapter One. Dress up the cakes with your advanced decorating skills for a professional finish.

• Royal icing roses are still a classic and beautiful adornment for a daughter, mother or grandmother’s birthday cake, whether on a tiered or sheet cake.

• Make part of the cake a gift by including quality figurines in the design, such as a filly and colt for a little girl with a horse collection.


• If the birthday person is old enough that the number of candles will create more wax than there is frosting on the cake, then you might want to create the cake in the shape of the birthday numbers by trimming them each from layers, placing them next to each other, frosting and adding second layers, and then decorating. Place a candle in each so there’s something to make that wish upon, a tradition we’re never too old for!

• For the computer geek, two square cakes can be trimmed into the shapes of a laptop screen and keyboard, and then frosted and decorated accord-ingly. Display the cake’s message on the screen.

• For the rock hound, decorate a cake with rocks created from gum paste or fondant. Use various colors, or use white and then paint them, following the gum paste painting tips in Chapter Two. Decorating dust can add shine to the “polished” ones. For an edible pun, serve rocky road ice cream with your cake.

• For the camper, create a camping scene with gum paste trees, fondant or frosting lake. With royal icing and the following directions, you can add a couple campers tucked inside their sleeping bags:

To create a whimsical camper in a sleeping bag, first use a tip 403 with ic-ing the color you want the sleeping bag to be. Position your icing bag with the open side of the tip down. Pipe the length of the back of the sleeping bag back.

Then, turn your tip over and pipe the top of the sleeping bag, allowing icing to fluff up a bit. Make the top of the bag a little shorter than the bottom, leaving room for the camper’s head and pillow. After icing sets, use mois-tened fingertips to press the edges of bottom and top together at the seams.

Pipe the pillow with a tip 6, white icing. Use a tip 12 to pipe a ball shaped head, and a tip 1 for the facial features and hair. Give your camper arms with a tip 6, and hands with a tip 2. Thankfully, the rest of your camper will be snug inside the sleeping bag, leaving less work for you!

Again, buttercream stencils or self-created stencils can make creating a two-dimensional picture easy. Creating one based on a hobby could mean simply tracing the picture off a book or magazine onto stenciling paper (See Chapter One), transferring the picture of the computer, butterfly, dog, bird, microscope, stamps, or whatever is the apple of your hobbyist’s eye, etc. onto the cake and filling in with edible decorations, icing or confection-ers’ sugar.


Chapter 6 – WEDDING (Tiered) CAKES

At long last, the ultimate opportunity to test your skills and use your artistic tal-ents to their fullest! A wedding cake will call into play every cake making trick you have learned so far. Every ounce of knowledge, every bit of skill will be magnified and then placed on display for the whole world to admire!

Wedding cakes are generally made on a grand scale – large cakes with tall tiers decorated with hundreds of perfect flowers. You’ll need lots of cake, lots of icing, and LOTS of time and patience. Wedding cakes are not easily built in a day. They require advanced planning and a set working order to make sure you have enough time to complete each step. There are many decisions to be made and tasks to be completed to bring a cake off the page of a wedding magazine onto the display table at the reception hall.

The sheer size of these beauties can be very intimidating. But looks can be de-ceiving! Wedding cakes employ the same skills and techniques as smaller cakes, they just do so on a much grander scale. With a little help and guidance found in this next chapter, you’ll soon see that it’s all possible and creating your master-piece isn’t nearly as hard as it looks.

Cakes Fit for a Wedding

Not all cakes have the buoyancy and mass needed to support the weight of mul-tiple cake tiers stacked one on top of the other. The following cakes do!

Butter CakeThis is one of the classic wedding cake recipes. Butter cake has a firm, moist texture that makes it perfect for tiered designs. The almond extract is optional, but is a very traditional flavoring for a wedding cake. You could also use vanilla, rum flavoring, cognac or brandy, instead of the almond flavoring if you prefer.

1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature2 1/2 cups granulated sugar5 eggs1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract3/4 teaspoon almond flavoring (optional)3 cups all-purpose flour3/4 teaspoon baking powder1/4 teaspoon salt1 cup milk


Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour pans and line bottom with waxed paper.

In mixer bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla and almond (or other) flavor-ings. Mix in flour with baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, starting with the flour.

Pour into prepared pans. Bake until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Loosen sides and remove. Cool completely before decorating.

Makes 7 1/2 cups batter.

Carrot Cake

4 eggs1 cup vegetable oil1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract2 cups all-purpose flour2 cups sugar2 teaspoons baking soda2 teaspoons cinnamon1/4 teaspoon each nutmeg, cloves, allspice and salt4 cups (approx. 1 lb.) grated carrots2/3 cup chopped nuts1/2 cup raisins1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round pans.

In large mixing bowl, beat eggs until foamy; add oil and vanilla and beat well. Mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and salt; add to egg mixture and mix well. Fold in carrots, nuts, raisins and pineapple.

Pour into prepared pans and bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on cake rack and then invert on rack to cool completely. Goes well with a white chocolate or cream cheese icing.

Makes 5 1/2 cups batter.


Chocolate Groom's Cake

Chocolate is traditionally used for groom’s cakes, but it’s also gaining popularity among brides for the main wedding cake.

2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour1 teaspoon baking powder1 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt3/4 cup butter or margarine (room temperature)2 cups sugar3 eggs1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract1 1/2 cups milk3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 8 or 9-inch pans.

Combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Cream butter and sugar together until light in texture. Add eggs and vanilla to creamed mixture. Beat thoroughly. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Add melted chocolate and beat thoroughly.

Pour batter into pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly in center.

Makes 6 cups of batter.

Classic White Cake6 cups sifted cake flour2 tablespoons baking powder1 1/2 cups butter or margarine3 cups sugar2 cups milk1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract12 egg whites

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease bottom of pans and line with waxed paper.

Sift together flour and baking powder. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Set aside. Beat egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Set aside.


With a mixer at slow speed, add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternately with the milk. Beat well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Gently fold egg whites into batter.

Pour into prepared pans. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Makes 12 cups batter.

Traditional Fruit Wedding Cake

This recipe is just a stone’s throw away from being Christmas fruitcake. Fruit cake makes very stable tiers and will keep “until death do us part!”

1 pound candied pineapple rings1 pound each dates and figs4 cups flour1 teaspoon baking soda2 teaspoons cinnamon1 teaspoon ground cloves1 teaspoon grated nutmeg2 cups butter2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed12 eggs, separated and beaten separately1/2 cup molasses1/2 cup fruit juice, wine, rum, or brandy2 pounds seeded raisins1 pound sultana raisins1/4 pound each candied orange, lemon rind, and citron, (finely chopped)1 pound candied cherries1/2 pound almonds, blanched1/2 pound pecans, unbrokenBrandy

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease and flour pans and line with waxed paper.

Cut and quarter each pineapple ring. Remove stem end from figs and cut in half lengthwise. Stone and chop dates and then mix with 1 cup of flour.

Mix the remaining 3 cups of flour with baking soda and spices.

Cream butter, add sugar, then the well-beaten egg yolks and stir well. Add the flour mixture alternately with the molasses and fruit juice, wine, rum, or brandy. Gently fold in the beaten whites, then the dates and gradually the raisins.


Pour in a layer of batter, add a layer of pineapple down the center, fill spaces and sides lightly with citron, orange, lemon rind, cherries, and nuts; another layer of batter, then a layer of figs, the rest of the fruit and nuts, and top with remaining batter. (Or cut up all fruit and mix through batter, adding beaten whites last.) Fill pans 2/3 full.

Place pans in oven in a pan filled with 1 inch hot water. Bake 1/2 hour, cover with waxed paper, bake 2 hours longer, remove pans from water, and bake 1/2 hour more. Remove from pans. Remove paper. Wrap in cloth moistened with brandy. Store cakes in tightly covered tin box.

Makes 22 cups batter.

How much cake should you make?

There is no one recipe or baking pan large enough to serve all the people at a grand event such as a wedding. However the charts below should give you a rough idea of how many and what size cakes you need to make enough cake for all your guests to enjoy.

The charts below show baking information and serving amounts for both 2-inch pans and 3-inch high pans. The figures for 2-inch pans are based on a 2-layer or 4-inch high cake. The figures for 3-inch pans are based on a 1-layer cake, which has been torted and filled to a 3-inch height.

The serving amounts are based on wedding-sized portions which are generally cut to give a 2 x 1 1/4 inch (or 2 1/2 inch square) piece of cake. You may wish to cut slightly larger or smaller pieces, depending on whether you are using a 4-inch or 3-inch high cake.

The charts also provide metric conversions (a popular request at [email protected]!) for pan size and batter and icing amounts, as well as Fahrenheit/Celsius and gas number conversions. May you be spared many hours of research and guesswork to convert your recipes into the baking language of your choice!



The Baker’s Wedding Cake Chart 2-inch deep pans

Pan Pan Amount Baking Baking Amount ServingsShape Size Batter Temperature Time Icing per

Inches / cm Cups / ml -

L °F / °C / Gas Minutes Cups / ml -

L 2 Layers

Round 6 / 15 cm 2 / 480 ml 350 / 177 / 4 25-30 3 / 720 ml 12

8 / 20 cm 3 / 720 ml 350 / 177 / 4 30-35 4 / 1 L 24

9 / 23 cm 5 1/2 / 1.25 L 350 / 177 / 4 30-35 4 1/2 / 1.1 L 28

10 / 25 cm 6 / 1.5 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 5 / 1.2 L 38

12 / 31 cm 7 1/2 / 1.8 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 6 / 1.5 L 52

14 / 36 cm 10 / 2.4 L 325 / 170 / 3 50-55 7 1/2 / 1.8 L 72

16 / 41 cm 15 / 3.6 L 325 / 170 / 3 55-60 9 / 2.2 L 96

Square 6 / 15 cm 2 / 480 ml 350 / 177 / 4 25-30 3 1/2 / 840 ml 14

8 / 20 cm 4 / 1 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 4 1/2 / 1.1 L 25

9 / 23 cm 5 1/2/ 1.25 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 5 / 1.2 L 32

10 / 25 cm 6 / 1.5 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 6 / 1.5 L 40

12 / 31 cm 10 / 2.4 L 350 / 177 / 4 40-45 7 1/2 / 1.8 L 58

14 / 36 cm 13 1/2 / 3.3 L 325 / 170 / 3 45-50 9 1/2 / 2.3 L 78

16 / 41 cm 15 1/2 / 3.75

L 325 / 170 / 3 50-55 11 / 2.7 L 102

18 / 46 cm 18 / 4.4 L 325 / 170 / 3 55-60 13 / 3.2 L 132

Rectangle 7 x 11 / 18 x 28 5 1/2 / 1.25 L 350 / 177 / 4 30-35 5 / 1.2 L 30

9 x 13 / 23 x 33 7 / 1.7 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 6 / 1.5 L 46

11 x 15 / 28 x 39 11 / 2.7 L 325 / 170 / 3 35-40 8 / 2 L 66

12 x 18 / 31 x 46 14 / 3.4 L 325 / 170 / 3 40-45 10 / 2.4 L 86

14 x 22 / 36 x 56 16 / 3.9 L 325 / 170 / 3 45-50 12 / 2.9 L 122

Heart 6 / 15 cm 1 1/2 / 360 ml 350 / 177 / 4 25-30 3 1/2 / 840 ml 12

8 / 20 cm 3 1/2 / 840 ml 350 / 177 / 4 30-35 4 1/2 / 1.1 L 24

9 / 23 cm 4 / 1 L 350 / 177 / 4 30-35 6 / 1.5 L 28

10 / 25 cm 5 / 1.2 L 350 / 177 / 4 40-45 8 1/2 / 2.1 L 38

12 / 31 cm 8 / 2 L 325 / 170 / 3 45-50 9 / 2.2 L 56

14 / 36 cm 10 / 2.4 L 325 / 170 / 3 45-50 10 / 2.4 L 72

15 / 39 cm 11 / 2.7 L 325 / 170 / 3 45-50 11 / 2.7 L 78

16 / 41 cm 12 1/2 / 3 L 325 / 170 / 3 50-55 12 / 2.9 L 94

Petal 6 / 15 cm 1 1/2 / 360 ml 350 / 177 / 4 25-30 3 1/2 / 840 ml 6

9 / 23 cm 3 1/2 / 840 ml 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 5 / 1.2 L 12

12 / 31 cm 7 / 1.7 L 350 / 177 / 4 40-45 7 / 1.7 L 34

15 / 39 cm 12 / 2.9 L 325 / 170 / 3 50-55 10 / 2.4 L 56

Hexagon 6 / 15 cm 1 3/4 / 420 ml 350 / 177 / 4 30-35 3 / 720 ml 8

Randy Pryor

9 / 23 cm 3 1/2 / 840 ml 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 4 1/2 / 1.1 L 20

12 / 31 cm 6 / 1.5 L 350 / 177 / 4 40-45 6 / 1.5 L 32

15 / 39 cm 11 / 2.7 L 325 / 170 / 3 50-55 8 1/2 / 2.1 L 56

Oval 7 3/4 x 5 5/8 / 20 x 14 2 1/2 / 600 ml 350 / 177 / 4 25-30 3 / 720 L 10

10 3/4 x 7 7/8 / 27 x 20 5 / 1.2 L 350 / 177 / 4 30-35 4 / 1 L 22

13 1/2 x 9 7/8 / 34 x 25 8 / 2 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 5 1/2 / 1.25 L 38

16 1/2 x 12 3/8 / 42 x 31 11 / 2.7 L 325 / 170 / 3 40-45 8 / 2 L 56

The Baker’s Wedding Cake Chart 3-inch deep pans

Pan Pan Amount Baking Baking Amount Servings

Shape Size Batter Temperature Time Icing per

Inches / cm Cups / ml - L °F / °C / Gas Minutes Cups / ml -

L 2 Layers

Round 6 / 15 cm 3 / 720 ml 350 / 177 / 4 25-30 3 / 720 ml 12

8 / 20 cm 5 / 1.2 L 350 / 177 / 4 30-35 4 / 1 L 24

10 / 25 cm 8 / 2 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 5 / 1.2 L 38

12 / 31 cm 10 1/2 / 2.5 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 6 / 1.5 L 52

14 / 36 cm 15 / 3.6 L 325 / 170 / 3 50-55 7 1/2 / 1.8 L 72

16 / 41 cm 18 / 4.3 L 325 / 170 / 3 55-60 9 / 2.2 L 96

Half Round 18 / 46 cm 9 / 2.2 L 325 / 170 / 3 60-65 11 / 2.6 L 128

Contour 6 / 15 cm 3 / 720 ml 350 / 177 / 4 40-45 2 / 480 ml 8

8 / 20 cm 5 / 1.2 L 350 / 177 / 4 45-50 2 1/2 / 600 ml 12

9 / 23 cm 5 1/2 / 1.3 L 350 / 177 / 4 45-50 2 1/2 / 600 ml 16

10 / 25 cm 7 / 1.7 L 350 / 177 / 4 65-70 3 / 720 ml 20

12 / 31 cm 10 1/2 / 2.5 L 350 / 177 / 4 65-70 3 1/2 / 840 ml 32

14 / 36 cm 14 1/2 / 3.5 L 325 / 170 / 3 75-80 4 1/2 / 1.1 L 44

Square 8 / 20 cm 6 1/2 / 1.6 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 4 1/2 / 1.1 L 25

10 / 25 cm 9 / 2.2 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 6 / 1.5 L 40

12 / 31 cm 14 / 3.4 L 350 / 177 / 4 40-45 7 1/2 / 1.8 L 58

14 / 36 cm 19 / 4.6 L 325 / 170 / 3 45-50 9 1/2 / 2.3 L 78

Rectangle 9 x 13 / 23 x 33 11 1/2 / 2.8 L 350 / 177 / 4 35-40 6 / 1.5 L 46

11 x 15 / 28 x 39 16 / 3.8 L 325 / 170 / 3 35-40 8 / 2 L 66

12 x 18 / 31 x 46 20 / 4.8 L 325 / 170 / 3 40-45 10 / 2.4 L 86

14 x 22 / 36 x 56 16 / 3.9 L 325 / 170 / 3 45-50 12 / 2.9 L 122

Randy Pryor

page 64

Design Ideas

According to Ron Ben-Israel, a New York City based wedding-cake designer, inspiration can come from location, fashion, nature, and/or the menu. We’d like to add one more to this list – if the wedding has a theme, then this is also a top consideration. Following these guidelines, you can decorate a wedding cake with anything from a golden gate bridge topper to a Victorian trellis. As you begin re-ceiving requests to design wedding cakes for friends, family, and maybe clients! the most popular requests will likely include flowers, fruit, cake jewelry and/or or-naments. The following design ideas are just a few examples of how icing deco-rations and cake accessories can be used to add beauty and interest to your wedding cake.

Flowers

These are a popular cake request no matter the season –spring, summer, winter or fall, there are flowers to match! The problem is that flowers can quickly wilt in noonday heat at outdoor weddings in warm climates. Gum paste and royal icing flowers to the rescue! These tough as nails flowers will withstand the heat and keep their shape for the many hours they will be out on display. Fresh flowers can also be used provided they are set up with flower spikes.

When selecting flowers take into consideration the size of the cake. Tiny flowers can be used on a large cake, but if used on their own, they’ll be look puny and lost. Conversely, large flowers like bird or paradise will dwarf a smaller cake. Poorly proportioned cakes and decorations look awkward rather than beautiful. Also con-sider the style and formality of the wedding. Daisies are more casual than roses, while stephanotis can swing either way. Here are few examples of how flowers can be used on a wedding cake.

• Using white-on-white basket weave piping, create a pretty basket out of your cake(s) and fill the top tier with royal icing or gum paste flowers. Ar-range a few clusters of flowers here and there on the lower tiers as if a few blossoms have gracefully fallen from the basket.

• Detailed gum paste plumeria or orchids can be used to make a lei to drape around each tier for a Hawaiian wedding while providing a beautiful keepsake.

• For any tropical themed wedding, the larger tropical flowers, such as bird of paradise, can be kept in fresh-flower holders can be fixed in between tiers if you’re using cake separators.


• Adorn your wedding cake with edible flowers, being sure that the flower hasn’t been treated with pesticides. If you use the flowers with their stems and leaves, be sure these are also non toxic. Don’t allow anything toxic to come into contact with your cake. Pansies, violets, roses and nasturiums are a few of the edible flowers that are pretty on cakes. These can be used naturally or sugar frosted, using the technique you learned in “Cake Deco-rating Made Easy!” Volume 1.

• Create clusters of natural looking gum paste flowers that cascade down and around the cake from tier to tier. Or create a cascade of deep red royal icing roses.

• Using flower spikes to keep live blossoms fresh, tuck them in among gum paste or fondant lacy butterflies.

Fruit

Mother Nature provides many other attractive adornments for our cakes. Per-fectly formed unblemished fruit on a wedding cake symbolizes the couple’s love that is coming to fruition on their special day.

For a wedding cake, it’s best to use whole fruits rather than taking a chance on the juice from sliced ones staining your frosting or fondant. Or you can make your own assortment of fruit out of either marzipan or gum paste. Real or handcrafted, adding a light frosting of sugar will provide some shine and shimmer.

• Match sharp tasting fruits such as raspberries with a cake and frosting that won’t compete such as white cake with almond flavoring.

• Pick a fruit that complements the wedding’s location, the bride’s gown and/or the dinner served at the reception. For example, marzipan grapes would be a natural for a wedding with Italian food or a wedding that takes place in wine country. Apricots with their pretty green leaves, clustered around the tiers of an elegant white fondant covered cake, might be just the right touch for a summer wedding where the bride’s attendants are wearing ap-ricot colored dresses.

• Or go totally nuts and mix fruit with flowers. Gum paste strawberry flowers

nestled among real strawberries would look lovely for a late-spring or early-summer wedding.


Wedding Cake Jewelry and Ornaments

Cake Jewelry

Tiara cake toppers, silver and jeweled monograms of the bride and groom’s initials, stylized flowers made of silver and Swarovski crystal, cas-cading crystal flowers - these are just a few examples of the latest trend in cake jewelry. Cake Jewelry works best at either formal or fairytale wed-dings with Cinderella gowns.

Wedding Cake Charms

An old-fashioned type of cake jewelry that is being revived from Victorian times is the wedding cake charm. These charms are nestled between the layers of a stacked cake, allowing the attached, pretty ribbons to drape over the side of the cake. After the cake-cutting ceremony, bridal attendants pull the ribbons and charms from the cake. Each charm holds a special mean-ing: ring (next to marry), horseshoe and clover (good luck), anchor (hope or adventure), fleur-de-lys (love will flower), and thimble (old maid).

Wedding Cake Ornaments

You’ll also want to consider some of the more tried and true wedding cake ornaments. Gold and silver leaves, tulle puffs, ribbons and bows, and butterflies never seem to lose popularity. Larger ornaments are set on wide bases, so they don’t sink into the cake, while small ones can often be glued on with royal icing or held in place with flower spikes.

Toppers Last but not least, the wedding cake’s topper is a very tra-ditional part of the cake’s adornments. These have come a long way since the days of plastic grooms and brides in statue-stiff poses. Modern brides sometimes prefer an al-ternative to a topper, such as a large orchid or pretty bou-quet. Once you master your gum paste modeling skills, you can make your very own bride and groom, and add in some character!

Wonky Cakes

These are the topsy turvy whimsical cakes that are quickly gaining popularity with those looking for a more modern and fun cake. These stacked “lopsided” cakes are fun and quirky and showcase the wedding couple’s sense of humor and/or


whimsy. Here are a few design ideas for these wonderfully wacky and strangely beautiful wedding cakes:

• The decorations on the bride’s tier (base) reflect her interests and her wedding dress. Gum paste sculptures of books, feline friends and ribbons and bows might be used. Then the middle tier sports the groom’s interests, gum paste hockey sticks and pucks or gum paste cellos and music sheets. Finally, the top tier brings the couple to-gether with decorations that portray their shared interests. Bride and groom figurines can go here too, and they don’t have to be formal.

• Create a whimsical, three to six tiered, tea cake. Create the top tier, the anniversary tier, in the shape of a topsy turvy tea pot and then place the bride’s tea cup and sau-cer on her tier (base) and the groom’s on his middle tier. In the style of the wonky cake, the cups can precariously teeter on the saucers. Decorate with marshmallow fondant and gum paste keepsakes that are fashioned after things that complete the bride and groom’s tea party.

• A wonky cake can have a touch of elegance. For example, the lopsided cakes could be covered with elegant, white fondant and decorated with edible pearls, and pale, pink roses.

In Chapter 7, you will learn how to make these topsy turvy cakes!

To see some great examples of wonky cakes, check out Colette Peter’s “Cakes to Dream On,” available at www.Amazon.com.

Groom’s Cake

Recipes for the groom’s cake began appearing in American cookbooks in the early 19th century. Usually fruitcakes, these were heavier and more alcoholic than the bride's cake (we’re not surprised!) Even today, a groom’s cake is tradi-tionally a rich dark chocolate or fruit cake that contrasts nicely with a white wed-ding cake. But increasingly, the groom’s cake is simply his favorite kind of cake, which is not likely to be fruit cake!

The groom’s cake is traditionally decorated to reflect his personality or his inter-ests and hobbies. The wedding and reception are generally very focused on the bride, so this is a way to honor the groom.


http://www.Amazon.com

You may be asked to create a groom’s cake in the shape of anything from a foot-ball to a race car or piano. A look at children’s birthday cake molds and designs will often give you what you need to create a groom’s cake. The groom’s cake can be served either at the rehearsal dinner or set up in the shadow (!) of the bride’s cake and should be significantly smaller in stature not to outdo the actual wedding cake.

Cake Building Systems

Wedding cake tiers can be stacked for either a modern or Victorian look, or they can be separated with pillars for an airy gracefulness. You can find floating or satellite tiers along with conventional pillar and plate cake stands. Stacked Construction

This is how the traditional Victorian cake is made, but stacked construction has been adopted by more modern and unconventional (Wonky) cakes. With stacked construction, one cake sits right on top on another - or at least that’s the illusion you get. Cakes can’t actually sit on top of each other without added support or they would all sink into the bottom layer. A system of dowels supports each plated cake player.

To assemble a stacked cake, first figure out where your dowels are going to go by centering a plate the size of the next cake to be placed on top of the bot-tom cake. Mark the spot by pressing down gently on the plate. Insert four dowels evenly spaced within the boundaries of the plate markings. (To ensure these dowels are food-safe, they should come from a cake decorating store and not the hardware store.)

Insert the first dowel straight down through to the bottom of the cake. Mark the dowel even with the top of the cake. Pull out the dowel and cut off at the mark. Cut three more the same height. Then push the dowels into the cake in the place you marked, so they form a square inside the circle. Now place your smaller tier on a cake board and then on top of the bottom tier. The dowels will prevent the top tier from sinking into the bottom tier.


Measure the next set of dowels from the bottom of the bottom cake to the top of the top cake. You’ll want the dowel just slightly shorter. Cut it with the wire cut-ters, and then press it into the cake. It will stop when it reaches the cake board, so you’ll need to give it a firm tap with a hammer. And then you have to be very careful that the hammer doesn’t dig into your cake! To avoid this mishap, place another dowel on top of the one you’re pushing in and hammer on the top one instead, giving some space between the hammer and your cake. Finally, ice over the little blemish – and you’re construction work is done!

Click here for the “Stacked Construction” VIDEO

Classic Pillar

Classic pillar construction requires a set of pillars and plates. Use two plates that are equal in size. Begin with a full size, doweled cake on the bottom. Then snap your pillars into place between the two small plates and set this on top. Your next cake goes on top of the pillar set. Add your borders and any other decorations and you’re done!

Pillar and plate systems cannot be transported fully assembled; they will all come tumblin’ down when you first hit the brakes. The cake must be transported in pieces and assembled on site. Decorate each tier and prepare the bottom layer with dowels before transporting, and then assemble on site. Pipe your bottom borders and you’re done!

Click here for the “Classic Pillars” VIDEO

Push-in Pillar System

With this system, the pillars separate and support the tiers. You begin by flipping over the plate and pushing each pillar into place, making sure they are tightly snapped into place . After you’ve snapped in all four pillars, flip the plate back over and place it, pillars first, into your cake. The next tier goes on top of the pil-lars’ plate. There’s no need for dowels or any additional support with this type of construction.

Click here for “Push-in Pillars” VIDEO


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=tiercakeassembly

http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=classicpillarconstruction

http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=tiercakepushinpillars

Pillars & Plates System

This is another push-in pillar method. Attach pillars firmly to the plate. Make sure they are all facing the same direction and that they are on straight and right side up. Then connect the next plate on top pushing it into place.

These spiral pillars come with six plates of graduating size, but you don’t need to use all six. Just use the sizes you want. (Using all six tiers is nice way to display wedding cupcakes!) Try to get it really centered watch where your legs line up before placing. The legs are about twice as long as they’ll be after inserting in the cake. Before placing a cake on one of the plates, have a cake base or a cake cardboard under-neath it. This will protect the plates from being scratched when serving.

Click here for the “Pillars & Plates” VIDEO

Combination Stacked and Tier

The combination stacked and tier system allows you to stack the two bottom cakes, and then add the pillars and separator, before adding the top tier. This makes it easy to set the top, traditionally the anniversary tier, aside and cut your pieces from the bottom cakes.

Transporting Tiered Cakes

Tiered cakes should be transported in sections rather than trying to balance the assembled cake and move it all in one piece. Place each tier in a separate card-board box and place on a flat surface in the vehicle. Any loose decorations should be packaged separately and placed on the cake once it is reassembled on location.

Remember to bring along a decorating bag full of icing to make any last minute repairs!

Storing & Preserving Tiered Cakes

A likely reason you will need to store the tiers of your wedding cake is that it gen-erally takes a few days to create a wedding cake. There are often several tiers to be baked, iced and decorated and all the work just doesn’t fit into one day. You’ll likely spend the better part of a week to complete your cake. While you’re work-ing on one tier, the others will need to be properly stored or you’ll end up with dry cake and soggy decorations. Here are a few tips to make sure your cake makes it to the table in grand style.


http://cliksecrets.com/videos/?vid=assemblingcakes

Cautionary Tips

• Sunlight will alter your icing’s color, so keep your tiers stored in a covered box, away from direct sunlight.

• Humidity can easily soften royal icing and gum paste decorations. If you have high humidity where you live, be sure to prepare your royal icing us-ing only pure cane confectioners' sugar (not beet sugar or dextrose), add less liquid and add 1 additional teaspoon of meringue powder.

• Heat can wilt decorations and melt icing, so do keep your decorated cake as cool as possible. Also, stabilize buttercream icing by adding 2 tea-spoons meringue powder to the recipe. Protect your cake with a clean, covered cake box instead of wrapping with foil or plastic wrap. These wraps can easily stick to the icing, as well as crush delicate decorations.

• If storing for more than three days, let the icing be the deciding factor in whether you will store your tiers in the at a cool, room temperature, refrig-erator, or in the freezer. If you freeze, remember that royal icing decora-tions are best placed on the tiers after thawing, so that colored decorations don’t bleed or soften from condensation.

Icing Storage Requirements

Cakes iced with Buttercream can be stored at room temperature for two to three days. Buttercream flowers will remain soft enough to be cut with a knife.

Fondant covered cakes should not be refrigerated or frozen. The tiers can be stored at room temperature for three to four days. See Chapter 2 for tips on sav-ing a fondant tier that has been refrigerated.

Gum Paste decorations shoud not be refrigerated. The moisture will cause them to droop. They will last at room temperature for months. If your tiers must be re-frigerated due to perishable fillings, then add the decorations last, after you have all your tiers ready.

Royal icing, once dried, will last indefinitely if not stored in a way that allows for condensation. These decorations shouldn’t be refrigerated.


So, basically, if you are using a filling that requires refrigeration, it’s best to leave all of the above icings/decorations off, with the exception of the buttercream, until shortly before serving. Create your royal icing, gum paste and fondant decora-tions ahead of time, so you’re ready to go, but store them at room temperature.

When we’re talking about preserving a wedding cake tier, we usually mean that top tier for the first anniversary. If you’re creating a wedding cake, it’s a nice touch to hand your customer these tips for ensuring this top tier is as fresh and delicious on their first anniversary as it is on their wedding day:

1. Remove any ornaments or large breakable decorations.

2. Replace an unwrapped cake board with one wrapped in foil to prevent a cardboard taste. A plastic separator plate is fine for freezing.

3. Freeze the cake for 20 minutes to firm up the icing, so it won’t stick to the plastic wrap you will be using.

4. Once it’s frozen, completely cover the cake with plastic wrap. Be sure it’s airtight! Then wrap the plastic wrap covered cake with at least two layers of heavy duty aluminum foil. The more protection, the less chance of a freezer taste or freezer burn. For extra protection, you can place the cake in a storage container.

5. The day before your first anniversary, begin defrosting the cake in your re-frigerator. Once it has defrosted for about two hours, remove all of the wrappings and continue to defrost.

6. Let the cake rest at room temperature, then serve. Happy anniversary!


Chapter 7 – CAKE DIVA DESIGN IDEAS

You’ve come to the final chapter, so it’s time for graduate school! This is where you draw on the skills you’ve learned in Volumes One and Two, and apply them to some post-graduate work. Many of these exciting projects, such as the topsy-turvy Leaning Tower of Pisa cake, incorporate other forms of art, namely air-brushing, painting and embroidery. Once you’ve accomplished your master’s work, crank up your creativity and have some fun!

Airbrushed Cakes

One of the quickest ways you can add color, a pic-ture or an entire scene to a cake, is to airbrush it. Whether or not you can paint freehand, you can learn to airbrush.

If you are being paid to decorate cakes, the time it takes to learn this technique and the money invested in a quality cake decorator’s airbrush (from about $75 to $250) will be easily recouped.

As with any of the other techniques you’ve learned, the old adage “practice makes perfect,” certainly applies. Here are some airbrushing tips to give you a better understanding of what the process involves, and to help you get started if you decide to try this time saving technique.

• Before you practice on iced cakes, use a children’s coloring book to prac-tice airbrushing within the lines.

• Practice free hand airbrushing on paper towels.

• When you want a narrow, straight line hold the airbrush at a 90° angle and close to the surface, but not so close it blows holes in the icing--this is where patience comes in to play!

• For softer lines, hold the airbrush at a 45° angle and further away.

• To create a soft, background effect, hold the airbrush at a 45° angle about 6 to 8 inches from the surface. Then gently move your hand back and forth while spraying color.


• Begin practicing on cakes with easy designs, such as a whimsical floral pattern. Airbrush the petals of several flowers, and then outline them with piped icing.

• After practicing airbrushing various types of pictures and designs, graduate to airbrushing entire scenes. For example: Airbrush a mountain lake back-drop complete with fir trees and snow capped peaks. Create a Painted De-sert scene complete with cacti and cowboys, or an ocean panorama with beach and sailboats. You can glean lots of ideas from works of art, maga-zines and stencils.

• Make use of stencils. Many of the professionals do so because they pro-duce clean looking designs and prevent over-spray. You can purchase stencils or make your own with paper, cardboard or plastic. Cookie cutters can also be used for stenciling.

• Use artist’s tools, such as palette knife or brush, along with piping gel, to highlight, shade and finish details. For example:

Add sparkle to features, such as water, with piping gel.

Airbrush luster dust or super pearl dust for eye-catching detail. Add it to a 2 ounce plastic bottle and fill with vodka. Shake well each time before filling your airbrushes well with it, and turn the air pressure up if needed.

You can use an artist-quality camel hair brush for things like creating faraway trees or grass, and you can use your icing bag to pipe closer up objects.

The Right Stuff

If you decide to try airbrushing, be sure you purchase an airbrush that is suitable for cake decorating. There are a lot of different kinds of airbrushes out there – for make-up, T-shirts, you name it. Also when choosing an airbrush, keep in mind that a single action airbrush is probably the most often used in bakeries. It sprays color as soon as you press the trigger, and it allows you to adjust the amount of color and the span of the spray.

No matter which airbrush you may buy, remember to always keep your airbrush scrupulously clean to prevent clogging and spitting. Follow the manufacturer's directions on how to properly clean it. To prevent damage to the airbrush, pur-chase only edible food coloring specially formulated for an airbrush.


Piping & Brush Embroidery The gentle brushstrokes that are used with this technique create a soft and roman-tic look on fondant covered cakes, making it very popular with weddings. Inspired by linen embroidery, brush embroidery is usually done on the smooth surface of fondant. The name ‘brush embroidery’ comes from the embroidered look given by brushing piped icing with a soft-bristled cake decorator’s or artist’s brush to create tiny lines of icing that fill a design. Tip 2 is a good choice for brush embroidery out-lines. Buttercream icing works well with this technique. Royal icing can also be used, but—remember--it dries more quickly! A flat, size 3, cake-decorating brush is a popular choice. Or, for a lacy look, square-tipped brushes are best.

Brush embroidered flowers can add a lovely, refined look or a whimsical touch to any cake. For example, to create an apple blossom you would use round tip 2 for the outline. Then apply the brush embroidery by brushing the icing inwards in straight lines from the outline. The brush strokes of icing thin as you move in-wards, so the center should be free of icing. Finally, you would use tip 2 for add-ing two dot centers to your blossom. Using royal icing and tip 2, you could pipe string stems, and then use a tip 1 bead tip for flower buds.

The basic technique:

1. Plan your design first. This could be a rose with leaves (you can draw the stem freehand), apple blossoms or whatever strikes your fancy.

2. Then imprint this onto your cake, or pipe it freehand on the covered fon-dant. It is easier for beginners to use gum paste cutters to create shapes. But you can use other objects, including real leaves (non toxic, pesticide free, of course) or stencils.

3. Outline the design, such as the flower, one area at a time, with thin consis-tency buttercream icing.

4. Before the outlines have a chance to dry, brush out lines of icing towards the center of each object or flower. Use a size 3 brush and short, quick strokes as if you were sketching.

When brushing your icing:

Use a dampened decorator brush.

Clean your brush regularly as you go along. After rinsing the brush, squeeze excess water out. The brush should be damp; you don’t want a puddle in your flower.

5. Wait until the brushwork is completely dry before piping in details such as stamens or veins in the leaves.


Victorian Brush Embroidery

This is a variation based on the more colorful look of Victorians linen embroidery. Before this, embroidery was traditionally done with pastel shades on creamy linen. This type of brush embroidery calls for a slightly raised design, and a light powdering with decorating dust. The Victorian method can be accomplished with a little extra fondant (or chocolate clay) and a steady hand.

1. Imprint your pattern onto your cake.

2. Brush embroidery, as described above.

3. Wait for the brushed embroidery to dry.

4. Attach a thin piece of rolled fondant to each section that you want raised, brush embroidering each piece as you go along.

5. Continue adding and brushing embroidering layers until you’ve achieve the effect you want.

Fondant Inlay & Cut Outs Using tools and techniques introduced in Chapter Two, beginners can easily cre-ate simple elegant cakes. However, with these new skills combined with the inlay method, novice decorators can create elaborate tiered masterpieces.

Working with cut outs and inlay is fairly simple if you are placing the decorations pretty randomly on your cake, such as on a cake with hearts or flowers strewn across the sides and top. But with some planning, and careful measuring and marking, you can create beautiful designs with stripes, dots, floral patterns, lace and more with inlayed cutouts.

For the multi-tiered cake, you’ll want to cover and decorate your tiers before doweling and stacking. Each tier can have a different pattern, or they can all match seamlessly.

Cut out shapes from your fondant-covered cake, then replace the pieces with your favorite colors, attaching with a damp brush.

For a more intricate design, first create fondant fill-ins. To do this as mentioned in Chapter Two, use a smaller cutout to remove the center of your fondant decora-tion and fill in with a different color.

For example, to create a gorgeous tiered wedding cake decorated with fondant in-lay, you’d begin by first preparing your layers for fondant (Chapter Two). Then us-ing either the rolled or marshmallow fondant recipes from that chapter, along with the techniques covered there, cover your cakes with the fondant and smooth out.


TIP: For a flawless presentation, take a tip from savvy bakers and be sure that your surface, rolling pin, and hands are clean and lint-free. Ensure that nothing will mar the perfect smoothness of the fondant by taking off any jewelry that could mar it, tying back long hair, and trimming long nails. And, remember that once your fondant is rolled you have about five minutes to cover your cake with it before it begins to harden.

Topsy-Turvy CakesWhimsical cakes have become increasingly popular since cake-decorating diva, Collette Peters, made one in 1985 for John Loring’s book, “Tiffany Taste.” Peters said in a recent interview on CBS’ The Early Show, that when she came up with this idea, she hadn’t recalled seeing a cake made crooked on purpose but thought it would be playful and ironic. Since then topsy-turvy cakes, sometimes called wonky cakes, no longer jolt party and wedding guests as much as they did three decades ago, but they still bring whimsy, fun and an element of surprise. And, they’re still uncommon enough to bring a gasp or two with the proverbial question, “How did you do that?”

How do you accomplish a teetering effect without having the cake topple over? It’s all about wedges, staking and hidden support! Read on…

While smaller versions of these cakes can be created in a one-piece cake pan, if you’re feeling adventurous and are at the intermediate or advanced level in deco-rating, why not learn how to create your own topsy-turvy design? There is a cake pan on the market that will produce a 10-inch high cake dubbed the Whimsical cake. It appears to have three layers all slightly askew. You may want to create a towering, tiered confection, to have one or more layer more than slightly askew as in the mold, or to use more than one shape of cake, and so on. So to help you get started, here are the basics:

• Keep in mind that there’s no set pattern for these cakes. They are created in many different configurations, sizes and colors and for a wide variety of occasions, from an elegant wedding to a Mad Hatter birthday party.

• How do we keep the teetering tiers from falling? Lots of support! Insert sharpened dowels into the tiers as you’re stacking them.

• Have a plan! Create a design, sketch, and think it over carefully.

• How about those lopsided layers? Often this is an illusion created by in-serting Styrofoam™ wedges strategically between the layers. You can pur-chase these at a cake-decorating store.

• And other times, those layers really are lopsided. To create crooked layers with using wedges, cut an edge of cake off the bottom and/or top layers.


• And sometimes, the layers look perfectly formed and are perfectly formed; however they are placed in a teetering manner, like a precariously stacked tower of gift boxes. This is also achieved using the wedges.

• Whichever method you choose, wedges or trimming your layers, stack your layers just as you would if your were building a perfectly normal, stacked tier cake (See how-to in Chapter Six), adding dowels to each tier (as detailed in Chapter Six).

• After your tiers are all stacked and doweled, place one very long, sharp-ened dowel through the entire cake and into the base.

• If possible, as with any tiered cake, its best to stack the tiers on site so there’s no danger of a mishap during transport. And, as always, but more so with a topsy-turvy cake, save the placement of top ornaments for on site construction.

Here are a few more design ideas for topsy-turvy cakes:

• Beauty and the Beast (the enchanted tea pot, candlesticks, and so forth),

• Leaning Tower of Pisa (lavishly decorated of course with marzipan grapes and other Italian treats)

• Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, or another Dr. Seuss tribute.

• Victorian tea party (tipping tea pots are brilliant toppers for these cakes)

• Hat Boxes (the upper layer can be the lid, the one underneath it the box, and using a wedge in between have the brim of a hat peeking out. Each hatbox could have fondant ribbons or strings, and the hat could be deco-rated with beautiful life-like gum paste flowers. And, so on…

Let your imagination soar, but be sure to carefully plan each step, and you’ll soon be getting all kinds of requests for your fabulous one-of-a kind cakes! Cheers!

And so ends your journey through the Wonderful World of Cake! We hope you have been both enlightened and inspired to go out and try a technique, or to advance and improve upon the skills you already possess. We have tried to answer many of the more frequently asked cake making questions, but we’re sure that we haven’t answered them all! If you get to this last page and still have a question you would like answered, just click off an email to: [email protected] and we’ll do our best to send some help!"



cake2decmeasy

Documents

Transcript of cake2decmeasy