Hello Stripes!

I was trying to figure out how to make a Hello Kitty for a grown daughter and not make it too child like.  Not really sure if I accomplished that or not, but this is the result.  I had no fondant, but did have gumpaste and chocolate.

While I was scouring the internet for some ideas, I came across this striping effect for the cake.  Thought I would try it out and I loved it!!!

Here I used a vanilla cake recipe and tinted it pink and a chocolate cake recipe.  My batter was very thick, so I would suggest using something a little more thin.

I used a 1/2 cup measuring cup for this one, but if you want the stripes to be even closer and have a thinner batter, use about 3 tablespoons for each color.  If you are making more than one pan, make sure you do them at the same time so the batter will come out more evenly.

Keep alternating the two different batters until you have the pan half full.

Since this was so thick, I did had to tap it down after each addition.

Here it is just out of the oven.  Well after I took the cake out, it sank!!  I used an eggless recipe and I always have trouble with them!  Sorry, but you still get the idea for the cake.  ;0)

Here is the inside!  Oh man that is a lot of cookies and cream filling!!  lol!!  The effect is totally different then just marbling the batter.  It would be so fun to experiment with different colors and flavors!!

I then iced the cake with buttercream icing.  I let the icing set up for a couple of hours before hand painting stripes using luster dust and alcohol.

Then I had to try out some disco dust for the first time!  Oooo it's so fun, but messy!  Can't wait to use it again!

I have a candy mold that I used for the gem border.  I didn't like the pink color of this chocolate, so I used some magenta petal dust mixed with alcohol and then sprinkled pink disco dust on them.

Each gem was painted and dusted singly. 

I added the gems around the top and bottom border.  I thought it kink of looked more like a drum.  Oh well!  

I also made the Kitty and the "K" out of gumpaste.  The "K" was also sprinkled with disco dust before adding it to the cake.  Small pink isomalt gems were sprinkled on the top.  This was a fun cake to experiment with and the birthday girl and her daughter loved it.

Tutorial by Rhonda Christensen

2011

All Rights Reserved

This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

Easy Buttercream Border by Jennifer Dontz

This week I decided to show you the "Jen" border. I do this border on most of my sheet cakes, as it's kind of become my signature.

I love it because it is easy to do and makes the cake look larger and gives it such a nice finish. It also hides most of the foil.

Step 1. Using a rose tip.... this one is #104, hold your bag/tip at a slight angle (see pic). The fat end of the rose tip should be closest to the cake.

Starting at the cake and moving outward, make one side of a swag, then move back towards the cake, completing a swag. Just do this all the way around your cake.

 I love using this easy border....

Check out Jen's Website- Sugar Delites

 

 

Tutorial and Photography by Jennifer Dontz

Copyright 2010- All rights reserved

This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

Pretty Piped Pansies

This week's tutorial is on making a piped pansy. 
These are really easy to make and will surely enhance those spring/summer cakes.

1.  Add a square of wax or freezer paper to a flower nail using a dab of icing.  Using a rose tip #104 and holding the tip quite flat,
fat side of the tip inward, pipe two small petals. 
Starting and ending each petal at the same point.

2.  Overpipe two more petals on top of those
making them slightly smaller in size.

3.  Add three more petals to the bottom. 
(Sorry for the holes in my icing...
it was sitting in a bag for awhile and I was in a hurry :-) 
 I normally pipe all of these out of royal icing only. 
 I let them dry before placing but for this demo, I used some buttercream. 

I ADORE the Chefmaster meringue powder. 
 Believe me, if you have never tried this brand, it's the BOMB! 
 It mixes up to a slightly stiffened buttercream consistency,
doesn't melt back down and rebeats wonderfully. 

 I've tried MANY brands and this is the very best around in my opinion.
Chefmaster Meringue Powder

 You add enough sugar until it JUST loses it's shine in the mixer bowl. 
Good stuff :-)  Tastes GREAT, too!

4.  Taking straight Americolor and a teeny tiny brush,
paint a few lines on them. 
You also could dust some petal dust on if you want. 
The Americolor will dry. 

Then, taking a small writing tip,
make the little circle center in the middle of each flower. 

Aren't they cute?

Here's a whole tray of different color combinations:

Here's some shots of a cake with them on: 
 (Those are frill cutters on the edge)

Tutorial and Photography by Jennifer Dontz
2010 All Rights Reserved
This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

How to Make Tylose Gumpaste

Here is one of my tutorials on how to make Tylose Gumpaste. There

are many recipes for gumpaste out there, and some that you can buy. But

tylose gumpaste works so great, even when I use other gumpastes I

find myself combining this gumpaste to make the other gumpastes

work better. Hope you guys enjoy! Thanks for watching.***



Edna :)



Recipe Link to Edna's Blog ( Design Me A Cake )

Tylose Gumpaste Recipe

(***PLEASE NOTE: This video clip is linked the YouTube site.
We are not responsible for the material posted on YouTube by other users.
Clicking on random thumbnails at the bottom of the tutorial may link you to offensive material
that does not reflect the standards of our blog.)

How to Use Frill Cutters By Jennifer Dontz

This week's tutorial is on frill cutters. 

These are such versatile cutters...the sky really is the limit with what you can do with them.  There are so many combinations of layering and using cutouts, that can give you so many beautiful looks.  I do show some these techniques on my


FUN WITH FONDANT FRILLS DVD

How to use frill cutters:

Step 1:  (Sorry about the not so clear picture above). 

I roll my paste through the pasta roller.  If you don't have a pasta roller, I highly recommend getting one.  They make sugar art so much easier.  I especially love the attachment that goes on my Kitchen Aid mixer.  

I love using the multi-ribbon cutter when I use these cutters.  This little wonder will adjust easily to make a number of different width bands.  Then you have a quick, straight line to work from when placing your cutters.  Roll the tool along your paste to make the desired band width. 

I also use this tool to make all my side ribbons for cakes, works great!  
Here's a link to this tool:
MULTI-RIBBON CUTTER

Step 2:  Take your frill cutter and match a straight edge of it against the straight edge of your paste.  Be sure to dust the bottom of the paste and I usually lightly dust the top as well. 

 Just go along the whole length of the paste, after cutting one of the cutters, just match up the end and continue going down the paste.  Now you can either disgard the bottom part or choose to use it to layer one design on top of the other. 

( See the BloomNet picture below, that has some nice examples of layering.)

Step 3:  Paste is all cut.  Now you can apply to your cake like this, or if you choose, you can make some little cutouts in it.  You can get so many different looks to these simply by applying them in layers and using different things to make cutouts. 

 See below the drastic difference in the same piece when you make some cutouts in it.

Step 4:  I used some round tips to cutout holes and the PME eyelet cutters worked great for the pretty little teardrop shape.  

 Here's a link to that set: 
PME EYELET CUTTERS 

Here's a pretty spring cake I applied those frill cutter strips to.  The birds are hand modeled and the pansies are piped. 
 They really are easy to pipe and so pretty on a cake. 

Thinking spring .....  :-)

 

Aren't these little mini cakes pretty? 

All done with frill cutters. 

We carry three sets on our site....here are some links to them. 
They run $7.00 per set. 

The above cakes were created by me for the BloomNet Floral book.  It was such an honor to be a part of that!

Click to order:
FRILL CUTTERS SET 1

 FRILL CUTTERS SET 2 
FRILL CUTTERS SET 3




This tutorial was written by Jennifer Dontz. All Rights Reserved 2010
This material may not be reproduced without permission from the author.

Pleated Fondant Technique by Shirley Wilson

 
 

Here is a quick Step by step on doing the stencilled rolled fondant.

I actually used a mixture of fondant and gumpaste, abut 70% fondant, to 30% gumpaste.

Knead the 2 pastes together until smooth and pliable. I rolled by hand, but you could use a Pasta machine as well. Roll medium thin, a bit thicker than for roses.

 Cut paste into the size you want to work with, I made panels about 4 1/8" tall by 7" long, fold back a tiny hem on the left and right sides of the panel. Measure the height of your cake for accuracy, mine was 4" tall.

Lay your stencil on top and position where you want the flowers to go, taking into consideration that the top pleats will be covered slightly by hollow gumpaste tubes on the top of cake.

 I used soft bristle artist brushes for the stenciling, colored dusting powders in Pink and Apple Green. Try and keep the top of the paste covered with saran wrap as you are stencilling one flower, then move the saran as you go along to keep the paste from drying out before you are ready to pleat it.

After you have brushed color on all the cutout areas of the stencil, lift the stencil carefully off the paste.

I used Wiltons Doweling to make the pleats.

You will arrange them alternately one on top of the paste, the next on the underside of the paste, begin from the left and continue until you have reached the right side. I positioned them about 1/2" or so apart.

When you have lined up all of the doweling to fit the piece of paste, carefully begin to move the dowels in to pinch the paste into pleats or gathers, by holding the doweling from the top and bottom with both hands on the outside pieces, begin to move the doweling in from both sides of the piece towards the center until they form the pleats.

 Carefully lift off the top dowels, and slide the bottom dowels out from the bottom. Lift the piece carefully with both hands at the top sides, attach to the iced cake. Each time you add a new panel, overlap slightly so the pleats will be even. Adjust as needed to straighten the piece. I only pressed the fresh paste against the side of the cake, the buttercream holds so you won't need to add gum glue.

When all of the panels are in place you will then make the hollow tubes for the top. If you have measured the panel too tall as in photo #7 and it stands up too high on the top edge of the cake you will have to trim evenly with a pair of scissors. The hollow tubes are just a narrow piece of rolled, stenciled paste.

Roll out paste, measure to about 1" tall by 3" long. Stencil with color and lay the finished piece on top of a dowel stick, carefully form it around to make a hollow tube, slide the dowel out.

Bend the tube gently to give it a slight curve. Brush the underside with a bit of gum glue and attach to the top of the pleated panel. Leave a small space between the first tube and the next, roll a small piece of paste into a pearl shape, attach to each end of the tube with a bit of gum glue, then add the next tube, pearl, etc. until the top is covered. It took approximately 7 pleated panels to go around this 10" cake.

 It will depend on how loose or tight you make the pleats, and how long you cut your flat panels of paste. It is easier to work with panels about 7" long, longer than that and they will be difficult to lift and place on the sides of the cake without tearing.
 

Fondant/Gumpaste rectangle panel.
 

Lay stencil on top and brush cut areas with powdered dusting color. Carefully lift the stencil off paste. 

Completed panel 

 
Position dowels on top, then bottom of paste, alternate to end of panel. Space about 1/2" apart. 

Move dowels towards each other from each side of panel to pinch into pleats. 

Pleated panel of paste. Lift carefully and attach to sides of iced cake.

 

Each panel overlaps the previous one slightly. 

Hollow paste tube on dowel stick. 

Carefully slide the dowel out, leaving a hollow tube. Brush a bit of gum glue on underside, curve slightly and attach to top of pleated panel. 

Leave a slight space between each tube, make a small ball of paste in the shape of a pearl, and attach one between each tube. 

Finished cake with gumpaste roses.  

Photography and Tutorial by Shirley Wilson-Copyright -2004 All Rights Reserved.

This tutorial was used with the permission of Shirley Wilson and may not be

copied without the expressed permission of the author.

Southern Magnolias- Sharon Zambito's Method

Hello Sugar Friends!

Ah, summertime in the deep south. Warm sun, cool breezes, the magnolias are in bloom....

Wait. Who am I kidding? It's hot as friggin' Hades down here. There sure ain't no cool breezes, and there ain't no magnolias right now either. I don't even know when they bloom. It just sounded like a good opening. :)

Anyway, I did this little wedding cake a few weeks ago. Ivory buttercream with white buttercream stenciling and gumpaste magnolias.

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I used this Designer Stencil for the cake sides. Notice that I taped a piece of card stock to the bottom of the stencil to boost it up to the exact height I needed it to be. That way I did not have to try to hold it in place freehand while stenciling, and run the risk of the stencil moving while I worked.

Showing 2 sides. Perty huh?

This photo was taken with a flash at the venue, so it it is not so flattering, but I wanted you to see the full effect of the stencils. The 8mm bead maker was used for the pearl borders.

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I had not made magnolias before, so I bought Nic Lodge's video on it. His videos are very good, step by step instruction on flowers, and a great value. I did not follow his instructions exactly, as I wanted my flower to be a bit more frilly than his was.

I taped three 18 gauge wires together with floral tape for the stem. I made a large cone of gumpaste and cut V's into it with a tiny scissors. I folded back the tips a bit with my finger.

These are wired petals so I rolled out my paste onto the Cel Board.

Turn the paste over so the center vein is up, and cut out the petal.

Thread a 24 gauge wire into the vein.

Thin the edges with a ball tool.

Dry them over large soup spoons for shape.

After they are all dry, dust everything for color, assemble and steam.

Who cares if the magnolias are in bloom when you can make your own?

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Happy caking everyone!

Sharon

SugarEdProductions

 

Tutorial and Photography By Sharon Zambito. All Rights Reserved. 2009

 

This tutorial was used with the expressed permission of Sharon Zambito.

It may not be reproduce in any form without the written permission from the author.