Whimsical Elves Decorating the Christmas Tree

Tree

Click HERE  for the Christmas Tree tutorial

Make one Christmas tree

Ladder

Supplies Needed:

White Gumpaste

Fondant Roller and Board

3/4" rectangle cutter

PME Wheel Cutter or Pizza Cutter

Directions:

Roll out white gumpaste to ¼” thickness. Cut into a 6” by 1” rectangle. Using a ¾” rectanglar gumpaste cutter, cut out evenly to make rungs in the ladder. Set aside to dry completely.

If completely dried, the gumpaste should be strong enough to hold one elf. If you haven't enough time for the ladder to completely cure, then cover two bamboo skewers with fondant and gumglue over the two sides, then add a scalloped trim to the outside of the ladder.

Elves

Supplies needed:

Gumpaste colored  red or green, also black, white, flesh, light brown, blue

Fondant Roller/board

3 Silver or gold dragees

Gum glue

Scissors, #4, #5, #10 tips,

Toothpicks

Ball tool

¾” circle cutter

White Amerigel Color

Pink Edible Marker

Directions:

Make body using a large marble sized red/green gumpaste and shape into a small

Rectangle. Cut through the center bottom and diagonally as shown in diagram.

Gently roll out cut edges to create arms and legs. Using black gumpaste, make belt around waist. Create mittens by rolling small ovals, using scissors to snip thumb. With ball tool, hollow the end of sleeve slightly and gumglue mittens to end of arms. Roll two small sausages. Bend to make bottom of boot, the use ball tool to hollow pant cuff  and attach the boots to the legs with gumglue.

Roll out white gumpaste.

Cut a round belt buckle using #10 tip. Attach to belt and place dragee over buckle. Using ¾” circle cutter, cut a fur collar. Texture fur using toothpick and place over top of body at neckline.

 Arrange arms and legs into desired positions.

Push a toothpick vertically through body and set on Styrofoam to dry.

Roll a small marble size ball of flesh colored gumpaste.

Using the small ball tool, push in 3 holes for nose and eyes.

 Make a tiny ball for nose and attach with gumglue.

Cut two blue eyes using #5 tip. Flatten with ball tool. Cut two black eye pupils using #4 tip. Flatten and attach to blue. Place the two eyes into sockets.

Dip toothpick into white color. Touch to add glint in eyes. Make indention for mouth and color with pink edible marker.

Cut a round White circle, using large end of tip. Texture to create fur trim; round with ball tool and attach to top of head. Make a cone using red marble sized gumpaste and attach over white fur. Make a tiny white ball for the tip of hat.

Roll out light brown and cut with ¾” circle cutters overlapping to create letter “C”. Texture using toothpick. Moisten slightly with gumglue, attaching to face to create beard.

Make two teardrop shaped flesh colored ears and attach to head, pressing with small ball tool.

Place head on body using gumglue.

 Make two more elves.

 Place ladder diagonally next to tree, and attach elves to tree and board as if decorating the tree.
These little guys are fun and easy to make and would be a great project for you to do with your kids!
Happy Holidays!



Tutorial and photography by Jacque Benson

All Rights Reserved

2009

This material may not be reproduced without permission from the author.

Conquering the Dragon!

One of my favorite tasks is to make birthday cakes for my great-nephews.

At our family Christmas gathering, my 6 year (soon to be 7 year old.) nephew, Ryan, approached me.

"I know what I want for my birthday cake" he said shyly.

"Oh yeah? What would you like?" I asked innocently.

" A Bakugan" he gushed excitedly.

" A What?!" I asked

With the look of unbridled excitement, he gushed again." A Bakugan!!"

He was met with a rather blank stare.

"Okay. Can you say that slowly? I am not quite understanding what you are saying."

Realizing that he was either dealing with a person who was hard of hearing or somewhat dense, he repeated it again ...veeerrrrryyyy slooooooowly.

" A---Bak---U---Gan."

Again a blank stare.

"Hmmm. I have no idea what that is." I said.

He ran across the room, picked up a strange tiny ball and began to prattle excitedly  about 

fire breathing dragons

and other things that made my brain explode into a thousand shattered pieces.

It was at that time that his mother came to the rescue.  "It is just a ball, Aunt Jacque," she said dryly , " just a simple ball cake."

I looked at Ryan. He looked a bit disappointed. "Yeah. Just a ball cake." he agreed dejectedly and quietly walked away.

I could tell by his reaction that this must be no simple ball cake and decided I had better learn more about this Bakugan phenomena!  Realizing in short order that this was NO ordinary ball, I had to come up with a rather awesome Vestroia Hyper-Pyrus Dragonoid!!

I have to confess it was a battle to the end with the dragon! But the final result was a birthday party of little boys huddled around the cake with whispered exclaims of awe. Between you and me...that made it well worth the struggle!

Here is the process I used; and  hope it can save you a few scars in battling your own sugar dragon.

1. Cut one  9" wire, one 7" wire and two 4" wires. Wrap each wire with floral tape, the twist  wires together, as shown below using the 9" as the body, the 7" as the legs and the two 4" wires for the wings and arms. Place a 5" bamboo skewer in the center and re-wrap wires again with floral tape, securing skewer and twisted wires in place. ( This is very important. It keeps the structure from bending until completely dried)

2.Moisten body with gumglue and cover body with white gumpaste.

Set aside to dry.

3. Roll out red gumpaste very thinly and cut out wings using the pattern above..

Lay over an empty wax paper roll ( or flower former ) to give curve to the wings.

4.When body is dry, using golden brown gumpaste, cover the  underbody of the dragon from the tail to the head.  Cover the  upper legs and all of the arms.

5.Cut strips of white and overlay in a honeycomb pattern over the golden brown under body.

6.Then make white spikes and place on top of the upper body, securing with gumglue.

7. Form legs and feet using red gumpaste. Remember to leave wire extending from the feet so bamboo skewers can be taped to them. This will secure them into the cake.

8. Make the head from red gumpaste and secure in place with gum glue.

9. Cut little strips of red and begin covering the topside of the dragon, starting at the tail and move up to the head, overlaying the strips like scales.

10.Roll out red gumpaste and cut another set of wings.

Sandwich the newly cut wings and the dry wings over the wires

securing with gumglue.

11. Finish detailing your dragon by adding claws, teeth, eyes and horned head using white gumpaste.

Touch up with gold luster dust mixed with Everclear alchohol.

Once completely dry, secure the wires extending from the legs to bamboo skewers using floral tape. Insert straws into your cake where the dragon's feet will be located. Insert the skewers into the straws on your Bakugan Ball Cake.

This dragon is rather heavy, so be sure your cake is a dense texture.

You can also make your Bakuball from Fondant covered Rice Crispie Treats.

This is not an easy task..and it is time consuming.

But, it is well worth seeing the

awestruck expression on a seven year old boy's face!

And hey...who doesn't like to conquer a dragon once in a while? 

Tutorial and Photography by Jacque Benson 2010.all rights reserved.
This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

Ooooh Baby! Easy sugarpaste booties by Jen Dontz

This week's tutorial is on the adorable and VERY EASY baby bootie.  It's lifesize, so much fun to make and will really impress your customers!

Step 1 - Roll out your paste about 1/4" thick.  You can use fondant or gumpaste.  I'm using gumpaste on these.  The set comes with three cutters.  Taking the sole cutter, cut one of the thick pieces for each shoe you want to make. 

 You can let these dry, but really don't have to.  I started working right away on them.  Since the paste is so thick you will not be able to totally cut through it with the cutter so just make an impression on top, then use the scissors to cut it out.

  By cutting the paste thick, I feel it's easier to put this together.  I'm sure there are many ways to make these, but this is my way.  :-)

 

Step 2 - I use my tiny little scissors and cut off about 1/4" from each end of the sole.  If you don't do this step, the final result looks more like a moccasin than a bootie.

Disgard the end scraps.

Step 3 - Cut out one of each of the other two pieces for each shoe you want to make.  You can use any thickness of paste, I cut mine on #4 on the Kitchen Aid pasta machine.  The next part we will apply is the part that looks like a little helmet.

Step 4 - Take the sole and moisten the edge with gumglue or water and wrap the "helmet" part around the sole, making sure the paste edge goes right to the bottom of the sole edge.

Step 5 - Take the longer piece and moisten the edge shown by the brush, just this straight edge.

Step 6 - Wrap this back part of the shoe around the back part of the sole.

Step 7 - Using a clay gun, make some tiny strings for the ties of the bootie.

Step 8 - You can make whatever little tie like finish you want.  You can make a bow or just leave the untied strings.  You also can use your imagination to decorate these in numerous ways.  I used the little daisy punch and the snowflake cutters to embelish the ones below.  You might have to stuff some plastic wrap or a cotton ball in the shoe until it's competely dry.  I guarantee your customers will LOVE these, especially when they find out they are made of sugar :-)  If you have any questions at all, please contact me, cakebabe1@aol.com  All of these cake toys are available through Sugar Delites, I'll make a list of just what I used and post it below.  Aren't these just to cute for words?  I LOVE using them on my baby cakes.

Equipment used to make the booties:

Click on item to order:

Jem baby bootie cutter  -

Daisy punch cutter -  

(I used a tip #7 to cut out the center of the daisy)

PME snowflake plunger cutters -

Rainbow disco dust (brilliant) -

Sugarcraft clay gun -

Tiny scissors -

Tutorial courtesy of Jennifer Dontz
2010
All Rights Reserved

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

Remy Stirs the Pot

Hello Sugar Friends!

 I thought I would show this cute cake I made a few months back for the daughter of a friend. She was having her party at one of those little chef places, so the theme of the cake was just perfect!

When the mom asked me if I could make Remy stirring the soup pot like in the movie, I said sure I can! Then of course, after I hung up the phone, my thought was : How the heck am I going to do that? The pot I can do, but figure modeling is not my strong suit. So I just jumped in and went for it.

I used a real chopping board for the cake base, and I love the effect that gave.

Here is the first body parts of Remy drying. I find this image quite disturbing. He scares me. But not as much as possums.

I put on his face and arms, and then used a bubble tea straw to simulate the spoon he would be holding on the real cake.

Hands make holding the spoon a tad easier for him. His little chef hat makes him official!

Here he is drying so he would have the proper body position for the cake. He no longer scares me. I think he is pretty dern cute now.

Here are 3 layers of cake iced with thickened ganache as I described in this post.

Here are the pot handles drying. An Aussie friend gave me the idea to use aquarium air tubing wrapped in fondant. I taped them down to the table so they would dry in the proper curve. I have no idea if that is food safe, so do some research before you do this.

Here I am working on the cheese and veggies, all made of fondant with tylose.

Cute little carrots.

Swiss and aged Gouda. Tee hee.

I wrapped the cake in white fondant, added the top trim and the handles, and then airbrushed it with copper luster dust. Buttercream makes the soup, with little fondant veggies sprinkled on top.

Despite using the straw to configure his arms, when I put the real spoon in the cake, I could not get it to line up with his hands correctly. After a few choice words, I just decided that he was shifting the spoon from one hand to the other, and my picture caught it mid-shift. Yep, I like that story.

I also chose to ignore the fact that he is walking on the soup more than he is standing on the edge of the pot. (Rat bastard.)

Sometimes things just don't go as we plan, and we have to suck it up. I hate when that happens.

But overall, I was very pleased with the cake, and mom and daughter went crazy over it. Mission accomplished!

 

 

 

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

This tutorial was used with the expressed permission of Sharon Zambito. Content of this post may not be reproduced in any form without written consent of the author.

SugarEd Productions

How to Make a Sugarpaste Butterfly

These little gumpaste butterflies make a lovely addition to a floral cake topper.
They are made on wire to easily insert into your topper.

Supplies

Gumpaste
Fondant Roller And Board
Cornstarch

Patchwork Cutters
#20 Covered Wire
Wire Cutters
Gum Glue
Edible Markers
Non Toxic Pastels

Instructions

Using wirecutters, cut wire into 6-8 inch lengths.

Roll out a small ball of firm gumpaste on a board, heavily dusted with cornstarch.

Roll thin, but not paper thin. Dust the Butterfly cutter with cornstarch. Press the patchwork cutter into the gumpaste, placing pressure on the edges of the cutter.

Pressing firmly on the cutter, move on board in a circular motion. Holding cutter in place, pull remaining gumpaste away.

Using a pin, loosen gumpaste from cutter. If butterfly should break in half at thorax, don’t worry, it will work just fine.

Roll a small amount of gumpaste into a 3/8” size ball. Moisten one end of wire with

gumglue, and insert into the ball. Press the gumpaste into wire, creating a ½” sausage on the end of the wire and brush with gum glue.

Place the gumpaste covered end of wire vertically over the center of the back side of gumpaste butterfly.

.

Fold the butterfly over the wire, gently folding the ends of wings to

create movement.

If thorax breaks off during process, make another by forming a thorax from a small sausage of gumpaste. Attach to the butterflies with gumglue

Place on a Styrofoam base to dry.

Once your butterfly has dried, use a colored marker

and paint a few sections of your butterfly.

With a black edible marker, outline the detail of the butterfly,

Repeat on back sides of wings.

Then finish by softening the shades, by coloring

the remainder butterfly using pastels. Gently rub

the pastel color in with a soft paper towel.

Insert wire into your cake topper.

Photography and tutorial by Jacque Benson

All rights reserved 2009

Contents of this tutorial cannot be reproduced for

Commercial purposes without permission from author.