Making a curved board for your cakes

Tailor

I recently made a wedding cake for my niece, Tailor.  She wanted a cake with piping, not molded lace.  I showed her some cakes that I had done in the last year with royal icing piped details and we designed her a small cake.  I wanted the board to be curved up - not flat and since this was for a family member and a gift, I could essentially "play" with this cake. 

The bottom cake was a 12" cake that was on a 1/2 piece of foam core board cut to the exact size of the cake.  Make a batch of royal icing (I think you could use chocolate in the cooler months or even buttercream to do this with.)

Royal Icing

I then used a 13", 14" and 15" round pans turned upside down

(so that I was actually drawing a slightly bigger circle) and cut them out. 

Dab Royal Icing on the bottom board and add the next size to the top of it and then do the same to the next board.  Let dry til set.

Fill in between the boards with royal icing, smoothing as you go

Go around the board holding your palette knife at an angle to completely fill in the spaces between the boards.

Set it aside and let it dry to the touch.   

 

This can be made way in advance or the day of the wedding. 

 

Cover the board with fondant and mark the center the same size as the cake.

 

Cut the center out and remove the fondant circle where the cake will be set.  

Dab in royal icing to hold the cake in place.

Place cake into the opening on the board.  

I then ran a bead of royal icing around the seam.  I then sectioned it off to add in the lattice and pearls.

I added pressed lace pieces below the lattice, piped a ruffle with a shell on top of that, used a pressed flower petunia (you can get the lace piece and petunia cutter/veiner from Jennifer Dontz's Sugar Delites.  I piped royal icing details and used luster dust to bring out a pearl sheen to the board.  I added a piece of tasseled gimp to the edge of the board to finish it off.

  Voila!!!!  A board that is very romantic and part of the cake decor.

Tutorial and Photography by Denise Talbot

Copyright 2011

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

Cake Boards- First layer of Foundation

 

I know that most of you experienced decorators out there now how and why you should cover your cake boards, so this is for the decorators that are just starting out.

I see many cakes that are being used with the cardboard disks that are not covered or are covered in tin foil.  Uncovered boards will get greasy and flimsy.  Foil covered boards will tear when the cake is cut and really doesn't look that attractive.  Here's just one way that I do mine.

I use different board types depending on what I want to do and the look I want to achieve.  I have used the cardboard cake rounds, foam board* (my favorite!), particle board that I have my neighbor cut for me, and the heavy precut rounds or square wood from the hardware store.  But no matter which one I use, they are always covered with contact paper to protect the boards and to keep them from getting yucky.  You can also use Wilton Fancy Foil, plastic wrap, press and seal wrap, but I have found that none of them hold up as well as contact paper.

A little info about using contact paper.....always use the white or the clear contact paper.  Using contact paper with colors or dyes in them can be unsafe.  If you wish to be creative with your cake board, you can always use some kind of fun paper or gift wrap on the board, but always cover it with the clear contact paper.

First, start by measuring how much contact paper you need.  I just place a circle or square on the contact paper and cut it out a few inches larger.

For a round, cut off each corner to make a circle.

Flip it over and with a bench scrapper, smooth out the bubbles that have formed on the top side of the board.

Flip it back over and cut slits with scissors all the way around the board.

 

Starting at one end, start folding the cuts up to the bottom of the board, overlapping them a bit.

Finished board.

This picture shows one half inch foam board and as single cake circle.  I used the thin one for under the cake.  After it was iced, I attach it to the thicker foam board for more stability and this one was used for the base of the cake.

On this one, I used double sided tape to stick the cake to the base cake board.  You can also use the tape runners that are used for scrapbooking.

At this point, you can either put an icing boarder around the base of the cake to hide the board that the cake is sitting on.

I covered the board that this cake is sitting on with Mame's modeling chocolate.

These leaves are also made from modeling chocolate and dusted with luster dust.  The chocolate doesn't pick up the colors as well as fondant or gumpaste would though!

The leaves where used for a top border for the cake.  Pumpkins were also cut out and used.

 

  Now the most important part is to hide the contact paper creases.  Double sided tape was used again around the bottom board.  Then starting in the back of the cake, add some ribbon that will compliment the colors of your decorations. 

 

Make sure you pay attention to the cake boards when you are looking around at cakes.  They usually always have a finished look.

*Foam board can be purchased at most craft stores.  Investing in a hot knife is also very useful, but the foam boards can be cut with a serrated knife.  A hot knife cuts through the board like butter!!

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Here are some of the different techniques that I used:

Wall-E's board was 1/2 inch thick foam board covered with 12x12 inch scrapbook paper and then covered with clear contact paper.

This 1 inch wooden board with covered with contact paper, that was covered with fondant and embossed with patchwork cutters.  The pattern was lightly dusted with luster dusts.

Square wooden board covered with contact paper, then fondant.  A mixture of gel paste colors and corn syrup and water was brushed on the surface to give it a watery look.

This board was a heavy wooden board covered with contact paper and fondant.  The lining technique can be found here.





Tutorial and Photography by Rhonda Christensen
All rights reserved- 2010
This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

It's All in the Details!

I have seen some cake boards with a lined groove in them and have been trying to figure out how they made them.  So here's my version of it.

  I first covered my cake board with fondant.  This was a 16 inch wide 1/2 inch particle board.

Trim off excess.

Find the middle of board.  Using a very large skewer, I just pressed it into the fondant, going all the way around.  It was kind of hard to keep it centered.

The middle doesn't look great, but it was going to be covered anyway!  I let it dry for a few days before adding any cake.

I then made flip flops.  I just cut a shoe shape, added the little flowers and pressed a patterned mat on the top.

I then poked the holes, rolled out a strip of fondant/gum paste and gave it some stitching.  I folded it in half and rounded the middle between my fingers a bit and put it in the first hole at the toe of the flip flop.

Then take some plastic wrap and put on the flip flop.  Take the ends of the straps over the plastic wrap and break the excess strap off where the other holes are, rounding the ends a little to fit into the hole.  I added the little flower in the middle just for and extra touch.  Let dry for a few days.

When it was time to make the chocolate cake, I used a 12" x 18" pan to bake the cake.  I cut it into fourths and stacked with cookies and cream filling in between the layers.  The top half was carved to make it rounded and the sides where angled some.  Pink fondant covered the whole cake.  White fondant was added over the pink and the stitching effect was used on the edges and straps.  I made a simple cord strap to the purse. 

I'm also testing products for Melissa Dotson over at Decorate the Cake.  I used her Studded Oval Buckle to make the buckle on this purse.  The buckle was made from gum paste and I let it dry for a few days.  Silver luster dust was then painted on it.  The purse strap was threaded through the buckle.

You can find the buckle on her site here.
 

I also used Melissa's 5 Petal Blossom mold.  They are really quick and easy to make.  Just dust a little cornstarch or luster dust onto the mold, add the gum paste or fondant, press the molds together and voila!  Easy peasy!!

You can find this mold here.

This gift bag was made from another 12" x 18" pan cut in half and layered with filling.  It's covered with purple fondant and stamped with a regular stamp using a deeper purple luster dust and lemon extract.

Nail polish bottle is all gum paste painted with sparkle dust on the bottom and luster dust on top.

This was a fun cake to make!!

Copyright 2011- Rhonda Christensen
PHotography 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.