Monday, March 17, 2014

March Madness

Thank you Virginia Marker for the latest blog post!





Here are the molds used for the project:  Basketball mold, Basketball Jersey mold, wood grain texture mat and basketball/football texture mat.  


Covering the board:  Roll out the fondant and texture with the wood grain mat.  



Cut the fondant into strips and arrange on the board for the flooring.





When doing the jersey mold, I mixed in some tylose so the jersey would stand next to the cake.


The unmolded jersey.  You may use different dusts and coloring to paint your jersey in a variety of colors.


Using the basketball mold, pour in some orange colored candy melts.



After the chocolate sets, pop out the basketball.  


You can then use some dust to enhance the lines of the basketball.  Wouldn't that make a great cupcake topper?


Cover your cake in orange colored fondant.



Using the basketball/football texture mat to texture the fondant.


Paint the board with a light brown to bring out the wood grain texture on the board.  Then draw on your basketball lines.


Add in the jersey and basketball mold to finish off the cake!

Check out more of Virginia's work on her Facebook page

DTC Products Used:
Basketball Jersey
Basketball
Football/Basketball Texture Mat
Tree Bark Texture Mat

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Elegant Scroll Work

Did you see the February ICES newsletter?


If you haven't seen it, check it out!  M Anthony Pena, CMSA, has an article where he describes making the cake on the cover.  What molds did he use?  Some from Decorate the Cake, of course!


DTC Products Used:
Fancy Mini Scrolls
Jabot #2
Scroll - Single Fancy - Right and Left

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Propeller


Thank you Rosalynne for the latest blog post!



We’ve all been there. Exhausted, unable to squeeze any more creativity from our brains, and promising ourselves to prepare better next time. I’m talking about the ‘late night caking’ that I end up doing. Every time. It’s like I have it out for myself. It’s generally about that time that my husband ends up going to bed just to protect himself.

Over the last few years I *have* actually learned a few tricks to make the experience a better one. One of those things is to use MOLDS! There is nothing wrong with using molds on your cake. A lace press can enhance the look of a simple wedding cake, making it elegant. Button molds grouped in the shape of a heart, bring detail to an empty cake top when a client doesn't have money for a topper. I have found that my customers are in awe of not only things I have created by hand, but also when I use molds. They don’t feel cheated at all because every time they are intrigued on how it is done. (Now this is the experience I have personally had)

I’m going to share with you a mold I used recently that brought my cake a little extra umpf that it needed! My customer asked for a cake that had a theme of ‘Planes’. So I thought a propeller mold would be perfect.

 I gathered all my supplies.



Since I knew they were going to be propellers, I mixed my fondant to a grey color. It’s always best to mix the closest color possible when you are going to finish by dusting it. Example: grey when using silver dust, yellow when using gold dust, brown when using bronze dust. You get the idea.



Next I roll out balls of fondant that will cover the cavity I am using. This time I wanted to use 2 different styles of propeller. I made sure to press the fondant really good into all the nooks and crannies. Once that is accomplished, I scrape away the extra fondant with an artists' spatula. All you do is skim across the top, then re-press the fondant so that there are no spaces showing.





That’s when I put the mold into the freezer. Now, not everyone puts their molds in the freezer. The nice thing  about molds from Decorate The Cake is that they are freezer safe! On items that are larger, or not within reach of a fridge, I add Tylose to the fondant to help release it.

Once I stood around for a couple of minutes (contemplated eating something), I removed my mold from the freezer, turned the mold upside down, and bent it enough to let my cool propellers pop out!



I quickly added some silver luster dust and set the propellers to dry. Once they dried, I added them to my cake, and voila! My cake was finished. The propellers were the perfect addition to my cake, the customer thought they were awesome! What do you think?





To see more of Rosalynne's amazing work check out her Facebook page:  Ronnie's Cakes

Products used:
Mechanical Propellers Mold from DTC
Satin Ice Fondant
CK ‘Moonstone (Silver)’ Luster Dust
My refrigerator