Baking Project

I made this yesterday, felt so long since I did some artsy stuff. I don’t know what to call it actually. Is there a special name for this kind of deco ? It’s usually put on top of cakes. Anyway, the tutorial, if you would like to know how it’s made.

First, cut out any fun shapes you want from your coloured fondant.

While the cut outs are still soft, insert the fine wires into it. You can buy this very thin wires from DIY shops, shops selling needlework equipments or wedding gift craft. Twist some wires around a pencil to get the ’spring’ look. Leave that to dry.

Then prepare the round container. Just estimate the size you want depending on the length of your wires. For this you need to use gumpaste or modelling paste, as this container has to be hard. Cut out a long strip.

You can decorate the strips with whatever design you fancy. Then wrap it around something cylindrical. Make sure it doesn’t stick to the sides of the bottle by running the insides with a cocktail stick before leaving it to dry.

Make a round base. Stick it to the body of the container with some water or royal icing. Fill the container with some fondant and insert the wires into it.

Arrange as you please. Once all the wires are in, cover the base with some green or matching coloured fondant to make it look neat.

You can design your own container, different shapes, different colours. Or maybe use other shapes to stick to the wires. It would add that special touch to any cakes.

You have to try it, ok.
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On a different note, I would like to say thanks to those who has linked me in their article, the latest is Yazoranitesky. She is always experimenting with new recipes like pau and bread. I like her blog. Another link I found out today is from the Pink Cake Box. I am so flattered that Pink Cake Box has visited my blog, they are so famous in the US ! I love their work, you have to see their excellent sugarcraft cakes.

My “Cutest 3D fun character fondant cake” contest is still on, you are welcome to participate. I promise I will mail the little pot holder to where ever you are.

I have been getting orders for my home-made fondants, terima kasih (thank you) to my buyers..I have one order from Penang and will try to mail it as soon as possible. As for the classes, please click on the calender to see June’s schedule.

The shoutbox on my sidebar, I have actually removed it because it has taken up much of my allocated bandwidth. This site has been down twice due to maximum bandwidth and I had to called 911 each time, to upgrade and be given the access again . You can still contact me by leaving your comments or using the contact form.

Sorry this post is quite long, have fun during this school break.. thank you everybody.

Salam,

I wanted to try using the sunflower plunger I bought recently and thought of just making 3 sunflowers to put on a cake. One thing led to another and I end up making a whole basket of flowers ! Anyway, here are some pictures I took while making this cake today.

This is the sun flower mould that I wanted to try :

Leaving them to dry.

Making the basket weave pattern with that roller thingy :

I used a dummy cake for this, with just one layer of fondant. Crimped the base and top part.

Basket is ready.

Now to make the piece of cloth, to put on the basket. I arranged some tiny cut out flowers and roll them to incorporate it into the base white fondant. No need to put so many flowers like me, the whole thing is going to be covered with flowers anyway.

After this is done, I arranged my sun flowers and leaves. This is when I realized that there were too little flowers. By then, I was already tired, further more the electricity went off a few times due to the heavy rain and I was decorating in the dark. I took the short cut way and used the ivy cutters to add more deco. After much propping and concealing, this is the final result :

I guess I’m the first person to combine sun flowers and ivy . Maybe a better cake next time.

Making ribbon is quite easy and I guess most of us already know how to do it. I would like to suggest a great gadget to have, to emboss some dotted lines along the ribbon to make it look better. This is a cutter/ embosser, price is reasonable, around RM16.00.

All you do is just roll the wheel to get the needlework effect.

I don’t actually measure my strips when making ribbon. I just cut and adjust the length of the ribbon, based on the size of the cake.

For ribbon and drapes, it’s better to mix equal amount of fondant and gumpaste, to make it more pliable and have that beautiful curves. Put some cotton balls in the bow until it is dry and doesn’t droop. The above ribbon was done only using fondant (and in a rush..) so it looks a little bit stiff. I just wanted to show the embossed effect which makes the whole ribbon looks real.

It’s Saturday, beautiful morning, only thing it hasn’t rain for quite a long time here. Anyway, have a happy weekend, more time to explore your cake decorating ! Take care.

Making gum paste roses can be time-consuming, sometimes I just make do with these simple fondant roses. My maid cum assistant is really good at this, here’s her in action.

First, roll a long strip, then start twirling it around till you get the size you want. Leave some space in between the layers and furl the edges. Pinch the excess fondant at the bottom. It’s done. Fast and easy.

I practice decorating a cake with these fondant roses today.

Yes, those are not real butterflies, I pinch it off my daughter’s jewelry box. By the time I finished decorating this cake, I was too tired to create a center piece. Step by step process on making this cake :

1. One layer of marzipan
2. Followed by a layer of fondant
3. Cut out a smaller circle in the centre until I can see the marzipan layer.
4. Put in the purple fondant layer. Crimp the sides and inside of the circle.
5. Then I coloured the background where the flowers will be placed, using my gel colouring and brush (felt like a true artist for a while ).
6. Arrange the cut out leaves, and roses.
7. Colour the leaves with gel colouring.
   
8. Make the bottom edging.
9. Brush the flowers, crimp edges and bottom edging with diluted pearl dust.

It’s better to colour using paste or powdered colouring, but I don’t have any.

Hope this gives you some idea on how to decorate your cake. The round circle can be replaced with pastillage which becomes very hard, and you can also do some painting on it. Or you could put a small edible image instead, lots of things you can come out with..

Ok, take care and have a good weekend ahead.