cake decoration question UPDATED! with a pic!

[Wriggley]

Hi all

Am making my sons first birthday cake this month (i did my first sons first birthday cake too)

My first sons cake was the first cake i ever made - it was two tier (talk about a challenge for myself) and i purchased some edible hungry caterpillar decorations

my seconds son cake is going to be hay diddle diddle and again ive purchased some of the decorations but this time i would like to make the stars and clouds to go around the sides of the cakes myself.

my issue is when ive done this before ive found the shapes go all out of shape when i pick them up after cutting them :/ am i supposed to wait for them to dry out/go hard before i put them on the cake? or is the a nack to getting them to stay in shape?

 

[dgirllamius]

If you're making them from scratch with sugar paste, you can make them and let them dry out then use edible glue to make them stick to the cake.

I made my LOs birthday cake a few weeks back and used ready to roll icing to make some roses. They didn't take that long to harden but I was able to put them on the cake and allow them to harden there rather than let them harden then add them.

 

[AP]

Yes, leave them to dry out and go solid. If you need to stick them on the cake in a curved way, make your clouds on cling film, then you wont need to use any instruments to pick it up, just tip it on your hand and stick on.

there are many edible glues out there, although you could try warm water and sugarpaste to create a glue substance, or simpily water.

 

[Wriggley]

Thanks ladies very helpful x

 

[Lief]

If you're doing clouds there's a great tutorial for 3D clouds I seen online. It's easier to handle than the flat clouds and you don't have to worry about messing the shape up as much.

You basically just roll up little balls of fondant/sugarpaste to different sizes and stick them together then lay some rolled fondant/sugarpaste over it and cut into shape.

https://thizizhowibake.blogspot.ie/2013/10/fondant-cloud-tutorial.html

Also if you're going to bake often there's a thingyou can get called tylose powder that you can add to your fondant/sugarpaste and it helps it harden much quicker.

 

[AP]

Cornflour is also great at helping dry it out

 

[beth_terri]

Yep, I cut the shapes out on grease proof paper so I just pull away the excess icing and don't have to move the sshaps until they are dry and hard. Dont make them too thick or they will be heavy, but don't make them too thin or they will snap... then make glue from icing sugar and water. Xx

 

[LoveCakes]

Just don't roll them too thin or they will stretch and deform. A broad palette knife is handy too as you can get more of it under the shape.

Personally I prefer to put them on before they dry as they're too brittle after.

Good luck and take us a picture

 

[Wriggley]

thanks ladies will definetly take a pic!

 

[Arlandria]

Hi Hun,

If you really want your shapes to go 'hard' use a little bit of Tylo powder (or gum trag!) this will make the shapes go really really hard You just mix in about the tip of a teaspoon for every 250g of sugarpaste and then let it harden and it wont loose it's shape x

Good luck & have fun x

 

[Wriggley]

thanks hun

 

[Wriggley]

how do people make money making cakes! lol This cake has cost me close to £70/£80 quid!

 

[Arlandria]

Bulk buying ingredients - but in all fairness that's why there's a lot of people charge what I say 'reasonable' prices but then they have customers saying they can get it cheaper!

Plus people forget that after all the ingredients there's the skill involved. It's a tough world for cakey makers - sometimes people dont appreciate whats involved

Hope your cake went well

 

[LoveCakes]

I've gotten most of my equipment as gifts but I hate to think what it would add up to.

People really underestimate how expensive sugarpaste is, for coloured it can be £2.50 per 250g. I've found buying supermarket white and a few paste colours is much cheaper. It's handier too since I worked out you can mix the colours through with a dough hook on a mixer rather than by hand.

 

[dgirllamius]

Here you can buy sugar paste from amazon for 9,99€ for 1kg. Perhaps look on amazon and see if there is a similar deal. The last time I got sugar paste from the supermarket it was 2,99€ just for 250g so saving quite a bit there. I'm not 100% sure but they also do a "subscription" where you get it for 9,49€ per 1kg (not much cheaper but still, it's money off for nothing). Then just get the colours. I find the colours from the supermarket are not so good and not very vibrant.

I tried making my own sugar paste but it was a complete disaster. It kept cracking when I tried to roll it out - I'm sure I messed something up as the recipe was in German and knowing me I got an ingredient wrong when trying to translate it.

 

[LoveCakes]

Here you can buy sugar paste from amazon for 9,99€ for 1kg. Perhaps look on amazon and see if there is a similar deal. The last time I got sugar paste from the supermarket it was 2,99€ just for 250g so saving quite a bit there. I'm not 100% sure but they also do a "subscription" where you get it for 9,49€ per 1kg (not much cheaper but still, it's money off for nothing). Then just get the colours. I find the colours from the supermarket are not so good and not very vibrant.

I tried making my own sugar paste but it was a complete disaster. It kept cracking when I tried to roll it out - I'm sure I messed something up as the recipe was in German and knowing me I got an ingredient wrong when trying to translate it.

Thanks

Do you have a link to the site. Any I've found have a huge delivery cost as it's so heavy. When I coloured it before I used the paste colours so they came out great. My main problem with the coloured icing is you sometimes only need a little for a figure and then the rest of the block doesn't keep.

 

[dgirllamius]

Just go to amazon and search sugarpaste, roll fondant, ready to roll icing and you'll get loads of results. Depends what you're after.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...VA3QCGHJ0QXA7Q5&pf_rd_s=center-6&pf_rd_t=1201

1kg of white icing for £6 something and free delivery.

 

[Wriggley]

thanks ladies

I managed to get my coloured sugar paste at £1.60 per 250g and £3.60 for 750g of white sugar paste. so sounds like i got a goodish deal there... Its just so expensive....

this is going to be the second cake ive ever made lol! i made my oldest sons 1st birthday cake which was the 1st ive ever made lol

Spoiler

https://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c135/naomi411/DSC_0152.jpg

will post pictures wednesday night of my youngests cakes

 

[LoveCakes]

Wow, looks amazing, well done

 

[Wriggley]

sorry ladies i totally forgot to update with a pic! here it is!