Design Purses

[celenes]

Hi,

I know in the last month or so there was a thread that showed cakes made like Prada Purses, Gucci etc..

I have a birthday party next month that I am making a cake for and would like to include a small version of such a purse and a shoe box on the cake. The cake will be at least a half sheet perhaps a full. We are waiting on the final guest count for the party right now.

Can someone share with me how to make small versions of both these items or send me to a location on the net that I can read instructions.

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide.

[Wendy DeBord]

Ah, sorry I missed this post.

Well......to the best of my knowledge I don't know of any instructions you could just copy for making these objects. I do believe that Colette Peters did a purse cake in one of her books, if you need written instructions.

Have you made multi-layered cakes before? So you know how to put supports under these objects on your cake right?

Mainly you need help in what: designing this or how to make a cake shaped like a purse?

If you haven't done this before its best to choose a designer bag that lays down and has a easy pattern to copy. So the first thing I do is go shopping online and find a photo of a purse I want to copy. Do you know what purse you want to copy?

I like to use rolled fondant or chocolate or chocolate plastic to imitate my purse. I think you get a more realistic look then using straight butter cream (although if your good with butter cream-stick with the media your most comfortable using).

Can you post some details, design or photos of what your trying to do with more specific questions? That will help us help you. We need something to work off of to be able to talk specfics in 'how to'.

[celenes]

Thanks. Here's what I think I would like to do:

Since this will be my first attempt at something like this I thought I would start small. So below are images of two simple I think Prada wallets. That should work because I don't want the whole cake to be taken up by one item.

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/...e=2&size=&sort=

And I can just use one of my own shoe boxes as my visual to get the other item I would like to put on the cake.

Edited July 14, 2004 by Sinclair (log)

[DiH]

Lydia, don't let the technicalities drag you down... if you're wanting to expand your creativity above/beyond the design of a typical 2-layer birthday cake, obviously you've done a wee bit of cake baking/decorating. Go get yourself a copy of "Colette's Cakes - The Art Of Cake Decorating" written by Colette Peters. It has exactly what you're looking for... pictures, diagrams and easy step-by-step detailed instructions for the beginner.

You can find the book everywhere online... be sure to check around for the best price.

Let us know how your cake turns out... and have fun!

Di

[Rachel Perlow]

But just so you don't have to go searching...

Colette's Cakes : The Art of Cake Decorating, by Colette Peters

Edited July 12, 2004 by Rachel Perlow (log)

[celenes]

Great. Thanks so much. I will make the purchase.

[Dee]

Okay, while we're on the subject of cake purses...

I haven't done many sculpted cakes, I guess because I don't get how to figure on how many guests it will feed, do you still have layers with fillings in a sculpted cake. And say the purse was standing up, are there many really skinny layers or is it a layered cake turned sideways??

Probably, I should also just get Colette's book if it describes all these logistics there, but I would really love to venture more into sculpted cakes!

As a side note, what does everyone do with all their cake scraps that get sculpted off?

D

[Wendy DeBord]

I probably would have chosen a different purse design for these reasons. These are very thin and all the detail that's going to make them look real happens on the sides- in a thin area. I also think to pull off those wallets they'll look best standing up, not laying down-which gives you an extra factor to figure out. But that's just my opinion of what I'd do, how I'd design my 3 objects together. I look for really obvious details that signal what an item is, like a handle or a strap on a purse......in this case I'd say your making a wallet and not a purse.

I'm guilty of just visually figuring out how to make something. I'm not sure I've ever followed written instructions.........so I might not be able to describe this as well as others who freqeuntly use instructions. So I hope the following helps.........

Anyway.........I begin with a sheet cake or part of one. Since these are very small you won't need much, about 3"x4". I'd choose a pound cake for this because their dense and easy to cut and shape-plus they hold with-out spoiling for several days.

If you did the red wallet you would need to shape your cake to bevel down the bottom, then round off your corners.

I'd frost one side of the shaped cake thinnly with buttercream, then set it down onto my rectangularly shaped rolled out piece of red fondant. I'd cut the fondant around the edges of my cake aprox. 1/4". Then I'd frost the other side of the cake which is now face up. Gently I'd flip the cake over using the whole length of the piece of fondant and repeat cutting out 1/4" edge around the whole wallet. It should be sort of similar to a book cover.

(it's hard to see the details clearly) But as I covered the cake with fondant I'd bend over my edges which I left 1/4" long to come into the sides where the zipper will fit into. I'd trim those nicely with a pair of sissors to perfect the width of this edge. With a rolling tool thats toothed (like what seamstresses use) you then follow the outline of the purses edges to make it appear like stitching, the stitching on the outside border.

Then you need to put a zipper in. Have you ever seen a zipper at a fabric store? You need extra material on both sides to tuck into your border. Using the same or similar toothed roller- press in the lines where the seams would be on a zippers sides. Faking in the actual zipper is hard to do free hand.....finding the right tool to do the job will help, but you could still you that same toothed roller. Place you zipper on a dowel to raise up the metal zipper part while you do the faux metal part of the zipper. Then you insert your zipper into the center open area. Use a metal spatula or similar knive (with-out a sharp edge) and use that to lift out your fabric edge and tuck your zipper under it. Then fold the material back into place. You'll need to do another fake seem using your toothed roller so the zipper looks sewn into the leather.

Making the pull/handle, is just cutting out a small piece of fondant to size, use your toothed roller to fake in seems, attach it, then paint the metal hook with metalic edible dust thinned with vodka or clear vanilla extract.

For the logo.......I can't really see it well. From what I see, I'd cut out a piece of red fondant in the triangular shape. Then I'd do the lettering in royal icing and outline the triangle, and give it a day or two to dry. I'd then go back and paint my royal icing with the same metalic dust you used on the zipper.

Then I'd use royal icing to attach the logo to the top of the wallet.

For the shoe box, I like the idea of using a peice of styrofoam to fake the top of the box so the lid looks like it's over the box beneath it. I'd use fondant or chocolate plastic to cover the styrofoam. You'll need to put a thin layer of frosting or something to adhear the fondant to the styrofoam.

I think the major factor that will pull this off is how you place your objects on your base cake. Have you ever looked at any of the top cake designers websites? They typically don't place items safely completely with-in the base cake. Instead they might let the edge of a shoe box hang over the side of the base cake. It's not as hard to do as you might guess. It's just using your cake supports and having your top item on a sterdy board. Same thing with the wallet. It would very realistic if it was standing and leaning on the box verses laying flat on your base cake.

Well I hope this helped and didn't discourage you. Sometimes you just have to do something to learn how to do it better the next time. Everyone has their own ideas about design and what they would do....I hope you'll take my suggestions just as my opinion, I'm not trying to tell you what your doing is right or wrong.....only how I face the challenge. I hope you have fun!

[Wendy DeBord]

Dee, it's all just a educated guess. Theres many ways to make the same thing........you just have to jump in and try. Over time you'll learn what works best for you. Any cake can be made any size to fit the number of servings you need. Even so, the truth is you begin to use your judgement as you cut the cake increasing or decreasing your serving size so you have enough or not too much left over.

Colette Peters really is outstanding and I highly reccomend all of her books. There are many other decorators who also do sculpted cakes and have great books too.

Scraps.......well the first couple years you eat them yourself as your working, heck I still do frequently. Then when you get sick of them and you've gained wieght you learn to throw them out or pass them onto someone else who's hungry. Sure there are things you can do with your scraps like triffles or rum balls, but thats just another chore..... it depends upon how often you do this and how many scraps you have to constantly deal with.

Jump in and try doing sculpted cakes, they always get great reactions from your viewers and I think their alot of fun..........and not that hard to do!

[Wendy DeBord]

So how are you doing? Have you tried making them yet?

[celenes]

Well you would believe that after getting everyone's suggestions and help, I got the invitation in the mail today for the party and the theme is 70s. So I guess the purse isn't going to work. Now I need to look at disco stuff etc. Which is fine but I was looking forward to making the cake.

I still will give it a shot after I figure out my party cake. Any suggestions? Purple is the theme color too.

[Wendy DeBord]

Oh yes I would believe that......I've had people change themes on me too.

[KatieM]

I don't have any advice on how to make intricate sculpted cakes, since I haven't done very many of them, but I DO have a suggestion for what to do with scraps -

CAKE SPACKLE!!!!

Toba Garrett has a recipe for it in her book, but I really don't follow any recipe. Take your scraps, process briefly in your FP for a few seconds, add enough buttercream to make a nice paste, and use to fill in all those lumps, bumps, and gap areas. You know that gap between layers where your filling is, but it doesn't always end up completely filling that space between the layers on the edges? Even when I use a buttercream dam, fill only to that spot, level the filling, chill, then set the next layer on top, there's still a gap. So cake spackle is PERFECT for filling in that spot. And if you cover your entire cake with it, you'll have the most beautifully smooth, perfect surface for fondant to adhere to. I bet it would be useful for sculpting, as well.

For a 70s disco theme cake, I would maybe make a big disco ball. Or maybe some records out of chocolate. I think you can find molds for records online. Maybe a microphone? I'd probably have a lot of sparkle on it. Or just copy some of the elements of the invitation. I bet if you do a google search for disco-theme cakes, you could find a lot, too. Sorry if this isn't much help. I'm not feeling very creative today.

Katie

[celenes]

Thanks Katie for your suggestions. They are helpful. Yes I definitely know I will do the disco ball thing. Probably the record and some big daisy fondant flowers.

I was thinking about designing the cake like a disco floor (yeah that is right after I figure out the details) I'll do my research over the weekend.

Right after I work on a design for an upcoming wedding cake that I just got asked to do yesterday. The wedding is July 31st nothing like last minute. My only saving grace is it is a small 50 person wedding so that should be easy.

[Rachel Perlow]

I'm worried that a disco floor cake would like like Simon.

[Jason Perlow]

How about an 8-track tape player? Most of them are pretty boxy in shape so most of the work will be in the decoration, and you could have some 8 track tapes made out of cake or chocolate.

You could make it look like the faceplate of one of these things:

http://homepage.mac.com/stokester/.cv/stok...ck.JPG-link.jpg

Here is another popular design:

http://www.hiandlomodern.com/IMAGES/MOD/pa...nic8track34.jpg

or the front faceplace of the classic Weltron, which was the iconic 8 track player used in a lot of movies:

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1972-Weltron-AM-FM-8T.JPG

[Jason Perlow]

Or if the 8 track doesnt suit your fancy... how about your standard rectangular cake with a picture of THIS guy on it:

http://www.backwardglances.com/images/Satu...ever%20suit.jpg

This logo also pretty much screams disco period to me:

http://www.dancenetradio.com/assets/images/studio54.gif

Simple, classy, and makes a dramatic statement if you put it on a cake. Everyone would immediately recognize it. Instead of a black icing you could just use dark chocolate ganache and use white chocolate for the lettering of the logo. It would really be slick.

[chefpeon]

[celenes]

I am so tickled at the recommendations, I think I will just make them all

Honestly, this stuff is great. I think the Simon one is clearly disco floor looking and is under strong consideration.

I'll let you know what my final plan is soon. The party is only three weeks away. Perhaps you all should come, the more the merrier.

[Rachel Perlow]

Ah, I found what I was really looking for on eBay, Super Simon.

[Dee]

Katie- Hey, thanks for the cake spackle idea!! Who knew there was a practical use for cake scraps? Besides eating them, that is....and I already do enough of that.

Well, I will definitely try it.

And, Celenes, I love the big 70's shoe idea!! How great would that be! Good luck, whatever you do.