Leopard Print Frosting

[zilla369]

I've been tapped to make my boss' daughter's birthday cake next weekend. She's 10, and fond of all things leopard-print. Now, i wasn't instructed to make a leopard-print cake, but thought it would be a nice surprise. The cake will be chocolate. I'd like to do the leopard-print on just the top surface of the cake. This is a freebie, so i don't want to spend hours getting it just right - i just want the basic effect. Far as i can tell, i need a light background color with two darker colors to make up the spots. I don't need a frosting recipe, just a good idea about how to get the spots onto the base-coat without driving myself nuts.

I've been thinking maybe i should paint the spots onto a silicone mat and then transfer them to the top of the cake after they firm up. Sounds like a plan, sort of - although i've never "painted" anything onto a silicone mat and have no idea of the methodology required. Any ideas?

Also, if anyone can think of a way to get a sort of feather-boa effect around the edge of the cake, it'd be much appreciated.

[K8memphis]

Hmmm, I once was gonna use this awesome feather trim around a groom's cake but then the whole health factor thing started eating away at my brain and I decided not to poison anyone...this time

So spun sugar would be totally amazing and edible and feather boa-ish but maybe more last minute and technical than you might like.

Or or or you could use curling ribbon - curl it and shred it lenghtwise and entwine it to make a feathery effect or make puffs out of it & set little puffs all around the base.

The leopard spot coloring could easily be acheived with an airbrush. You can also purchase colors in a can to spray on if you don't have an airbrush. Also, you could flatten tootsie rolls or buy some fondant and color and flatten balls of that to stick onto your cake. I have an easy peasy recipe for fondant out of marshmallows that would work great. Marzipan would be great - it holds color perfectly and you can get it already made at the major grocery stores.

If you use a buttercream that crusts, you can just use two colors of chocolate on top of your cream color iced cake. Just pipe out various blobs of color and then go back & pat them down with a smooth weave impeccably clean towel or a viva paper towel. wa-a-a-la le leopard spots.

I vote for the marzipan being the easiest - then the cans of colored spray (but an airbrush is the easiest over all)

[zilla369]

Thanks for the reply, K8. I wish i had an airbrush (mental note: wishlist addition). I saw some spray-on colors today, but unfortunately they were all garish Barbie-hued tints. No nice browns or light oranges. Mind you, i was at the grocery, not at a baking supply shop (it being Sunday). Haven't worked with fondant before - should i give it a try, or would it be crazy to attempt it without experience?

[tan319]

Wow, K8!

Lot's of really good ideas.

Are you in a shop or restaurant?

really good stuff.

Good luck, Zilla!

Just go for it.

[K8memphis]

Wull, it's like rolling out cookie or pie dough or pie dough - it's same same - wull, you have to like 'heat' the fondant (with your hands that is) and knead it a bit is all - now fondant you can actually put in the microzapper for like a few seconds three to five seconds at a time to make it easier - when you add the color - have the dough (either marzipan or fondant) nice and pliable then put a dab of color in the middle and squish it into itself so it starts to permeate the dough & not your skin - soak your fingers in polident tabletted water if you stain your skin.

Umm, if you buy marzipan sometimes it can be too dry - add a tid of shortening.

So it's very very easy.

Here's an idea, make your icing and pipe out a few blobs and see about the patting down the blobs thing - just use a cutting board or the counter - see how that does - it is super easy - you will get a great even very professional finish - if you like that - stay there - you can pipe a blob - pat it down - if it sticks to the towel, wait a second it will set up a tiny bit & try it again - pipe on top of each other if you want - but it has to be a buttercream that will form a crust** - not a swiss or italian meringue, these are cooked icings that stay soft & creamy to the touch.

If you wanna roll out some dough, try that - super easy - honest.

And and and if you have like a plastic cutting board or plastic placemat - use that to roll out on because it is real handy to peel your stuff off a plastic surface like that.

www.countrykitchensasa.com has the spray colors you are looking for I think.

**Like 2 pounds confectioner's sugar, half cup liquid, one cup fat, flavoring & salt - mix it up & away you go - this will crust.

[K8memphis]

Wow, K8!

Lot's of really good ideas.

Are you in a shop or restaurant?

Wow, Ted, thanks! How sweet are you???!!! I am presently in between things. I've been a decorator/baker for a long time. I am looking to like 'piggy-back' off someone else's business so I can keep the artistry, provide them with some gravy money, and avoid being a full-time business-owner myself. (full to over-flowing :)

Thanks again!

Edited November 7, 2004 by K8memphis (log)

[chefpeon]

Here's a picture of a cake I did that incorporated animal prints. In this case, leopard and zebra.

The cakes are covered with fondant of the appropriate colors (the zebra was white, and the leopard was kind of an orangish beige-ish). I cut random strips of black modeling chocolate

to create the zebra stripes, and for the leopard print, I just piped on random squiggly "circles"

with black-colored white chocolate (note that the circles aren't completely closed-I had a swatch of material to work from and studied it very closely). I filled in the circles with a lightly brown colored piping gel. I was very pleased with the final look.

The neat thing about the animal prints is that the method to create them was very low-tech, which I believe is what you're looking for. In your case, all you really need to do is color some buttercream black, pipe on your squiggly unclosed circles, then fill it it with a brownish buttercream (or piping gel)......no special equipment needed!

If you're wondering what that cake was all about (and who wouldn't) it was for a woman's 40th birthday. Her husband ordered it from me as a surprise for her. He wanted it to be sexy and to reflect her passion for sexy underthings and jewelry. She had a passion for animal prints. He also

wanted it somewhat "kinky". It's hard to tell, but there is a black lace bra draped over the bottom tier (I made it with modeling chocolate), and little pieces of gold jewelry. The bottom borders for each cake are modeling chocolate recreations of a "cat 'o nine tails" (there's the kinky part).

I made the shoe out of modeling chocolate also, then painted it with watered down piping gel to get the patent leather look. Instead of a designers name in the shoe, I painted the birthday girl's name. And of course, there's that "Polly Schoonmaker" inspiration to the whole thing.

These are the cakes that I love to do.....the ones that are really different and "out there".

I love the challenge of saying, "How the hell am I going to do this?" It feels so good when you

can pull it off too.

[maggiethecat]

These are the cakes that I love to do.....the ones that are really different and "out there".

I love the challenge of saying, "How the hell am I going to do this?" It feels so good when you

can pull it off too.

←

Anne: I am in awe.

[bripastryguy]

Anne I'm in awe as well!!!!!

I have jsut really dived into fondant work, do you have a good modeling dough recipe?

[chefpeon]

Anne I'm in awe as well!!!!!

I have jsut really dived into fondant work, do you have a good modeling dough recipe?

←

You're talking about modeling chocolate, right?

This is my recipe:

6 lbs white chocolate, chopped (I use Guittard White Satin Ribbon out of a 50 lb box-it's already in small pieces)

2-2/3 cup corn syrup

Melt the white chocolate, either in the micro or over a water bath..... whatever your preferred method is. Make sure it is smooth, and lump free.

Pour it into a nice plastic round bowl. (I like to use plastic rather than metal, because when the chocolate hits the metal it sets up where it touches metal, and that can make irritating little grains in your modeling chocolate).

Heat up your corn syrup so that it is warm (I put mine in the micro for 1 minute)

Pour the warm corn syrup into the white chocolate, and stir stir stir. Stir hard and fast. Use a rubber spatula so you can scrape the sides of the bowl. The chocolate will start to sieze and get

kinda stretchy-rubbery like.....it will also look kinda oily. Soon the whole mass will clean the sides of the bowl, and become sort of a ball. You're done stirring.

I line a half sheet pan with plastic wrap, pour my ball of chocolate into the pan, press it down with the spatula, so that it is flat and covers the whole pan. I then fold the plastic wrap up over the top, to enclose it, and then stick it in the fridge til hard. Then I pull out the pan, remove my wrapped "brick" of chocolate from it, and store it at room temp til I need it. When I need to use it, I break off a chunk and knead it til it's smooth. Sometimes (especially this time of year), the modeling chocolate is really hard to knead out because it's so cold. I just put it in the micro for a few seconds and that helps.

Another thing I have discovered is that if I store the "bricks" for very long they have a tendency to sort of dry out and get crumbly, so if I have time, I try to knead them out right away and store the kneaded chocolate in ziploc bags. I don't always have time though. Luckily I go through so much of it sometimes I don't have to worry about the drying out thing.

Hope that helps......

[K8memphis]

Awesome cake, Miss Anne!

edited to say - but that shoe is fantastic!!!

Edited November 8, 2004 by K8memphis (log)

[jgarner53]

Damn! I can't see the pic!

never mind. there it is. wow. I am impressed.

Edited November 8, 2004 by jgarner53 (log)

[Deborah]

Another stunning cake Annie! The whole creation is amazing--wow! Thanks for the tips too!

[chefpeon]

Thanks a lot for the kudos everyone. It's always nice to hear good stuff from your peers.

I really appreciate it.

[Wendy DeBord]

Nice work Annie (as usual). I'm just posting to ditto Annies reccomendation. Piping on spots with black frosting then going back and filling in with a gel would be very simple and highly effective.........and as a freebie-cheap for you to do.

[zilla369]

Wow. See, this is what makes eGullet an invaluable resource. Anne, that cake is amazing, and that leopard-print looks just like the fabric swatch i'd been looking at.

Not sure which method i'm going to attempt yet, since i'm on a dealine for this cake and we're very busy at work, but rest assured i will be trying the modeling chocolate recipe and method in the near future.

If the cake turns out to be at all photogenic, i'll post a picture (though i'm sure it'll never come close to Anne's masterpiece above).

Thank you, thank you everyone for your answers and encouragement!

[Abra]

Annie, I showed your cake to Shel and now he wants to marry you. I think it was the cat-o-nine tails that really did it

I swear, if I can only live near one pastry chef in my life I'm so glad Annie's the one. What awesome food art!

[bkeith]

You're talking about modeling chocolate, right?

This is my recipe:

6 lbs white chocolate, chopped (I use Guittard White Satin Ribbon out of a 50 lb box-it's already in small pieces)

2-2/3 cup corn syrup

←

Thanks for the recipe, Annie. Interesting -- I've been using a recipe from Nick Malgieri that calls for a fair amount more corn syrup. And I have to be careful and just fold it together. Following your instructions to stir hard and fast would almost certainly break the mix and leave a puddle of cocoa butter on top. I'll have to try yours - if it's less fussy I'm sure I'll be a convert.

Do you ever do dark modeling chocolate? If so, does the amount of corn syrup differ?

[chefpeon]

I've been using a recipe from Nick Malgieri that calls for a fair amount more corn syrup.

So what's your recipe? I'd like to know actually. Is the modeling chocolate made with this

recipe fairly soft? My recipe produces a modeling chocolate that is quite stiff....I like it that

way....I can do more things with it. The heat of my hands softens it up enough as it is anyway,

so if I started out with something soft, it would just turn to goo on me.

BTW, I was told to stir "hard and fast" so that I wouldn't get any unincorporated chocolate flakes to cause grains in it. I do end up with that oily stuff though, so the next time I make it, I'm going to stir thoroughly, but be a bit more gentle and see what happens. It's funny how you do stuff 'cause you were told to, and you don't think to question it.

For dark modeling chocolate, my recipe is still 2-2/3 cup corn syrup....the chocolate is reduced to 5 lbs instead of 6.

[bkeith]

So what's your recipe? I'd like to know actually. Is the modeling chocolate made with this

recipe fairly soft? My recipe produces a modeling chocolate that is quite stiff....I like it that

way....I can do more things with it. The heat of my hands softens it up enough as it is anyway,

so if I started out with something soft, it would just turn to goo on me.

Here's what I've been using (His proportions, my words):

1 lb semisweet chocolate

2/3 cup light corn syrup

Melt chocolate gently in microwave (1/2 power, 30 second bursts, stir each time). Warm corn syrup (15-20 seconds on high). Use a rubber spatula to gently stir corn syrup into chocolate, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl so all the chocolate is mixed.

Scrape the modeling chocolate onto a cookie sheet lined with plastic wrap. Spread it to an even thickness of about 1/4 - 1/3 inch. Cover with another piece of plastic wrap. Let set at room temperature at least overnight, but preferably 24 hours.

For white or milk chocolate, reduce the corn syrup to 1/2 cup. Be VERY careful with white chocolate. Stirring too much will "break" the mix -- fold only until the mixture is uniform.

And you're right, it is pretty soft. And that's a problem for me. I've got pretty warm hands, so I have to be very careful when I work with it. I'd love to use a batch that's not quite so temperamental. Yours sounds like the ticket.

Edited to add:

Now that I look back at it, I guess the proportions aren't all that different. 1/2 cup : 1 lb turns into 3 cups when scaled up to 6 lbs chocolate. So just a little more than yours (I had the 2/3 cup for dark chocolate in mind when I wrote my first post - with your recipe that would scale up to 3 1/3 cups for 5 lbs chocolate). I'll still try your way, though.

Edited November 10, 2004 by bkeith (log)