Red Hat Society Cake

[celenes]

Greetings All,

I have received a request to make a birthday cake for a customer based on the Red Hat Society. It's a rather fancy hat with purple trim. Any suggestions for a cake that will serve approximately 20 and what would be a reasonable price.

I went out to their website so I could get a clue as to what it looks like and I think it would be fairly easy. So I say now. If I accept the assignment, I need to work on it next week because the party is February 1st.

I am a little concerned about the frosting being red. I know I can use no taste red but due to the amount of frosting I will need won't it be bitter or perhaps I could use edible glitter but that too would like a lot.

Hopeless Society Baker

[Mayhaw Man]

How about a Red Velvet Cake for the Red Hat Ladies?

[andiesenji]

Do you have an airbrush.

An ideal way is to cover the cake with rolled fondant and airbrush on a bright color.

[celenes]

Do you have an airbrush. 

An ideal way is to cover the cake with rolled fondant and airbrush on a bright color.

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No unfortunately I don't have one of those yet. Can I accomplish the same thing by using the spray on color that Wilton has? Or do you think that is not a good idea?

[JeanneCake]

Satin Ice fondant makes a red fondant - it's available in 2# or 5# buckets. Go to www.satinfinefoods.com for more info and to place an order. I don't use this brand for plain/ivory/chocolate fondant, but their colors are ok.

The other alternative is to use the chocolate plastique that Anne (chefpeon) mentioned in a previous thread. You could use the red candy melt things from the craft store or if you had powdered red coloring use that to color the white chocolate. I'd never used it before, but it was great! I might have overheated the chocolate /corn syrup because it was pretty oily when I spread it in the pan (I dabbed at it with a paper towel because I couldn't leave well enough alone) but it reabsorbed by the next day (you really want it to set overnight for best handling, I found). And it was so much fun to work with - at least for modeling! I don't know what it would be like to knead and roll out, but maybe you could do a 10" round cake and model different red hats (some berets, sun hats, sombreros, top hats, caps) and put them around the top edge of the cake. And then make a red and or purple chocolate ribbon to go around the middle of the cake....

[chiantiglace]

go get a 25 dollar paint sprayer from the hardware store and spray red tinted white chocolate over it. It will also give the cake that natural velvety finish.

Spray solution

-1part Tempered white chocolate

1Part Cocoa butter.

fill the bottle attatchment, put up a card board backdrop and go to town.

[chefpeon]

When I do hats.....and I've done a LOT of hats......I either use rolled fondant that is colored the appropriate color, or I use modeling chocolate. Most of the time I use fondant because when you use modeling chocolate, you have something working against you.......cold.

The neat thing about fondant is that coldness doesn't affect it that much and it's nice and stretchy

for smoothing over tough spots, like corners, edges, indentations and creases. When you cover a cake with modeling chocolate, you have to work fast, because the cold cake sets up the chocolate and it quickly loses pliability. If you've never covered a cake with modeling chocolate before, it can be extremely frustrating.

As I've said on other threads, whenever a client wants a cake that is a deep color, I use the fondant, since that is easily peeled off the cake and doesn't have to be eaten...whereas with

buttercream, that is not so easily done.

Airbrushing the color on can work, but you risk uneven spots, and when the cake sweats, you risk big color droplets coming off the cake and making a mess of things, so I'm not a big airbrush fan.

The chocolate/cocoa butter thing in the paint sprayer is a great idea for a hat, since it does give a wonderful (and tasty) velvety finish, but that might be quite an investment for just one cake. However, you may want to consider it, since that probably won't be the last thing you could use a chocolate paint sprayer for.

[celenes]

When I do hats.....and I've done a LOT of hats......I either use rolled fondant that is colored the appropriate color, or I use modeling chocolate. Most of the time I use fondant because when you use modeling chocolate, you have something working against you.......cold.

The neat thing about fondant is that coldness doesn't affect it that much and it's nice and stretchy

for smoothing over tough spots, like corners, edges, indentations and creases. When you cover a cake with modeling chocolate, you have to work fast, because the cold cake sets up the chocolate and it quickly loses pliability. If you've never covered a cake with modeling chocolate before, it can be extremely frustrating.

As I've said on other threads, whenever a client wants a cake that is a deep color, I use the fondant, since that is easily peeled off the cake and doesn't have to be eaten...whereas with

buttercream, that is not so easily done.

Airbrushing the color on can work, but you risk uneven spots, and when the cake sweats, you risk big color droplets coming off the cake and making a mess of things, so I'm not a big airbrush fan.

The chocolate/cocoa butter thing in the paint sprayer is a great idea for a hat, since it does give a wonderful (and tasty) velvety finish, but that might be quite an investment for just one cake. However, you may want to consider it, since that probably won't be the last thing you could use a chocolate paint sprayer for.

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Ann would you post a picture of two of your hats.

Another question for all, would you make a large hat or a small version of the hat it put it on a sheet cake?

I am still trying to figure out pricing?

I would like to tell her something today or tomorrow.

[chefpeon]

Another question for all, would you make a large hat or a small version of the hat it put it on a sheet cake?

This is a question best answered by you and the client. Which is easier for you to do? Or which one do you feel would take you less time? Find out how much the client wants to spend. Tell them which one will cost more and why (time, difficulty). What you are comfortable doing and what the client is willing to spend will give you an answer to that.

For pricing art cakes it can be tricky, and it's up to you determine a pricing system. When I do sculpted cakes I have a minimum of 20 servings. It's just not worth it to do tiny sculpted cakes (that's when I suggest doing 3-D art on the top of a regular cake). Then I have "difficulty levels".

The easiest is level A and the most difficult being level C. For a Level A sculpted cake it's $5.50 per serving with a 20 serving minimum, so that comes to $110. An example of a Level A cake would be something like a snare drum......or......a hat. A simple hat.

I will post some hats later on today.......!

[chefpeon]

Here are a few hat cakes.

This one is a zoot suit hat for 150 people. Covered in black modeling chocolate. Blue band and feather were made out of blue modeling chocolate and brushed with lustre mixed with cherry brandy.

This is a 3-D Fedora type hat done in modeling chocolate and set on top of an art deco themed round cake. Yep, it's black buttercream. I WARNED them they'd get black tongues, but they wanted it anyway.

Another 3-D hat on top of an appropriately themed quarter sheet cake. Rope is modeling chocolate.

For an Alice in Wonderland wedding theme....a Mad Hatter Wedding Cake. The top 6 inch cake is the hat. Used red fondant to cover the hat, but the brim is modeling chocolate.

[celenes]

Here are a few hat cakes.

This one is a zoot suit hat for 150 people. Covered in black modeling chocolate. Blue band and feather were made out of blue modeling chocolate and brushed with lustre mixed with cherry brandy.

This is a 3-D Fedora type hat done in modeling chocolate and set on top of an art deco themed round cake. Yep, it's black buttercream. I WARNED them they'd get black tongues, but they wanted it anyway.

Another 3-D hat on top of an appropriately themed quarter sheet cake. Rope is modeling chocolate.

For an Alice in Wonderland wedding theme....a Mad Hatter Wedding Cake. The top 6 inch cake is the hat. Used red fondant to cover the hat, but the brim is modeling chocolate.

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Thanks for posting Anne, they are awesome as I knew they would be.

This helps me alot. I have never worked with modeling chocolate before so I will have to test that out one day. My timeline is short so I don't think it will be with this project.

I think I will do the 3-D on top of a sheet cake which is what I feel most comfortable in such a short timeframe. Which means I'll be using cupcakes and probably cookies to accomplish the hat. Sound like a plan?

I'll see my customer tomorrow at my 40th birthday party so I'll briefly have a discussion with them. That is before the alcohol flows to much for my guests. I'm not much of a drinker but to appease them I'll nurse a glass of wine for a while.

Edited January 22, 2005 by celenes (log)

[Wendy DeBord]

Happy 40th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great work as always Annie.

[JSkilling]

Anne,

Those cakes are soooo cute! How did you do the military hat? And you have the best lettering I know. I remember you posting that you freehand any font. Man, I have to print out what I want and use that, whether I'm painting or piping.

[chefpeon]

How did you do the military hat? And you have the best lettering I know. I remember you posting that you freehand any font. Man, I have to print out what I want and use that, whether I'm painting or piping.

I did the military hat out of modeling chocolate.....started by placing a big ol' glob of white modeling chocolate on my table and forming a lopsided cone. Then I turned the cone upside down onto a band I had formed into a circle. Then I rolled out the bill of the cap. Made the insignia and there you go. Kinda hard to explain.......need pictures!

When I was a kid, I was fascinated with handwriting. In third grade, when we learned cursive, I used to spend hours upon hours perfecting my lettering, swirls and embellishments. Of course my math homework always went by the wayside. So that explains why I'll be glad to write on a cake, but when you pay me, just don't give me cash and expect me to make change for it!