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Cake Decorating: Tips & Techniques


BROWNSUGA

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Do you have a secondary recommendation?

I take it you can't order wholesale from a bakery supplier, right?

If you can, most bakery suppliers (at least out here) carry the white satin ribbon.

If not, you can use nearly any good quality white chocolate, just DON'T use

white chocolate chips. They have additives to help maintain the chip shape

and do not melt well at all.

:rolleyes:

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Do you have a secondary recommendation?

I take it you can't order wholesale from a bakery supplier, right?

If you can, most bakery suppliers (at least out here) carry the white satin ribbon.

If not, you can use nearly any good quality white chocolate, just DON'T use

white chocolate chips. They have additives to help maintain the chip shape

and do not melt well at all.

:rolleyes:

Nope I can't order wholesale. I know about the chips. I just have to use a white chocolate that tastes good yet won't break the bank....hmmmm......I'll have to shop around a little.

Thanks for your advice!

Chris

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  • 3 months later...

HI All,

I am making a cake in the shape of a Campbell's soup can - label and all. It will be in the shape of a cylinder with a fondant 'label' around it. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on the following...

1. Should I roll out the fondant, paint on the writing and then apply it to the cake? If so, what is the best way to keep it from drying too much while I write on it?

2. The top of the label is red and the bottom is white. Should I make the colored label as two separate pieces of fondant (one red/one white) and then apply them to the cake individually? I know that it will be tricky to maintain a straight horizontal line where the two colors meet. Or should I just paint the top red with petal dust and apply the label as one piece of fondant?

Thanks for any and all thoughts on this.

Take care,

Chris

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1. Should I roll out the fondant, paint on the writing and then apply it to the cake? If so, what is the best way to keep it from drying too much while I write on it?

Roll out the fondant into a strip and roll it around the cake, make the top out of a circle of fondant, lay it on top, brush it with silver mixed with alcohol, also do this for the top and bottom rolled rims of the can.

I would pipe the writing on the cake (probably the easiest way).

To prevent drying, covering everything with a damp towel.

2. The top of the label is red and the bottom is white. Should I make the colored label as two separate pieces of fondant (one red/one white) and then apply them to the cake individually? I know that it will be tricky to maintain a straight horizontal line where the two colors meet. Or should I just paint the top red with petal dust and apply the label as one piece of fondant?

For the label:

Roll out white fondant rectangle then roll out red alittle smaller of a rectangle and glue on top (the bottom layer of white should be thicker than the red on top-just in case people eat it). Pipe the campbells logo with bc or gel or even white chocolate...assemble the whole label then attach it to the cake.

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"Chocolate has no calories....

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SWEET KARMA DESSERTS

www.sweetkarmadesserts.com

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Brian Fishman

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Horizontal fondant jobs are not easy. How tall is this?? What size cakes are you using? Freeze your cake so it doesn't completely squash from the weight if you cover the top first.

If you label it like the can is labeled, I'd roll out the fondant, lay the frozen cake down on it's side onto the fondant and literally roll it up that way and trimmy trim trim.

But better still, I would use candy clay, like Mike of Mike's Amazing Cakes does for gnarly stuff like that. It has more body. Is user friendly in so many ways where fondant is so unweildy for stuff like that.

I mean if it's small-ish, no problem-o. You don't ususally go petite on stuff like this though do yah?? :biggrin:

For fondant, I would go all white and do the coloring afterwards then add details with edible colored markers & paint brush. It's ok if it dries while you write on it. Petal dust? I would use dry powdered color and alcohol, like lemon extract or everclear. Test a bit of your 'paint' on a scrap to be sure all will be well. Red red is not so easy to get sometimes.

For candy clay I would color the red first, roll it together and apply red & white at the same time. Sounds good on paper anyway. Might be easier (get a cleaner line between red & white) to apply them separately.

Pictures, would love to see some pictures if possible.

In fact I'd probably use some marzipan due to it's taking color so well. I'd probably try to lay a strip of marzipan onto candy clay. Roll it out so it's smooth. I'd try that & see how it goes. But then again, using powdered color into candy clay is sooo easy--you just gotta get it intense enough on the first go 'round. Or be prepared to knead more in later or paint it over to brighten it up.

If this is small-ish it'll be easy.

Kind of rambling but just some Andy-Warhol-wanna-be thoughts for yah, Chris :laugh:

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Hi,

Thanks for your tips! This cake is for Jan. 20. I will be making 8" cakes but I have not worked out the math for how tall it will have to be -- definitely taller than 8". Is that considered small?

bripastryguy: When you said

the bottom layer of white should be thicker than the red on top-just in case people eat it
I'm unclear on the correlation between the thickness and people eating it. I'm sorry if I'm being dense.

Thank you for your generous offer of further advice via phone. I would hate to impinge on your time.

K8memphis: what type of candy clay do you recommend? The white chocolate/corn syrup combination or is there any other that you think would work better? Where do you usually purchase your powdered colors?

I will post pix (if I am brave enough :wink: )

Again, many thanks!

Chris

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You could create the "label" (the written portion) in a document (Word, Powerpoint) and bring it to your local supermarket bakery and ask them to print it out for you. Make sure they give you a heavy duty baggie to store it in, otherwise it will dry very quickly and become unusable. If you were closer, I'd offer to do it for you, I have one of those set ups from KopyKake.

I agree about using modeling chocolate (aka candy clay, chocolate plastique) for this project. Do a search on modeling chocolate - Chefpeon posted her recipe for it a long time ago and I've used it since then and it's great. As long as you don't add too much corn syrup, it will be a perfect consistency. It holds color better and looks great (better than painting with a deep color like red or black). Use candy colors - I like the liquid colors rather than powdered but either will work. If you go the fondant route, I'd buy pre-colored red fondant from Satin Ice or Cal-Java - they come in small containers (less than 5#) so you're not buying a ton of it. But I would use the modeling chocolate myself - you can cut it to precisely the height and length you need, it won't sag like fondant will and it will stay where you put it. Put the bottom part of the label on first. Then the red top half. Then the lettered part of the label. The lid goes on and gets painted silver and you're all set! You could also buy modeling chocolate if you want to - Cocoa Barry makes a great product - the white is an off-white, more of an ivory color so that might be an issue for you.

If you are stacking multiple 8" round cakes to get height, remember to use supports every 4 to 6 inches of cake. This is just like a tiered cake, except all the tiers are the same dimensions. You need to support it so it doesn't collapse under the weight.

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I just noticed you are in Chicago, cool! What part if you don't mind saying?

Umm, I just get my powdered color from my local cake store. And yes, like Jeanne said, just the 14-16 oz chocolate to a third cup of light corn syrup. Wonderful stuff. Stir gently. If it separates, no worries, just knead it all back in. You might have to microzap it a tid tad to loosen it up, but it's chocolate so go easy. It will warm up & be very nice to use for this.

If my calculations are correct, it will be approximately 10-12 inches tall if it's 8 inches around. I think soup cans are slightly smaller than this bean can I measured so... That's kind of a lot of fondant to adhere and get vertical there.

The cool thing about labels is there's so many areas that can provide 'cover' for any issues that may arise. Like the list of ingredients and a nice recipe and instructions, the bar code, not to mention the seam where the label gets glued together etc.

Freddurf's idea of an edible image is a great one. Baskin Robbins does them too. What I do is go to the copy store and enlarge my image there on a color copier. If it's gonna be 10-12 inches tall you probaby will need two copies for one soup label just depending on how much detail you're gonna use. Then you can take it to the edible image people. Or use it to freehand. Or cut it out and use it to trace the right size proportions onto the cake.

Andy will be proud!

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I just noticed you are in Chicago, cool! What part if you don't mind saying?

No problem...I live 8 miles west of Chicago in a town called Forest Park.

Wow, 12" high. The cake is for 40 people at most. I'm wondering if I should bring it down to 6" diameter. Or I guess I can use styrofoam for the additional height...hm... So chocolate clay will roll out to such a large size (12" x 26" or so) and still be manageable?

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Umm, I just get my powdered color from my local cake store.

They have liquid candy colors - I like these much better than the powdered ones only because if there are clumps in the powder, the color becomes splotchy in the chocolate and no amount of kneading or gentle heat will help that! :biggrin:

I get the liquid candy colors from Pfeil and Holing here. Just a little bit will do ya - especially for red, black and violet!

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Wow, 12" high. The cake is for 40 people at most. I'm wondering if I should bring it down to 6" diameter. Or I guess I can use styrofoam for the additional height...hm... So chocolate clay will roll out to such a large size (12" x 26" or so) and still be manageable?

Manageable? Compared to fondant it's much easier to handle. But obviously the bigger stuff gets the harder it is to deal with. But a 6 inch (cakes) bean/soup can would still be 9 inches tall. A 5 inch (cakes) bean/soup can would be 7.75 inches tall. A four inch (cakes) bean/soup can would be 6 inches tall.

These are approximate figures.

I can't say I've rolled candy clay out that big to 26 inches. I've rolled fondant that big (larger even) & it's not easy to harness onto a short flat surface, going vertical would be a disaster (for me).

I roll stuff like that out on a big plastic thing so I can pick it up & handle it easier. I think if it was me, I'd opt for the 4 or 5 incher and place it on another cake. Or make a bowl of soup cake to go with it. Sounds like fun though.

I still prefer powedered color myself for red because I need usually the whole little container to get to the red intensity and it doesn't mess with the moisture balance as much as liquid. That's just me. Dissolves fine even if I add more to the dough. That's been my experience. But I love the color in the dropper bottles for icing.

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Well, as the cake is meant to be a Warhol reference,  maybe I should make two smaller ones....or not....I'll have to think about this.

Thanks!

Chris

Not that you asked :biggrin: Cake-Buddy, but if I was asked to do a Warholesque cake I would do it flat on a sheet cake. But because it is cake I would also take my artistic license and make them like half cans (or more like a third can) so they are 3-d anyway. Even though his were all flat. I might not do all 100 cans But I'd do quite a few all in rows like that.

Y'know what would be cool? Put the 100 cans or however many fit in proportion onto a big cake can like you were thinking. Like maybe the 6x9 one because you could use buttercream and apply the edible images.

...Just got carried away with some tomato soup thoughts....

Naw, I would do all 100 on like a 17 x 24 inch cake. That's maybe a few more servings than you need but...geez that's a cool order! Have a great time with it!!

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  • 3 weeks later...

The cake was due last Saturday and everyone was happy with it - I think that includes myself. :rolleyes: I see so many flaws when I look at the photos. For that reason, I am nervous about posting it here - I guess this is a growing exercise for me. :rolleyes: So, here it is. Please be kind. :unsure:

gallery_2866_3581_25078.jpg

Thank you for all the very very helpful advice! I used two separate pieces of fondant for the red stripe and the white stripe.

Take care,

Chris

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The cake was 12.5" tall and 8" diameter. I couldn't stay at the party until the cutting but I told them how to disassemble it and apparently they had no problems with it.

It was an art themed party with a bunch of 7 year olds. The kids were so excited about the cake until the hostess told them that rather than cake, they'd be having soup. Then they got real quiet. :blink: But she corrected herself before any riots broke out :biggrin:

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Chris,

What a great job you did!  I'd love to hear the details on how you did everything and if any part gave you trouble.  For fun, you might want to check out some video of Chef Duff (Ace of Cakes) doing this same Campbell's soup cake!  It's at www.aceofcakestv.com

The day that I was to make the cake, I saw the ace of cakes one so naturally I got intimidated. :rolleyes:

I used an entirely different technique than they did. Pretty much everything is fondant. I rolled each half (the white strip and then the red strip) of the background and applied them separately. The letters were traced and cut from fondant as was the label in the center. Only the word 'condensed' was piped. The bottom row of gold 'fleur de lis' type figures was applied with a stencil that I cut out along with gold luster dust. There were 3 tiers. 2 were cake (8" in diameter by 4" tall) and 1 was styrofoam (also 4" tall) because they did not need 3 tiers of cake. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,

Chris

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ChocoChris

It this a cake??? Adorable! I looked at the pic trying to understand where did you hide the cake (may be at the other side of the tin?) :)

GREAT!

What cake is inside?

What filling?

Did You use any support (shank) inside?

And it was really quite big.

I love to decorate cakes and you may see my cakes here: http://foto.mail.ru/mail/bonya_l/1

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Hi lenabo,

The filling was chocolate icing (the recipe called it frosting). The cake layers alternated between vanilla and chocolate. The entire cake was smoothed over with the same icing so that it looked like a chocolate cylinder before I applied the fondant.

The cake did not have a support shank but each tier had its own series of supports - like wedding cake construction. It did not require too many dowels. When they served it, they removed each tier before cutting.

:rolleyes: I'm so glad that you liked it. Its a pretty quirky cake, I guess, but I've done quirkier. :wacko:

Take care,

Chris

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