November 2008
We had demos galore this month!
Candy Cane Angels
Paulette Karras' demo was making candy cane angels. She piped royal icing with a 2D tip to make the body of the angel on the candy cane. Using tip #2, again with royal icing she piped a round head, tip #3 for yellow hair and white halo on wax paper and let dry. She used a food color pen to make eyes. (The head needs to be made in advance and let dry.) With tip #16, she piped arms around the candy cane. Finally, she added yellow wings on the back of the body with tip #3. Photos here. This is an inexpensive, fun and festive treat to share for Christmas. Thanks Paulette!
Chocolate Cherry Turkey
The next set of demos was given by Christy Vega. To make the turkey, Christy used a chocolate covered cherry as the body. Using a small leaf cutter, she cut out leaves in 3 colors of fondant to make the turkey's feathers and attached them to the back of the cherry with royal icing. ( buttercream or melted chocolate would work as well) Christy suggested to add Tylose powder to the fondant so it would dry faster. She rolled out a tear drop shape of brown fondant to make the turkey's head, added an orange beak and used a black food writer pen to make eyes. Then added a red fondant waddle.
Sugar Cone Cornacopia
Christy's second demo was making a cornacopia using a sugar cone. She shaped a cone of brown fondant and attached it to the pointed end of the sugar cone, curling it slightly upward. Using brown buttercream, she piped lines over the entire cone, back and forth and added a rope border at the cone's opening. She shaped various colors of fondant to make fruit to be added inside the cornacopia. Green leaves could be piped inside as well to add color. This would make a fun and unique topper on a pumpkin pie or Thanksgiving cake. Great idea!
Snow Elf
This adorable little elf on a sleigh were made using a Milano cookie and fondant. Christy shaped a cone of red fondant, tapering it at one end and positioned it into a sitting pose to make the elf's body. She added arms by making a log of fondant, tapering only the center so each end would have a rounded hand shape. She rolled a ball of flesh colored fondant for the head and added pointy ears. Eyes were added by using a black food writer pen. She rolled another red ball of fondant into a log, tapering it at one end and using a ball tool formed the elf's hat. Brown fondant log shapes were used to make the rails of the sleigh and added to the cookie with buttercream to hold them in place. Great job Christy! Thanks for all the demos!
Pate a Choux Swans
Kathy Turner did a demo making Pate a Choux Swans. Pate a Choux is another name for cream puffs. She cooked the mixture over heat using butter, water and flour, added eggs and then transfered the dough into a piping bag. She piped question mark shapes of dough to form the swans head and neck onto a greased cookie sheet. Then piped round balls of dough for the body. After baking, the tops were cut off each cream puff, and the base was hollowed out. Pink whipped topping was piped into each cream puff. The tops of each puff was cut in half and inserted into the whipped topping to make two wings. Finally, the head was inserted in the center of the body and powdered sugar was sprinkled over the top of eash swan. Kathy shared that she's made these treats for baby showers and for other occasions too. Thank you Kathy!
October 2008
3D Turkey Cookie Demo
by Breanna Kealey
Breanna made these turkeys using 4 sugar cookies cut in the shape of a circle using 3 sizes of cookie cutters. Before baking she sliced about a 1/4" off one of the large cookies, the medium size and the small size to make a flat side so they could stand upright after they were cooled and ready to assemble. The other large cookie was used as the base. Each cookie was frosted with a base coating of glace' for extra taste and let dry. To assemble, she stuck one large, medium and small cookies together using royal icing, then piped on feathers in various colors using tip #352 around the top edge of each one. She attached the flat side of those cookies to the base cookie with royal icing. Then using tip #10, she piped the body and head, added sugar pearl eyes and painted on pupils with food coloring. Again with tip #352, she piped on the beak. Using tip #3 she piped the gobbler, legs and feet. A border or name could be added for extra embellishment. She suggested using the turkey cookies as place cards on the Thanksgiving table or wrapping them up to give as gifts. Sugar cookie recipe here. Great job Breanna!
September '08
Baby Cowboy Boot & Shoe Demo
by Theresa Bunch & Michel Gillette
Theresa showed her Lil' Cowboy boot which was made with gum paste in steps several steps using a 5 piece cutter set. The sole, toe and heel were cut out, formed to shape and dried. She used an embossing wheel to make stitches around the edges of the boot. Next the sides of the boot were formed around a cardboard roll inserted into the base of the boot to help hold up the sides and little straps were added to finish off the boot. Baby boot cutters can be ordered online from Kelly Hall at kettacakes@wmconnect.com
Michel made a little girl's shoe out of fondant using the same cutter set. By leaving off the tall sides of the boot, she made the shoe and added a ruffled sock and rose decoration on the top of the shoe.
Making Molds
by Vicki Vasquez
Vicki had two different types of silicone putty to make molds with. One was Chef Silicone Plastique and can be ordered online. The other was Amazing Mold Putty which can be purchased at craft stores like Michaels or Hobby Lobby. Both have two compounds that when kneaded together form a putty like paste that is used to make molds out of any hard object. Great for making a mold of something very ornate or detailed. Or for something unique that you might use over and over again. Once the mold is dry it can be filled with fondant, gum paste or chocolate to make edible decorations.
May '08
Gelatin Flowers
Maricela Rodriguez gave us a wonderful demo on how to make an edible gelatin flower mold. She started with premade clear gelatin in two differernt shaped pans, a dome and an oval. The dome pan mold was used to make a rose and the oval to make tulips. For the rose, she cut a cone shape in the center with a knife but only part way through and filled the slit with pink gelatin for the flower's center. With a grapefruit spoon, she gently slid it part way down into the gelatin to make a slit, holding it open, where she then used another spoon and scooped pink gelatin into that opening to make petals for the flower. She used another spoon with green gelatin to make the leaves. By holding the spoon at different angles, the petals were formed. After all the petals and leaves were made inside the gelatin, she poured a milk/gelatin mixture over the top which when after it set up would become the base of the flower when inverted. Instructions for this process can be found in the April/May 2004 issue of American Cake Decorating magazine. Pictures here.
April '08
Mint Favors
Barbara Ashford did a demo on Mexican Mint favors. She showed us how to assemble the favors using cornhusks that have been soaked in water to soften. Each husk was then opened up and she spread melted white chocolate ( candy melts) mixed with crushed mint candies into the husk with a spatula. Then she folded the husk as if making a tamale and tied it secure using a thin strip of another husk to hold it closed. Fun and clever idea for your next Mexican themed party! Thanks Barbara!
Sushi Cakes
Erin Taylor's demo was how to make sushi cakes. She cut out a small circle out of a frozen cake, frosted it in buttercream and wrapped a section of a green fruit roll up candy around the cake. She piped various colors of buttercream on top to make it look like sushi. Cakes can be decorated in a variety of ways including rolled in coconut or white non parils as if it were rice and topped with candies to make it look like wasabi, ginger, salmon, etc. See photos here.
March 2008
Borders
Carol Antes & Salena Massoli
Carol started the first demo showing a dummy cake she decorated with various borders and designs on the sides of the cake. She made ribbon roses with 50/50 mix of fondant and gum paste. Then shared how she makes coral with fondant/gum paste and several techniques on the sides of the cake using cutters, embossing tools and piping.
Salena did the second demo showing how to pipe multiple borders on the top and bottom edges of a cake with a shell border, string work and dots. She shared a tip on using the scrap, cut off, pointed end of a disposable piping bag that you would normally throw away ( approx 1" long) and snipping a tiny hole in the end to be used for very tiny piping work.
Gum paste high heels
Tessie White
Tessie had a display of beautiful gum paste high heels to share. She showed how to use the cutters and foam drying wedges made by Jem Cutters to make the heel, sole, top and strap of the shoe using gum paste. She used gum glue ( tylose powder and water mixture) to glue the pieces together. Pictures on the Demo photo page.
February 2008
History of Cakes
by Paulette Karras
Paulette gave a wonderful talk on the history of cakes. She put a lot of time and effort into her talk and made wonderful cakes from recipes of old times including a Martha Washington Great Cake, Boston Cream pie cupcakes, Tunnel of Fudge cake ( made by Lori Myers) amongst others.
Topsy Turvey Cake
by Vicki Vasquez
Vicki then did a demo on how to make a topsy turvy cake. She showed us how to construct this style of cake using 3 cakes per tier, each one inch larger than the next. With a knife she tapered and sliced the cakes to shape and stacked them with buttercream between the tiers and using dowel supports in the bottom tier. Pictures on the Demo Photos page.
October 2007
Gift box Demo
by Michel Gillette
Using scrap supplies like paper bags, newspapers, manilla folders, stryofoam balls, milk cartons, wrapping paper, etc, Michel showed us how she turns these items into beautifully decorated gifts boxes and bags to hold her holiday cookies. She made a frog gift box out of a milk carton, manilla folder, styrofoam balls and paper that she painted, hot glued and decorated.
3D Cookie Demo
by Rachel Calisi
Rachel showed us how to make a 3D turkey cookie using metal cookie cutters and royal icing. The 3D cutters can be purchased at cookiescubed.com or at Williams Sonoma online. On the table, she lined up a two wooden dowels as guides on top of parchment paper to measure by and rolled out the dough between them to get a uniform thickness. Then using the cutter, cut out the shape and peeled away the extra dough. By cutting them directly on the parchment paper, this helps prevent having to lift the cut pieces onto the cookie sheet. After baking the cookies, assemble with royal icing and pipe on icing to make the design.
September 2007
Ghost Cake
by Christy Vega
Christy showed us how to cover a cake with fondant to make a cute Halloween ghost. First she stacked round cakes using buttercream between layers. The cake was frozen to make for easier carving. She carved the top to make it rounded for the ghost's head, then spread buttercream on the entire cake. Next she smoothed the buttercream with a very pliable cardboard smoother and mentioned that the lid of a cottage cheese or sour cream container would work just as well. She inserted a dowel on each side of the cake with rounded balls of fondant on one end for the ghost's arms.
Next she rolled out a thin layer of fondant between two pieces of clear vinyl which helped prevent it from sticking to the counter top and made it easy to peel off the top layer of vinyl and lay the fondant over the top of the cake by peeling off the bottom layer. By gently shaping the fondant around the head and arms, the draped fondant made the ghost's body. Fondant eyes and mouth were added as well as small pumpkins around the base. With a piping bag of green frosting, she added vines and leaves on the pumpkins. Lastly, she hightlighted the entire ghost with pearl dust and wrote a greeting message on the cake board.
Hands on demo
Fondant ghosts
by June Manchak
June provided all the supplies for every member to make their own fondant ghosts. Not only did she provide the supplies, she set up each member's place setting with the entire "kit" which included styrofoam shapes to form the ghosts, colored fondant, clear vinyl to roll out the fondant on, dowels for the arms, string to measure with, the base board and extra supplies for cutting, glueing and shaping that were shared at each table.
She showed us how to cut styrofoam into the basic shapes for the ghost's head and body for this hands on demo. Using Christy's previous demo as a guide, each member rolled out small pumpkin shapes and using a veining tool, paint brush handle or toothpick made lines on the pumpkin. Cloves were used as the stem. Dowel rod arms were inserted into the styrofoam. Next everyone rolled out the fondant between the sheets of clear vinyl and layed the fondant over the ghost shape. Using black fondant, various facial features were added with some people including eyebrows and mustaches. Finally, the pumpkins were added near the ghosts on the cake board. What a lot of fun!
A huge thanks to June for all the time and effort she put into this hands on demo for all of us!
August 2007
Stenciling demos
Vicki Vaquez started the first demo by sharing how to make your own custom impression mat by using a quilting template that can be purchased at craft stores. She drew the design on the blank template, then using a detail glue gun, drew out the lines of the design with hot glue which leaves a raised impression on the template. That design gets pressed into a buttercream or fondant covered cake to make the impression which then can be filled in using buttercream, royal icing or painting, etc. This comes in handy for designs that would get used over and over. She also showed us how to make a custom stencil using a wood burning tool to cut out the design.
The second demo was by Carol Antes who showed us how to make border designs on the sides of cakes by using plastic stencil templates that can be purchased at craft stores. She used an electric pasta machine to roll out the fondant in a very thin strip, laid the stencil on top of the fondant and gently rolled a rolling pin over the top with even pressure to make the impression. Next she painted over the stencil with pearl dust to give the impression a pretty shimmer, lifted the stencil off the fondant and using a ribbon cutter, cut the strip of fondant to the width desired. Using this technique over and over to make strips long enough to go around the cake, she demonstrated how to cover the seams where each strip meets up by covering them with flowers and leaves. Carol rolled out a strip of fondant very thin, folded it in half and showed us how to make a ribbon rose. And finally she sprinkled some sparkle dust over the roses to show how adding it really makes them stand out.
The final demo was given by Christy Vega. She showed us how to make more stencil designs on the sides and tops of cakes again using plastic templates. Using blue painter's tape, Christy taped off a portion of the cake that she wanted to use the stencil on which would give a very clean, precise line when the tape was removed. Then with an air brush she painted the section below the tape in a light purple color and dusted it with pearl dust to add shimmer. Next, using a darker purple royal icing and a stencil, she held the stencil up to the side of the cake right at the tape line and spread a thick layer of royal icing on top of the stencil, being careful not to move the stencil which would cause smudging. Then gently pulled away the stencil which left a beautiful scroll design on the cake. She showed how to make the design on the top of a cake as well and dusted the raised impression with pearl dust to highlight it.
Three different techniques all for stenciling. Thanks Vicki, Carol and Christy!
July 2007
Cupcakes
by Marianne Stoesser
A last minute demo was given by Marianne who showed us how to decorate cupcakes using cookies, chocolate covered cherries, raspberries and plastic palm trees for decorations. Something simple and fun do make with children too. Thanks Marianne!
June 2007
Cymbidium orchids
by: Theresa Bunch, Paulette Karras & Jill Cole
Theresa started out by showing us how to make the center column and throat of the orchid by shaping the gumpaste, then inserting a wire stem. She frilled the edges and painted colored dust to highlight the piece. Paulette picked up with the next step of making the petals by cutting gumpaste with a flower cutter, shaping with a cel stick and coloring with petal dust. Jill finished the demo by making leaves and wrapping florist tape around each flower and leaf stem then wrapping them together to form a beautiful spray.
Cattleya Orchid
by: Phillis Dickey
Phillis shared how to make a larger orchid out of gumpaste. She premade the orchid throat and each petal using frilled and plain petal cutters. The pieces were on 28 gauge wire stems. She wrapped each petal together to form the orchid and positioned them for a realistic look.
May 2007
Ipod Cakes- by Jenn Krause
Jenn did a demo on how to make little Ipod cakes using premade brownies ( Little Debbies), candy melts, fruit slices, fruit strips and candies. With melted, colored chocolate candy melts she poured the chocolate over the top of a brownie for the coating, spread it evenly to cover completely then set aside to set up/dry. Using a wooden skewer she poked a small hole at one end of the brownie to make an opening for the headphones to be attached. Next, using a rolling pin she rolled a fruit slice out flat then with a small round cutter, cut a circle shape for the "dial". And cut a small rectangle shape of the fruit slice the width of the brownie for the stripe on the Ipod. She attached the circle and stripe on top of the covered brownie with a dab of royal icing the piped on details of the dial. For the Ipod headphones she opened a package of fruit streamers, seperated the colors and split one color more than half way down to form the headphone wires. Finally, using a Mento and Good & Plenty candy she attached them to each other using royal icing for the ear bud pieces. When dry, those were attached to the fruit streamer "wires" which was then inserted into the hole of the brownie. Fun idea for favors at a "tween" party! Thanks Jenn!
April 2007
Cake Truffles- by Lisanne Cottington
Lisanne showed us how to make cake truffles. ( aka: cake balls) She used crumbled chocolate cake mixed with dulce de leche to form a dough like batter which was then rolled into bite size balls. After melting Merkins chocolate discs with paramount crystals ( or Crisco) in the microwave, she dipped each ball in the chocolate with a spoon, completely covering each one and setting on wax paper to set. Alternatively, the balls could be mixed with buttercream to make dough and rolled in cocoa powder, powdered sugar or nuts. Finally she drizzled melted white chocolate over each ball to decorate. Balls can be prepared ahead and frozen or dipped and frozen. Very yummy! Thanks Lisanne!
Fruit Bouquet- by Pam Cavanagh
Pam did a demo on how to make a fruit bouquet using fresh pinapple, cantaloupe, grapes, honey dew and strawberries. Using a wedge cutting tool and cookie cutters to slice various shapes, she put the fruit onto bamboo skewers. The base of the bouquet was a clay flower pot with a styrofoam disc and dry beans added for weight inserted inside to hold the skewers in place. She arranged the fruit skewers using different heights in the pot and added colored marbles in between the skewers to cover the styrofoam disc. Alternatively, you could use a head of lettuce inside a basket or pot as the base to insert each skewer and fill in the gaps with greenery. Fresh fruit is best and the bouquet can be made up to 24 hours in advance. Cover the bouquet with plastic wrap and refridgerate until time to serve. Beautiful bouquet, thanks Pam!
March 2007
Petit Fours and Loopy Bows
In March Vicki Vasquez did a wonderful demo on how to make petit fours. She shared techniques on how to use stickers inside the molds to make defined designs on top of each petit four and how to paint the molds with candy melts before inserting the cake. She had beautiful samples to show including some with cut out monograms. It’s a time consuming art but she really enjoys the detail work on each one. Christy’s Cake Supply does sell petite four molds, luster dusts and candy melts. Thank you Vicki!
Carol Antes and Jerimee Aaron did a demo on how to make gum paste/fondant bows. They shared ways of rolling out and cutting the strips for each bow loop using a ribbon cutter and pasta machine. Carol showed us how to assemble a loopy bow with chocolate candy melts to hold it in place including one loop with a beaded edge and luster dust highlights. She then added curly twists and flower inserts to give the bow an extra special look. Jerimee shared how to make a two loop dress bow with tails. Thank you!
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