I have a few favourite tools that I always have ready whenever I make gum paste decorations. I like to call them my gum paste helpers:

A: The “egg foam trays”, are always good to have. They are great when making Hydrangea’s and 5 petal flowers.

B: My cornstarch container. I use this for gum paste decorations such as pearls and other types of decorations that is round in the shape. This way can I prevent a “flat” backside on the decorations.

C: For roses, lillies and other types of flowers these Celformers (from Celcakes) are good to have. I also use them when making heads for my figurines. You can even make them yourself with a glass and foil. Cheap and easy!

D: Small plastic palette trays for small cut out flowers.

There are one gum paste helper that I dont have but would soo love to have. One of those “trees” with lots of dowels, where you can hang your wired flowers and dry your bow loops on. I have thought of maybe make it myself with a little help from my DH. I just need to work at little more on how I (he) should make one

Here are some simple DIY tips on how to make some “gum paste helpers” yourself:

1: Ziplock bags in different sizes and filled with dried beans or rice. Perfect to mold in shape. These are especially great if you need to dry larger items, like long leafs ect. Remember to give the bag a light dusting of cornstarch to prevent the gum paste from sticking to the ziplock bag.

2: Appel foam trays or other types of fruit trays from your local grocery (well cleaned of course) are also good to use when drying wired flower petals.

3: A long wooden dowel or broomstick placed between a pair of chairs, are a good place to hang your wired flowers or bow loops to dry in perfect shape.

You are welcome to share if you have a good tip on what you use.

Happy Caking!

Louise

Posted by Louise

Just finished one more of the “old” tutorial updates. This time it was for the cupcake flower, that many have asked about the past years. It is my all time favourite and I really like it together with the swirly blue cupcakes.

I have two more tutorial updates on my list that I am working on and you are proberly wondering by now, what’s up with all this tutorial updating? Well I cant tell you yet, but hopefully very very soon. All I can say, is that it will be super sweet and I am sure that you all are going to love it

Happy Caking!

Louise

Posted by Louise

I love aprons and this vintage-inspired cupcake apron is just the sweetest. It is from Carolyn’s Kitchen who makes fantastic retro style aprons. Carolyn have been so kind to donate this pink cupcake apron for a give away.
So if you would like a chance to win it, then please leave me a comment in this post and remember to tell me if aprons are HOT or NOT!

I will use random.org integer generator to pick out the lucky number and the deadline will be Friday, Febuary 26. 2010 at 8.00 p.m GMT+1 This give away has ended.

The lucky winner is #236

Congratulation to Wanda!

NOTE: the giveaway competion can only be entered by leaving a comment. Any emails send directly to me will not be considered!

Happy Caking!

Louise

Posted by Louise

As a follow up to the questions about the ribbon bow that was on my Valentine’s cake. Have I made a tutorial on how to make a ribbon bow for your cake. Remember to prepair your cake for the ribbon, by getting a nice and straight crumb coat -before the fondant cover. A side scraber is a great tool to use for that.

This is what I use:
Ribbon
Measuring tape
Scissors
Piping gel
Small brush
Double sided tape
And of course a cake.
Step 1:
Measure around the cake and add 1/2″ extra, so that the ribbon can overlap. Cut the lenght of ribbon that you will be needing.

Step 2:
Brush a thin coat of piping gel around the base of the cake. Let the piping gel dry until just slightly tacky.

Step 3:
Add the ribbon around the cake and make sure that it is all smooth. Brush a little piping gel on one of the ribbon ends and “close” by overlapping.
Note: I prefere to have the overlap at the “back” of the cake.

Step 4:
Find out how big you want the bow loops to be and cut a piece of ribbon in the desired lenght. Place a small piece of double sided tape in the center and fold in the ribbons.

Step 5:
Add another piece of double sided tape in the center of the bow. Cut a small piece of ribbon just long enough to go around the middle of the bow. Fold in the ends nicely.

Step 6:
Fasten the ribbon bow at the front of the cake with a small piece of double sided tape and you’re done.

Step 7:
If you want to make a double bow. Just cut an extra piece of ribbon at step 4 Make sure that it is a little longer than the first piece of ribbon.

Happy Caking!

Louise

Posted by Louise

I just wanted to let you all know that I am working on updating the tutorials. So far I have updated two of my tutorials with new photos and a little text editing:

How to decorate cookies with rolled fondant
How to make a turtle cake topper

Whenever Im not making new cakes or work on new tutorials, I will be updating the “old” as I go. For those of you who are new to my site, please do make sure that you visit my tutorial page. There are a lot of great things to learn.

Happy Caking!

Louise

Posted by Louise

With long anticipation, here is my very special Valentine’s cake with roses. Special, because today is Valentine’s Day but also because my lovely husband and I have been together for 10 years. So I can not find a better way than to celebrate it with a gorgeous, delicious and romantic cake filled with love. I got inspired by the colors I used for the paper cone and with the small gumpaste roses that I showed you earlier it makes a perfect match.

Inside the cake is a nice chocolate cake and strawberry mousse. As I had forgot to buy more eggwhites for the Italian Meringue Buttercream that I just love to use for the crumb coat, I had to use a regular buttercream. Not the best choice, since it is so difficult for me to do a nice crumb coat with the regular buttercream. The IMBC is soo much better, but after a little struggle it did end up with a nice buttercream coat to seal the strawberry mousse well indside the cake.

As promised a photo of how the cake looked on the inside.

I wish you all a very Happy Valentine’s Day.

Happy Caking!

Louise

Posted by Louise

I love to craft things that I can use for beautiful gift wrapping for my homemade treats. This paper cone will hide the sweet cookie hearts decorated with rolled fondant. Maybe for a little Valentine’s Day gift?

Remember that if you use rolled fondant on your cookies Then let them dry for 1-2 days in a cardboard box. That will “harden” the rolled fondant, so it wont be sticky when packing. Also the cookies can make grease marks on the paper. So remember to pack them in a plastic/cellophane bag or grease proff paper, before packing them in paper gift boxes or like here a paper cone.

Happy Caking!

Louise

Posted by Louise

I just wanted to show you a little sneak peek of my next cake project. I will be using these small gum paste roses for a very special Valentine’s cake this year. But you will have to wait to see the final result.

For those who have asked about a tutorial please see this rose tutorial.

Happy Caking!

Louise

Posted by Louise

I have received many requests on the race car cake toppers that was on my sons birthday cake last year. So here is my tutorial on how to make a race car cake topper.
It is made out of gum paste, but I have used store bought black rolled fondant for the wheels and the helmet.

TIP:
The “body” of the race car, starts with a smooth round ball!

This is what I use:
White gum paste
Black rolled fondant
Small amount of white rolled fondant
Gel paste color
Rolling pin
Cake smoothers
Tylo glue
Cornstarch (to prevent the fondant from sticking to your work board)
Small knife
Piping tips or small circle cutters in various sizes
Small paint brush
Ball tool (JEM)
Strip cutter (JEM) If you dont have a strip cutter, then you can use a ruler.
1 small plastic bag (not showing on the photo)

Step 1:
Start coloring the gum paste in your chosen color. Roll the “ball” into a cone, making sure that you keep one of the ends a little thicker (and the other end a little thinner). I try to keep the lenght of the race car to about 3″ (8cm).

Step 2:
Flatten the sides of the race car, using a pair of cake smoothers. Place the car inside a plastic bag and set aside. This will preventing it from drying out.

Step 3:
Roll out some gum paste about 2mm in the same color as the race car. Cut out the spoiler with the small knife. I cut out mine by hand, but you can of course use a ruler if you like. Make sure that the spoiler is a little wider than the race car. Set aside to dry completely.
TIP! Make extra spoilers. If the first one should break.

Step 4:
Roll out some of the black rolled fondant about 5mm thick. Find 2 different sizes of piping tips or circle cutters and cut out 2 large and 2 small pair of wheels. I have used round piping tips to emboss the center of the wheels. Set aside to dry.

Step 5:
Take some white rolled fondant and roll it out thinly. Use the strip cutter or a ruler to cut out 1 fondant strip.
Note: Do not cut out the fondant circle before step 9

Step 6:
Take out the race car from the plastic bag. Brush a very thin coat of tylo glue on the back of the white strip and attach it down the middle of the race car. Trimming of any excess of the fondant strip with the knife. Use the ball tool and make an indentation in the middle of the car, where the “driver” will be sitting.

Step 7:
Take a little black rolled fondant and roll it into a little ball/helmet. Make sure that it fits into the indentation of the race car. Brush a little glue and place the ball/helmet in the indentation. Cut a small strip of white fondant for the face shield and glue it on the ball/helmet. Set a side to dry.

Step 8:
When the wheels are almost dry, glue them on the race car with tylo glue. Small wheels at the front and large wheels at the back.

Step 9:
Roll two small oblong balls and glue them on each side on the white fondant stripe on the back of the race car. Brush again a very thin coat of glue and carefully attach the spoiler. Finish off by cutting out a small circle out of white rolled fondant and glue it on the front of the car.
TIP! It is easier to write the number of the race car, when the white fondant is all dry!

You now have a race car cake topper!

Happy Caking!

Louise

Posted by Louise

I have been lucky to receive a free copy of the Cookie Swap: Creative Treats to Share Throughout the Year book. The book immediately caught my attention, as I have never hold a cookie swap party, or been to a cookie swap party before. So I was very curious to see what this book was all about.

It is written by the author Julia M. Usher who is a celebrated pastry chef, food writer and stylist. You can find eight cookie swap theme parties in the book, along with over 50 different cookie recipes. You can also find decoration and invitation ideas for the cookie swap parties aswell in this book.

The great things about the book, is that I wanted to hold a cookie swap party right away, after a quick browse through the book. I love the fact, that it can be used for so much more than just cookie swap parties. Take small parts from the book and you can hold a perfect tea party, make a fantastic dessert table (just add the cupcakes) or find new inspiration for your iced sugar cookies.

It also have some very sweet crafty ideas, like the gorgeous wedding cake boxes shown in the photo below. The “rescource” list in the back of the book is very detailed, which makes it easy to find cookie cutters and special ingredients.

The less great things about the book is that I that I really miss more detailed step by step directions with photos in the book. Also its a bit disapointing that I could not find any directions for some of the cookies that was pictured in the book, like the owl cookie from the cover.

In my point of view, directions on how to make the creations is just as important, if not more, as having beautiful inspiring photos to look at. The last less great thing is, that it would have been really nice to have some templates for the unusual shaped cookies in the book.

Overall this book a fantastic scource for your next party if you love cookies. Still I think the book is for the more experienced cookie baker/decorator as it can be hard for a beginner to use it, because of the lack of detailed directions.

You can get the Cookie Swap book her:
Cookie Swap UK
Cookie Swap US

Happy Caking!

Louise

Photograph by Steve Adams from “Cookie Swap” by Julia M. Usher. Reprinted with permission of Gibbs Smith.

Posted by Louise