One of Wiltons lately new invensions that I really love, are their fantastic Fondant Imprint Mats. Flexible 20×20″ (50×50cm) mats that makes gorgeous imprints on your rolled fondant in four designs: Graceful Vines, Floral Fantasy, Happy Birthday and Star Power.

They are so easy to use:

1. Roll out the fondant on a lightly cornstarch dusted surface about 1/8″ thick (3mm). Try not to dust the top of the fondant, as the mat release itself quite easy without tearing.

2. Place your fondant imprint mat on top.

3. Take a large rolling pin and start with a firm preassure to roll the pin over the mat and fondant.

4. If you want to cover a cake, transfer both mat and fondant and carefully peel off the mat. Remember to gently smooth the fondant on the cake with your hands, so that you dont ruin the imprint.

5. If you want to decorate cookies or cupcakes? Peel off the mat carefully and now cut out the desired shapes with your cutters.

6. You can of course also make bows and ribbons using the fondant imprints mats.

If you like, you can paint the imprints with food colors or lustre dust to make more effects on your cakes, cookies and cupcakes.

Happy Caking

Louise

Posted by Louise

I have together with Confectioner’s Wares made a great beginners kit as I often receive questions about what is good to start out with if you are new in cake decorating. This contains some of the good basic tools that you will use over and over again.

Beginners Kit includes:

Icing Spatula 11″ Straight
Icing Spatula 12 1/2″ Angled
8 Color Student Kit – Gel Colors
Decorating Bags – 8″ Featherweight
Decorating Bags – 10″ Featherweight
Flower Lifter
PME Side Scraper – Smooth Edge
Deluxe Tip Set – 26 tips
Plastic Coupler

(Price $ 58,99 USD)
Sale Price $ 52,99 USD

Click here to get the kit.

But thats not all, Confectioner’s Wares have also made a coupon code exclusively for CakeJournal’s readers. This coupon code gives you an additional 10% off your total purchase at Confectioner’s Wares. So remember to enter CJOFFER at the checkout to get your 10% discount next time you visit Confectioner’s Wares. 

Note: That the coupon is code is valid until 8/31/2009 and that shipping and applicable taxes are excluded from the discount.

Happy Caking

Louise

Posted by Louise

As you all remember I forgot to take photos of the cupcakes that I had made for my brother and SIL wedding reception. I felt so bad about it, so when the kids and I was in the mood for cupcakes yesterday. I decorated three of them like I had done it for the reception, with some left over gum paste flowers. So here they are…… well these are all chocolate ones as I did three different flavours: White vanilla mud chocolate, dark chocolate mud and banana. They were all decorated like here with a spread of royal icing and decorated with gum paste flowers and sprinkles.

My fist idea was to make some with fondant tops, but the heat that day made me change my mind to make a more safe and non-sticky decoration, as royal icing stays the same when dry even though the banan cupakes are so good with chocolate frosting I went with chocolate royal icing wich is also nice on banana cupcakes.

I made in total around 60 and only three came back

Happy Caking

Louise

Posted by Louise

I know that I am late…. but my computer have been disconnected for some days and I have been away to visit some family. But now it is all up and running again. So let me show you last weekends masterpiece. As I told you in the previous post the weather was so so hot. Anything would melt within a few seconds, so I was a bit worried about how it all would go. But amazingly it all went super duper For the cupcakes…. I completely forgot to take photos, sorry!! They vanished so quick at the reception.

But I did manage to take some photos of the weddingcake As you can see I re-used the rose design from previous but mixed it with some white and cream colored gum paste flowers like primrose and hydrangeas together with gum paste pearls and green leaves. The monogram was a fondant plaque painted with brown petal dust.

Happy Caking

Louise

Posted by Louise

I have in the last week or two been so busy making lots and lots of different gum paste flowers and roses. They are all going to be used on my brother and my soon to be SIL wedding tomorrow There will both be cupcakes and a small wedding cake. The weather is soo hot here, not that I should complain though. But I do hope that it will not cause too much trouble when I am going to cover the wedding cake later tonight.

Right now I am going to fill the weeding cakes with strawberry mouse and then I am going to bake three different kind of cupcakes so I better head off to the kitchen. In between the cupcake baking I hope that I will have time to “relax” on the balcony with some nice cold pink lemonade I will post photos of the cake and cupcakes on sunday.

Happy Caking

Louise

Posted by Louise

I have been asked to be one of the five judges for the Threadcakes contest. It is Threadless who run the contest. A contest all based on your favourite tee design turned into….. a cake. The contest at Threadcakes is up and running now and it ends August 3rd. There are great prizes to win. So if you love tees and baking then why not join the fun over at Threadcakes?

Happy Caking

Louise

Posted by Louise

I received a lot of requests on how I made the gum paste strawberries for my Cath Kidston cake. So here is a tutorial on how to make them. I have used a store bought red rolled fondant, mixed with a little Tylo powder for the red strawberry. You can use the gum paste strawberries for decorations on your cakes and cupcakes.

This is what I use:
White gum paste
Red rolled fondant, mixed with a little Tylo powder (CMC)
Food gel colors: pink and leaf green
Pink non-pareils
Non-stick board
Rolling pin
Tylo glue
Corn starch, to prevent the gum paste from sticking to your work board or hands.
Small paint brush
Dresden and veining tool (JEM) or another pointy tool
Ball tool
Frill stick
Flower foam pad
Small 5 petal blossom cutter, 20mm (3/4″)
6 petal flower cutters
Strawberry Leaves & Calyxes/Set of 4 (JEM)(I did not use the calyxes for these strawberries)
Classic D/S multi purpose veiner (Sunflower Sugar Art)
Small plastic palette, to dry your flowers in

The strawberry flowers
Step 1:
Start with the white small flowers. Roll out the white gum paste thinly and cut out the flowers with the 5 petal blossom cutter. Place the flowers on the flower foam pad and thin the petals slightly by carefully pressing down the ball tool on every petal. Transfer the flowers to the plastic palette and set to dry.

Step 2:
When the white flowers are dry, brush a little tylo glue in the middel of the flowers and sprinkle with a little pink non-pareils in the center. Set aside.

The strawberry leaf
Step 1:
Roll out the leaf green gum paste thinly and cut out the leaves with the strawberry leaf cutter. If you are having trouble getting the leaf out of the cutter, then use a toothpick to release it.
Place the leaves in the multi purpose silicone veiner. Give it a light press with your hand to get them veined. Arrange the leaves in desired shape and let them dry.

The strawberries
Step 2:
To make the strawberries take some red or pink gum paste in the desired size and roll the gum paste into a ball. Make sure, that there are no cracks in the ball at this stage!. Model it into a strawberry shape.

Step 3:
Take the dresden/veining tool and make indentations like on a real strawberry with the dresden/veining tool.

Step 4:
Roll out some more of the leaf green gum paste and cut out “flowers” using the 6 petal cutter. Flatten the petals slightly with the frill stick and glue it on the the top of the strawberry. Make an indentation with the frill stick and brush a little glue in the hole. Take a small piece of leaf green gum paste and roll it into a little stem and put it into the hole. Let the strawberry dry thoroughly.

Happy Caking!

Louise

Posted by Louise

Back when I saw some cute cupcake fondant molds I was thinking of how they maybe could work as a cookie decoration. The mould is very easy to work with and it release the fondant without a fuss as long as you remember to dust it well with corn starch I quickly found out not to use too much fondant or the disc would be too thick and too sugary sweet to bite into. So I tried my best to make the disc as thin as I could without ruining the pretty roses. With these lolly’s they did get a little too thick I think.

I glued them on to the cookies with piping gel wich worked out great. Dusted the roses with pink and green lustre dusts and completed them with a piped border of royal icing dots. They look very sweet and Shabby Chic I think.

Happy Caking

Louise

Posted by Louise

I am a big fan of Sharon from SugarEd Productions and her fantastic dvd’s. Especially the previous one Boxes & Bows wich was filled with so many tips and tricks. Well Sharon is not lazy as she is out with a brand new dvd for all of her SugarEd fans.

This time it is all about the popular Topsy Turvy cakes. There are several ways this cake is made and I like Sharons and the Australian style (Madhatter) the best. So I have just placed my order for her new Topsy Turvy dvd and I cant wait to hold the dvd in my hands…..

Happy Caking

Louise

Posted by Louise

My new blog design made by the lovely Gisele Jacquenod is being installed. So there may be some minor adjustments and things not looking right at the moment. Hopefully it wont take long……

Happy Caking

Louise

Posted by Louise