My Mum Makes Cakes!
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My Mum Makes Cakes!
Decorating cakes in artistic ways is rewarding both for the artist and the recipients. Not only do you get to enjoy doing the craft and its resulting aesthetics, but you can eat it too! Being a fan of chocolate, so far all my fancy cakes have been that flavour. I personally find most forms of icing to be too sweet to eat, but friends and family with more pronounced sweet-teeth have enjoyed munching on some of my decorations.
There's a big difference between simple cake decoration and the art of sugarcraft. The Wilton style of icing dots that form an overall picture can be very nice, but is also quite basic. By following a pattern, pretty much anyone can produce a nicely decorated cake. Sugarcraft, by contrast, is akin to sculpture, and those who cannot model in three dimensions will find sugarcraft to be much more difficult.
Most of this part of my site will focus on sugarcraft, although I do occasionally mention basic cake decorating styles and techniques. In fact, I do have several Wilton tips, the Mini Stand-up Bear Pan, and the so-called Soccer Ball Pan. I've never made a soccer ball, but I use the ball pan regularly for shapes that have a spherical or half-spherical base.
Sugarcraft uses a substance called sugarpaste (or rolled fondant) made out of mostly powdered (confectioner's) sugar with a tiny bit of liquid glucose and egg white added. There are two recipes I have been using for sugarpaste:
This recipe is from message 2172 of the sugarcraftandcakedecorating group on Yahoo. It is very rubbery when wet and dries nicely firm. I use it when I want a good, solid base cover without cracks. Be aware that its great elasticity means it will pull back a bit as it dries, so don't trim things close until it's had a chance to relax.
These are metric/UK measurements. Australians may need to alter the recipe.
Dissolve the gelatine in the water in a bain marie and then stir in the glucose and glycerine until it is liquid and warm. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and stir in the sugar. When the sugar is combined, knead into a ball until it is white, smooth and free from cracks. Store in a plastic bag. This should be enough to cover an 8" round cake.
I learned this recipe from a class at an ICES convention. It yields a nice, smooth fondant that is slightly more prone to cracking (if it gets too dry) than the one above, but reduces any problem with elasticity. I use this for models, adding a bit of GumTex/CMC/Tylose/Gum Tragacanth when necessary. In general, though, this is a super-cheap recipe because it doesn't require any specialty ingredients.
These are US measurements. Australians may need to alter this.
As above, dissolve the gelatin and mix in the corn syrup. Add wet mixture to the powdered sugar and mix thoroughly.
With both recipes, you need to keep it warm to be pliable. As you mix/knead, or if you've had the sugarpaste in storage, warm it up in the microwave for a few seconds (and I really mean a few, like 5 at a time, or it'll melt and be awful!). That'll make it easier to work with.
Avoid using liquid food colouring, as it turns the sugarpaste to goo. If you cannot find colouring paste at a craft or cake shop near you and must use liquid food colouring, I have found that you can avoid the gooey problem by premixing the liquid colour with a bit of powdered sugar. Put the amount of colour you intend to use in a small mixing bowl, then add powdered sugar slowly and mix, continuing to add until the mixture is a thick paste. This does thin the colour somewhat, but you can always add more later.
I find that it's much easier to add colour to the wet mixture BEFORE putting that into the powdered sugar. This yields a much more uniform colour more easily than repeated kneading. If you're going for bold colours, add LOTS of your gel colour to the wet mixture so that it is a dark version of the colour you want. The sugar will lighten the colour, so don't be stingy or you'll just end up having to knead in more after anyway.
Put the sugar in a large bowl so there is a well in the centre. Pour the liquid portion into the well and stir in from the sides and bottom, slowly working it into a thick paste. Don't be hasty or you'll be disappointed. Try to get the liquid mixed into the sugar as much as possible before it touches the sides of the bowl, and you'll find mixing to be much easier overall.
If your sugarpaste is too dry, add TINY amounts (as in a few drops) of warm water and mix that thoroughly in before adding any more. If you add too much water, add some powdered sugar to compensate.
If the paste is a dry-dough consistency, add a dab of shortening and knead it in. This will help make it smoother.
Even better than sugarpaste for sugarcraft is modelling paste, which is simply sugarpaste with an additive that makes it more pliable and much nicer to work with. I have used gum tragacanth for this. Gum tragacanth is a natural substance and rather expensive and difficult to find. I haven't found any yet in Las Vegas, but I did purchase some in Sydney, Australia when I was there. It was AUS$9.95 for a small vial of the stuff, and I used a bit more than half a vial per cake. A substitute for gum tragacanth called CMC/Tylose seems to be about half the cost, but I have not tried it yet. Wilton's Gum-Tex is made from karaya, an inferior substitute for tragacanth. I only use this for decorations that won't touch the inside cake at all, because although Wilton says Gum-Tex is safe, it's "not recommended for consumption," according to an email I received from them when I asked about it. Gum-Tex works better than nothing, but it makes modelling paste that stays soft much longer than paste made with tragacanth, making building difficult.
Assuming you do use gum tragacanth, add 2 tsp of it to 500g/1lb of sugarpaste.
For the cake itself, I cheat and use a heavy cake mix, such as the ones with "pudding in the mix." Actually, my current favourite, Betty Crocker's SuperMoist Dark Chocolate, has a pouch of Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Syrup to mix in...and then I always add another generous squirt from my bottle of the Special Dark Syrup. This produces a dark, rich, heavy cake. Mmmmmmm. It's also really nice with mini semi-sweet chocolate chips mixed in, although you have to be careful to not let it sit around long before going in the oven or even those mini chips sink. Give it a good stir before you pour it in the pan, and then pop the pans right in the oven. Regular-size chips always sink and make the cake hard to shape. Mini chips don't really affect the shaping.
Buttercream is used to cover cakes and go between layers, acting as a sweet glue. Royal icing may be needed for bases, highlights, etc. Chocolate paste can be used in conjunction with or instead of sugarpaste, although it has different handling properties.
These are UK measurements. Australians may need to alter the recipe.
Beat the butter in a mixer until light and fluffy. Do not allow it to overheat and melt, or the recipe is ruined and you have to start over. Add the sugar slowly while beating. Add flavouring, if desired.
These are UK measurements. Australians may need to alter the recipe.
Mix the meringue powder and water together in a bowl. Put the powdered sugar in a grease-free mixing bowl (the recipe could be ruined if any trace of grease is in the bowl). Beating on low speed, add the liquid mixture until fully mixed. The end result should be a pipable icing. Add colour as necessary (gel is preferable).
* Use the meringue powder in place of actual egg whites, since eating uncooked eggs can result in salmonella poisoning, which can be deadly. I found the powder at my local craft store in the cake decorating section, but you can also order it online from Wilton if you can't find it in the store. Dissolve two teaspoons of meringue powder in two tablespoons of warm water equals for each egg white required. Otherwise, you may be able to find pasteurized egg whites in another form.
Melt the chocolate slowly in a bain-marie or the microwave, taking great care not to scald it, as this will spoil the taste. Stir frequently while melting to prevent scalding against the container surface. Combine the liquid glucose and sugar in a bowl, warm slightly, then add to the melted chocolate. Mix thoroughly (but do not beat; avoid getting bubbles in the mix), then set aside to solidify (but do not refrigerate). Hint: when it solidifies, it will be VERY solid until kneaded, so put it in a plastic bag or some other container you can peel off easily. The first time I made this, I put it in a plastic tub and ended up having to cut the tub away from the chocolate to remove it.
Knead the chocolate paste (warming it up very slightly if necessary, but do not melt). Place between thick plastic to roll - do not use cling-wrap, as this will break up and embed itself in the paste. You can also model it much as you would sugarpaste; more easily in that it doesn't dry out like sugarpaste, but being more careful in that the heat from your hands can melt it.
These directions are generalized for all cakes. Some cakes will require more or fewer of these steps, or additional steps not mentioned.
For a step-by-step example of how to build an advanced cake, see the Discworld cake page or the orc head cake page.
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Page last updated July 7, 2007.
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