Cake Craft discussions and questions thread

[MissKitty]

Glad you're having success with the buttercream! It's quite forgiving if you do a dodgy swirl as well - have a sharp knife or thin palette knife nearby and you can just lift a dodgy swirl away (as long as you've just done it and it's not surrounded by others). Then back in the bag and voila.

You can tell I do a lot of dodgy swirls... I get piping RSI and it plays havoc with them!!!

[MissKitty]

OK - Project Sheep is in progress. Materials acquired. Board and box sorted. Design complete. Timings planned. Risks identified. Tolerances specified - contingencies planned. Transit arranged. (Yey for my PRINCE2 qualification! - more useful outside than inside the office )

I am doing a 3 layer tall madeira that I'll carve into a rounded edged sheep-like body, covered in a marbled (ivory and white) sugarpaste to give the approximation of a woolly coat. Legs from two mini swiss rolls covered in a darker shade of ivory (sheep always have dirty legs!) For wool I'm going to do some pronounced swirls atop the base layer, because hubby can help with those and it's not too tricky for him. I'm undecided whether to do a shallow small madeira to shape into an oval-ish face, or just use a moulded lump of sugarpaste. Am inclined to the former even though it's more work - any views?

And to finish, I am toying with covering the (rectangular) board with some grass-green sugarpaste with some tufts (pushed through the extruder), and dotting some daisies around on it. Last covered board I did was of the Windows 7 default background - hand painted and shaded - it took longer than the WIndows logo cakes that sat on it...)

How does that sound? Any thoughts or suggestions?

And... never marbled a large quantity of sugarpaste before - any tips for not getting it too blended so there's still some marbliness to it?

[Fozza]

Ooo the marbled sugar paste sounds really good. My tip is buy extra! Go for the cake for the face..have you not got any oval pie dishes? I used them for the bunny ears.

[MissKitty]

[SevilleOranges]

Hello

Does anyone have a nice fruit cake recipe that would be ok to be made now but eaten on the 26th July? thank you

[Wilma]

[blackberrycrimble]

Glad it worked out well, Wilma!

Seville, sorry not to be more helpful on your qu. I am away from home at the mo and all my recipes are there!

[weasley]

[SevilleOranges]

Thank you weasley - I ended up using one i found in a book but it came out a bit dry - I will print off your recipe and use that as I need to practice wedding cakes (will it be ok for a wedding cake?) its so much better than the one that I used ! pictures on flickr - kids helped decorate

[MissKitty]

The sheep is in the oven... well its parts are. No that doesn't sound any better... I am awaiting the beeeeep that will herald the completion of the baking stage of Project Sheep, and debating whether I deserve a small tot of the special edition Jameson's we've got in

I just realised that now we have LO my cake cooling and settling space (his nursery) is no longer viable, so have to find somewhere safe in this house that's bursting at the seams to cool and stash the sheep cakes while I do them! Didn't factor that one into the project plan...

Next stage: buttercream, jam and layering

[weasley]

[MissKitty]

[MissKitty]

And the sheep is now done

I'd not have managed to stay sane with this sheep without my extruder. If you don't have an extruder, you need one! If only to play with sugarpaste and not actually put it on a cake.

[wacky12]

Try apple juice, miss kitty.

[MissKitty]