Lace for Cakes

gumpaste lace applied and overpiped

There are a few ways to make lace on cakes, including piping, fondant and debossing.

The quickest and easiest way, in my opinion, is to just pipe it on freehand or by using a pattern that you've traced onto the cake. This usually works better with a really small tip, nothing larger than a 2 at the most. Here's a description of the easiest way to do that: http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2011/01/piping-lace-on-cakes.html

Another way to do it if you stink at piping, which is apparently the new trend, is to use lace molds. This is also a good way to get a lot of detail, probably more than you'd be able to if you piped the pattern on.

When you use a lace mold an important thing to remember is that you need to use a piece of whatever you're molding that's thick enough to impress a lot of detail, but thin enough to stick to the cake and not look like a big lump of glop. One way to do that is to start with a medium-thick piece of fondant or gumpaste and press it into the mold, then REALLY press it in, using a piece of plastic wrap or gloves to keep your hands from sticking to it and making it shift.

Some lace molds have a self-cutting edge, but I prefer to use an exacto knife to trim the edges. You can also use it to remove sections that would look good if the cake underneath showed through. The more sections like that, the better the lace look will be.

If you use a debossing method, which just means that you're imprinting the pattern into the icing or fondant, you'll need either an impression mat or a homemade press. Once you have that you basically just press the design into the side of the cake. This works best with a crusting buttercream...Fondant will work to a certain extent but it tends to look better on dummy cakes where you can really go to town pressing the design in. Meringue buttercreams are either going to be too soft or too hard, depending on temperature, to get a good, neat-looking design on them using a press.

You can use an actual piece of lace that has a good edge and stitching on it, like a Venetian lace, to impress a pattern into icing. This wouldn't work as well on fondant because the lace itself is going to be too soft.

Once the lace is applies to the cake, however you choose to do it, you can either leave it the way that it is or overpipe it to emphasize the pattern. The square cake at the top of this entry is overpiped around the edges of the pieces. Doing this just emphasizes the texture of the lace and gives it more of a three-dimensional feel.

You can get lace molds in my Etsy shop in the silicone molds section: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ACakeToRemember?section_id=7687858

They're also available through other online retailers, just do a google search for "lace molds" (or "lace moulds" if you want the British results).


Kara Buntin owns A Cake To Remember LLC, custom wedding cakes in Richmond VA

Cake Envy, or Who's Doing Interesting Stuff When You're Not?

How often do you look on facebook and check out other people's cake pages? Does it seem like everyone else is perpetually happy and excited about the cakes they're doing and the work they have lined up? Are you depressed when you watch cake shows that make it look like everyone else is doing super interesting work all the time?

Well, don't worry, because if you pay attention that isn't what's really going on.

Have you seen the studies that show that facebook makes people depressed because they compare their lives to their friends' lives? And that everyone seems to be doing so much better than you are all the time, so you feel crappy as a result? If you recognize yourself in that, you should remember that facebook is a big PR/marketing tool, PR is professional lying, and marketing is booze and guessing.

I've noticed recently that there are a good number of "cake celebrities" posting things on their facebook pages like "no cakes this week, so I'm messing around with display cakes." Or "only two small cakes on the books" like that's a fun thing. Call me crazy, but if I didn't have any cakes on my schedule during wedding season I'd be really worried.

Also, how many of the decorators who were on the cake challenges have gone out of business for whatever reason? I can think of four right off the top of my head who have either closed shop, scaled down their businesses, have changed to teaching a lot as their main source of income, or who have "changed direction" and no longer do cakes. 

Then there's the idea that everyone else is doing super cool designs and you're the only one who gets orders for white cakes with swirls and pearls. Well, I've recently heard a couple of people who are well-known for their unusual and fun designs say that people don't want to pay for those unusual and fun designs, and that the pearls and swirls are the cakes that pay the bills. (I recently admitted to myself that those cakes are easy to do and less time-consuming than something complicated, so I can get paid for three cakes in the time it might take to do one or two. That's a good situation, but of course the orders for the basic cakes dried up as soon as I acknowledged that basic fact.)

So those cake celebrities aren't really doing what tv and their PR machines make it look like they're doing. If they're making a decent living they're probably doing mostly traditional designs for the most part, and if they're not, they're trying to supplement their cake orders by teaching classes on topics that you won't be able to use to make money either. (How many people really order 3-D, stand-up muppet cakes? Yeah, better go pay $400 for that class for something that you'll never have a need to make.)

So if you're convinced that you're the only person who isn't having a ton of fun with cakes all the time, maybe you should stop reading about all the fake fun other people are having. They're probably exaggerating because they feel like they need to keep up with all the other fun-havers. As long as you're booking enough business to satisfy yourself, relax, consider yourself successful, and don't worry about the details of other people's businesses. Because the details that you see probably aren't the details that really matter to the bottom line.


Kara Buntin owns A Cake To Remember LLC, custom wedding cakes in Richmond VA

Craftsy Re-dos

I didn't have time to watch a new Craftsy class this week (sorry, too many cakes to do) so I've listed a few classes that would be worth taking that I've already reviewed.

First, the Nicholas Lodge Classic Sugar Flowers class. Good for the basics and it also covers a few different flowers, so you're getting more than just one thing. http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2013/01/craftsy-class-review-classic-sugar.html

Next is the Charity Pykles-George Isomalt class. Very useful and it will get you started on sugar work if you've never done it before. http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2013/01/craftsy-class-review-classic-sugar.html

Last is the James Rosselle Sugar Orchids class. The gumpaste classes obviously appeal to me, but this one was good and worth watching. http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2013/02/craftsy-class-review-exotic-sugar.html


Kara Buntin owns A Cake To Remember LLC, custom wedding cakes in Richmond VA, and is a Craftsy affiliate.

Gumpaste Raspberry Wedding Cake

This wedding cake was based on a Wendy Kromer design, but was done in buttercream instead of
fondant.

I imprinted the design in the buttercream by drawing it on with skewers.

The golden raspberries and leaves were all made of gumpaste and added to the cake in small bunches. A tutorial on how to make the raspberries is here:


Kara Buntin owns A Cake To Remember LLC, custom wedding cakes in Richmond VA

Tips for Painting On Cakes

Painting on cakes with food coloring seems so simple, but there are a few tips that you can use to
make it easier.

First, for these tips I'm assuming that you're painting on fondant. Painting on buttercream is more complicated so fondant is the easier place to start.

To do this stained glass cake I did the outlines of the shapes first using a food coloring marker. That will give you a light line to follow, but you could also paint it freehand.

The next step is to go in and put in the lighter colors. This will prevent the paintbrush accidentally picking up any dark colors and dragging it into the lighter areas while you're painting.

To do the color I used a titanium dioxide white food coloring with full-color mixed into it. You can then go back and add color to any areas that you want to be darker with the full-strength color.

If the white starts to bead up on the cake surface, mix some corn starch or powdered sugar into it. That will make it more resistant to the beading. If it's too thick, you can thin it out with vodka, but that can make it bead up more, so adding a little more corn starch will help. It sounds counter intuitive, but when you add the corn starch it makes it grip better but doesn't thicken it back to where it was to start.

When you're done painting the surface of the cake, let it dry completely, then go back and touch the color up using powdered food color. See the green leaf on the tier second from the top? And the more yellow sections on the middle tiers? Those were done with petal dusts. Use a large fluffy brush and dust away, it will give you a better depth of color and graduated shading.

When you're done with the color, paint the outlines of the shapes with a darker outline color. For this cake I used a dark brown with a little black in it since the black on its own looked too harsh.


Kara Buntin owns A Cake To Remember LLC, custom wedding cakes in Richmond VA