Barbed wire for a cake - any ideas?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Linda Wolff on January 17, 2012 at 4:12pm

Do you have an extruder? You could make your thin 'wire' with that first from gum paste, then tie the knots where needed.

Permalink Reply by Connie Walker on January 17, 2012 at 6:46pm

You can do it with gum paste works great

Permalink Reply by Rhonda Goodwin on January 17, 2012 at 8:48pm

Hi Violet...

you could also make it with licorice strings...

if you used black, I am not sure if it comes in any other color than red and black , but

you would just get a long piece and then tie shorter pieces along it and that will look just like

barbed wire.

well just a thought...

Rhonda

Permalink Reply by Connie Walker on January 17, 2012 at 8:53pm

you can use oriental noodles! get the long ones put them in water and you can put them in any shape also use petal dust to color shape dry and paint

 

Permalink Reply by Tracy Deadman on January 18, 2012 at 1:38am

I had a look on Google and it came up with some photos from cake central. Here is a link to a page where someone has asked the very same thing http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-255601-15.html the picture is very good at the bottom. Must admit when I first read your post it did sound daunting. How about just hand painting it onto the sides of the cake as a representation of it. Could look good if you are artistic (& looking at your cakes you are).
Tracy :)

Permalink Reply by Danielle Dyskin on January 18, 2012 at 6:26am

If you cover the cake in fondant you could just draw the barbed wire on with edible markers - probably easier than creating them 3D

Permalink Reply by Violet Vision on January 18, 2012 at 12:54pm

Thank you everyone for your ideas.  I have got an extruder but have found it difficult to push the gumpaste through (my extruder isn't one of the gun ones unfortunately). But having read the link you posted Tracy, I have realised that I need to add shortening to it to make it easier to push through.

I do really want to make it 3D rather than paint it on so that it looks part of no mans land. (I like a challenge!) It will be quite thin so I think I'll try making it out of gumpaste and will get some oriental noodles as a back-up.

Thank you again everyone for your advice and ideas. It's brilliant how we can all help each other out :D

Permalink Reply by Violet Vision on January 18, 2012 at 3:42pm

Have got to share this one with you. Just watching Heston's programme on Channel 4 (Sorry to those not in the UK) and he has just done 'shock freezing' chocolate which might just be fantastic for making barbed wire - or something good enough to represent it.

You need two cannisters of keyboard cleaner (the one that is just an air spray) and a metal baking tray.  You also need one or two piping bags of melted chocolate (so you can use two different coloured chocolates)

And you need to do this outside as lots of the gas will come out of the cans.

First shake the cannisters and turn them upside down.

Next spray the cans on the baking tray.  This will make the tray go to about -25 C.

Turn the baking tray over and quickly pipe the chocolate all over the tray in a big squiggle.

The chocolate will immediately freeze on the outside but it will remain soft on the inside.  This means that you can pick it up straight away and bend it around anything you want.  Once it cools down on the inside it will set solid.

I might just try making tubes of chocolate and spray them silver to make them look like wire.

Permalink Reply by Julie S on January 31, 2012 at 9:22pm

If you use the compressed air, be sure to wear latex/vinyl gloves to protect your skin. Temperatures that cold can do some serious damage!

Permalink Reply by Tamara Walker on January 31, 2012 at 10:30pm

Take a piece of wax paper and place it on a half of a paper towel holder then make some royal icing th color you need and go back and forth like a wire would look let it dry and it will automatically remove from the wax paper when it dries you could also leave it white and paint it silver for wire or a rusty color for wire I hope this makes since and helps

Permalink Reply by Tamara Walker on January 31, 2012 at 10:34pm

also for your extruder you can put some shortening on a qtip and rub it on the inside of the exdtruder and then add some shortening to your fondant just a little and it will come out of the extruder alot better works very well

Permalink Reply by Violet Vision on February 1, 2012 at 6:58pm

Thank you Julie - I'll take your words of warning on board! It sounds painful.

And thank you Tamara - Using royal icing is a great idea. I've only just got into decorating with it.  I'd heard of adding shortening to fondant to make it easier to use and like your idea of greasing the extruder itself. Anything to make it easier!

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