Tube made from a mold I made

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Comment by Linda Wolff on April 17, 2012 at 7:59am

I'll be looking!

Comment by Mandy Nel on April 17, 2012 at 2:37am

Oh wow Linda, thank you so much - your instructions are very clear and I would never have thought of the puffy paint - had thought of silicone tube or something like that - thank you, keep your eyes peeled for my feedback :-)

Comment by Linda Wolff on April 16, 2012 at 10:24am

Mandy, you can make your own impression mat. I hope I can explain this so that you can understand my directions. In our office supply stores here in the USA there is material called Mylar sheets that are see through that normally you would use for an overhead machine to project things onto a wall so that you can see it larger. Anyway, if you use a Mylar sheet of paper or some other see through sheet, (you could use a heavier tablecloth see through piece of vinyl too) if you will measure it to the size of your sides of how tall your cake is, (usually 3 to 4 inches tall) this would be the size for your pattern for the heigth and then you can make it horizontally however long you want it. Tape this sheet over the pattern that you want to transfer to your cake. Using a puffy paint from a craft store, the kind that is used on clothing, you can trace the pattern with the puffy paint and let it dry completely. Most puffy paints are non toxic, so check before purchasing one. Once it is dry, you will have a transfer sheet or impression mat that is custom made by you and can be used over and over again. If you wanted it as a impression mat, I would use the see through tablecloth vinyl and not the Mylar. It can be purchased in the fabric store to the measurement in length to what you want and it would be much more durable than the Mylar sheets. But the Mylar sheets are awesome to use when wanting to do a design in melted chocolate and then wrapping around the cake while still soft (no sheen on the chocolate) and placing in the refrigerator. In just a few minutes you can take your cake out and have this really beautifully chocolate wrapped cake that is very smooth on the sides. Hope this makes sense. Sometimes I have a hard time explaining directions. Just ask me if you have any questions.

Comment by Mandy Nel on April 16, 2012 at 9:29am

thank you kindly Linda - I am going to the site right now :-)  Also very keen to find out if one can make one's own impression mat for wrapping chocolate around cakes?  I have a bride wanting a "paisley" design but to try and source that in my neck of the woods is proving to be more difficult - I see Autumn Carpenter does a beautiful one, but the money when one converts from dollars to rands AND the added postage AND our customs and excise make the sheets tooooo dear for my poor purse :-)

Comment by Linda Wolff on April 16, 2012 at 9:07am

Mandy, we had been having a discussion in the self taught cake decorators forum on how to make certain things by using a homemade mold from a product called Amazing Mold Putty. It's a product that is food safe that you can combine two different parts of the putty to activate it to harden, and you have just a few minutes to form around the object you want to make a mold of before it totally sets up. After about 20 minutes or so, the mold can then be used to mold something from gum paste or fondant or modeling chocolate, etc.  Here is the web address if you would like to read more about it: www.moldputty.com  

Comment by Mandy Nel on April 16, 2012 at 8:51am

what is moulding putty?

Comment by Linda Wolff on April 16, 2012 at 8:45am

Well look at you, Sandy! You are on a roll! Awesome! Isn't it fun to have more options using that molding putty? My daughter is a stylist and with your cake, it has given me some ideas what to do for her in August for her birthday. =O)

Comment by Mandy Nel on April 16, 2012 at 8:42am

what fun!  This fondant really is playdough for adults - wish I had discovered the joy of working with it earlier in life :-)  Love the tube and your seahorse