Straw frosting
Has anyone made a cake that resembles a straw bale?
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Linda Wolff on
-
Hi Lynne, my scanner/printer is down today and I need to have my husband look at it tonight, so I'll try to better explain the details.
First, I went through all of my scrap fondant to see what colors I had that I thought might work as a wood tone. I had some yellow, pumpkin orange, black, tan, and white. I didn't bother trying to mix them up because I was afraid I would lose any potential wood grain if I did, so I took each color and rolled each one out into a sausage roll, long and kind of skinny. They were all different sizes because I had more of one color and not so much of another. Once I had them rolled into long rope type sausages, I lined them all up together and kind of twisted them together as if you were making a rope, but not tight. Just enough to hold them all together. Then I started rolling the fondant out both by width and length until it was about the size I needed. Then, I took my pizza cutter and cut strips on the length side to form boards. I think I cut about six long strips. Then I picked up one strip and turned it so that it was 180 degree flip. That way the 'grain' of the wood wouldn't be continuous in one direction. I wanted it to look like wood that had been planked together, and not just one big piece of wood. If you look at the picture, you can see where I cut the strips on the length. Unfortunately, when I started rolling the fondant again, my nice straight cut lines ended up curvy as I was rolling it. It was at a point of no return by this time, so I just kept rolling until the fondant was rolled out enough to cover the board. It looked so ugly. Bright yellow, black! It was just plain ugly! But I figured I would use food paste or anything else to get that to look like wood, so I just kept going. Once I trimmed the edges of the fondant and let it rest for a few minutes while I mixed up the Ever-clear and brown petal dust, (just sprinkled some in-not a lot) then I was ready to give it the old American try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I figured that my big fan brush would cover more area in one swoop, so swoop away I did. I couldn't believe it! It acted just like stain on a piece of wood. I let it dry, which took no time at all, and then I went back with another coat. That's it. Very simple. I wish I had tried that on my gardening cake for the wood.Whoops, I neglected to mention that with those strips, you pick up one and do the 180 with it, then skip a strip, then do the next one and do the 180 flip, and continue this until all of your strips have been flipped.
If you need anything else answered, just ask. I'll do my best in trying to explain. :0) Lynne Salmon said:......took several long thin rolls of white, yellow, pumpkin color orange, tan and black and rolled them out on a plexiglass 'board' until they were fairly thin. Then I sliced the sheet in 2 or 3 inch strips and turned every other one in the opposite direction and placed them back beside where they were to begin with. Then I rolled and rolled until the fondant covered the entire plexiglass board. I trimmed off all of the excess with a pizza cutter. It looked hideous, but was still streaked like wood grain, or like zebra stripes....until I added the magic potion.............
that IS the most real looking 'wood' I have seen! Incredi\ble is right!
BUT...........I don't follow the instructions. The part about turning everyother one? Can you make a line sketch to show us? when you get time of course.
not only is the wood increditble your basketweave and the pumpkin are delightfully real looking too:)
-
Permalink Reply by Lynne Salmon on
-
thanks Linda. I think I understand now.
-
Permalink Reply by jan daniel on
-
Here is the finished cake. Much thanks and kudos to everyone of you for your help, encouragement and guidance. The top tier icing is coconut-almond, the rest buttercream. The cakes are white almond wedding, chocolate-coconut and triple chocolate. The "pies" (not pictured) turned out great... white almond peach and cherry-chocolate. They were placed on the barn floor with the blue ribbon. The topper was the country boy and girl (boots and hats). Gum paste sunflowers (teeny lady bug on one), daisies, hydrangea, viking, roses, spray roses, hypericum, curly willow, filler, barbed wire and horseshoes. Fondant bandanas and barn floor. The twine is twisted licorice whips. This cake travelled 1 1/2 hours incident free. The driveway was treacherous with ruts... The braced board slipped, the cake fell against the wall of the jeep, I suffered a meltdown, tried to repair it as best as I could. I was so embarrassed and angry that the wedding cake, in my opinion, was ruined. The front was so-so, the back looked like... have you ever seen a smash cake after the candles have been blown out...
- Attachments:
-
-
rachelcake1.jpg, 2.8 MB -
rachelcake2 copy.jpg, 2.6 MB
-
-
-
Jan, I tried to post on your picture yesterday but I had spilled coffee all over my key board and totally ruined it. :o(
Anyway, awesome job on the cake! It looks HUGE! I hope you got paid accordingly. It looks like you used a ton of fondant. Did you get pictures with the pies on too? All of the colors look amazing together. Your hay turned out great, the wood looks great, everything looks beautiful together. You should be very proud of this cake. You put a lot of work into it. I had my BIG cake disaster last September with my niece's wedding cake. It was hot enough to fry an egg outside that day, butter cream iced cake, air conditioning in our van went out on the way, and an hour long drive on a pavement road that was being totally resurfaced the whole distance of our trip. Bump, bump. bump the whole drive and on each bump the icing slid down the cake until it was almost a puddle on the board. By the time we got there, it was a total mess and I literally had to scrape off all the icing and redo the entire cake. It didn't even remotely resemble what it looked like when I was originally done. Thank GOD that she had real daisies that she wanted on the sides of the cake ready for me. I used every last daisy she had to cover that awful mess. Talk about melt down!
jan daniel said:Here is the finished cake. Much thanks and kudos to everyone of you for your help, encouragement and guidance. The top tier icing is coconut-almond, the rest buttercream. The cakes are white almond wedding, chocolate-coconut and triple chocolate. The "pies" (not pictured) turned out great... white almond peach and cherry-chocolate. They were placed on the barn floor with the blue ribbon. The topper was the country boy and girl (boots and hats). Gum paste sunflowers (teeny lady bug on one), daisies, hydrangea, viking, roses, spray roses, hypericum, curly willow, filler, barbed wire and horseshoes. Fondant bandanas and barn floor. The twine is twisted licorice whips. This cake travelled 1 1/2 hours incident free. The driveway was treacherous with ruts... The braced board slipped, the cake fell against the wall of the jeep, I suffered a meltdown, tried to repair it as best as I could. I was so embarrassed and angry that the wedding cake, in my opinion, was ruined. The front was so-so, the back looked like... have you ever seen a smash cake after the candles have been blown out...
-
-
Faux straw, but not for bails of hay. I finished the cake that I am going to take to our September confection show and needed a 'filler' for the top of the basket, so decide to try and create that straw type of filler that you can buy for baskets. I colored some fondant straw color and forced it through an extruder. When it came out, it looked like whole wheat spaghetti. I kept fluffing it up a little to get it to dry, which didn't take long, and then broke it up. It kind of reminds you of Ramen noodles broken up, but once in the basket it looks pretty much like the packing straw. I don't know if you can see it in the pictures, but it sure made a great way to cover a multitude of underneath junk on the cake.
- Attachments:
-
-
IMG_20110909_140651.jpg, 1.7 MB
-
fruit basket8.jpg, 1.9 MB
-
fruit basket cake1.jpg, 3.1 MB
-
-
-
Linda, It's beautiful! I am in awe! I invested in an extruder and my bestie, Susan Fuller, made the barbed wire and stems with it. I love the extruder. I got it at Michael's and used a 40% off coupon. This cake was the first cake that I really have used gum paste for flowers. I did make bunnies with some a while back. Your basket is beautiful! Is that gum paste? I think what I really enjoy is problem solving, the "how do i get this to look like that".
I used four 11x15, 2-8" and 2-6" rounds and 5 9" pie tins. It served 232. As for charging... I didn't know what to charge, I far exceeded what I got for supplies.... and was going to ask for more... and then... the disaster. So I don't feel right about asking for $. However, an expensive lesson learned, I will charge from now on, but I am not sure how to. Help? The bride is such a close friend of the family too. We would do anything for these guys, which is why I guess I was so upset when this cake went pffft. If I get pics of the end product I will post them for you.
-
Permalink Reply by Gayl Colding on
-
Jan your cake looks good. I love all the flowers. I am sorry you had such a hard time with delivery. I too live down a rough rock drive. Cakes are definately a challenge to transport.
Linda your fruit basket cake looks amazing. You are very talented. Everything is so clean & realistic. I would love to have half your talent. Did you use an airbrush on your fruit?
-
-
Gayl, Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! You rock!
Gayl Colding said:
I had to make a bale of hay a few months ago. I tried a few different tips & knew it would take forever going that route. I finally looked around my house & came up with this. I iced the cake in buttercream & then used a hair pick & ran it back & forth over it until it resembled hay. This worked perfect & some of my cake friends have already adopted this idea. - Attachments:
-
-
rachelcake1.jpg, 2.8 MB
-
rachelcake2 copy.jpg, 2.6 MB
-
-
-
I do have an airbrush, Gayl, but it is such a pain dragging it out and then cleaning it up again that it is just easier brushing petal dust on the fruits with an artists brush. After looking at Jan's cake and your cake I know I will definitely use the hair pick for making the hay for bales of hay. Although, we probably need to rename this 'tool' (LOL) when we tell customers how we make it look so real. Both of your cakes make me want to have a fall party! My best friends 40th wedding anniversary is in October, so I am hoping I can sell her on the idea. She lives in a log cabin/house and has chickens and horses, so I really think she would go for it.
Gayl Colding said:
Jan your cake looks good. I love all the flowers. I am sorry you had such a hard time with delivery. I too live down a rough rock drive. Cakes are definately a challenge to transport.
Linda your fruit basket cake looks amazing. You are very talented. Everything is so clean & realistic. I would love to have half your talent. Did you use an airbrush on your fruit?
-
-
Gayl, the driveway was at the delivery site... you would have thought the coordinator would have clued one in. But, it's a lesson learned, in the future, I will research more on the roads travelled!
I want an airbrush, hoping Santa will bring it.
I am with you on Linda's talents!
Linda Wolff said:I do have an airbrush, Gayl, but it is such a pain dragging it out and then cleaning it up again that it is just easier brushing petal dust on the fruits with an artists brush. After looking at Jan's cake and your cake I know I will definitely use the hair pick for making the hay for bales of hay. Although, we probably need to rename this 'tool' (LOL) when we tell customers how we make it look so real. Both of your cakes make me want to have a fall party! My best friends 40th wedding anniversary is in October, so I am hoping I can sell her on the idea. She lives in a log cabin/house and has chickens and horses, so I really think she would go for it.
Gayl Colding said:
Jan your cake looks good. I love all the flowers. I am sorry you had such a hard time with delivery. I too live down a rough rock drive. Cakes are definately a challenge to transport.
Linda your fruit basket cake looks amazing. You are very talented. Everything is so clean & realistic. I would love to have half your talent. Did you use an airbrush on your fruit?
-
-
You know, Jan, from the pictures you really can't see any disasters. Were these pictures taken before delivery? That bale of hay must have weighed a TON! Four stacked, huh? Did you cut the cake so that people got the right serving size, or did someone else? Sometimes when you have a large cake like that, the cutter cuts all the way down to the board and serves too much cake. Did you have a cardboard between the four layers? How you placed your flowers and bandana-everything just had such an appeal to it.
I don't buy pricey things like extruders and such unless I do have a good coupon. I got mine from Hobby Lobby with the same deal. A 40% off computer coupon. Sometimes I think their prices are outrageous for this stuff! Those little pots of petal dust-$5.50!! Ridiculous!
jan daniel said:Linda, It's beautiful! I am in awe! I invested in an extruder and my bestie, Susan Fuller, made the barbed wire and stems with it. I love the extruder. I got it at Michael's and used a 40% off coupon. This cake was the first cake that I really have used gum paste for flowers. I did make bunnies with some a while back. Your basket is beautiful! Is that gum paste? I think what I really enjoy is problem solving, the "how do i get this to look like that".
I used four 11x15, 2-8" and 2-6" rounds and 5 9" pie tins. It served 232. As for charging... I didn't know what to charge, I far exceeded what I got for supplies.... and was going to ask for more... and then... the disaster. So I don't feel right about asking for $. However, an expensive lesson learned, I will charge from now on, but I am not sure how to. Help? The bride is such a close friend of the family too. We would do anything for these guys, which is why I guess I was so upset when this cake went pffft. If I get pics of the end product I will post them for you.
-
-
........when you have a large cake like that, the cutter cuts all the way down to the board and serves too much cake. Did you have a cardboard between the four layers?.............
Yes, using a cakeboard between the layers is how you prevent cutters from serving super tall slices of cake :)
Popular Cake Searches
© 2024 Created by Theresa Happe.
Powered by
