New Cake Lace Amazingness!

Hi Cakey friends!

As you know in my last post I made a peppa pig number 1 cake, for this Saturday I am making a peppa pig picnic cake for a little girls 2nd birthday so I have started putting the figures together and will show you step by step how I created them later this week. But now I wanted to talk about a new cake decorating product on the market that I have purchased (and sadly got a bit excited about!) called Cake Lace. It is created by the fabulous cake designer Claire Bowman and is available to buy at www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk 

I purchased the Chantilly Lace Large Mat, the spreading knife and the mixture, not cheap but was so very worth it! It is similar to the sugarveil but is a lot quicker as you put this in the oven for 15 minutes and it's ready to use, ideal for when you need it in a hurry or just need to make lots of lace.

The mix comes in two parts, a powder and a liquid.

First you put 50ml of water into the cake mixer and add 4tbsp of the powder mix. Then mix it on high speed for a couple minutes, then add 1 teaspoon of the liquid mix and mix it all on high speed for 5 minutes until all smooth.

Once mixed you then spread it onto the mat, it smells very sweet and is very sticky so don't worry about it spilling over. I was also worried as I didn't have any baking trays big enough to keep this mat flat in the oven but as it turned out it doesn't matter how it sits in the oven as the whole mat and lace is flexible so will come out perfect regardless!

Then you keep spreading the mix with the knife until it looks like this:

Then put it in the preheated oven at 50-70 Celsius, which isn't even half a gas mark so very low, for 15 minutes and hey presto! Place it upside down on greaseproof paper and carefully peel the lace out of the mat.

I lustered mine with a lustre spray, although do be careful when doing this as if it gets too wet it will start to melt a bit, but it's very flexible and easy to stick to the cake using a bit of water.

Here is the lace stuck onto the cake, I think it looks amazing and looks very effective. I got so many compliments on this cake which was actually very simple to create!

I love this new product and will definitely be using it again and again, if you are making a smaller cake or just want the border at the bottom then it is very easy to cut as I did on the top tier. But is just as effective on one tier as two.

 

Next post will be the making of the peppa pig picnic, I will finish the figures in the next couple of days and put them up for all to see and hopefully help some whose kids are just as crazy about Peppa as mine!

It had to start somewhere... part 2...

Hi Cake lovers!

Following on from my last post, you will know that I started my passion for cake decorating with cup cakes. This was where I learnt many different techniques that are easily transferable to decorate larger cakes. Obviously as cupcakes are smaller you will actually find that you perfect the techniques quite quickly as it is all about practice, and the great thing about buttercream decoration is that if it goes wrong just scrap it off and try again!

The most simple but yet effective cupcake decoration is the rose swirl, completely done using buttercream and can easily be decorating using a theme such as butterflies or hearts made from sugar flower paste.

 

Simple rose swirl with a sugar butterfly, wings dipped in glitter.

 

 

The rose swirl is very easy to do once you get the hang of it. I use the Wilton 1M star tip nozzle below.

 

You can use any star tip but I find this is the perfect size for the swirl.

 

Starting at the centre of the cupcake, pipe in a circular motion toward the outside. You will see that where you finish will not be perfect hence the sugar decorations. You can stick anything on there and is ideal for a themed wedding/party.

 

 

The rose swirl used on a wedding cake topper I made, illustrates how the techniques can be used on larger cakes and are very effective.

 

Not a great photo, but this is a mini cup cake with the rose swirl and sugar flower I made, I love this colour combination!

 

I will put up some step by step photos in a post later this week and also show you how to make the sugar butterflies and flowers etc that you can use to stick onto your cupcakes. These are great to make and keep as you can keep them in a container for weeks, so I tend to make many in one go and then I have them to hand whenever I need them.  

 

Until my next post, happy decorating!