Rubber Ducky Cake

I found a Wilton Rubber Ducky cake pan on eBay. I am so glad I found this and will keep it in my collection...I have a feeling this will be one well-used pan!

It seemed a little tricky to use with all the explicit directions but I followed them to the letter and the cake turned out great. The only thing I would change is that while it is cooling "for four hours" (according to the directions), I would have flipped the cake over on each side every 15 minutes, back and forth, because I laid it on one side, per the directions, and once I removed the cake from the pan, one side of the head did not match the shape of the other side and I needed to re-shape slightly with a knife.

I covered the cake board with orange fondant to match the duck's beak and I trimmed it with a yellow ribbon to match the duck. I cut a piece of blue fondant and actually rolled it into the orange so that I would have a little "lake" for the duck to sit on. Like a genius--not!--I put blue piping gel on top of the blue and then of course, the duck cake kept sliding, which I did not expect. So I ended up using an extruder with blue gum paste and outlined the lake to keep the blue piping gel in place. Once I refrigerated the duck, though, it seemed to harden up and not be an issue!

I just used star tips for the entire duck cake except for his beak and eyes. I first did a light coat of yellow buttercream before I dotted the stars on, then added the beak and eyes, and started my stars after the fondant pieces were in place. The reason I added a light layer of yellow buttercream all over was because sometimes when you do a cake covered in stars from a star tip, you can see the cake underneath if there are any spaces at all and I didn't want white cake showing underneath. This way the color was yellow everywhere.

I did NOT cut the cake to put icing in the middle. Maybe I could have but I wasn't sure if cutting the duck in half and adding a soft filling would cause a problem. I also figured that there was so much buttercream on the outside that whoever was eating a piece of cake would have enough icing.

This is the perfect cake for a little one's birthday, or to use as an extra cake for a baby shower, especially if you're doing cupcakes and need a cake on top of a stand. Enjoy! It was really easy and really fun to make!

How to Make an Artist Cake

How to Make an Artist Cake

with edible palette, brushes, and "painting," with chocolate frame and stand

First –

When designing a cake, get clear in your mind what you want the finished product to look like then sketch it out using colored pencils. For my Artist Cake, I wanted to include an edible painter's palette, edible brushes, and an edible picture frame and "painting." I took a real palette and picture frame and played with different-sized cake boards and cake pans until I found a look I liked, then made a rough sketch to refer to.

Playing with different shapes of pans, cake board sizes, etc...

Left: This is the actual finished gum paste palette I made for the cake. I simply covered a real palette with gum paste, cut away the excess, and let dry. (Details below)

 

                                           Here is the sketch. Okay, so I can't draw!   : ) 

The main tools needed for this exact cake–

A 14”-square cake board (in picture above, left), an oval pan, an inexpensive plastic artist’s palette, purchased at Michael’s for fifty cents after the coupon  : ), a silicone picture frame mold that I bought on eBay, and an image of the artist ( turned into an edible image "painting" and framed in the edible chocolate frame). Note: the palette, paintbrushes, and frame can be made from gum paste or modeling chocolate, and if you know how to make your own molds, you can do that using a picture frame and holder. 

 

Artist's palette from Michael's; silicone frame mold 
from eBay; and picture of artist             

I made the edible palette and paintbrushes first...

Palette –
The first thing I did was to liberally dust the plastic palette with powdered sugar. You can also use cornstarch or a mixture of 50/50 powdered sugar/cornstarch. Using a rolling pin, I rolled the white gum paste to a medium-to-thin consistency and placed gently overtop the palette. I pressed carefully, making indentions in the gum paste (where the paint would go on a real palette).

I put the palette in my hand and placed a flat surface face-down on top of the palette. (In this instance, the green tray, below, was that "flat surface"). Holding against each other somewhat firmly, I flipped the green pan and palette over so that the palette was now upside-down. Laying everything down, I held the palette down with one hand and used a pizza cutter to cut away the excess gum paste from the edge of the palette with the other. I then trimmed any details with an Exacto knife. I flipped the tray and palette back over, then used an the Exacto knife to cut a finger hole in the palette and clean up any edges. Use your fingers to gently smooth any edges and voilà!

You now have a beautiful palette!

Let this dry at least eight hours before using

Paintbrushes –

Next, I used gum paste for the paintbrushes but as I stated before, you can also use modeling chocolate.

I generously dusted the paint brush mold with powdered sugar and tapped the excess off.

I next rolled pieces of colored gum paste into long, thin lines and put each into the paint brush mold, one at a time, shaping with my fingers and when necessary, trimming with the Exacto knife. Make sure you keep all gum paste covered securely when not using or it will dry out quickly

 

I tried to be as neat as possible when putting the gum paste inside the mold but the sides stayed a little rough. If this happens, put a little vegetable shortening on your fingers to smooth the edges while the gum paste is still pliable. Remove from mold as soon as possible then let the brushes dry on a dusted surface for at least three days until they're hard. You can use an edible food writer to write on these. You can also use an extruder for the detail work, if desired.

Frame and Easel –

Since I wanted a gold frame and easel, I colored the modeling chocolate with a beige color, which turned it a light yellow.

I put the modeling chocolate in the molds, refrigerated until hard, then popped them out. To attach the easel sides to each other, I microwaved a little of the colored modeling chocolate and piped it down the inside of the easel pieces and attached together. (It was hot, be careful!)  

Take the chocolate out of the mold and attach easel together using almost liquid chocolate

(I microwaved it and piped it on)

I spray-painted the frame and easel with Duff edible gold spray. After this was dry, I hand painted the frame with a gold edible paint. You can also take gold pearl dust and mix with a little alcohol to make gold liquid paint. (Alcohol or lemon juice mixed with the dry dust works better than water because it dries more quickly than if you used water to mix.)

I spray painted the easel and frame with edible gold paint (Duff, here)  

After the edible spray paint was dry, I hand painted with gold edible paint

then put back in the fridge until ready to use

Image –

I uploaded a free Photoshop program that I found online; it changes an image so that it looks like a watercolor picture. I printed it out and re-sized it so it would fit with the size of the edible frame. I took that image to a bakery that prints pictures onto edible image "paper" and cut to fit. I attached to the back of the frame using piping gel.

  I used Photoshop to give the photo a watercolor look

I took the "watercolor" printout to a bakery and had an edible image made.

I cut it down to size and used piping gel to "glue" it to the back of the frame.

 Last – the fun part!

Put a little piping gel on top of the cake to attach the palette. The "paint" on the palette is simply white icing with colors mixed in. Add brushes and the picture in the frame to the cake board.

Now you know how to make an Artist’s Cake!

Questions? Feel free to email me at:
CakesoftheHamptons@aol.com

Thanks for reading!

Butterfly Cake with White-Chocolate Roses

 Butterfly Cake

With White-Chocolate Roses

   This...

 

                                                                                  started as this... 

My customer wanted this cake for her 69th birthday. She wears butterfly earrings, butterfly rings, and butterfly shirts, so I wanted to create something elegant and accent it with butterflies. I wanted to add a monarch butterfly since it is her favorite...however, since it has black in its wings, I felt it was too heavy a color to make as the centerpiece so I handcrafted a monarch out of gum paste, handpainted it, and added it to the back of the cake, along with a couple other simple butterflies, and saved the two prettiest ones for the front of the cake.

To make this cake:

Cover the cake board with fondant

I always cover my cake boards with fondant and let dry for at least 8 hours. I nearly always emboss my fondant with some type of pretty imprint, unless the cake design calls for a plain color. I use either a laser rolling pin or an embossing mat.  

Cover cake board and edges with piping gel then add fondant

Trim cake board with ribbon

I decorate the base with a grosgrain ribbon, using a hot glue gun. (Note: If the fondant isn't dry when you start this step, the hot glue will melt your fondant!)

I don't use satin ribbon because I've found that the glue and/or piping gel shows through. So I always use grosgrain because it's thicker and has those "little lines" through it that seem to adhere better than satin. Sometimes I will not have the fondant come over the sides in the event that the ribbon is a lighter color than the fondant. Otherwise the darker color of the fondant will show through the lighter color of the ribbon.

Let fondant dry for at least eight hours then hot glue grosgrain ribbon around edges

Roses and leaves

I made modeling chocolate and turned it into these beautiful roses and leaves. I colored the white modeling chocolate using gel color.

I will tell you how in a second...

Use white chocolate, color with gel color, then shape into roses and leaves

To make modeling chocolate

For every 8 ounces of chocolate, use 1/3 cup light corn syrup.

That being said, I buy a bag of white chocolate chips from the grocery store and melt 8 ounces of that for 1 minute in the microwave, then stir. (The bags are usually 12 ounces.) I keep microwaving for short spurts until the chocolate is nearly all melted, then I add the corn syrup and stir until smooth. I work with it using a spatula then when it's smooth I scrape it into a piece of plastic wrap, wrap tightly, and store in the refrigerator. I let it come to room temperature before using, then pinch off just what I need, keeping the rest covered so it doesn't dry out.

When I'm ready to work with it, I roll out the chocolate using a small rolling pin and my confectioner's sugar, keeping my hands dusted and dry so that the chocolate doesn't stick to my hands.

Note: When working with milk or dark chocolate, you can use cocoa powder in a pouch instead of the white powdered sugar because the colors "match" better. Using it in the pouch, too, keeps it "dusty," and prevents getting little chunks of cocoa powder in your chocolate.

To make a rose out of modeling chocolate

You make a rose exactly how you would make it out of gum paste. That is, you form the cone, wrap the first "petal" completely around the cone so that the top is nearly closed, then wrap the other petals around in a 3/5/7 configuration. You can always simply just put leaves around, one right next to the other, but I prefer the 3-petal, then 5-petal configuration. I gently turn the edges of the petals over as I work with them to give them a realistic look. I add the calyx at the bottom, although this is tricky because the chocolate melts since the calyx is thin. You may have to trim off the bottom of the rose before adding the calyx...sometimes as you work with the chocolate roses, the rose base will just get longer and longer because it is very soft so just pull off the excess with your fingers and re-shape.

To make the leaves

I cut the leaves with a small metal leaf cutter. I imprint the veins using a silicone leaf press (I think the chocolate would stick to plastic) and thin the edges with a ball tool. I turn the edges slightly then place on a shaping/forming board to give the leaves movement. Unlike gum paste, which would be left out to dry...

I place everything in the refrigerator to harden

until I get ready to use them.

To make butterflies

I used gum paste and a silicone mold to make these two butterflies. They are very easy to make.

Butterflies were made out of gum paste using silicone molds

After they were dry to the touch, I used shiny petal dust on both butterflies, then glued edible pearls onto the white butterfly (using edible gum glue made from gum paste and water).

After the butterflies were dry, I dusted with petal dusts

I used edible gum glue to add edible pearls to this butterfly's wings

Finishing the Cake

I found that with the petal pans (my first time using them), it was hard to get the buttercream smooth around the corners. I tried it five times and the cake kept showing through so I finally just gave up. Instead of smooth buttercream, I added the draping effect, which turned out prettier anyway!

I used a reverse shell border at the bottom of the cake

(This is my absolute favorite cake border...it's so elegant!!)

And here is the final product. Happy baking!

Questions? Email me at:

CakesoftheHamptons@yahoo.com

Thanks for looking!