I made this recipe its own page here: https://www.eat-the-evidence.com/gummy/opaque-gummy/ and will be adding more Gummy information pages in the next few days.
The folks at Make it Sweet here in Austin are letting me teach some kid classes at their shop. The first date is set for April 28 but we’re still working out the details.
I frequently get asked by parents to do these, but in the past at another location most classes were cancelled from lack of participation. Thus, I’m opening it up here for suggestions: what kind of class do you and your kids want? Something very specific where there’s an assigned project we do step-by-step, or a freeform play with your food thing where I’m there as a facilitator to the kids’ own ideas?
What ages? Classes would be very different for the 3-5 set versus 9-12. Some parents want all-inclusive classes for siblings, but kids of different ages can be frustrated by each others’ progress or lack thereof.
Is there a technique your kid(s) particularly want to learn? Note that for older kids who can sit still and pay attention, Make it Sweet is willing to discuss inclusion of those kids in their adult classes, so if they want to learn adult-level techniques be sure to ask about the stuff on the shop’s calendar.
Here’s a poll with various options. Please check anything you’re interested in and would actually consider attending (if you’re not in the Austin area, feel free to comment but please don’t answer the poll).
What do you want in a kids' decorating class in Austin?
Total Voters: 7
Loading ...In terms of pricing, we’re considering something in the $15ish range per kid. It’s not a licensed child care facility so a parent/guardian will probably have stick around but could browse the store.
I’m thinking of teaching some simple fondant animals showing basic sculpting/assembly techniques, making them on a board to take home so we don’t have to worry about cupcakes or anything. But opinions would be greatly appreciated!
I’m going to fix up this site to try to make the whole thing more readable, clean, and make it easier for readers to find stuff.
So if things go wonky over the next week or two, please bear with me!
Also, if you have any requests, this would be a good time to let me know.
It was another exciting year at the That Takes the Cake! Sugar Arts Show here in Austin, and I’m thrilled to report that I accomplished my goal in winning the Innovator Award. This was a new prize at the show, and as far as we know it’s unique in the cake world. It crosses all divisions and styles, and only one is given per show. Those applying for it have to be interviewed by a special panel of judges (this year it was Mike McCarey, Nicholas Lodge, and Mary Jo Dowling) and explain what you’ve done that’s new, what tool you’ve invented for what purpose, etc.
I submitted both of my entries below for the prize, and they chose the second one as the official winner although I’m fairly certain it was the general gummy technique that won the day. At some point I’m going to put some kind of badge or something on this blog to mark me as the official Innovator Award recipient for 2013. After all, experimentation in edible media is what this blog is for!
I will also be posting lots of in-progress photos and some how-tos, especially for the Gummy Fairy piece. I also have some gummy updates based on questions from my class. So stay tuned for all of that. In the meantime, you can see how to do the stained glass technique with my Flexible, Edible Stained Glass ebook or just enjoy the photos below.
This won Second Place – Adult Advanced – Tiered Novelty or Special Occasion. It demonstrates the use of the Flexible, Edible Stained Glass techniques mounted on a cake. The motif is based on the old-world elements of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, going up the cake in that order with each layer interacting with its neighbours. Some new adaptations of this technique included using a hair dryer to soften sheets for draping to fit curves, spreading gummy like glue to mount pieces on top of each other, using super-thinned gummy more like a gelatin application, and painting fondant directly with gummy. Again, more details and photos will be covered on this blog at a later date.
This won Third Place – Adult Advanced – Special Techniques, although there were only three entries so I’m not sure the win really counts much beyond a gimme. I’m much happier about the Innovator Award, because this piece is definitely not your usual cake decorating! There’s a foam and foil support in the back part and in the large rock the fairy is sitting on, but otherwise the rest is entirely edible gummy. The fairy is solid gummy with no support other than the “water” sheets attached at the top and bottom of the waterfall, all of which is also gummy. Again, more photos will be coming later along with tons of information on how I made her so you can learn to make your own versions as well.
Here I am with my two medals and the silver frame that goes with the Innovator award:
I also taught a Craftsy Hands-On Demo to two groups of kids on how to make this little penguin out of fondant, and will be posting a complete how-to on this blog eventually as well:
Peo made a Peter Pan cake this year and her medal in the Junior Category was for “Most Nautical Cake”. I let her use one my boards that already had a flange mounted on it, and we cut a PVC pipe to her specified height. She made the cake as the ocean and a solid fondant ship (I had to talk her into putting it on a support, because she didn’t believe me that that much fondant would have sunk right into the cake). She also skimmed through my Fondant Figures 101 page and made her figures more or less using those instructions, including using the human figure printout for sizing.
She even made her sail out of gummy, which she cast and cut all by herself:
See, if a seven-year-old can make and use a gummy sheet, so can you!
And here she is with her medal:
On Sunday morning of the show, I walked around and took photos of my favourite cakes. It just so happens that everything I liked enough for a photo won an award! Here are the ones I enjoyed and why (note that I don’t know the real titles so I’m just going with my gut on these):
This cake inspired by “Up” isn’t the first one I’ve seen from that movie, but it is the first I’ve seen where there’s cake under the balloons. That’s very ambitious, especially for a beginner, and it was well done.
These are her in-progress photos, which are required for the Sculpted cake category.
Patricia is one of our cake club members and core show planning team. I sat beside her at the registration desk on Friday and she wasn’t sure she was going to bring this in because she wasn’t finished. I urged her to bring it – even with less done than planned – to at least get her competitor goodie bag and some useful critiques from the judges. And then she went and won a first place medal! I love being right. And I love this cake.
I was strolling by this cake when I had to suddenly go back and peer at the pins…because they’re made of gumpaste! I managed to talk to Heather after the show and complimented her on them. She said she made them with the very small hole plate on an extruder. Wow. So perfect and straight, so awesome!
Now we come to the cake everyone’s talking about from this show, because it went viral halfway through the show and for good reason. Look at this thing! That’s some serious talent right there. Natalie used modelling chocolate and she’s clearly very skilled at it.
I first noticed this cake on Saturday because as I was hurrying down an aisle, it looked at me and I felt that in the way that you feel a real person looking at you.
Natalie totally nailed it. Brava!
Here are her in-progress photos showing that it’s real cake in there:
There’s lots to love about this cake, from the varied techniques to the overall lovely colour palette, but what drew my eye the most was that teeny tiny little bowl.
Flood work is one of those techniques I’ve been meaning to try but haven’t gotten around to yet, so I’m always happy to see it. I particularly liked this one for the way that it looks like a bunch of nomable little shiny candies come together to make a flower. I have no idea if that’s a sensible thing to think or not, but I just really liked it.
This is a fairly common sort of cake, but I particularly liked this one because of the eel’s cave carved right into the side. It also is done well with nice airbrushing, and a good amount of sea stuff on it without being too busy.
I got into gummy because of a fascination with translucency, so how could I not love this piece? Isomalt is scary to me because of its expense, but after the show Lisa told me it’s not so bad when bought in bulk and she needed something rigid so she could paint on those gorgeous fish. I think I’ll stick to cheap gummy but love other people’s isomalt artwork instead!
How adorable are these? I meant to linger longer and take more photos of the astounding variety, but I kept getting interrupted and then ran out of time. In fact, I didn’t even notice some of the characters in there until looking at my photos while prepping this blog entry (hence some of the dark/blurry photos, sorry!). I’m not 100% sure, but I think there’s a Barack and Michelle Obama in there, a Marilyn Monroe, and some other famous folks. There are also some wonderful angry expressions, including an utterly delightful Grumpy Cat one. So much win all over this display!
Patti is also in our club and on our core show planning team. She showed me the sketch of her design in December and I was impressed, although I was also worried that it’d be hard to pull off well in part because she was worried herself. As the weeks went on she kept telling me how worried she was, how she didn’t think it was coming out well, etc., so when I saw her setting it up I was stunned at how great it was! Later in the show I told her that if I had my choice, I’d put her in the top five for sure, possibly even the top three. I was right, I was right, I was right! Woohoo!
In particular, I love that she could have supported that top piece with perspex or something else more sturdy, but by doing it with four bamboo sticks – which are then very nicely tucked into the piece with decorations – it makes it look much more like a real, floating balloon.
Early on in the planning for this show, I started hoping someone would do a wide bird wingspan cake. That’s hard to do, and Brian Stevens delivered! This is a gorgeous piece with a lot of dynamic motion implied even though it’s static, and I applaud his mastery.
I admit that at first glance, I didn’t think this would be the first place cake. I’m not keen on the double square look, but once it was pointed out to me how much insane level of gorgeous detail there was (which is difficult to stop and notice when you’re just running past things a lot), I definitely get why it won. I didn’t even see the hornet’s nest on the underside until Mike McCarey pointed it out to me. He then said, “You didn’t see that? You who make me look on the underside of your cakes for hidden nerdy stuff under there all the time?” Which of course was actually just twice, since I’ve only done two show cakes, but then I guess it was on every layer of those cakes…
Anyway, I wish I’d snapped better photos of the details, since most of what’s below just comes from a single photo. But the details are wonderfully done and one of these years I’m going to find time to look at things more closely!
That’s it for my photos until I have time for the specific posts as mentioned above. If you want to see all of the winning cakes, there’s a full slideshow available here.
Thanks to everyone involved with the show from my fellow volunteers to sponsors to competitors to the public. It’s the best, biggest show in the country because of everyone’s work and everyone’s love for cake.
That’s a 2.25″ solid ball of homemade gummy candy shaped like a Death Star.
What’s even better is it’s super easy to make. Simply follow my Basic Gummy Recipe in any flavour you like, but make a double batch to be sure you have enough. If you’re in a rush use it straight when warmed, but if you have time let it solidify and then warm it again with absolute minimum stirring. Repeat that a few times to get most of the bubbles out for greater clarity. Some bubbles will appear anyway, as per the picture (this batch was warmed and cooled four times), but I choose to pretend they’re little lights from windows.
Then use a baster to carefully let it dribble into this Death Star Ice Sphere Mold from ThinkGeek (it goes out of stock often so grab one whenever you can, or see if you can get one directly from the manufacturer in Japan). Don’t shove the baster into the hole or there’ll be nowhere for air to go. Just make a thin stream into the opening until it comes to the very top. Don’t stop too soon or you’ll have a flat top Death Star!
I let this one sit in the fridge overnight to be extra certain it was solidified.
Obliteration never tasted so lemony.
Of course, when I let my daughter take a bite out of it, we’ll be able to pretend it’s the semi-destroyed version. Muahahahaha.
If you like this sort of nerdery, be sure to check out my post with the pseudo-stained-glass window made out of Han Solos in Carbonite.
There’s also this experimental item. I’m not telling you what it’s for yet, only that I’m testing to see what happens to it at room temperature over several days. Which is a hint in and of itself, really. * shifty eyes *
All will be revealed in early March. Which is another big fat hint. But shhhhh…
The cutest alien ever on Doctor Who is undoubtedly the Adipose, which are little living lumps of fatty tissue. So when I decided to make a cake for my friend Kyla (who is also president of our cake club and known by many as the Cake Nexus because she knows everyone who is anyone in this industry) and was considering a Doctor Who cake since she’s into that, my husband suggested an Adipose cake because it’d be relatively easy, very cute, and horribly, horribly wrong. Because this is a monster made out of fat and what happens when you eat cake? You get fat. And then the thought of eating the fat that just left you…yeah, it’s multiple layers of wrong.
Except this is also multiple layers of chocolate.
Mmm, chocolate! And wrongness! Together at last!
In fact, this was the cake I mentioned in the last post about Dark Chocolate Buttercream, in which I worked out a super-delicious, ultra-decadent, chocolate, butter-based frosting suitable for sculpted cakes and supporting decorative elements. After all, an Adipose cake has to be thickly coated in delicious buttercream, doesn’t it?
At first I was just going to make a little Adipose guy, but when I had leftover cake and buttercream I decided the cuteness and wrongness could be multiplied further by making cake balls and then turning those into ittle bittle wittle Adiposey cake balls of ULTRA MEGA CUTENESS!
And you lucky readers, I’m going to show you how I made them!
First, let’s talk about the main cake itself. I baked a chocolate cake (my standard doctored box mix) in two 5″ pans plus a 4″. I dumped the remaining batter in an 8″ as excess. I levelled, filled, and stacked the 5″ ones and the 4″ on top, then carved an Adipose shape (going roughly off of this plush toy from ThinkGeek, but seated because while I could do it standing, that’d require a floating stand design which would be harder to transport and I wanted this to be fairly easy). I then covered that with the buttercream and let it firm up in the fridge.
Activate your scratch-and-sniff peripheral now because damn, this thing smelled like chocolate heaven. Also, I considered it a good sign that it was already kind of cute even without its skin on.
I wanted to experiment with a 50/50 modelling chocolate/fondant mix since I couldn’t decide between the two; chocolate tastes better but fondant is easier to put on a shape like this. So I weighed out equal portions of each and kneaded them, and given that I was using my homemade fondant which isn’t as smooth as the commercial stuff, I was pleasantly surprised by how flexible and smooth the combination was! Plus it actually tastes good, although still sweeter than my preferences. I’ll need to update my recipe pages eventually.
The 50/50 wasn’t as good for pulling out pleats, but it did have the benefit of being able to be warmed either by hand heat or a torch, and that let me smooth out seams very nicely. In a reasonably short time I was able to cover the cake plus add feet, arms, and a face. Joining worked just as with modelling chocolate or fondant separately: a bit of moisture to make it sticky and things adhered just fine.
Cute on his own, but I had more planned!
It was getting late, so I combined the cake carvings, the extra 8″ cake, and the leftover buttercream to make cake balls, then formed them into Adipose-like shapes and put them in the fridge to firm up overnight.
You see chocolate balls, but I see a small army of skinless Adipose. Wheeee!
The next day for my first attempt, I rolled out some of the 50/50 and just randomly covered a cakeball with it. I was able to roll out the seams, but it left a lot of excess on the bottom, so I pulled that out to form legs. That one turned out cute, but a bit lumpy-looking:
He’s about an inch and a half high. D’awww.
For the next one I tried doing a pinch-pot method which was smoother but still too much on the ball, albeit this time more evenly distributed. Thus I rolled separate little feet for this guy and also experimented with the relative stiffness of the 50/50 to see if I could get an arm to stand up:
This one is a little closer to what I wanted, but still too thick in the covering.
Once I determined that the arms would stand up if allowed to cool down and firm up a little, I made one with two arms up:
Awwww…if this doesn’t make you want to pick him up, you’re made of stone. Of course if you pick him up and eat him, you’ll end up made of fat, which then could make more Adipose. It’s the Cirrrrcle of Liiiiife!
Here’s a photo series on how to make them, starting from the point where you have chilled cake balls in vague tear-drop shapes and some 50/50 or modelling chocolate (this methodology won’t work with just fondant):
Starting with a ball of 50/50 about the same size as the cake ball, roll it out thin, but not so thin that it gets translucent (or else the chocolate will show through). Cut four wedges out as shown. They don’t have to be perfect, but make sure you don’t go to the very center.
Place the cake ball top down in the middle and fold up one flap, curling it around.
Bring up the next flap and let it overlap a little, but push it forward as well as shown.
Now bring up the flap from the opposite side (as in, don’t go around in a circle) and likewise let it overlap a little but push it forward.
Now fold up that last flap, but you should barely need it; there should be almost enough from the side flaps to cover the whole thing.
If there is any excess (which is likely), tear it off. Don’t worry about formality. Just make sure you’re not ending up with a huge gob of 50/50 at the bottom.
That should cover the sides completely. It will be lumpy and uneven where it overlaps, but don’t worry about that for now.
Turn it over and pinch the flaps out over the bottom to cover it. Be sure not to drag the 50/50 along the cake ball or you’ll get brown bits mixed up into it.
Once it’s all covered, you can use the softening quality of the modelling chocolate in the 50/50 to smooth everything out. With warm hands (rub yours together if they’re cold), roll the ball gently but firmly to stick it all down evenly.
Also roll it along your smooth work surface to help push extra material around into an even coating. You will likely have to go back and forth between this and the previous step a few times until it’s to your satisfaction all over. Don’t worry if a pleat line remains on the bottom since you’ll be sitting it down anyway (unless you’re not going to have it seated, of course).
Hopefully your covering went on well, but if you do get a thin spot where the chocolate cake is showing through, don’t panic, and don’t try to pinch from the sides since that just mixes the chocolate into the 50/50 even more.
Instead, add a little flattened piece of 50/50 over the offending mark.
Then gently blend that in with your warm hand and with rolling on the work surface as above. If it’s not perfect, don’t worry: just use the other side for the face.
Once you’ve got a smooth side you’re happy with, turn it to that side up and press the whole thing down a little to make a flat surface for its bottom. For the feet, make two equal sized balls, then form into a tear drop and affix to the bottom edge with a bit of water.
Use a sharp knife to make toe indentations very gently.
Roll a small sausage and cut it half on an angle to form shoulders and arms. Lightly flatten out the hand ends.
Again, use a sharp knife to make finger indentations. For better-formed hands, see my Fondant Figure 101 tutorial.
Attach the arms with a bit of water. Make two tiny balls of black 50/50 (or fondant, or modelling chocolate) and stick them on with a bit of water. Roll a super-tiny thin snake, making sure the ends taper off, and put it in place as the smile. Note that 50/50 will melt on a warm fingertip at this scale, so you may need to use a fine tool to help you place these items.
If desired, add a tooth. I noticed a lot of toys/figurines have the tooth there, but in doing several I liked to have some with a tooth and some without.
So there you have it! The 50/50 does a nice job of blending with itself to cover a cakeball, and it tastes good on there too. I definitely recommend it. It won’t be as hard as coating a cake ball with melted chocolate of course, but it grants you more sculpting potential.
Next, I simply put the mini Adiposes all around the big one, wetting them a little on their bottoms and backs to stick them to the cake board and the big Adipose. Then it was done!
Overwhelming cuteness!
There’s the “pick me up!” one. Squee!
Remember, decorators: there should never be a complete “back side” to a cake. Make sure there’s something of interest to see from every view, even if it’s small.
Adipose Cake: the cake that eats you back after you eat it.
Of course, it doesn’t end there. First of all, I have a seven year old and while she doesn’t watch Doctor Who (no matter how much she begs or tells me kids at school do, because it’s not child-appropriate), I couldn’t really hide this much cuteness from her. So I gave her a sanitized version of the Adipose story and made a couple of extra Adipose cake balls for her to eat.
She insisted on a photo of her posing as if she’s regarding them dubiously, instead of how she’d been actually staring at them longingly all through the dinner I made her eat first on account of being the meanest mom ever. And that dinner was leftover pizza. OH THE CRUELTY.
She declared it yummy!
I declared her crazy!
Then we took the cake in my big carrier to a Capital Confetioners Club meeting to give it to Kyla. It sat like this on the table across from Kyla for the whole meeting and she didn’t even notice it. Hah!
Perception Filter = ON
Finally, when Kyla tried to pick someone else from the club for this month’s Member Spotlight, I stood up and declared that she was in the spotlight because it was her birthday and this was her birthday cake. So she told us all about how she got started in cake decorating. I had a photo of her with it but she didn’t like the pic so I’ve removed it.
Happy birthday Kyla!
No wait, that’s insufficiently teenage-girl-sparkly. We need something that screams “I’m 14 and I have a Geocities page!” Let’s see…
There. That’s about right.
For a long time I’ve made basic buttercream simply by beating powdered sugar and vanilla into unsalted butter, adjusting the ratios based on whether I want it to be rich and creamy (less sugar) or sweet and stiff (more sugar). When I wanted chocolate, I added some melted chocolate chips, again varying the amount as needed.
But while making a cake yesterday and today for someone special (and I’m not revealing who just yet, but there’ll be another post either late this evening or early tomorrow that will feature some uber-nerdy cuteness plus a new how-to UPDATE: the post is here), I wanted a chocolate buttercream with more chocolate oomph than my usual recipe.
I Googled around for “dark chocolate buttercream” and mostly came up with variations on ganache, which I also love but didn’t want this time. Plus I didn’t have any heavy cream in the house, and ganache requires it.
Finally I found a Martha Stewart recipe that had promise, although I noticed that a commenter said it came out very thin, and I didn’t want that. I also didn’t want the full 5-cup quantity mentioned in that recipe’s yield, and I wanted something more whipped in order to maximize chocolate flavour but not have it as heavy as ganache. So I started out by calculating a halved recipe with less water, but then also realized that that would require me to cut a stick of unsalted butter. Since I typically only use unsalted butter in recipes that call for full sticks, it’s a pain for me to have a partial stick in the fridge, whereas with regular salted butter I use small amounts all the time. Thus, I made up a small amount of the difference with regular butter and lowered the overall added salt to compensate.
The result was a super-creamy, very decadent, delicious, sturdy-but-light chocolate buttercream that had me making all manner of inappropriate noises as I sampled it. It has also yielded some fantastic cake balls (more on that in the next post). The amount stated is enough to fill and cover one standard box-mix two-layer cake, but it can be increased or doubled.
For decorators: this buttercream spreads very easily when soft, but then comes to a nice firm-but-not-solid consistency when left at room temperature. This means it’ll support fondant well, but not be too hard to cut (which can tear through cake). Popped in the fridge, it becomes quite hard which is useful when sculpting cakes. It’s winter right now so I can’t test it in heat yet, but I would anticipate that a refrigerated cake would hold enough solidity in this buttercream to allow for relatively easy shipping and serving of a cake in summer temperatures compared to regular buttercream.
Note the difference in colour between the residual unwhipped stuff on the beater versus the rest in the bowl
As some of you may know, the venue where I was teaching has closed its classroom. That means classes from me are now extremely rare, so those interested need to grab the opportunities as they arise.
My years of volunteering for the big cake show here in Austin have allowed me to talk the top brass into letting me teach a gummy class at this year’s show at the end of February. But I’m not a big name, so this is pretty much the test to see if I can get the numbers in. That means if you want me to teach gummy (or anything else) in some other location later, you need to help convince anyone you know going to the Austin show to take my class, because if this class succeeds others shows may invite me to teach there. I will happily come teach at other shows as long as my basic travel costs are covered, and that only happens if the show knows you’ll get people in the door.
So please sign up for my class or if you can’t come to Austin, please help spread the word!
Click to go straight to the registration page!
A couple of weeks ago I held a contest where I asked folks to make up silly versions of Christmas carols using themes from the Alien movies to amuse me after I made a red and green gummy candy version of an Alien head. It’s time to announce the winners! Okay it’s actually past time because I got busy with family stuff over the holidays, but at least I’m getting it in before the New Year…
With the help of some like-minded nerdy judge friends we came up with the following results:
[insert uber-dramatic and space-esque drumroll here]
In third place with a delightful parody of “O Holy Night” is Vivian!
In second place with a disturbingly cheery version of “Deck the Halls” is Lars!
And in first place with a deliciously wrong rendering – and I mean that in the tearing-limbs-from-their-sockets way – of “Carol of the Bells” is Amanda!
Yay!
Of course, just to make things complicated, Scott came in late with a brilliant “Jingle Bells” parody that several of the judges wanted to be in first place. But it wasn’t fair to let him win after the deadline. However, we agreed that he deserved something, and it has occurred to me that the prizes offered were my three ebooks when really I have four since I have an old paid knitting pattern. So I’m going to give Scott a runner-up prize and also bump up the prizes for all other winners. Yay!
Thus, here is what the winners get (they should contact me with choices and/or alternate sending information):
Amanda, you get a free copy each of “Finding Gaia“, “Flexible, Edible Stained Glass“, “Cute and Easy Turkey Cakes“, and “Knitted Alphabet in 3D“. You can take them all for yourself or direct me to send any of them to any other person you wish, in case there are some that don’t interest you or you already have.
Lars, you can pick any three of those, Vivian can pick any two, and Scott can pick one. But everyone give me a couple of days to get the holiday over with and then I promise I’ll deliver!
Thank you to everyone who participated, included the judges who wished to remain anonymous. For those who missed the contest, I might find an excuse to do something similar in the future so be sure to subscribe to the blog to be in on it next time!
Mmmmm, chestbursty…in fruity flavours!
