Playing and experimenting with edible media. Sometimes it's pretty. Other times, not so much. Failure is always an option, then eat the evidence. Nom nom nom.
First is another Flexible, Edible Stained Glass class, but I’ll be making some holiday-themed patterns up in the next week or so for that. Stay tuned for photos!
Next is a Mini Turkey Cake class which is a really good beginner-level class for those who want to learn about fondant, but will also have some tips suitable for intermediates and higher. We’ll be making the smaller ones shown in the photo below, but it’s really easy to scale it up. I offered a class on this technique last year and it got cancelled due to insufficient sign-ups, and then a whole bunch of people were upset because they meant to sign up but forgot. So sign up right away if you’re interested!
The piece when first completed, backlit by my kitchen window. At this point, it was more flexible than its plexiglass support: I could easily bend the whole thing with no cracking whatsoever.
Part of the experiment was to determine how long the medium would last, so I’ve had it hung on my wall most of the time since the show back in February. It’s come down to attend a few events along the way, including a long drive up to Fort Worth in significant heat, so it has been exposed to severe temperatures and a lot of touching hands.
Since mid-summer, it’s been noticeably cracking in a few places instead of flexing as easily as it once did. Then a few weeks ago the plexiglass came loose from the backboard and fell, causing some damage.
Tonight as I went to move it, more pieces flaked off and I could hear an awful lot of cracking.
Thus at this point I’d say it’s no longer flexible. I’m calling this the absolute end-point of its life for experimental purposes. Therefore, if you are making anything using this medium, expect its flexibility to diminish substantially after about five months, and be rendered too delicate to flex at all after seven months. This holds true for my other sample pieces, which recently became too brittle to flex as well and are starting to show cracks. Also keep in mind that depending on relative humidity fluctuations in your environment, the gummy will begin to fog over and lose its clarity after several weeks unless kept away from dust, fingers, and kept sealed in plastic.
Here are some photos of the cracks. You can see that not only have chunks come out, but there are other visible cracks in both the coloured gummy and the opaque black lines:
This is the upper right corner, which was bent early on to separate it from the plexiglass so folks could see and touch the smooth back of the piece, plus see how flexible it was when it was still fairly fresh. It remained bent off of the plexiglass after that point, and has now popped out a chunk where the bend formed.
This is the lower left corner. It broke off when the piece fell from the wall, probably because it landed on this corner. At that point, the whole thing was brittle enough that what broke off crumbled into small shards that scattered all over.
This is the middle lower edge. This also cracked off a bit when it fell, although it’s lost even more in moving it around since. The crack in the plexiglass has been there for a very long time and I don’t think specifically contributed to the cracking of the piece. I think it’s just that the whole thing is a stress point in the middle there.
This is the top edge, near the left side. This bit was clearly cracked after the fall although the pieces were all still there. When I tried to move the entire piece just now, more of this area popped out, which is why I decided it was time to blog it.
My sugar mice being the Rattles as a joke version of the Beatles.
More pics, including several in-progress, are here.
As of this posting, they don’t know it’s my cake, but I have posted a comment to let them know. I also posted a comment identifying the first cake since it too was from an Austin cake show.
This cake still happens to live in my cake cabinet. Yes, I have a cake cabinet, and it’s full, which is why Wolverine had to be destroyed. Except for his head. Which is also in the cabinet, except when it travels. Wanna see? Of course you do.
Yes, that’s a basket of laundry beside it. That’s how fancy we roll in this house.
Okay, from the top down, here’s what’s on/in the cabinet:
On top, mostly not seen in the photo, are two of the layers of the 2010 Alien Film Festival show cake. They’re in the wrong order because I took it apart to transport it home, but a friend and I temporarily put the third floor on the first floor just to fit it into my car. Except then it stuck there, and no amount of wrestling will get it off. The piece of paper sticking out from below it is catching the slow drip of the remnants of the Dalek victim. More on that below.
The top shelf in the cabinet has the Musical Mice cake, with some of the figures from Corran’s 2010 Monty Python birthday cake (and yes, I know, I’ve been promising more pics forever on that…eventually, eventually…), some of the mice from the 2007 Toddler Halloween cake, a ship from the Alien Film Festival cake, some of the penguins from the 2012 Day of Sharing cake (and I need to post more pics of that too…), and a flip-flop from a demonstration by Theresa Pipes at one of our cake club meetings.
The next shelf down has my apron from the 2010 show signed by Mike McCarey who wrote, ‘Your cake was “AMAZING”‘. I still get giddy whenever I look at that. It’s arranged in a way that lets me read it whenever I walk past. I don’t remember to very often, but perhaps I should, especially on low-self-esteem days. There are also more mice, spaceships, and penguins, and at the back is the cover from Corran’s D&D Monster Manual cake.
On the next shelf are yet more random figures, spaceships, etc. from the aforementioned cakes, many of which are sitting on the silver plate I got for winning the division with the Musical Mice. My medals for various wins are also there, plus some of Peo’s for her cakes entered into the show. Oh, and sitting on top of the medals is the Discworld from Corran’s Discworld birthday cake which has a whole how-I-made-it tutorial on the page. Wow. That was ages ago!
Next is the level with yet more random figures from cakes above along with some of the bunnies from the Enthought Easter cake and the Gorg from Peo’s Fraggle Rock cake (which has also been on Sunday Sweets). Behind those is a bubble-wrapped head of Shelob from Corran’s 2005 birthday cake, which also has a full how-I-made-it tutorial, including some secrets I accidentally discovered to creating realistic rock. The head of Wolverine is there, plus the foot from the Python cake. Tucked in the back is the CakeWrecks Wreckplica cupcake I made for their contest as part of their first book tour (and then couldn’t go because it was rescheduled on Peo’s birthday). That’s the only bit of real cake in there, by the way, and it’s completely mummified and not rotting.
The lowest level has a Wolverine claw tucked beside the other two floors from the 2010 Alien Film Festival cake, again, in the wrong order. Sitting on the tiled floor is a margarine lid with the liquefied remains of the Dalek victim. It turned out that enclosing fondant bones in the Jolly Ranchers meant there was still moisture in there, and over time it liquefied and remnants still drip from the layers on top of the cabinet. When I first put the figure on the margarine lid, it still had its original form but was sticky. In the years since, it has melted into a really cool anthropological-dig look. I should totally do a post about that someday, in all that same free time I have for posting more pics of the cakes. How apropos that it’s sitting behind the Marvin I now use as my avatar on almost every social media site; perhaps the way that Marvin appears to have turned his back on the victim’s remains has some deep meaning about my psyche. Nah…let’s go with the “too busy to post all the things!” notion instead…
Oh, and in case you’re wondering why the massive trophy I won for the 2010 cake isn’t near the cake cabinet, there’s a perfectly logical explanation for that: it lives on top of the ceramic Klein bottles I made instead, because they’re in a bigger cabinet:
And of course the Klein bottle cabinet also contains some random bits from my eyeball collection that have spilled over from their own cabinet. Perfectly normal stuff everyone has in their household, right? Plus you can totally see reflections of my messy living room in the glass, and a bit of the backyard, including one of Peo’s science experiments on the table out there (that pink water bottle thing).
See? Perfect sense. In a Klein-bottle-universe sort of way.
OMG! Did you see that video? You can make gummy drops in oil!
I’ve tried to use water to make gummy ropes/drops before and it doesn’t work, even when chilled. But Baird uses chilled oil, and her coffee-gelatin mixture forms wonderful little balls.
I need to find some time to play with this technique!
If that title didn’t make you do a double-take, squee, or at least start to twitch, you may need a direct-to-vein nerd transfusion.
So here it is:
It’s gummy. It’s glowing in the dark. What else does your life need?
If that doesn’t get your food-nerd heart beating, nothing will!
Here it is in regular light:
Yes it’s a Han Solo in Carbonite. Yes, he’s upside down in the photo. I think that’s the least of his worries.
I made it with Clear Gummy and Glow In The Dark Petal Dust. The latter was generously given to me by the amazing Ruth Rickey, because she is one of my greatest enablers mentors! Ruth sells it on her website. You need some. You know you do.
The fine print: the GITD petal dust is in the pseudo-edible category, like so many things in high-end cake decorating. The label says, “Non-Toxic, For Decoration Only”. That means you can put it on edible things and it’s not going to poison anybody, and if some kid gobbles it up, it’s not going to hurt them, but really, it’s not intended for eating. It’s made to go on sugar flowers, which typically have completely inedible wire in them anyway. I’m just the sort of freak who adds it to gummy.
I’ve updated my calendar with several upcoming classes and cake events:
Monday, July 23 – Kid Kamp – Ages 4 to 10
Theme still not decided for certain, but there’s a good chance it’ll be using cutter shapes to make animal cupcakes. The theme is optional and fluid (mostly to accommodate a wide age/ability range and inevitable latecomers). Details and registration here.
Sunday, August 19 – Capital Confectioners Day of Sharing
Note that I’m just there as a volunteer and participant, not an instructor/presenter. Details and registration here.
Sunday, September 2 – Kid Kamp – Ages 4 to 10
No theme yet, so speak up if there’s one you’d like for your kids. Note that insurance requirements of the studio prohibit me from allowing kids to work with heat so I can’t do a gummy class for kids at this time. Details and registration here.
Sunday, September 9 – Flexible, Edible Stained Glass – Adult Cake Decorating Class
Learn my techniques for casting gummy sheets and turning them into beautiful works of edible art. Details and registration here.
Early on in this blog, I showed you how to make Ugly Cake Balls, based on my Ugly Cake. But apparently I’ve been remiss in showing you all just how ridiculously easy it is to make Ugly Cake itself. So let’s correct that, shall we?
Get a vanilla cake mix. I prefer Betty Crocker’s French Vanilla. You can also go with a scratch recipe if you like, but when I make Ugly Cake, I’m going for ease and speed with what’s on hand, and I always have a French Vanilla mix in the cupboard for emergency cake. Seriously: I donate cakes and sometimes a call comes out for one that requires hours of decorating and the grocery store is closed, so I need to be able to work through the night for a morning delivery. Oh fine, and sometimes I just need emergency cake myself.
Make the cake mix as per the box directions, but add extra vanilla, about 2-3 tablespoons. I honestly do not even measure it. I just go blort blort blort with my artificial vanilla bottle (you can use the real stuff, but I don’t do alcohol so I won’t use the real stuff).
Bake it any way you like: cupcakes, 8″ rounds, 9″ rounds, shaped pan, whatever suits your needs/desires/pan availability. Cool completely, and by completely I mean actually completely, not just warm-ish. Give it a good hour to cool.
Meanwhile, mix a batch of Alton Brown’s Ganache Recipe. I make it darker, using two 60% bars and one semi-sweet, but again, tailor it to your tastes. If you don’t have the corn syrup, you can skip it; it adds a bit of sweetness and gloss but I’ve seen other recipes (including from Brown himself) that don’t use it. But if you make fondant all the time as I do, you have it around anyway.
And if you’re afraid that ganache sounds fancy and scary to a beginner, don’t worry, it’s not. All you’re doing is warming some heavy cream and corn syrup and then mixing up chunks of chocolate into it until it forms a uniform goo. I don’t even chop the chocolate: I just break it into rough chunks in the package and put it in the pot that way. I promise, as long as you remember to turn the heat off before you add the chocolate, you can’t mess it up (because the only way to mess it up is to burn it). If you want in-progress photos, check out the Ugly Cake Balls entry.
Cool the ganache until it’s sludgy (but not solid), which might mean sticking it in the fridge for about ten minutes or so, mixing periodically. If you accidentally let it set up fully, just re-warm the pot and then cool again.
Then put the ganache on the cake. You can be all fancy and non-ugly by piping the ganache in swirls on cupcakes or, as with the photo below, you can slap down a layer, dump some ganache on, slap on the next layer, dump the rest of the ganache on and smear it all around. Note that this is a superb time to let your kids go nuts on a cake because they’ll have fun and you don’t need to worry about how it looks.
Did I mention nuts? While the ganache is still warm, you can add nuts if you want. Or sprinkles. Or candies. Anything goes with Ugly Cake.
But the one I made last night was plain and simple. Behold Ugly Cake:
Look how ugly it is: not level, gaps in the ganache, untrimmed edges, tsk tsk tsk. Now taste some. Do you care how ugly it is any more? No, you don’t, because you’re too busy floating in a sea of deliciousness.
It tastes so good you’ll make family-blog-inappropriate sounds. Someone on G+ said this was going to break her pregnancy diet, but I told her not to worry, that Ugly Cake makes beautiful babies (I dare someone to prove me wrong, hahaha!). Ugly Cake is easy and delicious, and you can revel in its very ugliness as you desperately lick every smear of ganache off of your fork, including between the tines. Go ahead, I give you permission.
1) The flexible, edible stained glass class this weekend closes enrollment at noon tomorrow (because I have to pre-make some gummy sheets and let them dry). So sign up fast if you’re interested.
2) I’ve made a new page of recipe links that I want to try, or have tried but don’t have time to fully review. This is mostly to help me not have random printouts and/or tabs all over the place, but if might interest those of you who dig recipe-hunting as well.
So there’s this thing they do in Mexico where very talented people cast some gelatin and then use syringes to artfully inject opaque gelatin into it, leading to some lovely designs. Usually they’re flowers, but I’ve also seen some gorgeous and elaborate non-floral designs, like Lourdes Reyes’ “Captured in Time” cake (the only public photo I’ve seen of that is here. Reyes is a master who sells kits and classes that I have considered buying, but they’re professionally priced and since I rarely make money from my cakes and blogging, they’re out of my range.
I found some YouTube videos showing the basic process (here, here, here, here, and here, plus more, just follow the recommended links as you watch each one), plus a blog post with recipes. Clearly, it’s not all that different than gummy, so I’ve been keen to see if I can do the same sort of thing with my gummy recipes.
Short answer: yup, it works!
Long answer: I considered buying some syringes suited to the task by googling “gelatin floral syringe”, but then realized I had leftover, medical-quality, high-gauge syringes from infertility treatments many years ago. Ouch. You don’t want to know how bad they hurt. Trust me.
Anyway, I have a bunch of these:
I'm the sort of person who has these lying around and yet the first nefarious purpose I come up with for them is gummy experimentation. How's that for nerdy?
And while it looks like gelatin floral art suppliers sell clear molding/serving dishes, I just wanted to play so I cast up some yellow gummy I already had lying around in a small candy mold:
You can tell I was just playing around since this gummy still has some bubbles in it; if I was going for a serious creation, I'd have warmed it and cooled it several times to get the bubbles out before applying.
I made several and let them set up at room temperature so they’d be firm, but not fridge-hard. Then I melted some other green leftover gummy I had on hand, put the syringe into the hot water just like I do all the time with the baster, and when it was warm, drew up some of the green. It was really difficult! I could only get a little bit in, and I had to rewarm the whole thing constantly. Either gummy is thicker than what the gelatina artists use, or my syringes were thinner, or both.
But it worked well enough for a trial, so I injected some green into the yellow, first doing a couple of simple stab-and-pull motions, then one of the sweeping motions they use to make petals. It’s hard to see the green against the yellow but here’s the result:
The sweep is at the bottom and the stabs are higher and behind.
Next I tried some spare opaque I had around. It’s grey because it was in the form of some leftover Han Solos in Carbonite I took to the ICES demo the weekend before (leftover gummy that I’m dubious about eating is still good for proof-of-concept experimentation!). By now, all six of my regular readers aren’t even surprised that I have random Han Solos around the house for melting purposes.
I tried injecting the grey in one central stab, then some sweeping petal-like things around. It kind of looks like a multi-bladed death scythe. I mean…I deliberately made a cool multi-bladed death scythe! Woot!
The splotch is from where the needle went too far through and pierced the outer edge.
Then I had an idea.
An awful idea.
A terribly, wonderfully, twisted, fantastic idea.
So I did one more test with the grey, trying to make a central wall of sorts. It kind of worked, but again, the grey is hard to see against the yellow (and yes I do have a recipe for clear gelatin, which I will post eventually, but for now is available in the Flexible, Edible Stained Glass ebook, but I didn’t want to bother with a whole fresh batch):
All in all we're just another gummy in the wall.
I switched to some black opaque I had leftover from making the stained glass book and tried the sweeping wall again:
I didn't get this one very even, which you can see from this angle.
Which from above looked like this:
Some of you similarly wrong-minded folks see where I'm going with this now...
And then I grabbed some spare fondant and did this to it:
Creepy-awesome, eh?
That’s right: I took the craft that most people use to make gorgeous flowers, and turned it into a spooky eyeball! MUAHAHAHAHA!
But then I decided those lids were boring. So I put them aside, jabbed at them with a #10 Wilton tip, hit them with some fast black and green colour spray, picked the extra remnant of black off of the bottom of the gummy bit, and rearranged it all again like this:
And this was a rough, thirty-second fondant job over a poorly-done injection. Imagine how cool this could be if someone actually put some effort and practice into it.
The side view gives really cool depth to it, which again would be even more awesome if the sweep had been evenly done.
"I ssssssee you..."
For a final experiment with this methodology, I tried doing the stab thing repeatedly with some black:
This reminds me of those spidery spaceships from Babylon 5.
One of the ladies in my cake club was really into making gummy spiders last Halloween. I'll have to show her this method.
Realizing that the syringe acts as a mini baster, I then tried some other experimentation with it. I dug out this Wilton gumpaste mold (which I’ve only ever used for gummy myself) and used the syringe to place teeny tiny drops in the pattern of one of the ribbons:
Feel free to play "spot the error" where one bit globbed into another. It's tricky to control it at this scale.
I also added some red centres, then let it all set up. Once it was definitely set, I flooded the space with green. I then added some green tiny blobs to the spaces in the ribbon above:
I could see the red bits melting into the green as I flooded, indicating that if you're going to do this, you have to go carefully or you'll move the bits you've already placed.
I then flooded the upper one with yellow and put the mold in the fridge for awhile. When I took the ribbons out, it was immediately obvious that the green flood had absorbed the yellow dots enough that they were indistinguishable, but that the green dots stood out okay on the yellow. So keep that in mind if you try this: small detail needs to be darker than the main body.
I retried the floral ribbon by putting some green dots, in, and then flooding it with yellow. But I didn’t give it much time to set up, and so in the photo of all three below (click it for a larger version), you can see that on one side of the third ribbon, the green blobs are visible from where they’d started to set up as I went along, but the ones that were done at the end and were still too soft just melted away into the yellow:
Look at the third from left to right and you can clearly see the progression of how the fresher dots melted into the flood.
So that’s some proof-of-concept fun with using a syringe with gummy.
In case you’re thinking, “Hey crazy lady, I’m not going to go out and buy a syringe to make this weird stuff!” here’s a more basic gummy application I made during my ICES demo that turned out really cool. I found this mold at the grocery store; except it isn’t a mold, it’s a pot holder. But it’s made out of food-grade silicone so as far as I’m concerned, that’s a gummy mold!
It's wet because it was recently washed and it turns out silicone molds are a pain to dry, especially when they have so many teeny tiny holes.
I had some red and yellow going as part of the demo, so I used the baster to apply a random swirl of each, one right after the other so they’d mix. It came off like this:
Held up to the sun in my backyard so you can see the hex effect.
Because the pattern bits are so much thicker than the flooded backing, this piece has a really cool multi-faceted drape to it. Cast larger, it could be cut to cover a cake really nicely for an awesome effect.
When fresh off of the mold, it felt like gelatinous cloth. Very nifty.
There you have it: fancy advanced gummy injections turned into creepy eyeballs, then back to super-easy basics you could slap onto a cake. Either way, if you play with this stuff, you’re going to get asked, “How did you do that?!” a lot. So go forth and play, then let me know what you make!
PS: For those who are like me and want to poke the eye to see how squishy it is, here’s a video of me doing just that on your behalf:
