Monday, August 20, 2012

The Dreaded Writing On a Cake Phobia I Have


Who else out there has the same phobia piping onto a cake? I found a picture on Pinterest that wasn't cake related but you could see the light bulb turn on over my head! The picture showed drawing onto styrofoam (click here for blog) and I remembered in my Wilton class using piping gel in reverse print to mark your cake for piping.

I combined the two methods and here is how I marked this cake.

On the computer design what you want to write on your cake and make sure it fits on your cake.  Once you are happy with the way it fits and looks, print it out in reverse print (like a T-shirt transfer) and cut off excess paper.  You will need styrofoam to transfer your design to, I used a styrofoam plate and cut the outer lip off.  Tape your design onto the styrofoam and with a ball point pen, draw the outline of your design so that it will leave an impression.

Once finished, remove the paper.  I used the flat end of a bamboo skewer and traced the markings and deepened the impression.  I did not have a chop stick, but think that would be good to use, it looked like it worked well in the blog I linked above.  I don't know what scratch foam is, but felt that I should use the styrofoam plate because of food safety. 

Your cake should be frosted with a crusting buttercream and be well crusted.  Use dusting powder (is a combination of corn starch and powder sugar) lightly over the impression side of the styrofoam to prevent sticking and place it onto the cake and with your fondant smoother, rub over the backside of the styrofoam making sure to make a good impression onto the cake.  Remove carefully lifting straight up.

Make sure you are using styrofoam.  Trim off outer lip on the plate. 

Print your design in a reverse print and tape onto the styrofoam and trace (outline) with a ballpoint pen pressing firmly to make an impression.

Remove the paper and retrace the impression making it more defined.  I used the flat end of a small bamboo skewer.  Lightly dust with dusting powder (or just corn starch).  Place onto frosted cake that has crusted and with a fondant smoother transfer the impression onto the cake by smoothing in small circular motions on the back of the styrofoam.  Remove carefully by lifting straight up.

Pipe over the embossing. (The stars are fondant cutouts)  Add borders after the impression piping has been completed.
You should be able to pipe over the embossing with ease.  Maybe after I decorate more cakes, I will feel more comfortable piping, but until then, I will use this method.  Hopefully, phobia no more.....

1 comment:

  1. This is a great tip. I'm horrible at decorating cakes. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete