'Spring'
The Melted Snowman ornament

Melted Snowman Ornament I call 'Spring'

For everyone that's asked for the instructions for the Melted Snowman Ornament I call 'Spring'
This cute little ornament is a hit, sometimes takes a while for some to get it.. but funny when they do...

What you need:
-fill-able plastic ornament
-ribbon
-gum paste and colouring: brown, black, orange
-sugar 

what you need to make a Melted Snowman Ornament

Make your gum paste colours, you don't need a lot!. Mix a quarter size ball of brown (for the 2 arms), same for the black (for eyes, mouth) and a dime size for the carrot nose. 

Arms:

Roll a ball about thumb nail size, shape it into a stick shape. With scissors cut 2 cuts on one end. With the scissors cut to form 'stick' shapes on the end. Shape to get an arm look. I've attached a picture of the steps. 

Also to give a more realistic look, draw some lines down the arm, so it doesn't look as smooth.

the arms for our snowman

Nose:

You can make a small nose or big. Take your desired amount of orange gum paste and roll it into a ball. Continue to roll into a tear shape then a carrot shape. Pinch the end to give it a sharper end. Again to give some more dimension I add lines horizontally and over the whole carrot. Make sure one end is flat.

carrot nose 

Eyes, mouth:

With some black gum paste make 4 or 5 small balls for the mouth. For the eyes make 2 and make these bigger than your mouth ones. I don't make them smooth at all so they look like coal.

eyes and mouth 

Optional hat:

You can also add a hat. To make a hat simply take some black gum paste, roll into a ball, then an oval. With your fingers go around one end to make the brim of a hat. Flatten one end. It's tricky to put a hat in the ornament, so I always put it in first and once in I fix it from inside (since most of the time it got squished going in) Add the hat before the sugar so you can work with it while it's inside. Using a stick or gum paste tool work your hat so it's flat on the top and the edge (brim) is going all the way around.

Add the sugar to your ball. I don't measure, but it's about 1/4 of the ornament. To make life easy you can use a paper folded to make a funnel. Or go free hand --- but this is not a neat job!

add some sugar

you can make a funnel out of paper to help put the sugar in

Add your nose, arms, eyes and mouth. It does help to let these dry for a little bit because sugar may stick to them once in the ornament. 

add everything you made in with the sugar

Put the top back on the ornament and add your ribbon.

If you shack gently everything will come to the top, generally the sugar will always be at the bottom. 

Voila! 

Enjoy and Happy Decorating!

Christina 

www.christinascakecreations.ca

 

This is what a $900 cupcake looks like | CTV News

This is what a $900 cupcake looks like | CTV News



Sorry, I'd be kinda mad if I got a $900 cupcake....how about if the husband just baked one from scratch...that might mean more..

How I fondant a Cake....

Adding fondant to a cake gives a nice smooth finish. Here are some tips that I hope will help you fondant your cake. 


What you'll need:

-10" round cake (or any size cake, I'm just using this as an example)
-2.5 lbs of fondant. In the flavour and colour of your choice
-large rolling pin (at least 20" wide)
-Butter cream icing (for example)
-Fondant mat

-First pick a nice tasting fondant. I like Satin Ice. There are some fondants out there that I don't care for or have a bad taste (I won't mention these, but I'm sure everyone has tasted a bad fondant. Don't forget that your friends or family are going to be eating your cake, so even the fondant has to have a really nice melt-in-your-mouth taste. Satin Ice has a vanilla flavour except the chocolate which has a nice 'Tootsie Roll' flavour. 
If you're looking for fondant check out my website www.caketools.ca I have free delivery in Ottawa, or I can ship anywhere.

Satin Ice fondant in Red

-Have a cake that you can cover. I know this sounds simple but I find some boxed cakes too soft to cover with fondant. So if you use a box cake keep this in mind or revamp the recipe. 

-Make sure your cake is cool. Don't fondant right after baking...

Ok, so now you have your cake (cooled). Make some butter cream icing. I have a couple great recipes for butter cream-- My Oreo Cookie Butter Cream icing is one of my favourites. Next cut your cake into 2 levels (you don't have to do this, but I usually add one or more layers to each of my cakes).

Oreo Cookie Butter cream icing

There are quite a few ways to cutting a cake into more levels. 1. Use a cake cutter. These can be found at a lot of stores, they look like a saw and have a wire that you can move up and down on either side to get the right width that you want. Handy tool that I use often.

2. You could use a knife, however keep in mind that it's hard to cut each layer the same width. Concentrate if you use this method.

3. You can use dental floss. Start a small cut in the back where you want your cake cut with a knife, with your floss on each side of your cake, pull through starting with the small cut. Join hands at the front of your cake by pulling the floss through. 

Another Tip: With a knife mark a line going up and down on the side of your cake before cutting it in layers. This way when you separate your cakes you can easily see where it came from by lining up the lines. 

Add some icing in between your layers and put your cake back together. 

Now ice your whole cake. This is called a crumb coat. Now don't worry if you get crumbs in it and don't put it on thick. A thin layer is great.

Put this in the fridge to cool about an hour or more, you want a nice cool cake.
Now I usually put the rest of the icing on and make it nice and smooth as I can. 

Get the fondant ready: You can buy ready made colours or you can colour your own. If you're colouring your fondant take a small ball of fondant first (about an egg size and add your colour to this. Then add the egg size coloured ball to your fondant. It's easier to judge colour and remember that you can add but can't take away!

Mix your fondant and condition. Also you can add additional flavouring if you want.

With a fondant mat (I like the one from NY Cakes- Hot Pink)

Roll out the fondant that you need. There is a guide for the amount of fondant you need, but in this example I'm making a 10" cake so I would need about 2.5 lbs of fondant.
Dust your mat well so you're fondant doesn't stick. Roll out. While you're rolling out rotate it. Make it as round as you can for a round cake and square for a square cake. When you rotate it and you find your mat sticky, dust a little more. Also rotating it will help you make it into a round shape.

For a 10" cake you want to roll out a circle of 16". To get the amount you need to roll out-- simply take the diameter of your cake, add the 2 widths of the sides of your cake (just measure your cake pan). And I always add at least a couple more inches because I find the fondant usually to thick around the edges. 
Speaking of thickness you want your fondant to be about 1/8" thick. You can easily eye-ball this. Don't go too thin or it'll rip when you put on your cake.

Other tips: Some people use a Pam spray or vegetable spray when rolling out their fondant, I find this sticky and I like a nice dry looking cake. But see what works for you. 
Temperature and humidity play a part in using fondant. If it's a humid day your fondant will be harder to work with, make it a little thicker to hold together. 
Other bakers use just cornstarch when dusting their mat, again you can try this, I'm not discouraging others methods, but I found my dusting bag (a homemade dusting bag with a mixture of cornstarch and icing sugar) to be the best. 

Once you have your round fondant circle and you can easily slide it on your mat (doesn't stick to it) you're ready to cover your cake.

What I do next is add a 10" cake board under my 10" cake. This will be easier to cover in fondant. I flip over my cake pan and set my cake on top. I do this so my cake is elevated and when I lay my fondant over it, it just drapes down. 
So basically you have your cake pan upside down, with a 10" cake board and your cake sitting on this (adding some icing to the cake board to make your cake stick to it will help keep it on)

Next I take my whole mat. Some bakers roll their fondant on their rolling pin, but I was never good at keeping it from not sticking.
So I just lift my whole mat up and lay my fondant over my cake. Really eye-ball this well so you cover your whole cake. 
I gently lift the mat off and start smoothing my fondant over my cake. Quickly cut around the bottom and get rid of excess fondant. You'll have to do this a couple times, but the first time is important because it's pulling and stretching your fondant and you don't want any rips. 

With your hands (dust them first) smooth the top and then down to get rid of any wrinkles. If you start at one spot and go around your cake it's easier and the wrinkles should work themselves out and go below your cake so you can cut them off. 

With fondant smoothers (or one-whatever is easier for you) smooth your fondant again over your cake and again trim any around the bottom. 
Smooth until your happy. 

If you do see any cracks you can rub a little vegetable shortening on them, this helps (a bit) to get rid of small cracks. 

A wedding cake I did. Top 2 tiers are real cake, bottom 2 tiers are not. Ivory fondant was used with brushed embroidery, gold designs and monogram.

Don't forget that black cakes will look dusty if your using a lot of dusting powder, so keep this in mind. 
Also if you want a shiny cake simply steam your whole cake! This will make your cake shine. 
You can get rid of white powder (on a black cake or any other colour) by steaming it out....but be very careful....steam lightly and only a second at a time because if you don't want a shiny cake...less steam is best.

If you're having trouble with the bottom of your cake (edge) you can simply add some decorations, such as beads, pearls or even pipe around it.
There are some nice molds out there that are great for making even looking beads.

Bead mold in 3 different sizes. Can be used as a single rope around the bottom of your cake, or use all 3 so the beads look like they are bigger to smaller.

For some other molds and ideas to decorate your cake visit me at www.caketools.ca.

If you're making a 2 tiered cake, follow the same directions. Make sure that you have a cake board under the 2nd tier also. For example if you have your bottom tier 10" and your top one 8" you need a 8" cake board underneath to give it strength. Using cake dowels insert a few into the 10" bottom tier to hold up the top 8" level. Add your top level. Some bakers add one strong dowel all the way through also (they would sharpen into a point and bang down into both levels)
You don't need this if you're not travelling with your cake or moving it a lot. 
And then all you have to do is add some beads around the bottom of your top level. 

I welcome any comments or ideas that you have on my blog and please share any tips that you have.

I hope this helps you!


Thanks for reading!

Christina Lapointe
owner
www.christinascakecreations.ca
www.caketools.ca

Naked cake anyone?

There is a trend in cakes that is truly unique... naked cakes. I like them but I think you have to love them if you make a naked cake a part of your big wedding day. 
The nice thing about them is that if you're not an expert in covering a cake with fondant this may be the way to go. 
So next time you have a birthday cake or celebration cake, go 'natural' and try your hand at making a naked  cake. 

There are a couple ways to make your naked cake a success: 
-Add something to it. Fruit such as strawberries, raspberries or any other berry between the layers. Keep it natural looking. The best naked cakes have that natural, organic look. 
Choose beautiful fresh looking fruit.
-Colours and flavorings. Pick a flavor that you'd like, but keep in mind that a white cake might not look as good naked. Pick cakes that have some colour such as carrot, hummingbird, red velvet, lemon, chocolate. And keep in mind what you're going to garnish and add to it. 
But do make sure that all the flavorings go together. Your cake has to taste good as well as look good naked.
-Keep your butter cream or frosting or whatever you are layering with even. Make sure that every layer has the same amount and don't over do it. Make it a good stiff butter cream. IF you are adding a fruit filling make sure that you are adding a nice big dam around the outside of the layer and then add the fruit filling. If you don't it's all just run out over the sides. Remember that there isn't any fondant to keep everything in its place.
-Keep the temperature in mind.... we all know that a humid day or an outside wedding will reek havoc on a butter cream cake. Remember this when planning your naked cake.
-Don't stack early--Keep everything nice and fresh looking. Stack your cakes as late as possible.
-Make sure all your cakes are the same height! Use a cake leveler if you have too, but you want nice clean lines. Again this goes for the filling--keep it all the same depth. 
-Trim..if you want..When you bake your cakes you always have a darker layer around the outside. This can be trimmed- maybe not all of it or any of it depending on the look you want. 
Here are some nice pictures (they are not my cakes).

 I like this one, I think it's whimsical and would make a lovely birthday cake. 

Like making any other cake the variety and imagination to making a naked cake is unlimited. Have fun with it and experiment. 

Got a naked cake that you've done? Post it here. 

Thanks for reading,

Christina

Christina Lapointe

www.christinascakecreations.ca

www.caketools.ca