Homemade Sidewalk Chalk

Need another idea for your silicone molds?  How about some homemade sidewalk chalk?

First get all of your supplies collected. 

1. Molds of your choice
2. Plaster of Paris
3. Powdered tempra paint in color of choice
4. Bowl for mixing the chalk
5. Water
6. Spoon
7. Knife 

Mix together 1 cup of plaster of paris with 3/4 cup of water.  Add colored tempra paint to get desired color.  Blend well and let stand for a  few minutes.  Line up your molds so you are ready to pour.

Pour mixture into the molds.  Just a little hint here - DO NOT lift the mold and drop to get out air bubbles like you do with chocolate.  This could result in a huge mess and sidewalk chalk mixture all over your laptop.  Of course - I'm just guessing that could happen?

Allow the chalk to set and then remove from the mold.  I was able to remove them from the molds after 45 minutes.  Then set the chalk pieces aside to dry thoroughly - this takes approximately 24 hours.

Now, I'm all ready for warm weather to get here so I can go out and play!  In the meantime, Jax and Mari ran outside for a quick test.  Future note -- add a little extra color -- the pink was a tad light.  

Mari was cold and wasn't staying outside any longer!

Molds used:

Gecko Mold

StarFish Small

StarFish Medium

Lace it up!

A special thanks to Sherrie Ortiz for the latest blog posting.  Get some great ideas on using some of the favorite lace molds.

Posted by: Sherrie Ortiz.

Owner Sherrie's Cake Magic.com

 This is the mold I picked to work into a draped lace border.  DTC Lace 2 Border-wide floral. I've really become a fan of Glenda's mold. They are so soft and easy to handle. I have some that I have made myself, they just don't compare to hers.

 Close up of this lace.

This is a nice size mold. It is long enough to cover a good distance without being difficult to manage.

You can see here where I added a small roll of fondant under the lace. I felt like it needed a bit of something to hold the lace away from the cake so I could get a batter draped look.

 

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Roll out the fondant fairly thin. I used a Kitchen aid roller down to a 2. You want it thin enough to look like fabric. If it is thick it just won't look nice.  Lay the fondant into the mold, lay the top part of the mold on top of that.....  and trim the edges. Remove the top part and gently roll the edges with your finger towards the inside to clean the edges. Remove from mold.

Looks like this.

Flip over and paint with water. Remember less is more.

 Attach the lace with water pinching the top edge to get the folds. This is not hard. Just go for it. If you really mess it up take it off and do again. The biggest hint I can give is not to use too much water. It should only be tacky.... not wet.

For the next section place upside down on the table... wet a bit then fold in the right side just a 1/4 inch. This will remove the "raw" edge. When you pick it up that fold will be on the left. Attach it to the last section with water and drap them to look seamless.

Next the bottom edge needs a bit of help keeping it "fluffed" I used the paint brush and water under the edge to make it stick to the borad where I wanted it to stick.

TA DA!! Here is the finished cake. In hind sight I could have used this same lace mold for the swags on the 3^rd tier down. It would have matched nicely. I used a texture pin. I could have also made a big bow out of this mold. The Lace on the second tier up is also from DTC... lace #1 Floral V spray. I really like that one too.   Yes the flowers are sugar. I made those.

I hope you enjoyed my blog.

You can see more of my work at www.sherriescakemagic.com

Products Used:
Lace Border - Wide Floral
Lace Floral V Spray

Isomalt Butterfly

The supplies:

- Silicone butterfly wing molds

- Isomalt stick from CakePlay

- Hot pot for melting isomalt from CakePlay

- Silicone cupcake liner - I use it to melt the isomalt but you can used whatever you normally use

- Toothpick - not shown

- Silpat - not shown

First I broke up the isomalt stick and placed it in the silicone cup. Microwave in 15-20 second increments until all melted. 

 Carefully pinch the silicone cup - be gentle and cautious so that you do not spill the hot isomalt on your fingers.  Pour a steady stream into the mold.

I found it necessary to gently coax the isomalt into the point of the mold.

Set mold aside for a bit to cool and firm up.

Once set and barely warm to the touch begin to gently pull the silicone away from the isomalt.

Gently dip the edges of the wings into the hot pot getting a little isomalt on each side of the butterfly wings.

Press the wings together over a non-stick surface - I used a silpat.  As you press them together the isomalt you gathered from the hot put will bunch between the wings creating a body for the butterfly.  

When you pulled wings away from the hot pot strings of isomalt will be drawn way from the pot.  I used bits of this to push into the still warm body and create the antennae.  Prop the wings up so they will be positioned how you want.

 A finished butterfly!

Products Used:
Butterfly - Monarch Wings Mold
Other Butterfly Molds:
Butterfly - Regular Wings Mold
Butterfly - Slim Wings Mold
Butterfly - Stained Glass Mold

Cake Play

DTC Molds...for soap making?!?! YES!

Disclaimer...I am somewhat of a new soap maker. My friends and neighbors are clean due to the amount of "mistakes" I have given away. But I am getting better at this crazy hobby and I am ready to try something new.

Glenda sent me several sea urchin molds, aren't they cute?


First step is to fill them with water to get an idea of how much soap they will hold (soap and water weigh approximately the same). The three molds contained about 2.55 oz which I will round up to 3 oz when I make my batter.

I opted for something colorful for my first attempt, thus a lemony floral with lemongrass was chosen. My cold process soap recipe contained olive, palm, coconut, and castor bean oils were all melted together and added to the lye water.

Cold process was used rather than hot process soap, because I wanted to make sure and get all the fine details from my molds. That requires having a thinner soap batter when pouring into the mold...which you can see here. Pretty!


Now...I let it sit. At least 24 hours, maybe longer (depending on the weather...humidity can cause issues). I hate waiting. Oh by the way, while I do not personally make melt-n-pour (MP) soaps, the thinness of the MP batter would work quite well in these molds too. MP is a tad safer for older children to use; I think they might have a lot of fun. But I digress...


Unmolding was a snap...but why no pictures of the beautiful lemon? Some child of mine who will go unnamed TOOK one into his shower. You don't want to see it now. BUT I will show you my next couple of examples: a fun oatmeal stout soap with gorgeous color and just look at the detail from the mold along with the rosemary and calendula flowers in my "woodsy" soap. Just beautiful! And yes, I do need to do a final "clean up" step and trim the bottom, but I wanted to show how they look fresh from the mold.


...and of course clean up is a snap! I have since acquired several more sea-creature molds from DTC and have had a ball with them. Customers of mine with beach themed bathrooms have had me make specific scents or colors, they love the detail of the molds. I love the ease of use!


FUN! Now...off to make more.... :) THANK YOU GLENDA!

April MacKinnon, crazy soap maker at April's Soaps (aprils.soaps@gmail.com)

Products Used:
Sea Urchin Single
Sea Urchin Set of 2

April's Soaps Facebook Page

Steampunk Is Trending!

The next DTCPUG post has so much to offer! A cake, cookies and even a tree ornament! Our thanks again to Joanne for sharing her talents and her creativitiy!

Steampunk is Trending!!!

I see it in themed parties, weddings, movies, fashion, music, art shows and even recently in the the Saks Fifth Avenue 2011 Christmas Lights Show in NYC!!! Yes, the old, vintage, industrial era is back and trending!

Decorate the Cake has come up with a new set of wonderful silicone molds of gears and chains and impression mats for your steampunk-industrial-retro-futuristic cake, cupcake and cookie designs.

I had the privilege of doing this special project that aims to tickle your imagination. This sample cake and cookies can fit any occasion. I think that this might be an Engagement cake, a Wedding cake that can mean an infinite love, Groom's Cake, Children's Cake, (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse???), a Biker's cake, an Engineer's cake, it can also be a Christmas ornament, New Year Countdown cake, some Cookies to match the theme to serve as give aways.... The possibilities are endless!!!

There are tricks to make each gear and chains come out of the mold perfectly. It will be best illustrated through the photos that I will be including in this tutorial.

For this purpose I have used straight Gumpaste. Fondant, Melting Chocolate, Modeling Chocolate, Marzipan, Isomalt or Gelatin, can be used with the silicone mold. If using a non edible material such as clay, crayons (wax) or soap, make sure that the molds will solely be used for this purpose and not be used anymore for any food or edible ingredient.

Things you should consider when using this mold:

For use with fondant , gumpaste, marzipan or modeling chocolate is to make sure you have dusted lightly your mold with cornstarch or powdered sugar. The paste should be well kneaded to a pliable stage before pressing into the mold. There may be times when you need to refrigerate before you unmold the the ingredient out of the silicone mold.

For use with melting chocolate , a proper tempering is needed, pour and tap to make sure air bubbles are out.

For use with isomalt crystals, cook isomalt at 338F make sure that the crystalline have dissolved and the liquid isomalt has reached right temperature for pouring at somewhere 275F-300F. Always take caution when dealing with hot sugar, always use gloves for protection against burns.

I hope this will spark up ideas for your upcoming projects. I'd like to thank Glenda and Decorate the Cake for coming up with such beautiful molds and the opportunity to play around with it.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Decorate the cake or email me at thelittlecakedecorator@thelittlecakepatch.com

Cakefully Yours!!
Joanne Wieneke

Products Used:
Bike Chain Mold
Mini Gears Mold
Sprocket Set of 9 Molds
Diamond Plate 1 - Texture Mat

Homemade Crayons

I have been wondering what else we could use the molds to make.  How about some crayons!

First get all of your supplies collected.

1. Crayons - I ran out on Black Friday and got a great deal on the 96 Crayola pack.  You don't need to buy new crayons - this is a great opportunity to recycle the broken nubbins in the bottom of your craft box. 
2. Molds of your choice
3. Knife 

Peel all of the paper off the crayons.  Then chop them into smaller pieces.  You can play with different size pieces to get different patterns in the finished crayon.  Pile up the crayons in the mold.  For the seahorse it took 3 whole crayons.  The koi fish took about 6 crayons.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.  Place the molds in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the crayons melt.  After partially melted I added a few extra bits to make sure the mold was full when done.

When I removed the molds from the oven I used the back edge of the knife to slide the melted crayon from the edged into the cavity and clean it up a bit.

Let the crayons rest a bit until cool.  If you are a tad impatient you can pop them in the fridge to help them cool.

Once cool, gently pull the sides of the mold away from your new crayon to remove from the mold.

And there you have it!  Some great new crayons for the kids.

 

A couple close ups of the colorful creations.

 Used the metallic crayons for the seahorse.  Can you see the sparkles?

Close up of the seahorse face.  Very cute and I love the colors!

Added a sand dollar at the last minute.  

Remember if you use the molds for non food items they are not considered food grade after.  Keep these molds separate from the ones you are going to use for food.  I place a black "X on the back so I remember.

Products Used:
Seahorse Mold
Koi Mold
Sand Dollar Mold