Lace Press

Hi this is my first time posting. Until about a year ago I didn't even know about using molds to create wonderful embellishments for cakes. I learned about this blog and store from a friend of mine and then attended an ICES day of sharing where some of Decorate the Cakes molds were used.

For the lace molds I am showing you today I chose to use Fondant for one and chocolate for another. First up the Fondant.

You will need a lace mold, fondant, a rolling pin, sharp knife, and a mat to roll your fondant on.

Knead fondant until soft and roll out to about 1/4 th of an inch thick with rolling pin.

Place back of mold on top of fondant and trim fondant to fit.

Lay fondant into front part of mold.

Place back onto fondant and press down using rolling pin making sure back of mold doesn't slip as you apply pressure.

Remove back of mold and gently remove fondant piece by either lifting out or turning over mold.

Use a sharp knife to clean up edges of your fondant piece.

You may now enhance your piece by airbrushing, hand painting on color or using luster dust or other embelishments.

For my second mold I decided to try using melted chcolate. I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I thought I would give it a shot.

For this project you will need your lace molds, cooking spray, melting chocolate ( I used the wilton chocolate discs but I am sure any melting chocolate would work just as good.) a plate to place mold on, a container for chcolate so that you can easily pipe it into mold and either a tool, knife, or tooth pick for cleaning off excess chocolate.

First off I lightly sprayed the molds with cooking spray so that the chocolate would be easy to remove.

I then placed the mold onto a plate so that the mold would be stable for placing into the refrigerator to set chocolate.

After melting chocolate I place it in a squirt bottle so that it will be easier to get into all the small places of the mold without air bubbles. Gently squeeze bottle and fill mold with chocolate. (note: Fill mold about 2/3 full so that when you place back onto mold you don't have a huge amount of choclate ooze out. I learned this one the hard way :)

Place back onto mold and gently push it into place. DO NOT push it all the way down as this will cause your chocolate to be too thin and it will brek during the unmolding. ( Also learned this one the hard way) Push just enough so that imprint will be on back of piece and give shape to your final product.

Use a tool or tooth pick to remove excess chocolate from around the edges. This will make unmolding much eaiser.

Place mold into refrigerator for a few minutes to allow chocolate to set up. Remove mold from refrigerator and gently remove mold backing. Gently lift chocolate out of mold and trim edges with sharp knife.

TUTORIAL FOR DOGWOOD LACE AND SINGLE DAISY APPLIQUE

Hello, my name is Vivian, and I am new to cake decorating. I started one year ago and can’t seem to get enough of it! I love discovering new products and techniques, and I am honored to be a part of the DTC Product Test Group. Like many of you, this is my first time working with a lace & appliqué mold, and I look forward to trying it out and creating this tutorial.

Materials Needed:
· Your choice of Fondant, gumpaste, or modeling chocolate (I did it with fondant)
· Rolling Pin
· X-Acto Knife
· Shortening
· Mold















1. Start with a small piece of fondant. Lightly grease your hands with shortening and work the fondant to soften, until pliable.
2. Roll out the fondant with a rolling pin on a non-stick surface or pasta machine to #2 or 3.

















3. Trim the fondant to the size of the mold. Place the fondant over the base mold and press gently with your fingers, making sure to push the uneven edges into the mold until smooth.















4. Put the top part of mold above the fondant and press down gently, and then remove it.















5. Turn the mold over and gently bend it back, letting the lace or appliqué fall out.
6. Trim any excess fondant with an X-Acto Knife.

















7. Now you have a beautiful piece of lace and appliqué to decorate your cake.















Tips and Tricks:

• If your fondant sticks to the mold while trying to remove it, put the mold into the freezer for a couple of minutes to firm up. Another way to keep it from sticking is to dust cornstarch on both sides of the fondant before putting it into the mold.
• Dust your lace or appliqué with an edible luster or pearl dust in order to give it a more elegant look.
• To apply the lace or appliqué to your buttercream or fondant cake, use an edible glue (like thinned royal icing, gumglue, buttercream, or water) as an adhesive.
• If you would like to be a bit more creative, it is very easy to change the look while using the same mold. For example, with this Dogwood Lace, I broke-off the flowers on each end to make a smaller lace pattern, and now I can use the flowers as accents pieces.

See? Fun!


I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. Please feel free to contact me on Facebook if you have any questions, and I will be more than happy to help.

Thanks,
Vivian Pardo

Tutorial - DTC's Lace Press Molds

Hi Everyone!  I am so honored to be part of Decorate the Cake's product test group!  My name is Mark, and I own Morsels By Mark in Montreal, Canada.  This is my first time guest-blogging, but I do have my own sugar related blog where I talk sugar and even interview some pretty famous people in the industry!
I love the line of lace molds available at DTC and they are by far the best quality I have found out there!  On top of great quality, the entire line of products are reasonably priced, shipped in a reasonable amount of time considering they are all made to order, the selection is incredible, and I have never had such incredible customer service!  So, without any further adieu, here is a little tutorial I came up with on how to use DTC's lace press molds:

Materials:

Lace Press Mold

Rolling Pin

Embellishment of your choice (pearl dust, luster dust, highlighter dust) if desired

Molding medium of your choice (I used gumpaste, but fondant or modelling chocolate work also)

Step One

Soften gumpaste by kneading it with a little bit of shortening until it is smooth and pliable

Step Two

Roll the gumpaste out to a little over the same size as your mold. You want to get it to about the same thickness as the depth of the mold. I use my Kitchen-Aid pasta roller attachment on

number 1 or 2. Use a small pallet knife to trim it to size.

Step Three

Place the gumpaste in the cavity of the mold. Press the excess into the cavity and smooth. Use

the press back to apply pressure and emboss your lace.

Step Four

Turn your molded piece out onto your work surface, trim excess paste from edges using an

exacto knife. 



Step Five

 Finish using whatever method you choose. Here I used pewter shimmer dust on the small flower applique, and pearl dust on the large lace border.  For a metallic look (think of those embossed ceiling panels), you can mix some metallic highlighter with some clear alcohol or extract and paint it on.

Tips and tricks:

• To really make the lace pop, I highly recommend using luster or pearl dust to help bring out the pattern of the piece. I also love the way black lace pops off of a red or white fondant background!

• Smaller shaped two-piece molds can be tough to piece together once medium is in base of mold. Before using, use a Sharpie marker to mark registration lines on the mold for easy match-up.

• If using fondant, mix with a bit of tylose to give it some added strength

• If you need to make a lot of smaller applique pieces, I recommend making a template to cut your rough pieces out before molding to speed the process up a bit

• When trimming paste, always make sure your blade is clean and still sharp to ensure a perfect cut

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial - I had a blast doing it!  (Thanks Melissa for inviting me!) Check out my blog and become a follower if you haven't already - I have a few interviews in the works that you won't want to miss.  If you have any questions regarding the steps featured here, or about the molds I used, feel free to contact me - I'm more than happy to help if I can.  And remember to check back here often for updates on new products and more tutorials and other fun things! 


Until next time,
Happy Caking!

Potempa-Bissler Wedding - October 2010

In October, I traveled to Chicago to do a wedding cake for our good friends Christina Potempa and Paul Bissler - Mind you, I live in Kansas City... But what better way to celebrate a friendship and wedding that to be able to road trip to make the cake.

The wedding was held around the Wrigleyville area of Chicago and in one of the most beautiful venues I have ever seen -- Architectural Artifacts.

The 5-tier fondant covered cake featured the wide scalloped lace press, puddle pleats and gum paste flowers to match the brides flowers.

For those wondering, I did not traveled with the cake assembled -- I did assemble and freeze each crumb coated layer -- but all the assembly, including the flowers were done after arriving in the Windy City! 

I can't say enough about "The Mat" from Sweetwise for rolling out the fondant for the cake - the powdered sugar bomb was adverted using this tool!  Also, to Fondx, as I used their fondant to cover the cake.

Also, thanks to my dear friend Jennifer Dontz of Sugar Delites, who taught me how to make gum paste flowers in her classes a few years back -- She now has DVDs so you too can learn to make beautiful gum paste flowers

Here is another view of the cake - The cake's design was taken primarily from Christine's wedding dress

And we must not forget the groom's cake! Paul is a huge Cleveland Brown's fan - so what better than a Brown's helmet.

Thanks for letting me share....

Melissa
Decorate the Cake

2011 DTC User Group

Happy New Year! 

What a wonderful and exciting year 2010 was for Decorate the Cake!  We are so excited for 2011, new products, new services and lots of FUN!

In 2010, we did a pilot product user group and the response was so great that we have decided to make the DTC Product User group permanent. 

The DTC Product User Group or DTCPUG, is a group of subscribing members to our blog or facebook who share their talents while testing out our new or existing products. 

To become a member of DTCPUG, use the sign up form to the right in the blog to submit you name and email address.  You will be added to a mailing list and after confirmation will begin receiving information about how to participate. 

During the pilot program, we did limit the number of members - but going forward there will not be a limit to the number of members in the group. 

There have been some changes to the DTCPUG and how it works.  During the pilot, products were loaded to the website and users were able to log in and select the items for their projects.  Going forward, using email notifications, DTC will publish the product and or project that we need for contribution and or content.  Selection will be first come, first serve - but don't worry, there will be plenty of project and opportunities to contribute.

DTC will supply our product to you at no cost, and these items are yours to keep - all other supplies, such as fondant, gum paste, dummies, etc will be supplied by the participant. 

Each project request email will contain instructions, time frames and other information needed to complete and publish the content. 

The first project request will go out in about a week --

Thanks again,
Melissa

Mark Your Calendar!

Decorate The Cake

Pre-Black Friday Sale

Friday, November 19, 2010

ONE DAY ONLY

40% OFF

Yes, it is a week before the traditional "Black Friday" so mark your calendars! We are offering this special a week early to ensure that all orders arrive for the holiday gift giving season.

Scope out the product offerings early and give a list to your Santa by next Friday!

Gotta Have Heart!

Sandy Swart decorates cookies with some mini heart molds.

Cookies were molded with almond bark (white and chocolate) using molds from Spinning Leaf. To adorn the top, I used the almond bark molded in the Mini- Hearts 6 Pack and dusted them with gold luster dust. To attach the chocolate hearts to the top after dusting, I set them for a couple of seconds on one of my long icing spatulas that I heated under hot water then dried off. The small amount of heat on the metal spatula was enough to melt the back of the molded heart and stick to the molded chocolate covered cookie.

I made these to share with the crew that worked with me at the polls for Wards 1,2,3 & 4 at the elections in November. Impressed the ladies and they are simple to make with a lot of punch!

Products Used:

Mini-Hearts 6 Pack

Spinning Leaf Standard Cookie Mold

Bottle Molds

Sandy Swart shows us some great uses for bottle molds.

A 1/4 sheet cake was used, cut in half lengthwise and stacked. The sides were imprinted with a paring knife then airbrushed to give a faux basketweave look. The bottle after embellished with edible image was placed on top and the packing was white almond bark grated and placed around the bottle.

Aunt Dee's cake was made to look like a wine bottle by wrapping the top with part of a plain edible image then painted with gold luster dust/everclear. Fondant flowers used to decorate the top of the airbrushed cake. The lavender flowers in the top swag and two pink flowers in the bottom cluster were made using the five petal blossom cutter and the 5 petal blossom veiner.

Picture shows airbrushed plaid background with edible image printed special for the birthday boy, Derek. Deke is his nickname so it's labeled "Deke's Home Brew." Gumpaste bottle cap painted with gold luster dust/everclear.

Elver's cake was plaid airbrush with half bottle again to look like a wine bottle. Play on words making it Elverberry wine instead of elderberry wine. He's a card player so this worked perfect. Again, edible image painted with gold luster dust/everclear made the top look like it was wrapped in foil.

As you can see the 1/2 beer bottle mold is more than a beer bottle. There are endless possibilities.

Sandy will be doing several demonstrations at the Kansas ICES Day of Sharing on Sunday, November 14th in Olathe, KS. One demonstration will have her making a beer cooler, bottles and sugar ice. For more information on the DOS contact the Kansas ICES Rep - Cathy Hansen at cathyhansen@kc.rr.com.

Products Used:

Sugar Bottles

5-Petal Blossom Cutter

5 Petal Blossom Veiner

Leaping Lizards!

Sandy Swart walks us through the process of making some great geckos for your reptile loving friends.

Sandy starts with 2 colors of fondant.

Make a log of your base color and add some stripes.

Gently press the fondant down into the mold.

Using a cell pin she pushes the fondant into the full cavity.

Make additional logs with stripes to fill in the other areas.

The full mold!

After a quick trip to the freezer to chill Sandy uses a needle tool to help start removing the gecko. Placing in the freezer helps the gecko to keep his shape will being removed from the mold.

Flip the mold over and gently remove.

Now isn't that one cute gecko!

You can then move the arms/legs into different positions.

A first birthday cake for Ava!
Close up on the cute candle holder.

A trio of geckos to help Garrett celebrate!

Product Used:

Reptile - Gecko

Cameo Project

Georganne Bell created beautiful cookies using the floral hair lady cameo.

Does beauty come in sugar? I'm pretty sure its called the Floral Hair Lady Cameo if it does. My husband calls it the "face head lady thing." No matter what you call it, I simply adore this new mold. It's so easy to use.

Step 1: Get Cameo mold.
Step 2: Make fabulous cookies.

See? Easy peasy. And to make it even easier...make sure you order a setting mold to go with your cameo. Try to order it at the same time as the cameo. Don't be like me and order it the day before your cameo mold gets there. You'll NEVER be able to wait long enough to get the setting mold before trying out the cameo mold. If you forget to take my advice and now you are holding the cameo mold in your hot little hands and you simply can't wait for the setting mold to get to you, it's okay. There is a solution. First, put down the cameo mold. Then do a little online search and find a picture of a cameo setting that you absolutely love. (There is no sense making cookies that you don't absolutely love.) Copy and paste it into some kind of picture altering program to re-size it to match your cameo mold. Tape it on the back of a cookie sheet and tape some wax paper over the top of that. Mold your cameo and place on top of the picture of the cameo setting. Melt a bit of chocolate and while resisting the urge to eat melted chocolate straight from the bowl, pipe it on top of the setting and around the cameo. If you live somewhere real hot and humid like I do, it helps to put the cameos/settings in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Then you just pop them right off the sheet and on to your cookies -- or in to your mouth. (What?! Who would do that?) And there you have it. Beauty in sugar form.

Georganne Bell

Product Used:

Cameo - Floral Hair Lady

Classes in the Kansas City area

Sherrie Ortiz of Sherrie's Cake Magic will be offering a variety of classes held in Belton. Check out the class information below and her website for more information.

Sherrie's Cake Magic

Contact Page

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Pumpkin carving class. $50.00 --6-9 m

Just in time for Halloween or fall parties.

Learn how to carve, ice and finish the cake with an air brush machine. I will also show you how to recreate it at home without an air brush machine too.

You will go home with your own 8” pumpkin shaped cake.

Mature children are welcome to work with a parent in this class if you like to share the project or you can both come and make your own.

Mature teens welcome too.

Space is limited to 8.

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Basic fondant class. $60.00

In this class I provide the cake and supplies needed and even a box to take it home in. If you have a rolling pin please bring it along.

In this 3 hour class we will review basic base icing techniques and ways to speed up your time. You will also learn how to handle fondant and cover the cake and various techniques for finishing it with embossers, pearls etc. I have plenty of tools to play with and try out.

You will go home with an 8” round cake you have made yourself.

Space is limited to 8. Mature teens welcome. One person per project.

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Gum paste flowers.

What a beautiful art form these are. I know at first glance the classes seem expensive but I do guarantee you will go away with full knowledge of how to make these and make them well. There will be plenty of time for individual help during the class.

This is for the beginner or intermediate gum paste flower student.

I have broken down the classes into two different ones. Each one covers totally different flowers. More class options will be added at a later time.

The cost is broken down into 5 part decisions. I have tried to make this as easy as possible for each persons goals. If you are just learning for fun you may not want to order all the equipment. If you have a business and plan to make this a part of what you offer then you would probably want to invest in the whole package.

Part one: class fees.

Each class covers 3 flowers or fillers and leaves. You will learn from start to finish each flower in a very simple step by step process. You will go home with these flowers.

Part 2: Borrowing equipment: You can choose not to purchase the equipment for this and just use my supplies. There is an additional 10.00 fee to cover petal dust, wires, floral tape etc.

Part 3: One time purchase equipment: It is suggested that you get this set. It will be useful for a very long time. It is not mandatory.

This is the basic set of equipment you will need to get you going if you have a desire to continue doing these in the future for yourself or for your own business. I have simply searched the web and gathered the best prices for items and passed it along to you at that exact cost without mark up. If you want to order your own or you already have these items then you can bring them with you to class and not pay this fee.

The cost is $105.00 for the one time set. These will be used at every class you attend in the future either with me or other instructors.

The items are: Cel pad, Cell board, Ball tool, 6 petal dust colors, 3 paint brushes, floral tape.

Part 4: Choose your class. If you don’t know exactly what the flowers are just do an image search on Google and you will see hundreds of examples. Yes they will look very much like the real thing when you are done.

Classes are limited to 6 persons. Adults only please.

Part 5: Specific equipment:

Each class has a specific set of equipment for making the flowers. Cutters and veiners are not always cheap. Do not waste your money getting low cost supplies. Eventually you will end up upgrading to the better options.

Class one:

You will learn the following flowers.

Casablanca lily, Poinsettia, Mini blossoms for fillers and Ivy leaves and trailing vines.

Class fee is $200.00-- This is 8 hours of instructions done in two evenings. Probably scheduled from 6-10 pm to make it easy to attend.

Borrowing the equipment is 10.00 more.

Purchasing the equipment for this will include the cutters and veiners for all the flowers and leaves. These are excellent quality tools. Not the plastic sets of stuff you get at the craft store.

For Class #1- it is $170.00

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Class #2:

Class fee is $200.00-- This is 8 hours of instructions done in two evenings. Probably scheduled from 6-10 pm to make it easy to attend.

You will learn the following flowers:

Cymbidium orchid.

Hydrangea flowers

Stephanotis

Calla lily

+ leaves for all of these.

Purchasing the equipment for this will include the cutters and veiners for all the flowers and leaves. These are excellent quality tools. Not the plastic sets of stuff you get at the craft store.

For all the equipment the cost is. $125.00

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All classes will require payment in full 2 weeks ahead of the class.

Fees are non refundable because it would be difficult to fill your place with a late notice cancellation.

IF there is room in an upcoming class you may transfer half the fee to that class.

If you need the equipment ordered 3 weeks notice will be necessary to make sure it is delivered in time.

You can pay for the equipment first then pay for the class the following week.

Classes are as follows.

Pumpkin carving class dates: This is a one night class offered several times.

Sept 14th, Sept. 28th, Oct 20th.

Basic fondant: One night class.

Sept 29th,

Gum paste flower classes. Two nights 6-10pm

Class #1---

Oct 12 and 13

Nov 9 and 10.

Dec. 7and 8.

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Class #2.

Nov 2 and 3

Nov. 17 and 18.