Friday, December 9, 2011

Blue Christmas


Its almost as if I willed it to snow last night by making tons of teeny tiny snowflakes out of gumpaste. Is that possible? I wonder what else I could use this power for....


It FINALLY snowed last night. I have been having a little trouble getting into the Christmas spirit with the warm and/or dreary weather this month. The minnesota girl in me craves snow as soon as mid-november hits, and this year has been a huge disappointment so far. Maybe thats why I made a blue cake last night, I think I need to start making big white fluffy cakes with mounds of snow piled on top. It will be like my own personal voo-doo cake, used for good, not evil. Unless you hate snow I guess. Sorry in advance.


I made this cake in my second to last (yay!!) cake decorating class last night, and this morning, instead of bearing down and finishing my final costing project (booooring) I decided to make some matching cupcakes! Lucky for you, I actually took some step by step pictures so you can see how I made the toppers. No, I did not freehand pipe those snowflakes, you think I am THAT crazy? Here is an easy way to get your template transferred onto your fondant to pipe over so you can get a clean, consistent design.

First, roll out your fondant to your desired thickness, I usually go to about 1/16 inch, pretty thin for these.


Cut out your circle, and make sure to dust a good amount of powdered sugar underneath it so it doesn't stick to your work surface. Peel the excess fondant away.


Take your paper template (that you already had cutout, because you are more prepared than I am) and gently press it into the fondant circle.


Use the pads of your fingers to gently rub all of the edges so you get a nice clean imprint. Don't press too hard or you will distort your circle and you run the risk of the paper sticking to the fondant.


Carefully peel away the paper and you are ready to pipe your design.


I used a 00 tip to pipe, I wouldn't go much bigger than a 0 or 1 if you are doing something this small and intricate. Also, I used buttercream to pipe because it's what I had on hand, but you could also use royal icing, you would probably get better line quality that way.


Don't worry if you mess up a little, just let the frosting dry for a few seconds then gently scrape it off with a gumpaste tool or exacto knife. 


You can skip this next step if you want, but I think adding a few small sprinkles, strategically placed, makes for a nice finished clean look. Plus the sprinkles hide the ugly corners. Not that you'd have ugly corners, but if you did, this would help.


If your hands are naturally always sweaty like mine, you should just be able to press your finger into each sprinkle and gently press them into the buttercream. You can also use a tweezers if you are a rockstar like that.

Let these dry for a few hours, then gently press them onto your piped frosting.


Voila! Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, I think this is my first go at one of these. I can say it is trickier than it looks to take pictures with one hand while piping with the other.


Let it snow, let it snow, and here's hoping yours isn't a blue christmas.

12 comments:

Jane S. said...

How beautiful! I don't know how to do anything fancy like that so I really enjoy seeing the wonderful creations that other people make. :)

vanillasugarblog said...

that color blue is just fabulous.
this is the color i want my bathroom. lol

Lulu"s Sweet Secrets said...

So beautiful! I love them!

Anonymous said...

That looks beautiful!

Anonymous said...

i like cupcake tops! a delicate design :) you give one idea, I didn't know the technique of the template with fondant...

Anonymous said...

They are so beautiful!!! I love having a white christmas too! The only problem is I live in New Zealand, where it's summer now!

Mel (Sharky Oven Gloves) said...

The cake looks utterly fantastic and so beautifully wintery!! I love the cupcake toppers as well – you've done a good job of taking photos whilst piping, I don't think I'd be able to do that successfully!

WordsandMusic said...

Absolutely gorgeous. Where do you find your templates?

Amalia said...

Wow, these look stunning! They're so beautifully made, I love the fondue snowflake :)

The Queen Vee said...

Just found your blog, you are amazingly talented. Not only can you bake and cook but you do it so artistically.
Everything is so beautiful and perfectly presented.

Anonymous said...

Hi,this cake is amazing and the color too. Few days ago i colored a big ball of white fondant homemade and for me was very very difficult to reach an intense red color. I spent 15 minutes rolling and adding color again and again and this takes too mutch time for me. So, do you color white fondant or you buy it colored? 'Cause the colors of youre cakes are perfectly intense.
Thank you so mutch!
Sara.

Bria said...

Thank you everyone!!

Sara- if you want deep red fondant, I would just purchase the red pre-made. It is such a hard color to get with food coloring alone. Same with black. A tip though, bought red fondant is so saturated that you can add a bit of white to stretch it farther without any noticeable difference in color.

For pastels I usually just use gel food coloring and know that I will have to knea for a while. Sometimes that is what takes the longest when preparing for a cake is coloring the fondant. Hope that helps!

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