Read The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating Online
Authors: Ruth Clemens
The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating (10 page)
Embossing sugarpaste (rolled fondant) involves pressing textured objects into the surface to leave an imprint. It is a simple yet effective way of texturing paste, creating intricate designs. The technique needs to be done on fresh sugarpaste, not dried.
1 Make sure your chosen object is either brand new or spotlessly clean and absolutely dry before use.
2 Lightly dust your chosen object with a little icing (confectioners') sugar â using a duster is ideal (see
Equipment
).
3 Press the object gently onto freshly rolled-out sugarpaste and then lift away. You should be left with a perfectly embossed design.
4 Dust the embossed pattern with edible lustre dust to highlight the design if desired.
Practise embossing on a piece of excess sugarpaste first to get a feel for the correct amount of pressure required.
These simple and effective flowers are very quick and pretty for impromptu decorations.
1 Take a ball of sugarpaste (rolled fondant) approximately 7cm (2
3
â
4
in) in diameter and shape by hand into a rough sausage shape.
2 Roll the shape out thinly on your work surface dusted lightly with icing (confectioners') sugar to stop it sticking. Once it is in a long rectangle, fold it in half widthways. Lightly press the two edges together leaving the top fold slightly puffy.
3 Still on the work surface, start to roll the flower up from one end. Once the roll is started, lift it up and hold it with your hands as you continue to roll up the flower.
4 Pinch off the excess sugarpaste from the base of the flower and set it aside.
Twenty-five projects to motivate and inspire you...
(to make in an hour or less)
Building a 3D design
These pastel butterfly cookies are stunning and easy to make too â why not whip up a batch for someone special?
12 butterfly cookies
Sugarpaste: romantic colours of your choice e.g. peach, pale peach and pink
Cutters: butterfly cookie and small butterfly
Edible gold lustre dust
Basic equipment (see
Equipment
)
1 Roll out your chosen colours of sugarpaste to a 3mm (
1
â
8
in) thickness. Using the butterfly cookie cutter, cut out 12 butterflies in different shades.
2 Brush the top of each cookie with a little water and attach the sugarpaste butterfly in place, pressing down lightly to secure.
3 Using the back of a knife, mark the veins on the butterfly's wings.
4 Roll out a complementary colour of sugarpaste to a 3mm (
1
â
8
in) thickness and cut out 12 smaller butterflies.
5 Mark the veins with the back of a knife and place on top of the larger butterfly, securing with a dab of water.
6 Roll out a small ball for the head and a tube for the body and position on top of each small butterfly.
7 Add a little sprinkle of gold lustre dust for an extra hint of sparkle.
“This project isn't as fiddly as it might sound â set up a production line doing each stage of the cookies in one go and you'll soon have a beautiful batch of Butterfly Kisses!”
Layering cut-out flowers
Blossoms in subtly different shades create a stylish layered effect, which would work equally well on cupcakes as on cookies.
12 round cookies
Sugarpaste: purple and white
Cutters: round cookie, large and small blossoms
Silver sugar dragees, medium and small
Basic equipment (see
Equipment
)
1 Take a ball of purple sugarpaste and knead into a ball of white sugarpaste the same size to create a pale purple colour.
2 Roll out the pale purple sugarpaste to a 3mm (
1
â
8
in) thickness. Using the round cookie cutter, cut out 12 circles.
3 Brush the top of each cookie with a little water and attach the sugarpaste circles in place, pressing them down lightly to secure.
4 Using the blade of a palette knife, gently mark lines vertically and then horizontally across each cookie, spacing the lines approximately 1cm (
3
â
8
in) apart.
5 With a paintbrush, apply a dot of water to each point where the lines intersect and add a silver dragee to each dot. Press each dragee down lightly with your fingertip to help them stay in place.
6 Cut out 12 large blossoms from the pale purple sugarpaste and 12 from the darker purple sugarpaste. Place one pale blossom on top of a darker one with the petals slightly offset. Add a silver dragee to the centre of each flower. Make 24 small double blossoms in the same way.
7 Secure one large and two small double blossoms to each cookie with a little water.
Making a wired cake-topper
A mini-cake is brought to life with a dramatic yet super-easy fountain of wired hearts. See what ribbons you've got in your box and adjust the colour scheme to match.
