Hello!

I am going to be making a shopping bag cake. I've never made one before. I want it to feed about 30-40 people. It will be a Neiman Marcus shopping bag.

If you've ever made a cake like this and you have some helpful hints, please let me know!!! Mainly, what I'm wondering is -

How to do the logo?
How to do the tissue paper?
Is there a trick to doing the fondant?

Thank you!

I think the logo is perfect for my lightbox method. Go to my monogram picture, the black and white one...I put instructions. I made a trick or treat halloween bag cake once, in my pics, pretty easy. As for how many pieces of tissue you'll need, I think you'll have to sight it!

I wrapped a sheet of fondant around the sides of my cake that was sitting upright, and joined the seam together on one of the corners like a real bag. First I cut a panel of fondant to cover the inside top of the cake, then trimmed the top edge. Put paper towels wadded up to keep the shape upright.

Oh, pasta rolling machine for sure for those tissue pieces...Need to be super thin!

You can do the logo several different ways: Fondant cut outs, Frozen butter cream transfer, chocolate transfer, piped on with BC or royal, painted on with thined down gel colors, or make a stencil and air brush.

Tissue paper is made from gumpaste or fondant/gumpaste mix and allowed to dry in desired position.

Do the fondant in 2 pieces and join at the sides. Leave it stick up a little above the cake to look like an open bag and use saran to hold it up until it dries.

The handle is best made from gumpaste or 50/50 fondant/gumpaste mix and allowed to dry for several days.

There's a Hollister shopping bag in my photos is you'd like to look.

What Tiggy said about handle...for sure! Forgot about that!

These are helpful hints. I'm not sure about the light box idea, because I would have to light box the whole fondant overlay, wouldn't I? I'm trying to find a pic of a Neiman Marcus bag and having trouble... I like the light box for a monogram on a wedding cake.

No....just cut out a panel only the size you need, super thin so it isn't sticking out too much...trust me, if you go with this, you can't go wrong. I can't think of a better way to get exactly that Neiman Marcus font. It's as simple as tracing!

Ok, good. I'll try it!!

Maybe these will help

AND THIS

Shaa,

The first one is ridiculously detailed!!! AHHH! I can't see the second one. It didn't post for some reason. Although, I bet the finished cake would be stunning if I used the first one...

I want to use it as a gift for a very trendy local magazine editor. I'm hoping to get some press! HAHA

Maybe I should go for it, although it seems ambitious! How would you go about trying to replicate that? Please don't say freehand! haha

Oh - I see the 2nd one now

Oh that bag would be so fun!!!! Easy too, really....simple lines, kind of stitched looking in places...

Umm.... Ok, I feel like an idiot, but explain how that would be "easy".

Wellll......maybe it's just me, but lacy patterns and scrolls and swirls drive me nuts. The design on that bag is think lines, not a lot of movement required from your wrists, you only need a small tip, you can use a little parchment cone, so you would almost be "writing" it, not holding up a huge piping bag....

Or, you could put those designs on with rolled fondant ropes in all the corresponding colors. Kind of like a monogram...I just did a monogram (in pics) where I used the rolled fondant ropes.
Add your handles

Do that logo all perfect....sounds like a not too hard job to me! If you have an airbrush, you can do the black with that....I think that is a super cool cake idea! Especially with all those bright colors on black.....kind of like one of those Lite Brite thingies!

In fact....I am almost compelled to do this myself...hmmmmm. Heh heh...

Too bad you can't make mine for me - LOL! Now that you said Lite Brite, I get it. What if I rolled up little notches and lined them all up?

Little notches...not sure I am visualizing what you mean.

Communication breakdown! LOL

Like those Lite Brite thingys. I guess you call them thingys, I call them notches! LOL

Too funny...

Now you've got me ready to go for it! I know if done right, it would make a HUGE impression. The girl I talked to from the magazine had casually mentioned that she's always hiding her Neiman Marcus bags from her BF, so I thought it would be a cute cake idea for her.

Oh yes....I think that would look so cool. Just watch out for corn starch marks or powdered sugar, whatever you use around your fondant, if you go with the black background.

I probably won't "steal" this cake idea...but definitely going to do something black with small bright lines like that soon though, just for the heck of it!

Oh i've been wanting to make a shopping bag cake for a friend,i hope i can with this thread.

_Jamie_, go ahead and steal it! I don't care! Technically, I'm not supposed to be replicating it anyway, probably! But since it's a gift, I'll do it.

I guess for the purple area you could flood it with royal, or would you use fondant for that, too?

Do you have an airbrush? You could cut out a paper template to match the purple area, stick on the cake, airbrush your black ove that, and go back with the purple. Then, I would outline the edges with another rolled piece of fondant in the same shade of purple to give it definition.

That's a good idea. I don't have an airbrush. I try to get by with Wilton spray, but I heard it sux in comparison. It's runny sometimes.