There are some renowned decorators doing magical things...Elisa Strauss, Michelle Bommarito, Kate Sullivan, Buddy Valastro, Chris Russom, and one other (I think). No Colette!

Just finished watching it. I liked Michelle's cake - it had very pretty & elegant colors! The slice of cake/fruitcake/gingerbread stacked cake was also very cute & well done!

Those cakes were just gorgeous...I especially loved Michelle Bommaritos.....I was rooting for her, although all cakes were spectacular. THe Santa was ultra cool, but a bit scary. I can't imagine where people find the equipment to do these kinds of cakes!

i just watched it too, and really enjoyed it. i loved the santa cake, it was mind blowing.

Poor Kate Sullivan's cake sure bombed, and what a disappointment (as far as technique) the big wedding cake turned out to be. I was rooting for Michelle too. LOVED the gingerbread house cake...especially the fondant roof made to look like Necco wafers.

I sure would love to have a huge fondant sheeter like that guy had!

DH and I just watched it, we were sure that the big tall cake would be in the top 3, but they were all pretty cool cakes!
Wasn't too crazy about the tree cake. DH's favorite was the Santa In The Box!
(I'm terrible with names, unless I write them down I forget fast! )

I am ready to try the royal frosting on the balloons for delicate ornaments. I'll let ya'll know how it turns out.

Wasn't that the coolest trick? She even wowed the everyone there with that one.
With my luck, I can just see little shreds of dried royal icing flying all over the place!
Send us pictures when you do that Mac!

Dang!!!! I am sitting here on CC & I missed it!! Does anyone know when it will be on again? Hopefully tomorrow.

TC...mine says it will re-run Wednesday night....


and I agree with ellepal, Michelle Bommaritos cake was very beautiful...but I also liked the jack-in-the-box santa...

can you believe a cake could weight 200 #'s?????

AMAZING!

The balloon trick was amazing.....I can't wait to give that a try!

I was glad to see Elisa Strauss in there again. I"m so glad Michelle Bommarito got a medal this time. Watching this one makes me appreciate Keegan and the way he brings attention to cool techniques that people are doing. He did that at the National Pastry Team Championships too. He's really great at explaining to the crowd what competitors are doing and why and has them pull a camera up on them so you can see. Very cool.

Damn! I wish I were home!!!

Hopefully there will be a re-run

AIR TIMES:
November 27, 2005 10:00 PM ET/PT
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December 04, 2005 3:00 PM ET/PT
December 11, 2005 10:00 PM ET/PT
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December 18, 2005 3:00 PM ET/PT

Whoa, whoa whoa....ok I didn't see it. Royal on balloons for ornaments? Can someone explain this to me please?

she blew up little ballons...did royal icing decorating on it...let it dry...popped the ballons and she had decorated ornaments.....it was just like paper mache....very cool

Awesome! I wonder if you'd have to make the royal icing really thick or how you wouldhave to change it to make it work. I gotta try that one!

Wouldn't the royal break when you popped the balloon?

A way to do this is don't tie the balloon. Instead twist the neck and hold it with a clothes peg. Lightly grease with crisco. Just use normal royal icing. When throughly dry remove the peg and gently release the air so the balloon deflates

The grease wouldn't break down the royal icing?

Not as long as it's a really light coating and you remove the balloon as soon as the icing is dry.

The key was that the balloons were quite underfilled so they didn't actually pop but rather gently lost their air, as MissB said. I think she had a little syringe of some sort to drain the air.


I might try to do that with chocolate and make a chocolate ornament tree of some sort. Hmmmm.....but then again, gold dusted ornaments would be might pretty...oh, the possibilites!

Cakepro,
Be careful with the chocolate. I tried it when the chocolate was too hot and the balloon popped. I was cleaning up chocolate for weeks.

Oh my!!!!

Thanks for the heads up!

I have 2 small balloons drying right now. I'll let you know if I have royal icing pieces all over the place or if it was successful.

Well, my royal icing balloon ornaments didn't quite come out like Michele's. They broke. So I am trying it again tonite. They did stick to the balloon a llittle and I had some spots too thin. I'm going to try slickin' up the balloon as suggested here. I got half pieces so I know I can do it. Hopefully will have some to post tomorrow.

Good luck Mac!

I may be too late with this response but I just saw this last night...
I thought that green Christmas tree could have used a bit more decorations..It was too "plain" compared to the others... The Jack in The Box, the techniques used were out of this world.. very different and very difficult to make.. I felt sorry for that Green Christmas tree...well, she tried. I love that Red Christmas tree one..