I am making an Easter weave cake and have viewed some of the lovely ones on here in the gallery, my question is how do you form a Royal Icing handle? Do you use a mold? I'm a little bit perplexed about the whole thing and really don't want to cop out and use a pipe cleaner, so please any helpful hints would be greatly appriciated. Thanks.


Babyfor.

I don't know what size your cake is, but do you have a coffee can or other object you could form it over (sort of like the tiaras in the instruction section?) never done it so I don't know if it would work or not. hopefully someone can help.

If you have plenty of time for 2 drying cycles, I would recommend doing a handle on a flat surface. You can do something like a rope border in an upside down U shape and let that dry completely, turn it over and repeat on the other side. I would think it would have to be pretty thick to hold up without breaking though.

I have made a handle for one of my basket cakes.... i used a clean sheet of chart paper, the ends of which i inserted into either sides of the cake and then piped two rows of ropes on the top (visible) side of the chart paper... if you pipe the rope on a flat sheet and then try to curve it the icing will crack and peal off the chart paper, also it is very difficult to insert the edges into the sides without having the icing peal off the handle... it is best to first insert the handle and then pipe the ropes onto the handle.

you can also make a very strong stable handle out of gumpaste, you will need a curved ojbect to let the strip of gumpate dry over it (may take upto 24 hrs. or more) once you have the curved handle you can insert it into the cake and then pipe the rope OR you can pipe the rope on either sides of the handle with royal icing only, let dry and then insert into the cake.....

hope this helps.... there may be other ways to make a handle...

[quote]I have made a handle for one of my basket cakes.... i used a clean sheet of chart paper, the ends of which i inserted into either sides of the cake and then piped two rows of ropes on the top (visible) side of the chart paper... if you pipe the rope on a flat sheet and then try to curve it the icing will crack and peal off the chart paper, also it is very difficult to insert the edges into the sides without having the icing peal off the handle... it is best to first insert the handle and then pipe the ropes onto the handle.
quote]
Could use also pipe flat but leave about half inch on the paper or wire so that you have somewhere to hold and that part gets hidden in the cake.

I would make it from gumpaste over a bamboo skewer and ensure there is enough sticking out from the bottom of the gumpaste(long) to stick well into the cake at an angle so it won't break off the cake...you would have to watch out for the weight and the pressure of the gumpaste handle.

I haven't actually done handles but that is how I would do it.

You could use a round cake pan to help with modeling gumpaste into a nice clean curve, or use as a guide if you pipe a royal icing one.

I think a royal icing one would be difficult to handle and would break easily. I would use either gumpaste or fondant with added gumtex and roll it into a rope and dry it over a Crisco can or a bowl. You could also try chocolate or candy melts.
Good luck.
Diane

You might want to look at the Wilton web site. Look at projects, there are 2 Easterbasket projects. One is a cake and the other, I think, for cookies. There they describe how to make the handle. Have lots of fun.