I emailed Marina Sousa of Just Cakes in California and asked her if she could share how she did the ruffles on the blue cake for the Cakewalk at Grand Central. I didn't really expect to hear back from her or if I did I thought she would say she wanted to keep the design her own. Had an email response from her today. She says they are very simply done by attaching with sugar water and letting each cake set up before stacking. She also said if I had anymore questions to write back, so________

It shows that some of the really big names are some of the most down to earth people. And since she was willing to share that much information I wrote back and asked a little more. Are they made of fondant? Did she prop them up with something until they had set? Sugar water, as in simple syrup? What did she blend for the airbrushing to acheive that silvery blue shade? I'll let you know what she has to say.

THANKS FOR SHARING & KEEP US UPDATED, i was wondering how iyou do something like that cake.

You have more guts than I do, girl! Glad you went for it! It's been driving us all mad... of course, some of were already mad, but we don't speak of that...

Does anyone have a picture of the cake?

Did I miss another challenge???

(( running frantically to the TiVo........ ))

I think this is the cake that ShirleyW is talking about, right?

Yep, that's the one! Wonderful, isn't it?

Yes, it's absolutely beautiful and amazing. I'm so anxious to hear the details of how she made it!!

Great! I'm looking forward to seeing the update!

I can't wait to hear how its done either. Thanks

I just heard back from Marina Sousa. The cake is covered in blue fondant, the ruffles are the same color fondant. Ruffles are just rectangular sections ruffled by hand and attached with sugar glue to the cake, wads of cotton balls are placed under the ruffles to hold them in place until the glue has dried. The sugar glue is just equal parts of granulated sugar and water, boiled and then cooled. She says to use generous amounts of powdered sugar on the ruffles so the cotton balls don't stick to the fondant. After they are dry you remove the cotton balls very carefully. Use a soft bristled brush to brush away the excess powdered sugar from the ruffles. Then mix a combination of blue petal dust ( as close as possible to the same shade as fondant or a bit darker)and super pearl luster dust, thin with vodka or Everclear and spray onto cake and ruffles with an airbrush.

Tell her thank you from all of us!!

Thank you so much for updating us I am so happy that you wrote her!

Wow ... thanks so much for giving us an update! That was so nice of Marina to share her secrets about this beautiful cake!!!

I have found so often that the really professional pastry chefs are the most willing to help when you ask a question. Ewald Notter spent 20 minutes on the phone with me walking me through how to do a pulled sugar waterfall for a cake. When he was through he told me if I had a problem or more questions to just call him back. Now I had taken Ewalds class so can kind of see where he might be willing to take time with me. But with Marina, I have never met her, just took a chance by emailing her.

Another time I did a Yahoo search on how to spray melted chocolate on an iced cake to give it that fuzzy velvet coating I have seen and admired. I found one little article on a chef in Arizona who did a demo of this technique with a Wagner power paint sprayer at a local Ace Hardware store. It mentioned she worked at a certain resort hotel in Phoenix. I called the hotel and asked if there was any way I could contact her with a question, they told me she was no longer working there but they would take my number and see what they could do. 2 days later the phone rang and it was this pastry chef, they had tracked her down, she called me and told me exactly what steps she took to create this look. That is class to me, when a person never gets too big or too important to help some lowly person with a problem.

Here is the waterfall cake Ewald helped me with. Gumpaste baby Java orchids, pulled sugar waterfall and log, poured sugar pond.

I posted Colette Peters once - got a very curt reply! Maybe she was having an off day

What is the chocolate spray technique you are talking about? I don't think I've seen it but it sounds neat.... do you have any pictures of it? Can you tell us how it's done??

Thanks for sharing!!!

The waterfall is amazing. I too would like to know the chocolate spray technique if you have time to post inst. TIA

someone here also did that blue ruffle cake for her daughters wedding....it turned out really really good....now if only i could remember who!

Yeah..I remember that post.Everyone wanted to know the SECRET of the shiny cake!!! The member pulled the picture....Hmmm weird!!

I thought I remembered it being posted in the forums.....but I tried to look back through my forums and couldnt find it....

The chocolate spay technique is very easy if you have the right tools.

That Wagner airbrush, the one with the big plastic bottle under it...lol

you have to prep your area as there is a lot of over spray. We tape 3 large pieces of carboard together and make a "screen"..then we put parchment paper all over the exposed surfaces and tape it down.

Then you mix equal amounts of melted chocolate and melted cocoa butter, ( Actually I've forgotten the ratio here...and I can't promise to get back with the info..I tend to lose these posts..lol) you put the melted chocolate and cocoa butter into the container and you just spray!

you can see that tech on the cover of my chocolate box.

It makes the chocolate looked like flocked velvet

thanks so much, honey bought me a wagner,never used yet, think I will try. Do you remember which tip you used? I know there are two in box. Grandkids will get a hoot out of this tech.

I have posted a photo of a dessert ( not mine) that has been sprayed with chocolate. I don't have a picture of the Christmas cake I sprayed but what I was told by the chef from Arizona, and found worked best, was to use melted chocolate thinned with Canola oil in the Wagner power sprayer, to have the cake surface slightly frozen and the melted chocolate/oil kept warm. When you spray the chocolate on the cake the difference in the temperature of the two is what makes the chocolate set quickly and build up the velvety surface.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&pos=-73645

Ron Ben-Israel is another one who is super-informative and open to sharing.

I recently took his sugar flowers class and he was SOOO patient, answering questions about everything he did, tools he used, where he got it from, etc. Then he took us on a tour of his studio, showed us his equipment, and allowed us to take a ton of pictures. I was, and still am, totally blown away from his generousity.

I love this sight! Everyone is so willing to help each other with no hesitation. I have never ever wrote to forums or chat rooms or singed up to anu sights, but this is just wonderful. I am amazed at the generosity of some of the bigger name bakers. On another sight the said they got not an e-mail, but an actual phone call from Breonweun (not sure if I spelled her name right) with help on a cake!!! This just once again reflects what a great people we can really be. Sorry if I got a little carried away

Wow, thank you for all this info.

I love Marina, she is super nice and super talented. I actually got to meet and talk with her at the cake show in Tulsa this past September. Just a few weeks ago, I emailed her with a question and she wrote me back. She was very kind to help me and take time out of her busy day.

Because I was really trying to get my question answered I also emailed Bronwen Weber. She didn't email me back though....she CALLED me!! OMGosh!!! I don't think I stopped smiling for days. She was really great and didn't mind helping me one bit.

Same thing with Kerry Vincent. On the Food Network Cake Challenges, she seems very harsh and firm, but at the show in Tulsa I got a hug from her and she even told me when she'd be eating lunch so I could come find her to sign my book. (She said she wanted to be seated when she signed it.)

Cake celebs are real people. I think some of them are even surprised how highly we lowly cakers esteem them - after all, it's only cake right? We know better!

When I was in the beginning stages of opening my cake shop, the Small Business Association suggested finding a mentor in another city that might answer some questions and guide you in the right direction. They suggested another city to avoid competitor's issues - but to pick someone whose work you really admired. I chose Gail Watson's Cakes out of New York City.
I politely emailed her asking her if she would mind answering a few questions, since I was in the process of opening a cake shop and told her how much I admired her gorgeous works of art. Basically she responded by telling me she would be happy to answer my questions for a consulting fee of $20,000.
I responded by saying that was a bit out of my budget and thanked her anyway!
I guess her reply was her way of saying "Bug off - leave me alone."