hi there, i haven't done much decorating lately, but now that i have more time i wanted to start practicing carving cakes.

ideas, tutorials, and or any websites on this topic would be very nice, thx

oh and happy belated halloween!!!

Just a tip - carve the cake frozen. It's much easier.

Use toothpicks to kind of outline where you're going to start making your cuts. Helps to visualize it before you start cutting away and make a mistake.

Also, if you notice a few small corners or slightly sharp edges you want taken out, you can rub them out with your hand rather that try to shave away a sliver of cake. I've found it's easier to do that than try to shave it off.

I agree about freezing and outlining. Be sure to take a little off at a time, it's easy to get carried away and end up with very little cake.

We carve cakes all the time in our design business and I am a HUGE NO FREEZE advocate!!! It just isn't necessary! We draw all our 3D carved cakes out on graph paper so we know the exact measurements of each cut. Then you simply follow the measurements on your cake. Stack and torte your cakes first, but don't cover them in buttercream until after you have carved them. FYI, never put a mousse or fruit filling in carved cakes....icing only for filling. Use a good quality sereated knife to carve. After you have carved, cover the entire thing in buttercream, then put in the fridge to chill before covering with fondant or a thicker layer of buttercream if you are not using fondant. Here is the last carved cake we did 2 weeks ago for a Groom's cake. All carved without freezing. Make sure after you carve, you use appropriate support within the cake.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1278323

What design are you trying to carve?

While you'll get a lot of different opinions (because cake, like all things, has more than one way to accomplish the same results), I'm also one who never carves a frozen cake. I also rarely carve with a knife but use my tapered angled spatula for most of it since I do a lot of small detail sculptures.

I carve freehand most of the time, but I ALWAYS start a new student out with top and side templates to use as guides.

There are sculpted cakes in my photos here if you want to see some ideas, or you can go to my website at www.cakedalaska.com to see some in-progress photos of sculptures. That will give you some idea of the process.

HTH,
Deanna

I've tried frozen and fresh cakes to carve. I prefer fresh. I also do freehand, but sometimes draw a template up first.
Am I the only one I know who uses an electric carving knife??? I go wild with that thing. Cake crumbs everywhere! I look like Edward Scissorhands carving his ice sculpture, everything flying around, in his hair and all. Have to be careful though. I have taken off a little too much occasionally...

I'm another one that only carves fresh cake. I don't have room in the freezer for cakes.

I like to start to with shaped cakes that kinda give me a basic shape of what I am doing. For the cow cake I did rounds with the mini wonder mold (for the head). I haven't started with just sheet cakes yet.

thx 4 the help!!

Don't be afraid to ask. Everyone here is helpful and will answer questions, even the obvious ones.

I plan out ahead of time the sizes of pans I'll need in order to have the least amount of cake scrap. Then I do as you said, I make the cake boards a little bit smaller than they would be if it was a normal stacked cake. That way, if I'm a little off when I'm carving, I won't have the board to deal with. I board and dowel as I go, sometimes shaving off some cake on the lower layers so that I know better where the boards should go (See http://www.cakedalaska.com/Caked_Alaska/Roger.html) and then when I'm done with the preliminary carving, I put in a through-dowel through the entire thing. Then I can do detail carving knowing the cake is properly supported.

HTH,
Deanna

Thank you Deanna, I had been trying to picture in my head how to stack and carve with supports. Maybe someone will do a step by step photo tutorial for those of us who are visual learners.

Maybe I'll work on that for after the new year. My web dude has a few pages to put on the Caked Alaska website, but none of the upcoming pages involve sculptures. The only supports I use in my video are at the end where I put the lion cub sculpture on top of a sheet cake, but that's not what you're looking for.

Deanna