I would love any advise on a cake that I am doing for a junior/senior prom. Their theme is Mardi Gras Masquerade and I found this invitation that I ended up recreating and making their invitations for them.

They now want this on top of their three tiered round cake (6" being the top). I am concerned about the stick to the mask. I am thinking of making it out of gumpaste and attaching it to the mask. I would like the make to look suspended above the cake but not sure about how to get that look while making the sure the stick does not break and the color flow mask does not break........ am I making any sense...... here is a pic of the original invitation that I found.

Oh...... I was thinking of making the mask out of color flow. Do you have a better suggest? I made a Mardi Gras Jester out of Royal Icing and it looks so flat. I like that for sugar cookies but I am not sure about this mask. I guess I could always paint with petal dust to jazz it up.

anyway......anythought would be appreciated.

Thanks
bj

What about chocolate or candy clay? It wouldn't be nearly so fragile... then just use a dowel for hte stick (cover itwith choclate or fondant if you want for hte look...)

true..........a dowel could work well. That totally slipped my mind.

I have not had much luck with chocolate being very strong. Not sure if it is the weather here (down south) or what but they always seem to break. I read somewhere that they suggested using melted wafer chocolate???? you can order from the internet that is suppose to be stronger then just normal melting chocolates. Have not tried it yet but I have some time...........

I just love this sight. Two heads are always better than one!!!!

Thanks
bj

Sorry... wans't thinking about your location (we have snow here!)

Just a thought... does it need to be edible? If not, you could make it from polymer clay... you can get some gorgeous metallic colours, and working with it is very much like fondant or gumpaste... then the finished product can be a souvenir, and it's quite durable!

SNOW......... what's that? Never saw it!!

I think the students like the idea of "all" of the cake being edible but a souvenir is a good idea too. I will have to pass that along to them.

Thanks,
bj

The candy melt wafers are very strong, I use Merckens and they are also available in a variety of colours. If you need to colour you must use either Wilton Candy Colours or if you use Americolor colours you must add Flocoat as per their instructions. But this would be the way I would go too. If you want it shaped you just tape parchment around a bottle or can to get the correct shape. I tend to do these like a buttercream transfer though, so you would go with a reverse image and therefore to get a convex or concave shape, you would go with either using the inside of a can or pan or the outside. You would be placing your cookie stick or popsicle stick or stainless steel wire on the top of your mask transfer as your top becomes the bottom. Then you just put more melts on top to hold the stick or wire in place.
Another option is to purchase a plastic or material mask from a party store, cover the inside with parchment or plastic wrap and outline and fill in with melted candy melts. With a plastic mask you can wash it, let it dry and then very slightly grease with Crisco and just put your melted chocote candy melts there until they set up.
If you want, you can use the melts on the front of the mask but it is more difficult to get a smooth effect. Let the outlining set up. Then fill in with chocolate and gently rap the mask on the work surface to get it to flow and get rid of air bubbles.
Another easy option would be to use gumpaste or fondant with some gumpaste added and use a mask as a pattern and cut out. Then let the gumpaste dry on the mask until set up. You can use candy melts on the back to attach a stick.
Hugs Squirrelly

Squirrelly!!!

I knew you would have multiple options! I like the fondant/gumpaste option. Are you saying I should make the feathers out of fondant/gumpaste as well and attach them with water and let dry? Will that hold? OR should I do it all in white and then paint the black mask and purple, green and gold feathers??????

AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

I know this is a lot of questions. When I said I would do this I thought, "Oh this will be a breeze." but when I started thinking about: making it, transporting it to the country club and then setting it up that allows a lot of room for breakage. I will definitely make two of these mask no matter what.

Thanks for the help.
bj

Thanks Squirrelly!

What about using decorated cookies? You could even make a bunch on the side as souvenirs. You could have a large Feather Spray centered in the middle of the cake behind one or more black mask Hmmm you have me thinking of what I'm going to make for my Fat Tuesday party. Time is sneaking up on us and it will be Easter before we know it. Good Luck!

You are most welcome kiddo. After I posted a reply I got thinking I had seen a mask recently but where, haha, should have known. I think her mask and work is wonderful! I like the cheating method, using something to make the same thing in a different material, works for me! I do this a lot with fondant and gumpaste, mainly because I can never get molds or things here easily.
Hugs Squirrelly

Wow I just looked at your cakes. They are very nice. What I was talking about was kind of like your Butterfly cake. With a spray of feathers behind.

Thanks!!! I will have to try your idea too. I am going to make some trial mask and see which one works.

Thanks,
bj

I have a Mardi Gras mask cake posted on here. I made the masks in gumpaste. It would have been pretty easy to create small holes in the sides of the mask, stick a wooden dowel through and "secure" using royal icing. You can add real feathers from the craft store to the back with dots of royal icing.

Just let it dry for as long as you can before your cake is due...

Helen! I love that cake!!!!! (of course all your cakes are beautiful!) I have to do a mardi gras cake in a few weeks. Would you mind if i borrowed some of your ideas? The colors are perfect!!

BINGO! That's it. Two small holes on the side to slide the dowl thru. Very good. That is what i am going to do!! Finally.... a plan......now to execute.

Thanks Everyone! I will post pics of the final product.
bj

Beachcakes, that's really nice of you to ask...you go ahead and use whatever ideas you like! Just promise to post a photo at the end?

One other suggestion to cut down on the total weight of the topper would be to make the feathers out of rice paper. You can even mold a mask out of rice paper and then paint it with gel/paste colors. The whole thing would be very light.

Just my .02
Rae

aha.. rice paper...... yet another excellent idea. I like the idea of using the rice papers for the feathers. I see a lot of trial mask in my future.

Thanks!
bj

There is a gumpaste tool wherein you stuff the gumpaste inside the tool and push it out the other end. There is an insert that makes a dowel-like "stick" that you can dry and use.

Another idea is simply to "paint" a bamboo skewer with royal icing and attach to the masks.

By the way, Antonia74, your cake is beautiful. I would love to know how you made the harlequin effect on the cake itself.

I have not seen that tool before. I will have to check that out.

Thanks,
BJ

the harlequins are just fondant cut-outs. I used the FMM brand Patchwork Cutters set. I believe they are a brand from England? The little box doesn't have much info on it re: website, phone #, etc.

It is a 3-piece set of cutters and a wheel cutter too.

Your cake is gorgeous Antonia, really pretty! Like that should come as a surprise since all of your work is beautiful!
Hugs Squirrelly

ya know, i couldn't find the diamond shaped cutters either. But i was at Michaels the other day and they had a square cutter set in the fondant section. I had DH squish it into a diamond shape. I think it'll work.