So i have to make a classic nintendo game unit for a grooms cake this weekend and I thought it may look cool to make the cakeboard look like shag carpet. I remember sitting on the floor in front of the tv (with the dial, no push buttons yet) playing super mario brothers....and i'm sure i was sitting on some shag carpet. would i just use a grass tip? I was thinking blue for sure but afraid it will look like blue grass and not carpet. Any ideas? anyone ever seen this done?
Thanks,
Kym

I have never thought about it but I do think the grass tip wouldn't be quite right but do you have a clay gun? I wonder if the spagettie looking attachment would be a little better ...thinking the fondant would stand up a little more like carpet and even if it was a little dry and cracky that would be even more like carpet. Just a thought. Can't wait to see the cake

I was thinking grass tip, but wasn't sure either. Maybe if you made the 'grass' really short ... don't pull it up as high? I remember shag was also multi colored.... can you put 2 different colors in your icing bag (blue and greenish blue?) for that effect?

I'm just kinda thinking out loud .....

I too would use a clay gun with fondant if you had one. Then you could incorporate the other idea by putting in multiple colours simultaneously to get a multicoloured look... Buyt I am sure that whatever method you choose will look great - the fact that you are looking to such details indicates it will surely be a great job!

I agree with everyone the clay gun and fondant will do a great job for the look you are going for. Good luck.

I used a 5 tip for a carpet but it wasn't really "shag" as I was going for a softer, 21st centry, look. The gun is going to take you awhile to get through. Tell me, what tip do you call a "grass" tip? I need to make a board full of grass and have already scraped it off two times because it just didn't look right?

Bettina

I just recently made a shag carpet. I wanted to have the cake be buttercream so I put a layer of buttercream on a little thicker than usual and took a clean pastry brush with stiff bristles and poked it all over the cake and around the edges I used the grass tip and a small star tip inbetween the border and the rug. It was fast and it turned out good.

I don't have any advice, but just wanted to let you know the original Nintendo first came out in 1986 ( I can remember it like it was yesterday, I was SO excited to get one!). Anyway, point being the shag carpet in out house was long gone by then..lol.

Bettinashoe, the 'grass' tip is a #233. It has a number of small holes in the bottom. It's a great little tip for grass or for covering animals, such as teddy bears - it comes out looking like 'fur'. Here is a picture - it's the one on the top right.



Kymscakes - that sounds like a fun cake to make. I have never used a clay gun, but I definitely second the idea of two colours. If I remember correctly, and I am afraid I do , we had a green/lime green combo shag in one apartment we rented and a green/gold in another.

Cols' I just looked in your pics of your carpet and it's PERFECT. What a great solution to the problem Nice job

hmmmm, i don't have the clay thing but i'm considering trying it anyway with the grass tip. although that will certainly take me a good long time. I even considered getting a small piece of remnant carpet from the carpet store and putting the cake on it, on a board of course so the cake doesnt touch the carpet. but, that seems like a lot to do.

I don't have a clay gun either, so I would use the grass tip. I was born in 79 so I don't remember TOO much shag carpet, but my aunt had some when I was a kid. Hers was light blue and dark blue and it had a pattern to it. The pattern was kind of like a land map showing rivers if that makes any sense at all. It was just random lines that went in all directions. Maybe you could do that with a round or star tip before you do the grass tip. Just a thought.

I have that tip; thanks Martha. I got it with another tip and didn't know what it was for.

Since I'm one of the "older" ones, shag became really popular around 1970. My parents got it in their "new" house which they had built in Phoenix in 1971. It continued to be pretty popular through the mid 80's but was losing steam by then. By the late 70's most people were going to the short shag-type carpet. i think they called it a velvet shag or something like that.

Hmmm, you're right. If my baking business fails I could always start "Bettina's Velvet Shag Gentlemen's Club" where you can have your cake and eat it, too!!!!