Homemade mold for a Princess 3D Cake Topper
Princess (or Barbie) 3D Cake Topper
2. In a small microwave safe bowl, mix the water & the gelatin. Start mixing immediately, & keep mixing, until all the water & the gelatin is thoroughly mixed together, & all the dry powder is gone. When ready, the mix(mess) should be consistent in (lumpy-bumpy) quality. lol Not to worry, the microwave will fix it!
3. Heat in microwave, for 20 sec. intervals & stir, until the gelatin is melted and free from lumps.
4. Add the warmed glycerin, and glucose if using, and stir until blended.
5. Add the coconut oil, and stir until thoroughly blended. Any clarifying that you want to do can be done now.
6. Can reheat, in microwave, for additional 15-20 seconds, if it has started to thicken. It is now ready to use, & should be used immediately. Will start to set quickly! Reheat as needed. I use a small wooden skewer to first stir, then scrape mixture out of bowl, into mold. Can use a toothpick to move it around in tight places, this also must be done quickly!!
7. Cooling the new mold can be accelerated by placing in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. To remove, place finger near edge, pull toward center to detach from side, & lift out. Store the molds in a baggy, or other container, in the fridge, to extend the life of, and retain the flexibility of, the molds. Simply remelt in the microwave, in 20 sec. intervals as above, to reuse for pouring new molds. Cleanup is easy. Leave skewer in bowl, let cool, then pull stick up & out, twisting as needed, & all of the leftover mix will come out attached to the stick. Bag it, or return it to bowl till next time, that’s what I do. Last, but not least, if you are, in any way, unhappy with your mold, no sweat! You can easily just remelt it, & do it again.
The life expectancy of a mold is yet unknown, it is too early to tell. It is 6 months and counting at this time. With no visible signs of any deterioration, or molding(as in green & black stuff-lol),… as might be expected, since this recipe is totally made from edible products.
Just a reminder: Water will dissolve these, so don’t plan on rinsing them off, use a paper towel for any cleanup. And heat will melt them, so no hot Isomalt! Don’t expect anything that looks as detailed as SugarVeil, they are not firm enough. I have not tried SugarVeil in them, don’t have any. When reheating, for reuse, I have added a Tablespoon of warm water, or warm glycerine, to my leftover, cut up, mold materials, and it did help restore the desired consistency to the mold itself. Reheating leftover mold material in the microwave tends to dry it out over time, these are two options to correct this issue. I am still reheating, and reusing, some of my original batches. Have not had to throw any out yet!
Updates, & any further changes, will be posted as needed. Questions &/or comments welcome. This is an ongoing process, & learning experience, that just happens to also be fun! My little grandkids love making things with it (with my help, of course).
To begin: here are the materials I work with to do these molds, plus the plastic bowl. I use a clear RubberMaid one with a lid, so I can just close it up, then remelt it next time if I want. Or just pull the leftovers out of the bowl, all in one piece, once it cools, & throw them back in, to store for later use. A little neater this way.
I put reg. leftover gumpaste in the bottom of the glass, to size the glass to the doll, less wasted space this way. Left about 1/2″ between the paste & the top of the (upside down) head. Since the glass narrowed a wee little bit at the top, I had a hard time getting the doll out of the mold, so I could get the mold out of the glass! If it had been larger at the top, I could have pulled doll, in mold, out easily. I let it set up good overnight in the fridge, then I just twisted on the doll as I pulled it out. Then the empty mold itself came out easily. Be sure to put your doll’s torso in as straight as possible to center it in the mold mix.
I made a cut up the BACK of the mold, so any seam, in the finished fondant/gumpaste/chocolate doll, would not be an issue. This will allow easy removal of the finished product.
One doll topper is finished, and another one is in the mold. The excess is left on the bottom to form the top of a skirt, any shape you need, once the ‘doll’ is removed from the mold. Fill the mold fully, to fill all the little nock & crannies. Squeeze just enough to close the slit in the back, forcing excess material back into the mold, or remove it as needed. Then remove from mold to dry. It will not dry well in the mold. I did not spray, or powder, before putting the fondant into the mold, and they came out well, but will try them next time, just to see what works best. As you can see, the doll ‘s head got a little too close to the edge while in the mold, but it has not been an issue, still holds the full pattern of the hair when removed. Just keep your doll straighter! lol
I was able to get pretty good definition on this one, from the mold. Now, if I could only paint…
You can move the head around while still soft, for desired effect, one is looking up, the other down. We also have 2 different skirt top shapes. And 1 is holding a scarf effect, the other is not! Both from the same mold, play with it! Now you can have a totally edible Princess, or Barbie, cake. Just put one of these on top, instead of a real doll, and it looks just as good! (Assuming you can paint! lol)) Push a few strands of nice thick spaghetti part way up from the bottom, and stick the rest into the cake, before adding the icing skirt. For a first attempt, I was quite pleased with them. Clarifying the mix before pouring will probably come in handy here, for an even smoother finish.
2-2-14′ Molds using flat objects: Perfect for lace, buttons, gems, certain toys, purses, etc…, any thing flat on one side.
Making a delicate lace applique mold. This is thinner, & more delicate, than the other one using this piece of applique from 1-26-14.Here are the ‘left & tight sides only’ of the original lace applique, shown in the 1-26-14′ picture below. The roasting pan was the only one I had large enough to hold both of them. I stuck them to the bottom of the pan with corn syrup, just to see if it would work, and it did. And washed out so much easier. I forgot to spray them, will do it next time though. The corn syrup was sticky on the mold, had to wipe it off with paper towels! lol I used no cardboard to build them out this time, and as you can see, they were thick enough to give good detail this way. I put the lace back in the pan for the pic.
For this lace: Can be applied by hand, adding small portions & pressing them in, as I did here, or roll out a thin piece, lay it over, and press it in well, then trim off excess paste.
1-26-14′ Mols for built-up flat objects: For a thicker effect in your finished product.
I finally had a chance to use the nice big piece of lace applique that I bought online. I cut one, of the two that I have, into 4 major pieces, and will be working with the bottom section today.
This is a full size turntable like you would use on a pantry shelf for cans & such. I used cardboard strips, taped down with scotch tape, to contain the mold mix so the mold would not be larger than was necessary. And , as you can see, it filled the whole thing! You can see the cardboard stuck to the turntable, with the piece of lace/applique stuck to it. I sprayed it all with oil, turntable included. Then the mix was poured thinly over it all. Allowed to dry for 20 minutes in the fridge, and out it came.
AND, we have very good detail as a result! This thing turned out to be 6″ wide & 9″ high! You can see my hand spread out behind it.
I cut the applique/lace itself into smaller pieces, made molds, then fondant pieces, to be used to adorn a cake. This will be something I might be able to use. lol
But this is a pretty piece of lace applique! I am very pleased with how it turned out. It has been treated with pearl luster dust to bring out the detail a little better. So to answer an earlier question…yes, this mold recipe can be used to make a form for lace. I did not use cornstarch or spray on the mold, I just pressed the gumpaste, had no fondant available just now, into the mold, removing the excess around the edges for better definition, let it set about 5 minutes, then placed it gumpaste side down & removed the mold by peeling it up & back.
1-10-14′ Making a mold from a non-flat object: Perfect for pins & broaches. For any object that is not flat on the back. Or if you want to hide part, and show part of any object, like half of an apple, dolphin half out of the water, or the top half of the head of a rabbit peaking out of a hole. Use your imagination here!
I filled the bottom center of the broach itself with gumpaste, so the mold mix would not get too deep into it. Then I filled the bottom of the container, on the right, with gumpaste to push the broach protrusions down into, that gave it a flat surface to pour the mix on. As you can see, this worked fine, the bottom of the broach did not get any mold mix under it. I just love these disposable food containers, this one came with gravy in it from KFC. The sq. one had potato salad from the grocery store. lol But I do use them over & over again.
This broach above had a lot of definition that was picked up by the mold quite nicely, well defined.
Here are 2 gumpaste/fondant broaches with pearl dust, & silver luster dust in alcohol, on them(…in the back/top). When I poured this second mold, at the bottom, I sprayed the pin, gumpaste, & container lightly first. You can see a difference in the appearance of the 2 molds. I believe the detail is a little better also, so this is something to keep in mind. I filled them both in layers so I could push the gumpaste into the crevices defining the underside of the top petals, then another layer to finish off the bottom layer of petals/pearls. I let them set for a few minutes only before releasing carefully from the mold. Next time I will let them harden some to see if they will keep definition better, without breaking when being removed from the mold. Go back & clean up between the bottom petals as needed. I also used the original recipe, with the glucose/corn syrup this time.
I found a fairly decent piece of ribbon type applique, it has a nice depth & design. This piece is 6 1/2 inches long without stretching or distorting it any, showing 3 complete & equal sections of the design. Three 6 1/2″ sections fitted together. It worked! This would look nice on a cake. I stuck this lace to a cardboard backing to give it more depth, & thickness, before pouring on the mold mix. 12-3-13′ Molds using suspended objects: Can’t let go, or it will sink to the bottom.
I decided to try pouring the mold first, then setting the object on it to see if it would work. I am the impatient type, so to speed things up, I poured ice water in a bowl. Melted some of the leftover mold material, & poured it into a small plastic container, which I set in the ice water to help it to setup faster. I immediately pushed the bauble to be molded onto the top of the mixture, as far in as I wanted, then held it there for about 5 minutes so It wouldn’t sink in further, then put it in the fridge to finish cooling.
20 minutes later, it came out of the fridge, and out of the plastic container with ease, once I broke the suction around the edges.
I pulled the mold away from the edges of the beads, instead of just trying to pull them out of the mold. It released easily that way. Then the gumpaste went in.
Here you have the end result. This was using the mold material that has been re-melted for the third time. Still feels very flexible, like the original. Hope this helped to answer a few more questions.
Happy playtime in the kitchen everyone!
Hi everyone, I just wanted to clarify an ingredient. It should read '1/3 cup vegetable glycerin', instead of just 'glycerin'. That's all, folks!