Fondant Accents With Wires, Sticking Out Of Cake?
Decorating By jdelectables Updated 27 Jan 2006 , 12:35am by cat121481
Hi, all ~
Need some help. When you do the fondant accents that you put on top of cakes with wires in them, how exactly do you do it? I did #'s for the attached cake and had a heck of a time getting them to dry, I wasn't sure how thick to make them, and I just used skewers on them. Were do I get the wire thingys? Thanks for any help you may have!!
Julie
I do mine with gumpaste. Dries well and harder/faster.
I cut out my shapes in about 1/8" thickness and slipped the wire inside while it was still soft. They didn't need any royal icing to stick.
I bought the stainless steel wire on a spool from the hardware store and wrapped the ends (going into the cake) with white florist tape just to be safe.
I let them dry for 3 days before I used them and they were very solid. (I turn them over for one day to allow the backs to dry well too!)
Hi, all ~
Need some help. When you do the fondant accents that you put on top of cakes with wires in them, how exactly do you do it? I did #'s for the attached cake and had a heck of a time getting them to dry, I wasn't sure how thick to make them, and I just used skewers on them. Were do I get the wire thingys? Thanks for any help you may have!!
Julie
Julie
I use gumpaste or fondant that has been strengthened with gum trag. I also let them dry for a few days. But if they are small things, a few hours is fine. Something like your numbers would require a few hours. I use wires sold here in Australia that are covered in paper and come in different weights, they are specially sold for making sugar flowers. But for something like your numbers i would use the types of skewers you'd use for making kebabs.
All the best
Nati
Okay, I have another question about this. I am worried that the weight of the decoration will cause the wire to cut through the cake. How would I solve this problem or is it something I even need to worry about?
Actually, floral tape is not tested nor known to be food safe according to the manufacturers, so the taped wires should still be wrapped in plastic wrap, foil or placed inside of straws or around straws so they are not directly in the cake. I checked that out with the main manufacturer of floral wire and tape in the U.S. Mind you, a lot of people do this.
I found a discussion about this same topic with a couple of professional and well known decorators stating that in most areas, they were not allowed to do this by the food safety laws in place.
I would opt for wooden shishkabob skewers, or toothpicks or cookie sticks, straws work too, plastic stir sticks, things like that. Of course once wire is inserted in fondant or gumpaste, these items are not considered safe to eat. The stainless steel wire would be safer than the coated wires but again the floral tape would be the issue.
Depending on how many items you insert in your cake and how stable or dense that cake is, you could create a problem. Perhaps wiring or taping several items to straws or inserting them in straws will limit how many holes you are making in your cakes.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes
i like squirrelly's idea of using drink straws for the sleeves to put the items into. Makes sense, more strength and less apt to "cut" the cake. At least i would think so.
Heehee, well I wish it was my idea but I saw it somewhere, possibly on this site.
Just always keep a count of how many of these things you have used and mark it on the box so whomever is cutting the cake makes sure they remove them all. I find that the straws are very easy to miss when you are cutting a cake.
I have used the metal skewers that you truss up a turkey or chicken with too. The nice thing with those is that you have that ring at the end that ends up being hidden but allows you to loop things through. They are available in several different diameters too, some have almost like teeth on the base and are good in some types of cakes.
Hugs Squirrelly
I buy neon colored straws to use in my cakes you can't miss them when you are cutting. I always use a color that stands out from whatever type of cake it is.
That is a good idea, if I ever get through the 100's of straws I have, I am going for it, haha!
Hugs Squirrelly
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