Im studing hard all the purse cakes in the gallery and the tutorial. i have 5 LV purse cakes using fondant for next week. so many of you that have done them said in your description that you 'learned alot' doing your cake. what do you know now that you didn;t before you started your purse cake.
heres a few question i have,
do i need to dowel through into the board for transportation? since the bottom is fairly narrow.
do you place the fondant on in one piece drapped over the top or in sections?
for the handles to stand up is there support sticks holding them up or are they just stuck in place?

im sure i will learn alot too as i do them, but i surely appreciate any prior knowledge about these.

thank you.

Well, I haven't made a purse cake, YET! But for the fondant question...I have seen these cakes made on the food network and they put them on in pieces, because the purse has seems that will cover where the fondant meets=) I have read that they do dowel into the board for support. This post will bump you back up so the purse experts can help you our more! GL with them, I am so excited to do one too=) HTH some, Jen

I am another one that has not done a purse cake yet, but want to. Could you do a search in the gallery for a purse, and then pm one or two people to get directions and ask them for any tips?

Most people on CC are so helpful. I'm sure you will receive help on this!

Good Luck!

Did you check the articles section on the homepage?

Theresa

Did you see the tutorial in the articles section? Here's a link:

http://www.cakecentral.com/article64-How-To-Make-a-Purse-Cake.html

I've done a couple of purse cakes, one iced in BC (like the tutorial) and one done in all fondant. For the fondant cake, I think I covered the whole thing in 1 piece of fondant, and then added all the details. But doing it in sections would work great too. I made handles that were hanging down on my LV cake, because I was worried about trying to make them stand up. For my second purse cake, I made the handles well in advance so that they were completely hardened before I put them on the cake, and I put a toothpick in each end of the handles (half in handle, half into cake). To be extra sure, you might want to make the handles out of gumpaste (or 1/2 fondant 1/2 gumpaste). I doweled just like it recommended in the tutorial, and it made it to its destination an hour away, no problem....Good luck with your cake! Post pics!

I am also in need of some tutorials, I want to make a dr.'s bag for my surgeon, so any help would be appreciated. I have been looking for Colette's Birthday Cakes book and I can't seem to locate one and I need to do the cake by April 4th. Does anyone know where I can get directions for Colettes Doctor bag really quickly??? So I guess here's a bump for you!

I would love some of the expert purse makers to give some tips. I tried to PM a few ppl once, but I am fairly new so I didn't get any response.

I haven't done one yet, but I know that Lindy Smith has one in her book "Decorate with a Cake" and it has great instructions. Hope that helps some...

I have only made one and all was a bit of an experiment.... so I hope this helps. O.K. here goes

I made a mold from a fat zipper (removed from shirt ) I just imprinted it onto gumpaste and let dry.

I covered the front and back separately, . Used a pizza cutter for quilting. Where lines meet pushed small ball tool in, quite firmly then in same spot, with less pressure pushed large end of ball tool in to give it a 3d look. Then covered the top. Dry brushed quilted lines and indents with petal dust a few shades darker than fondant. Then added trim to hide joins, you could pipe this or roll out thin sausages and tick on (this is what I did)

Made handle from about 60/40 gumpaste/fondant, rolled a long sausage then flattened one edge with a ruler, then shaped, set aside to dry, When bag was finished I attached with royal icing. then covered ends with tabs.

Made zipper foot out of gumpaste let dry.
Made zipper teeth - dust mold and roll fondant into mold, remove and cut edges to size and glues to top whilst still soft, when dry paint silver.

For any studs I just made a deep indent with small end of ball tool and piped dots in centre and painted silver when finished. Perals/beads were done the same way but coloured with snow flake dust.

Stitching lines I did with the end of dog bone tool, make small indents. then dry brushed petal dust to give dimension and shadows

I have added a pic of my purse cake.....good luck and if you need anything else just ask!!!

oops forgot.....I didn't dowel this one, but I would suggest it!!

trudi, that was great. i was wondering if i just push a zipper into my fondant then the zipper will actually be in reverse, i will need to make a silicone mold, wont I? I have 5 due on one day so im just worried about the time i need to pull this together, plus the hand painting of the LV pattern.

make the mold first.......I made the mold with sugar paste, let dry over night!!!

torki I just wanted to say your cake is gorgeous for just being an experiment! Thanks for sharing.

gee....thank you.. I hope the pointers make sense!!!

save

Well I just did my first purse cake this past weekend and did learn a lot making it. The purse was pretty big, It had 6 layers. I had to put two cake circles in between like a tiered cake plus dowel rods. For extra support I put 3 long dowel rods from the top layer all the way down the cake board. I first tried only one in the middle but the cake was sinking on the sides. I think it weighed about 40 lbs. I also covered it in pieces.

This is my purse cake. This is what I learned.

1. Make sure you use a stiff cake. I used a supper soft, moist one and I found that the cake was to "wanky". I would have loved to have my purse alittle more "stiff"

2. Do the accents a few days ahead. I did my the day before and theywere ok but nothte way I wanted and one of the handles cracked.

3. I did the leters free hand and they look a little wierd, so if you can make yourself a patteren then by all means do it. You will like the look better.

4. Dowel. When I do the next one I will deffently dowel. I think that will help with the wanky look of my cake.

hope that helps

Vic


Oh, I also added my initials to the cake to make it my own. People thought that was cool. It was my birthday cake, so it was by me for me.

I also covered my cake all in one piece. I didn't see the need to make a million pieces to cover one cake.

Vic

thank you. thats been a great help too, any tips at all are always good.

Your cake looks great too, i dont think it is 'wanky'.

Geez, now y'all have me inspired to go out and try one of my very own!

I have one in my photos that I used food markers to hand draw the designs. I thought that worked pretty good. I'm a little nervous because in a few weeks I have to make a much larger one...only the brown and gold which means I'll have to use a paintbrush instead of a marker....that sounds more challenging!!!!

Question: Where would you get a pattern identical to the LV pattern? I don't imagine LV would sell such a thing...

Just find it online (I love Google Images!) and then I assume you could make a stencil using an enlarged photo as a pattern.

My stuff usually turns out worse the harder I try, LOL, so I just freehand it.

I got some clear paper (acitate- so for the spelling) and made a pattern. I will be using it on the next purse cake. I did try it on a peice of fondat and it work great. I have two LV purses so I just scanded one and made the pattern from that, but I am sure that if you google it you will find something.

Hth

VIC