Fondant Gum Paste Experts~ Need Advice Asap~Please!
Decorating By galliesway Updated 30 Mar 2007 , 3:16pm by galliesway
I'm making this Shrek cake for my dd 2nd birthday and this is proving to be a major challenge/nightmare. I have not been having very good luck thus far. I thought I could just bake the cake and then use fondant over topand have it turn out the way I wanted. Maybe in a perfect world. I have opted to bake a cake using a round or oval cake pan. I just received my first magic line cake pans. I will attach the mold I'm using. My next thought was to use fondant or gum paste to get the facial features. Now comes the tricky part would I use buttercream or a royal icing to make it stick then use fondant over top? Is this even possible? I think I took on too much being fairly new to cake decorating I have only taken and completed course 1. I have played around with the fondant which what I'm primarily interested in. Whatever advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated !
Thankfully,
Kelley
Tell you how I would do it Kelley, maybe others will have their own suggestion. I would buy white chocolate, melt it with some vegetable oil or Paramount crystals, mix some colored petal dust with oil to color the chocolate that icky green and pour it into the Shrek mold. I would bake a regular cake, 10" round or square depending on the size of that mold, ice as usual and lay the molded chocolate on top of the cake.
I just envision problems baking a cake in the mold. Being the center is so much deeper than the outer portions I think the cake would overbake on the smaller areas and take forever to bake done in the center. You would have to balance the pan carefully to get it to bake level too.
Thanks Shirley! What are Paramount crystals and where would I get them in a hurry? I do have some green satin ice fondant as a back up and some white. I also do have an airbrush and have three different green colors. I did ended up on my third attempt filoling the mold about a 1/2 to 1.2 full leaving the ears out and it baked and used rose nail. It turned out but I either didn't let it cool enough and didn't grease it enough. There is only one cake store other than Michaels & Hobby Lobby in my area.
Thanks,
Kelley
I don't know if you have worked with candy melts by wilton. But they are very easy to use. I think that I would melt the colors that I would need and "paint" the areas the matching colors then fill the pan a little with chocolate let it cool and than unmold it. Bake and ice my cake the way that I want and than place this in the center and decorate accordingly. I know that it is a little bit like Shirleyw but I would use candy melts because they are so easy to use and you don't even have to color them because they come in so many colors. Hope that helps. Post pics when you are done. Would love to see it complete. You can get candy melts at Michael's
Vic
Thanks Shirley! What are Paramount crystals and where would I get them in a hurry? I do have some green satin ice fondant as a back up and some white. I also do have an airbrush and have three different green colors. I did ended up on my third attempt filoling the mold about a 1/2 to 1.2 full leaving the ears out and it baked and used rose nail. It turned out but I either didn't let it cool enough and didn't grease it enough. There is only one cake store other than Michaels & Hobby Lobby in my area.
Thanks,
Kelley
Paramount Crystals are something like shaved parrafin wax in texture, you melt and add to chocolate for shine and smoothness. But vegetable oil does the same thing, is always available and less expensive. I use about 1 Tablespoon of oil to 1 lb. of melted chocolate.
I really didn't think the chocolate mold thing through before posting. I would do something similar to what Vic posted. I don't know if I would paint the mask with chocolate first, but I would fill it with melted chocolate, refrigerate for about 10 minutes (maybe longer because of the depth of the mold) to form a shell and then turn upside down and drain the excess out. If you made the mask of solid chocolate it would be awfully heavy as well as use up a lot of chocolate. I have never worked with candy melts but have tasted them and they are too waxy tasting for me.
Anyway, all this chocolate talk is beside the point if you were successful in baking the cake in the mold, I would just ice it lightly in buttercream, smooth as well as you can, chill it and then cover with green fondant.
I like the idea of chocolate. I was playing with the green fondant and it molded perfectly aside from the crumbs left in the mold. Is fondant on fondant possible? What would you use to adhere the fondant ri or bc? Here's what I came up with ( ignore the color and crumbs). What do you think? I thought could put it on top of a bigger square cake to almost make it framed so to speak.
Kelley
ShirleyW wrote:
"I really didn't think the chocolate mold thing through before posting. I would do something similar to what Vic posted. I don't know if I would paint the mask with chocolate first, but I would fill it with melted chocolate, refrigerate for about 10 minutes (maybe longer because of the depth of the mold) to form a shell and then turn upside down and drain the excess out. If you made the mask of solid chocolate it would be awfully heavy as well as use up a lot of chocolate. I have never worked with candy melts but have tasted them and they are too waxy tasting for me."
I might not have explained myself properly but I didn't mean for you to "fill" the whole mold. I did mean a shell type thing. As for the taste, I am not much for it either but since you were looking for something simple I figured that was the easiest way to go. The kids like chocolate so the fact that we find it ltaste like this or like that it doesn't even affect the kids... I am very sorry that I didn't explain myself a little better, didn't you know you were supposed to read my mind and know exactly what I mean. Comn' you know what I meant. lololololololololol. Seeing that he is all green I think that I would "paint" in the details and then just pour in the green chocolate and pour out the excess to form the shell.
Hope that helps.
Vic
I think the shell idea is a good one too. You could even put rolled out green fondant in the mould (just make sure you push it into all the details) then fill it with cake balls mixture (obviously thats cake balls but not formed into balls and not covered!!).
If I bake a cake with details like that, I often just brush a sugar syrup over the cake and cover the cake with a slightly thicker layer of fondant. Or brush the details with sugar syrup then use buttercream thinly in all the other areas to even out the surface. I avoid the details with buttercream because I am always scared of losing the detail!!!
I'm contemplating on the chocolate idea. Could I use white chocolate chips and melt them? Now what to melt the candies chips or in? Can you airbrush white chocolate? Sorry about the million and one questions. I'm running out of time and not sure if I have the time to drive to pick up additional supplies as I still have a birthday dinner to make on top of it. Talk about stress this week alone was a stresser with babysitter issues. I really appreciate all the tips and suggestions!
Thanks a bunch,
Kelley
If using white chocolate chips I would micowave them on low power or in a double boiler (bowl over apot of water) and let it melt that way. As for spay painting white chocolate I am not sure on that one. I will leave that one for someone who knows more than me. I still would paint in the details like the eyes and teeth and then add the tinted green chocolate to form the shell. I really hope that I am explaining myself well.
Vic
I am sure that if you went to the wilton site there might be a better explination of what I am trying to get at. Have you tried here on chocolates plaques search?
Vic
No, you don't want to put melted chocolate in your airbrush, it would clog it. I think Vic and I are headed for the same idea of a chocolate shell of the face rather than a solid chocolate. If the fondant mold holds up without collapsing that would be cute, to just set it on top of an iced cake, square or round. I guess the question you are asking is could you cover the cake in fondant and lay the fondant molded mask on top? Yes, but again, only if that fondant mask holds it shape without sinking in in the middle.
About the fondant mask. I feel like such an idiot I just got it!!!! I think if you did it today and maybe with half fondant and half gumpaste it would dry faster and it would hold up just fine. I think that I would roll it a little thick (not as thin as for flowers) and mold it that way let it dry a little on the mold and than when it could stand on it's own remove it and let it finish drying like that. Than you can do the details. Now I get what you were talking about this whole time. I would still stick with the candy shell on the cake, simply because it will dry faster and because it is easier in my opinion. Good luck I hope that it all turns out well for you which ever way you choose to go. 
Vic
p.s. Don't forget to post the photo when your done. I am anxous to see this cake. 
I'm not anykind of expert of anything, but I have a couple of suggestions. I hope I'm not too late with them. 1st I think the chocolate mode idea is a great idea. I would use white candy melts instead of white chocolate chips, the candy melts melt smoother and more shiny. As for the waxy taste, it taste enough like chocolate for kids to love it! I would use white chocolate, and paint on green for face, and anything else that is not white. I believe if you use gel colors and I would add a tiny bit of Everclear, which will help the colors dry faster. If you go with this, you will want to try not to touch it after you have painted it, because I believe it will lift off easily. I would research how they do the chocolate transfers and get them to stick with out having them lift off with touch. I have found that mixing gel colors with Fat Free French Vanilla creamer works really well, because the sugar content in the creamer is so high, it dries a lot more shiny. The other idea is to use gum paste in the mold to make a shell, then paint it and also set it on top of another cake. that would work, but because gum paste can be so fragile in places, I would be afraid to fill it with cake ball mixture. The next idea is to use rice crispy treats to fill the mold, making sure you pack it tightly, leaving no chance for air pockets. Then unmold and cover with your green fondant, then you can air brush or paint on your details. You could probable paint your white details with the white candy melts, just be sure to thin it with a little veg. oil, so you can paint it on smoothly, work fast when doing this. Hope one of these ideas helps! Good Luck!
I'm going to try the chocolate and do some fondant, may resort to the rice crispy treats too. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks Ladies!
Kelley
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