I was watching the show last night and I noticed this time and the last that the gal (sorry can't remember her name) who made the slot machine last week and the the Mexican napping on the cactus this week seems to be doing the sculpting on room temerature cakes... HOW do you do that? I watched another show eons ago that said they should be frozen for easier sculpting.

I tried sculpting ONCE and all I got was crumbs everywhere and pieces of cake falling all over... what's the trick???

Melissa

Duff does not freeze any of his cakes...his webstie even says that right on the front page (GO Duff!! ) I would venture to say he has to have a cake recipe that is a firm cake though! Here is a link to his site - Duff's - notice....Always Fresh, Never Frozen!

Doy never thought to look up his site - duh!!!

Then I read this, "How much are your cakes?
All of our cakes start at $500. Tiered cakes start at $8 a serving, and go up from there."

Holy smokes - and they are BOOKED all the time.... wow!!!

Melissa

They may not freeze, but they did mention last night before putting the fondant on that they really needed the cake to be chilled so it would be firmer, so I think they must chill their cakes really well which I would think would help with the sculpting.

I took that comment for needing to be chilled was because they were in Miami and it was sooo hot and humid there.

Nope, he said cakes should be chilled cakes before fondanting (?) and they can't do that because they had no fridges available or big enough.

I carve my scratch chiffon (but prefer pound cake for it) at room temp all the time. You need to have a really sharp knife for some of the stuff, but I prefer to use scissors wherever I can.

Hey KoryAK, just curious about the scissors...what kind do you use? That sounds way easier than a knife.

Just the regular 3 pack for 4 bucks from Fred Meyers

If you watch them carve, those cakes are LOOSE/FLOPPY. THey don't look like they are firm or stiff. They might be a denser cake than what most people are used to, but it doesn't look unusually so and they are definitely not rigid in any way. I would be so afraid to carve a cake 10-12 layers high! UGH!

Guess that's why their starting price is $500, which shocks me even more when I see them being bought by kids - like last week the scrabble cake?

And the one episode it was a girlfriend's/new wife's gift to her husband (it was Chinese take-out). I'm SURE he thgout it was cool until he heard/discovered the price. My husband would KILLLLLLLL me if I spent money so frivolously.

Melissa

I agree, those cakes they work on are not cold/chilled when they are carving them at their shop. You can see how soft the cake is. I've never seen any sign of big refrigerators/freezers in their shop either. LOTS of counter space & shelves there though!

I carve at room temp as well. You need a very sharp, high-quality knife. That means put the Farberwear back with the rest of the set and buy a single individual knife from the cutlery store. Yes, it will cost you about $75 or more, but it's very worth it to not ruin your cake while trying to carve. My hubby bought me some great Messermeister knives and although he did not buy them for me to use for my cakes, I love using them for this. I even take one along when I am cutting/serving wedding cake

I've never frozen any of my cakes that I have carved, so it can be done with out them being frozen.

Thanks ladies, that is great to know, I do NOT freeze cakes and I have shyed away from doing any of the sculpted cakes for that reason. It is good to know you don't have to!

I usually just carve regular cake. Not frozen I mean.

Did you know Duff lists cake central on his website as a good resource for all cake decorating questions!!!!

I wonder how many of the cake decorators you all talk about (I'm really only familiar with Duff) ever pop in here to see what we are saying about their show or style or books?

I usually refrigerate or 'hard chill' my cake before sculpting. By hard chill, I mean I stick it in the freezer for an hour or so. Like adven68 said, by time I'm done the cake is back to room temp and as fresh as it was right out of the oven.

I'm not great at this yet and have only done a dozen or so cakes, but I have nver frozen any of them before I carved them. I bake my cakes the day before I decorate, then the next day I just stack and carve at room temp. I just always make sure the cakes have had a good long time to cool down. HTH

I have always wondered...when you watch the show, there are shelves behind them with finished cakes. I wonder how long any one of those cakes sits out before it gets to the client. There must be a hefty number of orders on nay given saturday or sunday and they've got to work all week to complete those? Just curious...