Sounds easy enough but I am drawing some blanks because it will be chocolate butter cream icing and the whole cake will be brown. I do not have the money to cover it in fondant, nor did the customer ask for it or was willing to pay for it (understandably so). The little girl likes all things nature and I don't know where to go with a brown cake!
it will be a 10in and 8in (and possibly a 6 in too) and I am just dry Any help would be appreciated!
Pastels always look nice against brown. Kinda makes the decorations stand out more if they are against a dark background. Maybe you could do a cascading effect with just cutouts of birds and butterflies in varying pastel colors. Maybe with a bright one or two mixed in to kinda make it interesting.
I've made chocolate butterflies before. I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for. They are kind of fussy but it's a simple idea. I found this image online and I printed it out. Then I melted some coating chocolate and I added a teeny bit of water at a time (literally just drops) until I got the consistency of a really thin peanut butter or a yogurt consistency. Adding water gives you more control and lets you pipe thinner lines without it spreading out. You pipe each wing individually and let dry. Then I took tin foil and folded it into a long strip and folded that in half to give me a V shape. I placed a right & left wing together and piped a little chocolate in the center to glue the two wings together and let dry. You can then glue the finished butterfly on to whatever you made with a little melted chocolate.
The Whimiscal Bakehouse cookbook has patterns and instructions for chocolate transfer butterflies, the Wilton Course 2 book has a colorflow bird pattern (could be used for choco. transfer method as well). I have them, my scanner's been tempermental lately, but PM me if you'd like me to try scanning for you.
you could do that butterfly idea, with white chocolate, and if you want colors you can dye them colors, like pastels. then have them randomly around the cake, or have them cascading down..
I love the tree stump idea too! Here's one that might inspire you! It was posted by mygirlsmne.
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1417222
heres one with butterflies
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_756773.html
You put water in chocolate coating and it didn't seize up on you?
Its a little trick taught to me by my Chef from Culinary school. He's a pastry Chef for 25 years. You have to be super careful. Melt the coating chocolate and dip your fingers in water and drop only a drop or two of water into the chocolate and stirring until it thickens to a nice ribbon stage. When you try to pipe with chocolate it spreads and you will never get a nice delicate lacy effect. When you add water it thickens the chocolate giving you more control and allowing you to pipe thinner more delicate lines.
I did this one with butterflies and ladybugs. The butterflies were fondant and I dried them on the corner of a sheet pan. Attached a wire with royal icing...easy peasy. Pink looks really nice against chocolate, I think. You could make the birds the same way if you can find a cutter.
I put the little hole in the butterflies with straws and #5, 10, 3 icing tips. Floral wire stamen for the antennas.
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1565615
You put water in chocolate coating and it didn't seize up on you?
Its a little trick taught to me by my Chef from Culinary school. He's a pastry Chef for 25 years. You have to be super careful. Melt the coating chocolate and dip your fingers in water and drop only a drop or two of water into the chocolate and stirring until it thickens to a nice ribbon stage. When you try to pipe with chocolate it spreads and you will never get a nice delicate lacy effect. When you add water it thickens the chocolate giving you more control and allowing you to pipe thinner more delicate lines.
Can't wait to try that! What a wonderful trick! I pipe in chocolate ALL the time and it's never quite as thin as I would like. Thanks for sharing!
I have recipes for chocolate clay, that you use ice cold water in the recipe. It is , 1 lb. of summer coating(melt it). Stir it lightly with 1/2 cup of liquid glucose. Add 2 tsp. ice cold water to the mixture and stir until blended. Place a paper towel over the bowl and let it stand over night. Knead the clay and then cover and rest again over night before using.
Here is the final product. Thank you so much for all of your help. It is too big to post so here is the link. Thanks again!
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1708313
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