Can Anyone Tell Me What I Am Doing Wrong ?
Decorating By grama_j Updated 18 Jun 2010 , 8:08pm by Peridot
I have made four fondant high heel shoes now, and they have ALL cracked where the heel meets the sole...... I am just about beside myself, and I can't talk her out of having a "SHOE" on her cake.... I've made THREE with just fondant, and the last one , I did 50-50...fondant and gum paste....... ANY SUGGESTIONS ?
THANKS....... GRAMA_J
I haven't made a shoe yet, but it sounds like your sole needs support. Could you cut a piece of thin, flexible cardboard (I'm thinking cake box or poasterboard thin) to the same size as the sole and cover that in fondant? Then once dry the sole has the extra support of the cardboard. It works in my head, but that may be a terrible idea.
Thanks, melmar..... it certainly sounds like it would work, but we shouldn't have to do that ...... I should all be made of fondant or gumpaste..... I may have to take you up on that though at the rate I'm going ! LOL!
Here is a link to a tutorial by pinkcakebox... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhuDKQAaHTM&feature=related
There are 3 parts to the tutorial (I skipped over the part about making the shoebox, because I didn't need one at the time). I watched this and then followed her instructions to make my first shoe and it worked very well. I used 100% gumpaste. I didn't have the time to spread the process out over several days like she does in the tutorial. I used pre-made gumpaste (which seems to dry faster for me for some reason) and it all came together very quickly. I did let the sole dry until it kept its shape though when removed from its "platform". Good luck!
I found this blog on another thread the other day and it has a gum paste shoe tutorial.
http://sugarteachers.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-make-gumpaste-high-heel-shoe.html
This might be helpful, as it shows how to put support in the heal. Good luck!
I had the same problem with my first real sized shoe. Cracked right where yours did. I haven't tried one since (except smaller sized shoes which are less fragile) but if I did I'd do the shoe in fondant/gumpaste then stick a nice flexible inside sole (made of fondant) which should be less likely to crack than gumpaste) to cover up any possible crack on the gumpaste part...other than that - maybe try making it slightly smaller than your template or the heel slightly shorter? Hope it works out for you
If you make it again and it sounds like you are going to - please let us know what technique you used and if the sole cracked again.
Thanks
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