I have and interested in starting to work with poured/blown sugar to help bump my cakes up to a new level. What would the bare bones essentials be tool wise for a beginner? Are the things very expensive or can I start with minimal expense? Any advice would be really appreciated.Thanks so much

I am in the same exact boat and have been thinking about learning how to work with sugar for a while now. I wish there was a place I could take a couple of classes on it. Id love to know this information too.

I'm new at it as well, and I am just experimenting with trying different things and seeing what works. Right now i have a silicone mat, a bench scraper, a marble stone, a silicone pastry brush, and of course, a thermometer. As I said, I am just starting out.

I will probably be adding the things that follow on this list!

I too am trying to learn this, going to search cakes with sugar work and ask them to reply to this forum...

I am new to decorating cakes all together, but feel with my artistic background I can make a go of it. I plan on learning all I can before I ever start doing cakes for other people and sugar blowing is on the top of my list! The problem is I've just spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on my career as a sculptor over the years and the support and extra spending cash to go full throttle into another artform is limited... so I've decided to get creative and have been making tools of my own! Making my own molds from a home made vacuum box and the plastic from a milk jug (LOL), made a ribbon cutter out of a 3' wide metal gutter and some wood (LOL), and my next attempt will be to make a home-made sugar pump. Sugar pumps cost... what... like $60-$100... well... they look just like a blood pressure pump... right??? Well, I picked up a blood pressure pump off ebay for $6.00 and my dad has some copper tubing about that size... We will see if it works. Now I need to purchase the isomalt, heat lamp, thermometer, and silicone mat. I'll let ya know! :0)

It has been a year since I took my sugar class but I'll try to remember everything we used.

Heat lamp (and if you can afford it a warming box) but you can also use a microwave, silpats, gloves (they don't help with the heat, they're to prevent fingerprints, marble slab, spirit burner (very important not to use a lighter because it will turn the sugar black). Silicone molds are good, too, like for leaves, rose petals, etc. You can use clay from the craft store to cast a mold to pour large pieces. Okay, that's all I can think of right now.

Melsablondy, your skill as sculpture will stand you in good stead in cake decorating. guys, tools are just what someone made to make the job easier. if you can copy it cheaply, go for it

When I first started we had a pan, thermometer, isomalt, marble or granite slab. Silpat, wooden spoon, gloves - only latex! We started with isomalt as it was more stable than sugar and doesn't need to much fuss. Isomalt costs though! Sugar is cheaper, but needs glucose (for pliability) and tartaric acid. But to start - just sugar, water and glucose. Here is where the wooden spoon comes in handy! Just play with the sugar - no other tools necessary at 1st. Make curly cues on wooden spoon. A burner is nice to have (and a blow torch) for roses and flowers. But if you have a mold you can just tear off a piece (or cut) of sugar, and mold it. I have added to my supplies as I continue.

I'm glad you posted this. I just got the Sugar 101 video from YummyArts.com and I've been watching it just to see if I even want to get into this (it's the expense factor you know...) I love it, she does a great job explaining the 101 aspect of blown and pulled sugar.

Can you try and repost that link in the last post? CC blocked it, so if you put spaces and a few characters in, we should be able to figure out how to get that video. Pleeeeeease?

I've been waiting for a video like this to show up, and it might just become my Christmas present.

Sure, it's Y U M M Y A R T S (dot com). Take the spaces out and do a regular .com at the end. I'm surprised they blocked that one, usually it's another site that gets blocked. If there's any other problems, PM me and I'll see what I can do.

Some links that might help you.

http://pieofthetiger.com/2009/03/sugar-work-equipment/

http://www.jeff-the-chef.com/store/products.html

http://atelierdusucre.free.fr/galerie_anglais.html

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-213811-.html&sid=eb386112a8741ec6db1af5b7b285859d

ALSO, there is a site with free back issues of professional pastry/sugar work magazine. They're downloadable.

pastryna.com

They have things there, from bread, to cakes, to sugar, to cookies. The issues right there are free, don't be misguided by the words "subscribe today."