What Tools ?

Decorating By Tommo Updated 13 May 2011 , 3:22pm by Marianna46

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Tommo Posted 12 May 2011 , 3:12pm
post #1 of 3

Hey guys im new here and am looking for a bit of advice/

Im 14 and a couple of weeks ago me and my mum decided to make a cake and i really enjoyed it and it tasted really nice ( i can only presume since it was gone in 10 minutes )

Anyway , i want to go more into this but having no ' tools ' has been restricting me and i have a few tool and Baking questions.

So ive seen a couple of ' serious cakes ' videos and would like to try some of the basic cakes.

One problem was with the icing loads of crumbs came through , i understand this is to do with the fact that i dont have a ' leveller ' , is their a cheap one in the UK i could find to do the job.

What sort of Bags would i use for icing ( or buttercream i belive people say ?) and are they reusable .

Ive seen a plastic thing that seriouscake uses it looks like a really flat knife-like thing. Where can i get one of these ?

What Sort of smoothers would i need i understand that i need some no patterned paper towels , how many scrapers would i need ?

And finnaly it looks alot easier to ice it on a board that you can spin round , where can i get one of these ?

Thank you for any replies and here is a picture of the cake , it doesnt look to good but i can assure you it was tasty !
Also any ideas on why it ran all the way down the plate ?

[img]Image[/img]

2 replies
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Marianna46 Posted 13 May 2011 , 3:09pm
post #2 of 3

I think you should look for a cake supply shop and go see what they have to offer. Then I'd start buying tools as I needed them: what do I need for my next cake? To keep crumbs out of your icing, first do what they call a "crumb coat" - a VERY thin layer of icing to hold down the crumbs - and then ice as you normally would. Your icing ran down the sides of the cake because it's too thin (although it looks delicious). You could thicken it up with some powdered sugar or you could try another recipe altogether (take a look at the buttercream icings here in the recipe section). Leveling your cakes is a good idea, but a cake leveler is a very expensive piece of equipment. Wilton offers one that's cheap, but doesn't work very well. What I do is to measure all around my cake layers and place several toothpicks in the side of the cake, all pointing to the center, at the height I want to level it. Then I take the knife with the longest blade I have and cut across the cake at the level of the toothpicks. Either that or I take a long piece of dental floss, lay it over the toothpicks and "choke" the cake by pulling on the ends of the floss. A cake turntable is a wonderful thing to have, indeed, and you can get both economical and expensive ones at a cake supply shop (or online). I hope you have masses of fun with this. I know I do!

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Marianna46 Posted 13 May 2011 , 3:22pm
post #3 of 3

Let's see, I forgot about a couple of things you asked. Either at the cake supply place or online you can get transparent "disposable" icing bags. They won't last for years, but you don't have to throw them away after one use, either. I wash them and reuse them at least 4 or 5 times. The flat-sided plastic thing is called a bench scraper (at least in the US it is). They also come in metal. They're very handy for lots of things, but you can get by with just the one and yes, of course, they'll be at the cake supply shop or online, as well. The paper towels are for smoothing the kind of buttercream that uses icing sugar. It's the only kind that forms a crust that can be smoothed. Other buttercreams, called meringue buttercreams, are made with granulated sugar (the regular kind) and don't crust, so they can't be smoothed. If you'd like any more information, feel free to ask!

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