I want to get more pictures of different cakes and things that I can do but I just do cakes for fun. I don't want to have a bunch of cakes baked up that no one will be eating.
I am thinking of getting some dummy cakes to decorate. Will icing stick to them nicely?? What about fondant? Any ideas and tips would be great!
I've never tried buttercream on a dummy, but I know it can be done and royal icing, too. Before applying fondant, using your finger, smooth off the extremely sharp edge (just round it down a tiny bit) so it will not cut through the fondant. I apply a thin layer of Crisco to the dummy, so the fondant will adhere. It is a little bit harder to work with a dummy because it is so light weight, but it can be done. I use dummies all the time for collaborations because we have no need for a large, decorated cake. Once it has served it's purpose and I am tired of looking at it, I put the fondant covered tier in the microwave for a few seconds (do no more than 10 seconds at a time or the styrofoam will melt) to soften it a little and peel it off the dummy. The stripped dummy can be washed in the dishwasher.
All you have to do is look thru my album here on this site for cakes I have made using styro dummies :) It is a bit of a pain to cover styro w/b'cream as it is soooo lightweight it won't stay still on the board. What I finally learned to do is put the styro on the cake board w/a good bloob of icing then take some large pearl head pins and stick them thru the board from the bottom into the styro. I guess one could use nails - at least 4 to 8 depending on the size of the dummy. Then put the whole thing on a piece of shelf liner rubber stuff so it doesn't slide around.
There is actually an attachment made for the arteco turntable that has spikes, similar to what you described with the nails, kakeladi, for working with styrofoam dummies. It is pretty pricey, but since I use dummies a lot, I've considered it.
I have never iced directly on a styrofoam cake dummy. I always put a thin layer of fondant on my cake dummy first, regardless if I’m using the dummy for a all fondant cake or buttercream covered cake. Much easier to remove the buttercream afterwards and wipe off the fondant to reuse the dummy again.
we just got a wooden board and put a nail in the middle -- so you set the board which has a little weight on the turntable with the nail pointing up of course and stick the dummy on that and you're good to go
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