Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Cricut Cake - First Impressions

So, I got my new Cricut Cake machine on Tuesday and I have had a few days to make use of it.  There is definitely a learning curve, but once I get into the groove with this thing I think it will really save me some time!

Here are some of the things I have learned so far working with the Cricut Cake:

The material you use is key.  Gumpaste works very well, modeling chocolate works well too.  Fondant on average is just too mushy, but I had good luck using Fondarific.  Next time I will test fondant mixed with Tylose to see what happens.

Thickness (or thinness actually) is very important also.  On the blue and brown cake (below) I left the modeling chocolate too thick.  I still liked the overall effect, but I had to cut a lot of extra pieces and clean the blade several times.  On the "Chuck" cake, Chad rolled out the gumpaste so thin you could almost make out the mat under it.  They cut out very nicely.

My last finding was that no matter the material I used to cut on, popping it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes before cutting always yielded better results.

    I know some of my other blog friends also have the Cricut Cake machine.  What have your experiences been with it??

    9 comments:

    1. Thanks for sharing about this. I have been wondering what people really think about it. I have a regular cricut, and thus far has not met up to my expectations. Good to hear the cake one is better! :)

      ReplyDelete
    2. I am using mines tonight to decorate a cake board, I will report later this week, those are some really good tips though! Which cartridge did you use?

      ReplyDelete
    3. These look great. I want a Cricut Cake soo bad.

      ReplyDelete
    4. interesting! thanks for posting! the letters are so beautiful and so well cut! :) i would think the cleaning up the blades will be quite tedious?

      ReplyDelete
    5. Faithy, there is no clean up when the material is right. It only seems to gunk up a little with really soft material like fresh fondant and then it only takes about 10 seconds to clean it. I bought an electric pasta machine off of overstock.com, can't wait to try it! My gumpaste will get really thin I hope!

      ReplyDelete
    6. Once you get that paste machine it will be so much easier, and you can get it paper thin too, you will love it! I have two, one is an attachment for my kitchen aid and the other a hand cranking one, but I like the KA attachment better, no balancing fondant while turning the crank and guiding it through, you almost need two people to use that one. I usually ask my 8 year old son to help, it's a great mother son bonding activity lol!

      ReplyDelete
    7. We mostly used the "Elegant Cakes" cartdrige so far.

      ReplyDelete
    8. Yes, thank you for posting your results. I just tried using fondant tonight and almost cried as it looked terrible. I have a cake that needs to get done by tomorrow, so will use the frosting sheets, but I'm going to play as much as I can next week.

      ReplyDelete

    Thanks for visiting the blog! I look forward to reading your comments!

    Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.