Mickey Wedding & Pet Peeves

We will make this week's blog short and a little sour..... Is there something you see in your line of work that bugs the fool out of you? We all do I'm sure. In cake decorating we all start as beginners and I never judge those people. If you charge money, and sometimes a lot of money for a cake then it should be well executed. Piping should be neat and consistent. I'm not the best at piping so I use a small paint brush to even out and blend in my lines. Sometimes, I need to scrape things off and start again . One of the most popular borders are fondant pearls. If you will pay attention some decorators don't use the right product (it needs to be partially modeling chocolate or Fondarific so it will harden in the cooler) and stretch them out when unmoulding or applying them to the cake. It's a minor thing to most, but a pearl border that isn't rounded pearls is not clean work to me.

Last pet peeve is disintegrated dragees. Whether pearl, silver or gold those little balls cannot be applied and then put in the fridge. They break down and loose their sheen all together. This really does stink because you can't apply them ahead of time. I'll give you two things that I do. First, I put them on ahead of time when the icing is a little soft so that they will not just sit on top of the buttercream. If the cake gets room temperature and those dragees aren't pushed in a little, they will slide down the cake. Trust me, we stayed almost until a wedding started just gently pushing those things in before they all slide down. Did you catch that I just told you I do what I said you shouldn't? Well at the last minute, I take the bad dragees out and add fresh ones. Yes it takes more time, but I don't have to measure last minute or get a cake soft before adding the last minute. Oh! Get a gem/rhinestone setter for applying these and not leaving tweezer marks. They are just a little wad of wax on the end of a stick. It is easier to pick them up and apply them (but not removing, stick to tweezers for that). Yeah! I got those things out of my system!

Disney Inspired Princess Wedding

Have you tried stenciling on cakes?  What about on buttercream cakes?  Now, I'm talking about real-butter buttercream that firms up in the fridge.  I will sometimes put the cake in the freezer for a few minutes, but not too long or it will get condensation and that's a whole other problem. 

I have tried different systems for "attaching" the stencil, but they all seem to make bigger mark than if I just hold them gently with one had and apply some icing with the other.  Once you've got a little icing on, it pretty much holds the stencil in place.  Just be prepared to do some "clean up" with paint brush for bleed overs and such.  If you have a lot to stencil, you may need to put it back in the cooler  in between.  Also, plan to wash and dry your stencil each time.  I think stenciling is pretty and uniform looking and is relatively quick.  This stencil came from Designer Stencils.


There was a cake by Jim Smeal that my bride found this stencil/pattern on and fell in love.  I wish they let me recreate all the patterns he used  because I'm really over my buttercream diamond patterns! The couple was very into Disney and this has a  kind of glass carriage / tiara feel to it.  They also had me add several "hidden Mickey's" all over the cake and that was pretty fun.  The bride wanted a big border on the two blue tiers and since they were assorted size dots, it too ended up looking like a bunch of Mickey heads.  The couple also had a sweet Lenox China Minnie and Mickey topper that we added at the reception.  It was a little "cream" and I like the look of the white cake not mixed with a cream topper.  I SO wanted to put some flowers on this cake but it is pretty as is.  I'm just really just proud that I got to make a colored wedding cake this week!  Go daring brides, GO!