Church Lady Hat Cake?
19/11/08 10:03![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madrobinsUsing the fondant-covered cake I did a couple of weeks ago (for those who came in late, it's fondant over a styrofoam cake-form), I got to learn some fiddly piping techniques (aka "stringwork") and to work with draping fondant a little.
Closer perusal of the "curtainwork" piping shows that I need practice. Lots, maybe buckets, of practice, as I have neither a steady hand nor a keen eye, and patience...well, not so much. Ideally, there's supposed to be at least one more vertical between each of the existing verticals, so that you get a very tight effect. Unfortunately, the instructor's royal icing was lumpy (I say this not to dis her, but to point out that we are all, as humans, fallible) and getting one perfect string, let alone fifteen or twenty, out of my icing bag was damned near impossible. I hate working with royal icing (there! I said it!), which never seems to flow as nicely as buttercream.
The little widget between the "curtains" is a lace point, done weeks earlier and glued into position with royal icing.
Then we tried draping swags with fondant. Next time I do this I'm mixing a bit of gum paste into the fondant to stiffen it a touch. Fondant as it is is satiny--which is lovely--but doesn't hold its shape very well. So it drapes beautifully--has that 1930s slipper-satin evening gown look--but a bow or flower tends to soften into a curly little widge. Still, after I'd put up a couple of draped swags, I started making little flowers out of spare scraps. It's like making rolled "roses" out of satin--the same softness and tendency to unroll. Still, the very softness has an elegance to it, I think.
Still, we all agree that this looks like a very large hat for a very large Church Lady on her way to Easter services. An eccentric Church Lady.
Closer perusal of the "curtainwork" piping shows that I need practice. Lots, maybe buckets, of practice, as I have neither a steady hand nor a keen eye, and patience...well, not so much. Ideally, there's supposed to be at least one more vertical between each of the existing verticals, so that you get a very tight effect. Unfortunately, the instructor's royal icing was lumpy (I say this not to dis her, but to point out that we are all, as humans, fallible) and getting one perfect string, let alone fifteen or twenty, out of my icing bag was damned near impossible. I hate working with royal icing (there! I said it!), which never seems to flow as nicely as buttercream.
The little widget between the "curtains" is a lace point, done weeks earlier and glued into position with royal icing.
Then we tried draping swags with fondant. Next time I do this I'm mixing a bit of gum paste into the fondant to stiffen it a touch. Fondant as it is is satiny--which is lovely--but doesn't hold its shape very well. So it drapes beautifully--has that 1930s slipper-satin evening gown look--but a bow or flower tends to soften into a curly little widge. Still, after I'd put up a couple of draped swags, I started making little flowers out of spare scraps. It's like making rolled "roses" out of satin--the same softness and tendency to unroll. Still, the very softness has an elegance to it, I think.
Still, we all agree that this looks like a very large hat for a very large Church Lady on her way to Easter services. An eccentric Church Lady.
