or

"Hey, I can do that!"


Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Product Review: Wilton Molds

Product Review: Wilton Molds


Have you seen these???  Wilton has some new cake decorating products out that are pretty nifty.  I was very interested in their new "Fondant & Gum Paste Molds" ($9.99 each): Baroque, Global, Fabric, and Nature.  Michaels is currently having a "buy 2 get the 3rd for free" sale on all their bakeware and cake decorating products.  Go ahead and dash out to the store.  I'll be here when you get back.  I really wanted the Baroque mold, but they were sold out!  I settled for the Global and Nature molds.

Global

Nature

demonstrated with Satin Ice fondant

This was a lot of fun!  These molds are really nice.  They appear to be made of a thick slab of silicon.  They are easy to clean and are very bendy.  Love the colors!  I dusted the cavities with powdered sugar using my pastry brush and tapped out any excess.



I use my little wooden roller to smoosh the fondant into the cavities.

I was able to roll the fondant with enough pressure that you can see the mold through the fondant, but it was still easy to remove.  The back of the box suggested using a foam pad to press the fondant, but I didn't feel like rummaging through my craft closet for it.  I gently pressed a wad of fondant into the cavity with my finger tips and then rolled from the center outward.



If the fondant didn't immediately pop out, I was able to coax it with my pastry brush and by bending the mold.  I didn't notice any wrinkles or imperfections from impressing the fondant into the mold.  I did have to be careful not to pull too much on the fondant so it wouldn't stretch.


There are a couple of downsides to these molds.  The cavities are pretty deep, so the resulting fondant accents seem to be thick.  If you're not into that, well, you're a bit out of luck.


The other problem is that these beautiful borders aren't very long.  You'll have to do this many times if you want to line a cake.


Other than that, I say run out and scoop these up!  I had a blast and can't wait for a good excuse to use them on a cake!







Monday, May 2, 2011

North Texas Cake and Sugar Art Show 2011

Sugar Wonders'
North Texas Cake and Sugar Art Show
April 30 - May 1, 2011
Cascades Event Center
The Colony, TX


So I decided to take a "me" day and drive up to Dallas for the Sugar Wonders' North Texas Cake Show by myself.  I felt like I had missed out on some of the Austin cake show earlier this year because I was stuck volunteering most of the time!  I had a great time and got some awesome pictures.  The cakes were really impressive.  I was hoping to splurge on a bunch of new cake toys, but I didn't really find anything that would be consistently useful for me.  Earlene Moore's new lace molds were certainly tempting, though!  If I lived nearby I would have put some cash into the raffle drawings, but I could only do a day trip.

Stats:
  •     Approximately 164 cake decorating competition entries
    •     3 additional cakes on display, but did not appear to be in the competition
    •     cake decorating competition categories were:
      •     Buttercream Dream
      •     Special Occasion / Holiday Cakes
      •     Sculptured Cakes
      •     Novelty Tiered
      •     Wedding Tiered
      •     Special Techniques NOT on a Cake
      •     Floral Display
      •     Artistic Impression (this year’s theme was “Texas”)
  •     Approximately 7,700 square feet of cake show enjoyment!
  •     Approximately 10 vendors, including
    •     Grex
    •     Earlene’s Cakes
    •     Deseret Designs
    •     Cake Carousel
    •     CakePlay
    •     LeeAnn’s Cakes & Supplies
    •     essense cakery
    •     PhotoFrost
    •     Cake Connection
  •     Approximately 35 raffle items plus a huge Cuisinart mixer and an airbrush set from Grex

There were several demonstrations during the day, mostly popular vendors showing how to use their specialty products.  Earlene Moore showed us how to use her new silicone molds and how to make shimmery sugar pearls.


This cake was my favorite.  She hand-punched thousands of gelatin sequins for this cake!  She was kind enough to post a tutorial on how she did it here: http://confessionsofascratchbaker.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-first-tutorialgelatin-sequins.html


 Here are my other favorites:




Before I left I nom'd on a champagne cupcake with white chocolate frosting from essence cakery.


Hopefully they'll post the winners soon.  I had a great time and will definitely try to attend this show every year from now on!

Here are the rest of my photos.  I think I got one of every single cake!

https://picasaweb.google.com/102708657112413354279/NorthTexasCakeShow2011#


As Seen On

As Seen On Capital Confectioners