Making fondant and butter cream frosting I need ideas and tips?!
the cake I am making will have 2-3 tears (havent decided yet) How can I make the tears to be all one size? (so they're all the same depth)
I need tips, recipes and ideas etc??
Answers:
I can't help with the fondant, but here is the best Butter Cream recipe I've ever found. Let me suggest you replace the vanilla extract with strawberry extract.
Doc Hudson
Wilton Butter Cream icing
? Cup solid vegetable shortening
182 Cup Butter or margarine (1 stick)
1 TBS Wilton Clear Vanilla Extract
4 Cups Confectioners Sugar (1 pound)
2 TBS Milk
Wilton Icing Color of choice
Cream butter and shortening with an electric mixer. Add vanilla extract. Gradually add sugar, one cup at the time, beating well on medium speed after each addition. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl frequently. When all the sugar has been mixed in, the icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Makes 3 cups icing.
At this point you will have a nice white icing. For colors, use Wilton’s Icing Color Paste of powder. Use a toothpick to add the paste to the icing and mix well until the color is even. If you need more color, use a new toothpick for each new addition of color.
Keep the icing covered with a damp cloth until reedy to use. For best results, keep the icing bowl in the refrigerator, with a piece of plastic wrap pushed down to be in contact with the icing, when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container this icing can be stored for 2 weeks. Rewhip before use.
For Chocolate Butter Cream icing, ad ? cup cocoa powder or 3 1-ounce blocks of semi-sweet chocolate melted. Mix well a medium speed and ad two tablespoons of milk.
For Mocha Chocolate Butter Cream Icing, substitute two tablespoons of strong brewed coffee for the milk in the Chocolate Butte Cream icing.
For your cake size I would go and buy some cake pans. You can go to Michaels, Hobby Lobby or Walmart for them. I recommend the Wilton cake pans. Typically when you do tiers, you have 2 cakes to each tier. So if you have a 2 inch deep cake pan, your cake will 4-5 inches high depending on what filling you have between layers. Kind of confused on your plan. Are planing on covering the cakes all with fondant? If so the purple icing isn't going to work if you want to keep the zebra look the purple will show through. You can go onto the wilton web site to get recipes. One thing that I would invest in is a pasta roller machine. It will help out rolling out the fondant. Other wise your arms are going to get sore rolling the fondant out to cover the cake.
JK
ok
Here's a few tips:
1. To avoid getting a really lumpy cake. Don't over-mix the batter. Also, setting the cake on a piece of aluminum foil in the oven will help distribute the heat beneath it more evenly.
2. Leveling the two layers before stacking makes a much more presentable cake. Use a big bread knife or thread pulled tightly to cut off any lumps. Then stack the layers with the cut side facing the middle.
3. Adding dry pudding mix to a box cake makes the finished product much more moist.
As for a buttercream frosting recipe, I swear by the lady at this site: http://www.easy-cake-ideas.com/buttercream.html
There you'll find a basic buttercream frosting and tons of different tasty variations.
If you want a technique to get a good outline down for your zebra print, check this out: http://rachie--cakes.blogspot.com/2011/02/simple-flower-cake-how-to-transfer.html?utm_source=BP_recent
I suggest using an edible marker or making an edible paint to fill in the outline.
I apologize that none of those are showing up as links, just copy and paste if you can.
I have some experience in this area. I used both rachie--cakes.blogspot.com and www.easy-cake-ideas.com