The last few months have been so busy. Between work, family weddings, graduations, birthdays, and the corresponding CAKE for each occasion, I haven't had time to document my (mis)adventures. So I'm going to try and bundle some of them together.
First bundle is a Trifecta of Rosette Cakes. Rosette are so pretty, so delicate, so girly-girl. Rosette Cakes must be the trend this year because I had three requested in the last few months. One was for a baby shower....
One for my Mom's first cousin, who turned 96...
And one for a bridal shower for my sister-in-law's niece.
Whew, that is a lot of rosettes. Thankfully they are easy to make. Here is a
YouTube video that I found the most useful for learning to pipe the rosettes.
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My first attempt at a rosette was with Goldie's cake so I went a little overboard with the placement of the rosettes. I scored guide line into the cake using
Wilton' Cake Marker, and then used a
circle cookie cutter to mark where each rosette went (I wanted to make sure each rosette was exactly the same size.)
Then I started piping rosettes using
Wilton's big 1M tip. First row, finished so I used the cookie cutter again to mark the location of each rosette. Overkill I know.
The second tier used the "spoon" texture method. (You just drag the back of a spoon through the soft buttercream as you spin the cake on a turntable.) And because I'm horrible at cutting supports and placing the second tier, I had to pipe something to hide the gap between the tiers.
But I wasn't happy with the camouflage of the gap, so I added some
Wilton sugar pearls. What a time consuming and tedious job to individually place each pearl! (FYI: The
bentnose micro pliers is a jewelry making tool. These tools work great for cake making because they are lightweight, compact, and they let you get into tight places without disturbing the buttercream or fondant.)
I made the name plate from fondant using a
plaque cookie cutter, and the letters/numbers from gumpaste using
Funky's Upper Case Letter Cutters.
And at the end I threw on some tiny pink fondant flower and a few more sugar pearls, and called it a day.
Here we are at the party. Happy Birthday, Goldie. Goldie is on the left, and my Mom is on the right.
On the bridal shower cake I used an interesting
Round Pearl/Bubble Mold to make the ribbon-like cluster of pearls. It worked pretty well, but the mold needed to be dusted with cornstarch, and the fondant needed to be mixed with a little
Tylose Powder to keep the fondant ribbon from stretching out of shape as I gently squeezed it from the mold . On the Amazon reviews for the mold someone suggested that freezing the mold/fondant helped the fondant release, but I didn't find that it helped. In the end all that was needed for a quick release was the Tylose stiffened fondant, a little cornstarch, and a few minutes of drying time.
In the end I was happy with the results of the mold. Using the mold was so much easier than placing the individual pearls, and from a distance you can't even tell that the pearls aren't real. On the bridal shower cake, the pattern of rosettes was a little different from the other two. Instead of a tight, overlapping pattern, the bride-to-be wanted a more random placement of the rosette with the space between the rosettes filled with small star flowers.
In hindsight I should have positioned the second tier's pearl ribbon a little higher because the rosette's are hiding the lower portion of the ribbon. I also wasn't too happy with the color of the rosettes. The color was supposed to be "blush" but it came out a little too pink. Oh well, live and learn...
Here is the finished cake at the party.
So this ends my Trifecta of Rosette Cakes. Happy Decorating, everyone...
Carol
Supply List:
Mona Lisa White Fondant
Circle Cookie Cutters
Turntable extender
Wilton Cake Marker
Wilton's big 1M tip
Bentnose micro pliers
Alligator Impression Mat (used on the fondant covering the cake drums)
14" Cake Drum
Plaque Cookie Cutter
Funky Upper Case Letter Cutters
Fat Boba Straws
Round Pearl/Bubble Mold
Wilton Gum-Tex Tylose Powder
