Posts by: chris
Threadcakes.com are posting their winners for their annual contest! Amazing stuff here: http://www.threadcakes.com/winners
2010 winners: http://www.threadcakes.com/home/winners2010
2009 winners: http://www.threadcakes.com/home/winners2009
“Crazy Pizza Cakes” with Brian Stevens
Another successful Capital Confectioners class! A big thank you to Brian Stevens for teaching the class about the color wheel, color theory, airbrushing basics, and how to use torches! Everyone’s “pizza” turned out fabulous and I can personally attest that we no longer fear the airbrush.
Brian demonstrated airbrushing using different tricks and techniques, including stenciling and creating a gradient. He walked us through the different parts to an airbrush and shared his preferences in tools.
After learning about the color wheel, the class tackled creating their own colors from the primary colors … and we even discovered something interesting. Be warned! Americolor airbrush blue + red does not make purple!
We were given 12″ round cakes to carve, ice, and cover with fondant. Brian showed us how he utilizes multiple colors and passes to create an organic and realistic coloring to the pizza crust.
Chris and Chrissy working intently!
The pizza toppings comprised of red or white buttercream “sauce”, shredded fondant “cheese”, and different fondant “toppings”. No one held back! Every pizza turned out supreme.
One of Brian’s favorite tools … the torch.
What a fun class! Hope you join us next time. Here’s our 2011 class photo gallery:
The Central Texas College is holding their Geekfest 2011 at the Mayborn Planetarium and Space Theater in Killeen, TX on August 19th – 20th. If you’re into gaming, science fiction, zombies, cosplay, and other geeky things, you won’t want to miss out. This year they’ll be sporting their very own cake competition!
“The Cake is a Lie” contest has 3 categories: cookies, cupcakes, and tiered cakes. Entries must be “geek” themed. Get your registration in by August 12th!
We’re super excited about our upcoming Day of Sharing! Want a sneak peek of the goodies that will be there???
SWAG!
One of the many fabulous raffle prizes!
One of our big-ticket raffle items!
Fun fish cake by Kyla and Ellen.
Nothing fishy going on here, just a bunch of super cute cakes just in time for Father’s Day! Kyla and Ellen led the 3rd Capital Confectioner’s class and showed students how to roll out and cover a cake with fondant, decorate it wish some fish features, paint with luster dust, and add fondant and modeling chocolate garnishes!
Class was great! I believe everyone left with a smiling face except the for the fish!
Hungry for more? Next class is on July 24th with Kimberly Chapman teaching about gummy treats! Register here: http://thebigcakecalendar.com/index.php/registration/?cgroup=JULY
Chris Wingler, here! 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. Here are the Global and Nature molds (the other 2 were sold out!):
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 used 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 with my rolling pin 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, but did have to be careful not to pull too much on the fondant so it wouldn’t stretch or distort the shapes.
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! Here are some more shots of them in action.
What do you think? Have you tried them out? Leave comment and tell us if you like them!
“Buttercream Flowerpot Arrangement” by Gwen and Irene
If you haven’t heard, Capital Confectioners is now offering classes! I do believe that everyone, instructors and students, had a great time today learning how to make several different buttercream flowers. Three cheers for Gwen and Irene for doing a wonderful job teaching!
Students learned how to prepare and load a piping bag with buttercream, how to stripe different colors in one bag, how to pipe many types of flowers using common piping tubes, and how to assemble a lovely bouquet of cupcakes in a terra cotta pot.
We hope to see many of these happy faces again in future classes, club meetings, and our annual shows!
Afterward, Kyla presented the prototype for the next class, “The Fish That Got Away”. On June 12th Kyla will show students how to make this easy but incredibly adorable Father’s Day cake. No experience required! Register here: http://thebigcakecalendar.com/index.php/registration/?cgroup=JUNE
Ok, this just blew our minds. This is a video from JP Prince Company, the creators of SilPat, showing just how extremely awesome they are and how versatile their silicone products can be. Try not to let your jaw drop 
North Texas Cake and Sugar Art Show
April 30 – May 1, 2011
Cascades Event Center
Fairfield Inn & Suites (Marriot)
5909 Stone Creek Drive
The Colony, TX 75056
The Sugar Wonders Cake Club of Dallas recently held their North Texas Cake and Sugar Art Show for 2011. What a blast! So many talented cake artists and amazing competition entries. Here’s a quick look of what was there:
- About 164 cake decorating competition entries
- This year’s theme Artistic Impression 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, especially the 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.
There were so many wonderful cakes on display! Here’s our photo gallery: click here!
Here is an amazing gelatin sequin cake by Teesha Dorsette. She has been kind enough to post a tutorial on how she did it on her blog, http://confessionsofascratchbaker.blogspot.com.
We look forward to attending next year’s show! To learn more about the Sugar Wonders Cake Club, please visit their website: http://www.sugarwonders.com.
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