Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network November 2017 | Page 22

You will need:
Get your image organised and onto your cake
• Soft lead pencil • Rolkem Quick Dry Essence • Large leaf cutter
• Baking paper roll • Black and white Edible Art • Sculpting tools (I used Sugar
• Fondant covered cake or
dummy
Paints
• Small quantity of coloured
• Paintbrushes, larger one for
watercolouring and fine ones
for detail plus one for use with
water/piping gel
Turquoise, Sky Blue and Laser
fondant knife)
fondant, I used: • Extruder
o W
 hite coloured with • Small blossom cutter
Americolor Electric Pink
o P
 re-coloured Fondtastic
• Lustre dusts (I used Rolkem
Shapers (mini soft) and a
Green, Black, Red and
Yellow.
• Small rolling pin
• Water or piping gel
• Rose spirit and paper towel for
errors
Peach)
Watercolour background
Step 3: Step 4:
Once you have decided
on the theme of your
cake design and have
sketched out or found an
image you wish to place
on the side of your cake,
decide on the focal point
of the image and scale it
to suit. You can use design or art books, photographs and Google searches to locate the
best image for your cake but remember to respect the work of other artists. It is
always better to use the images to inspire you rather than for pure imitation.
If you aren’t confident to freehand straight onto the cake, tracing is an easy way
to get your image outlined. Simply lay your original image flat and cover with a
piece of tracing or baking paper, securing the edges of the paper together. Trace
the outline of the image onto the tracing paper with a lead pencil. If you are using
a printed image, print it in mirror to ensure it is facing the correct way. If not, then
cover the back of the image with pencil using a soft lead (4-6B) as it is more easily
transferred. Making sure the fondant on your cake is set hard and your watercolour
is dry, trace over the lines of the image with a scribing tool or pencil, securing the
edges of the paper with pins if required.
Building simple bas relief
Step 1: Step 2:
Before painting anything
onto a cake it is best
to make sure that your
fondant is set and dry.
The firmer the canvas,
the less likely you are to
damage your beautiful
sides and edges while
trying to decorate it with
painted or bas-relief
details. Watercolour is an easy technique to get an effective background onto a cake,
adding colour without overpowering the main focus of the design. It can of course
be used on its own to create a pretty, subtle colour on a cake with blends and
colour variations as a feature.
Painting watercolour is all about paint consistency. Mix your dusts with a little
Quick Dry Essence to make a watery colour. The more liquid you add, the more the
colour will be diluted. I prefer to use Quick Dry for watercolour as it gives me time
to blend colours a little more than with Rose Spirit, which dries much faster.
In this design I mixed turquoise and sky blue dusts into watercolour and alternated
them in stripes, horizontally down the cake, overlapping each slightly. Once the
entire cake is painted, set it aside to dry completely before decorating further.
Step 5:
Now that our image is outlined, decide on the parts you would like to stand out from the cake. It can be only
part of the design or the entire image. Think about how it sits on the cake and how you can fill in the detail with
paint or fondant cut outs.
For this design the entire flamingo is to stand out from the side of the cake. Taking a small piece of pink
fondant, shape the body of the flamingo and attach to the cake with the smallest amount of water or piping gel,
keeping it within the outline of the image.
Do the same with the neck, pinching the head to fit within your outline. Use sculpting tools to smooth the edges
to the side of the cake so as give the appearance that the image continues into the cake rather than it being
placed on top.