Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

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asked April 6th 2015

What are your personal thoughts – painted or rolled colors for woodgrain ?

So the customer for whom I’m to make a wood grained cake for next Monday has now ok’d me to use fondant after advising her buttercream just won’t look quite as good .
I’d be eager to hear what experiences/thoughts some of you may have . I’ve seen many tutorials for both the painting of fondant once already on the cake and ones where different colors are rolled together to get the grain effect, then rolled out and placed on the cake . Which method do you prefer?
If painting, how long would that take to dry ? If rolling colors, as you can only roll one direction, how do you get it large enough to cover a 9×13 cake two layers high? (9×13×6) .
Delivery is Monday so my plan is bake cakes Friday evening, fridge overnight, layer, torte and crumb coat Saturday, overnight in fridge again and lay fondant Sunday ( if painting I’d start first coat saturday).
One last question… do I only do a crumb coat of buttercream under fondant, or do I lay a thicker layer on after crumbling but before the fondant? (Using a bc of 1/2 butter 1/2 shortening) .
Thanks all!!

Shelley

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So the customer for whom I’m to make a wood grained cake for next Monday has now ok’d me to use fondant after advising her buttercream just won’t look quite as good .
I’d be eager to hear what experiences/thoughts some of you may have . I’ve seen many tutorials for both the painting of fondant once already on the cake and ones where different colors are rolled together to get the grain effect, then rolled out and placed on the cake . Which method do you prefer?
If painting, how long would that take to dry ? If rolling colors, as you can only roll one direction, how do you get it large enough to cover a 9×13 cake two layers high? (9×13×6) .
Delivery is Monday so my plan is bake cakes Friday evening, fridge overnight, layer, torte and crumb coat Saturday, overnight in fridge again and lay fondant Sunday ( if painting I’d start first coat saturday).
One last question… do I only do a crumb coat of buttercream under fondant, or do I lay a thicker layer on after crumbling but before the fondant? (Using a bc of 1/2 butter 1/2 shortening) .
Thanks all!!

Shelley

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Hello ShellsBells

Crumb coat is the coat which locks/seals in all the loose crumbs, it’s the base layer for the thicker covering fo buttercream. See all Paul’s tutorials on using buttercream for covering cakes here:

Free Online Cake Decorating Courses

For wood grain effect Paul has different style of tutorials, have a peek to see which you like best:

Free Online Cake Decorating Courses


http://www.cakeflix.com/online-cake-decorating-courses/fitness-cake/lesson-1-covering-the-cake-part-1
http://www.cakeflix.com/online-cake-decorating-courses/wedding-shower-cake/lesson-12-covering-the-board-part-2
Paul also has a method in his book where he marbles the sugarpaste, I used that method for one of the tutorials in his book and then embossed it with a wood grain mat, finally airbrushed by layering several colours to gradually build up the shading. It really depends what type of wood graining you want. Mine was for a floor so it had to have a wood grain look and also to include all the knots. I wanted it to look like my own oak wooden floors, the tutorial helped a lot.
There are loads of tutorials in youtube, search ‘how to wood grain effect on fondant’ to see the videos.

I used alcohol base colours from dinkydoodle for the airbrush, dried overnight before touching. Some of the colour came off on my hands and onto the cake!! I would strongly advise using a colour sealent available from dindkydoodle, there may be other makes. You can also paint diluted colour with 90% alcohol for very quick drying. Link here where to buy it:

90%+ alcohol availability


PME spray paints can also be used, this is a more expensive option. See the sprays here:
http://www.cake-stuff.com/edibles-c1/lustre-spray-icing-colouring-c10/pme-pearl-edible-lustre-spray-icing-colouring-100ml-p1134

When painting woodgrain, use an initial base colour like in water colour painting and gradually build up.

To cover a tall cake roll the fondant around an extra long rolling pin and wrap it around the cake rather than trying to use the up and over method. The top of the cake will have to be iced separately, the joins can be covered up with the wood graining or bring the icing together by gently stroking the two edges with a damp finger.
This is my preferred method:

Tutorial: How to make a double barrel cake

You could emboss after covering the cake. I’ve done this quite successfully after a bit of practice. A little care needs to be taken to align the embosser. To be honest once the embossing and painting is done, any minor mis-alignments are barely noticeable. Embossing before covering can distort the pattern, to minimise stretching, allow the icing to set up slightly before rolling it arounf the pin and attaching to the cake.

Hope this helps, I’m sure other members will share their methods.

EDIT

I’ve just realised the dimensions of your cake. For large rectangular or square cakes it’s better to use the panelling method. See this method in any tutorial where Paul has made a handbag or the Jimmy Choo shoe box cake tutorial. Let the panels set up a little before attaching to the cake. I sometimes add a little gum trag or tylose to the fondant to help better handling of the panels. Don’t add too much, you don’t want gumpaste, you just need enough to help the fondant keep it’s shape. I use 1 teaspoon to 500gms of fondant if the weather is really humid, this prevents the fondant from being too stretchy.

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