Mumsnet Talk

I have just started to decorate my own cakes, I was given a cake decorating book for my birthday after constantly complaining about the quality of birthday cakes in the supermarket.
My question is this; where [online] would you recommend I buy my bits and pieces, and what should I buy?
I have had a look around and am feeling overwhelmed by the choice. What colour paste should I go for? I am also a bit confused about edible sparkle/glitter powder. Some websites say it it inedible, some say it is non toxic and you could eat it.

bump....

Well it depends on what kind of decorating you are going to do!

What colour paste depends on what you are doing too.

Edible glitter is edible, nothing to worry about. As in, it will not do your body any harm to eat it, you just won't digest it.

ponders sparkly poo...

I want it to colour sugarpaste and to add a dusting of coloured highlights.

You can't really colour sugarpaste with glitter - you'd need too much for any effect - it just gets sprinkled on after.

I buy ready coloured sugarpaste from my local baking shop but you can get it online from here. It saves a load of hassle and endless kneading.

here

It doesn't really matter what colour sugarpaste you get. So long as you get paste colours even white come up nicely.

So:

Sugarpaste

Paste colours

0-3 piping tubes and a couple of different size star tubes.

Greaseproof paper.

Plenty of royal icing mix/eggs and icing sugar for practicing with. (piping that is, though you could do this with butter cream)

if you're going to be doing flowers or modelling i'd get some:

petal paste
Scalpel
ball tool
scribers needle.(or just some dressmakers pins, which are always good for attaching ribbons to cakeboards etc.

The way I've done it is to get the stuff specifically for the cake I am making at the time, then after you've done a few cakes you end up with looooooooooads of different cutters and things.

With glitter, you can get dust colours which would probably bring a nicer effect than just glitter

this sort of thing.

The place pennies links to is good. As is Lakeland for a limited range of stuff - but a RL friendly shop would be even better if you can find one.

Go for a set of paste colours and then just buy white sugarpaste in bulk and colour it as needed (except black - buy that, it's just easier)

Definitely a smoother. If you are going to do fancy stuff a set of modelling tools. If you are writing a Christmas list then a turntable makes life easier and a sugar shaper is really useful.

Xavelli's list is for "grown up" cake making - I do the novelty sort and until recently the sugar shaper and a smoother were pretty much all I had (I got lots of new toys for my birthday ).

Ok, cool, thanks.
I realised glitter would be brushed on, and I have been told (by the book) to get Blossom tints. (is there an alternative you'd recommend?)

I think I'd like to try my hand at children's cakes first, and might get a flower cutter, cake smoother and sugar glue, and brushes.

Is there a brand of colour paste and sugar paste you'd recommend?

Unfortunately I'd have to buy online as there is no local shop I could try
I am also looking for oven-proof bowls to make a toadstool cake.

I use the SugarFlair Paste. As other's have said, just buy what you need for the cake you are doing. Honestly, after doing three or four cakes, you will have plenty of stuff and you only need small amounts of paste so it does go a long way.

I would recommend using those really thin plastic gloves when you are colouring the fondant as otherwise you will have multi coloured hands

I made some cup cakes recently and decorated them with roses that I had made and brushed the petals with glittery stuff.

It does get addictive and expensive!

I keep looking through the websites and seeing more and more stuff that I wantneed.
A good idea about the gloves though... Although I'm still trying to get my head around glittery poo.
Any tips on softening the sugarpaste? I'll be honest, I'll happily make butter cream but will buy the ready made sugarpaste.

Those flowers sound lovely - I'm not a particularly girly person, but looking at cakes and cupcakes really brings it out in me.

Yep, you have to knead it.

So, what I would do before you start with the decorating is weigh out all your bits of fondant that you need for each colour and then get kneading the colours into each bit. Wrap them up one by one into some clingfilm, otherwise they will go hard. Then you have everything ready to hand.

If you want to model figures or say flowers, then mix in a bit of flowerpaste or mexican sugarpaste with your fondant, it just makes them a little harder and more robust.

Definitely buy sugarpaste, it's far too much hassle to make yourself! I use the Suugarflair colours to make every colour except red and black which are a PITA to get a good shade.

You don't need to buy flower paste or mexican paste, just get some CMC powder or Tylose powder and mix it with ordinary paste. That gives you a strong enough paste to do most novelty modelling.

Also, buy a pot of Gum Arabic rather than ready made sugarglue. You mix half a teaspoon with a few drops of water until it's a slightly goopy liquid. It's much cheaper.

I agree with Stealth, a smoother (or 2) is an absolute must for gettting a good finish on the cake covering. A good non-stick rolling pin (get 2 - a big one for rolling out covering paste and a small one for rolling out small bits for cutters/letters, etc) and a non stick board are also very useful.

FMM Tappits letters are fab if you want to be able to personalise the cakes without having to royal-ice pipe names and greetings. I've used them on most of the cakes on my profile if you want to see what they're like.

Which book have you got and which cakes are you planning on doing from it? That'll give us more idea of what you need .

Ooooh I have spied Olihan's cakes before... she is the queen of cakes.

<polishes crown>

I've a few more to add on from the last couple of weeks. Hold on....

I have got 50 easy party cakes by Debbie Brown.

I wondered if there was a sneaky tip re the sugar paste as it was really hard work. Maybe it was the brand I got - silver spoon ready to roll?

I just bought a load of stuff from here, it came quickly and they were nice, but I am a cake virgin, so no idea really. They were recommended on another thread

Twit - that is what I use. It just takes a bit of time to knead that's all.

I have got this one and the cake on the front I have done (only one tier though) for my Mum's birthday. I also have a Debbie Brown one.

Olihan your cakes are truly fabulous.
see if you have a local sugarcraft guild...
ours has demonstration nights that are £5 to get in and you can learn loads.

There is nothing like that near me, although I have gone on to their website and someone will always be helpful and answer a question for you.

If it's cold it is hard work to get it pliable enough. It's easier to split it into small chunks and knead it, then ball it all together and give it a quick knead before you roll it out.

I personally like Covapaste for covering cakes as it's quite soft. It needs CMC or Tylose added to it before you do any kind of modelling though, because it's too floppy.

Some of the cakes in that book are quite tricky for a complete beginner, even though they say they're 'easy'. Which ones are you thinking of doing?

Carol Deacon is a good author to look out for, her cakes are as effective but a bit simpler if you're a novice, try this one for cakes for all ages/occasions.

Bella, I've got that one too, and I used to one on the front as inspiration for the blue and cream one on my profile! It's so effective but really simple.

The other book I swear by is this one. It has loads of info from quantities, to baking, to filling and covering, to decorating, modelling and adding tiers. It's a really handy reference.

I have had a go at the spooky tower, although it was all white as I had no colouring. As my first ever go at decorating a cake it went ok, I got a bit lazy as I didn't have the colours but the important parts like rolling out, trimming, joining and smoothing I made a real effort with. I was quite chuffed.
My dd loves the fairy castle and the toadstool cake, so would like to give either one a go. (If I can find an oven proof bowl) I have been looking at the sites you have all suggested, which is reassuring.
I'm happy to play around and make mistakes for a bit, but I thought some of them were way too tricky atm.

I use this shop, they're friendly and quick and not too expensive.

I have bookmarked all those sites to browse through and I am going to order that book Olihan.

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