cake decoration supplies?

[tostaky]

where do you buy yours?
im planning my first attempt at icing and needs food coloring, marzipan, icing sugar, and also nice thing to put the cake and cupcakes on once its done etc...

thank you!!!

ebay

www.cakecraftworld.co.uk/

I get most of my supplies from a cake shop in Bushey called Cakes of Good Taste. They sell everything from party supplies to complete wedding cakes to cake books.

I also use one in Ruislip Manor called the Icing on the Cake. They've finally got their website sorted.

There are plenty of places online for selling equipment, but stuff like pre-coloured regalice fondant icing is a bit too bulky so you need to find a shop near you.

Things you need if you are trying your first cake:
Cake board. (Thick or thin)
Cake box - to precisely fit the size of board you have if you are carrying it anywhere
very smooth rolling pin
something to smooth the sides (clean jam jar)
paste food colouring NOT liquid.

Once you get used to doing them, then you can get a silicone rolling pin and special cake smoothers for the top and sides, but you can do without to begin with, as they're not cheap.

both tesco and sainsburys have got 3 for 2 on quite a few bits at the moment.

Im not organised enough to order online. I buy from supermarkets.

moonbell - thanks for that!

why is the paste better than the liquid coloring? i didnt think about the cake box... good point!

hops- i went to sinsburrys but they did not have cake board and cake box.

i saw a nice paper cake stand though but in pink. i quite fancy a blue one now!!

tourist - that website is great! thanks

The paste gives a strong colour without making icing too wet. Go carefully as it really is concentrated.

So do you use the rolling pin to get the frosting/butter icing really smooth- mine never does. or is it for royal icing?
Any tips on writing icing? I've tried using the little tubes but the end of the word is always mucked up as it doesn't finish abruptly

Paste colouring is much more concentrated and needs less to get a good colour. Liquid colouring like you find in the supermarkets alters the consistency of the sugarpaste/fondant/ready to roll (it's known by all those names) if you use more than a couple of drops which renders it impossible to work with.

If you are planning on covering a big cake then I'd advise buying at least one smoother to help you get a really good finish.

what is a smoother???

also i need to make orange coloring (tiger)
i was planning to mix yellow and red liquid coloring...
is orange paste easy to find? i dont think i live near any cake decoration shops... (despite being in north london)

As DrSeuss and LadyDamerel said!

Staverton frosting, butter icing and royal icing are all sticky and the only way you're going to get them smooth is to use a large palette knife. Getting a Royal iced cake smooth is an art and something which takes lots of practice and lots of patience (together with lots of layers).
The rolling pin is for fondant icing, which is attached to a cake the same way as marzipan - rolled into a circle or square and smoothed over the top in one go.

woops just wrote an essay on how to marzipan a cake. Have cut and pasted it elsewhere - if anyone wants me to post it or pm it, shout!

YES PLEASE! (you did say shout. )

Tostaky, if in North London, you should visit Matchstrong (aka Sugar Shack) on Bowmans Trading Estate, Westmoreland Rd NW9. They have almost everything you could possibly need.

Smoothers - are these and these

I have a pair of these and one of the side edgers (which gets the sides vertical instead of wonky)

OK camdancer don't say I didn't warn you... one essay!

1. Always turn the cake upside down! The base is flatter. If you have a really rounded cake, either slice off the dome or use rolls of marzipan to bulk it up round the bottom edges. In other words, cheat.

2. marzipanning. You need sufficient for an 8mm depth, a large enough worksurface to be able to roll it out to a size capable of going over your cake diameter and sides and still having a bit of leeway. And some apricot jam. I assume you have a fruit cake here. First, put a few tablespoons of jam in a pan or a microwaveable bowl. Heat gently, stir frequently and once completely bubbling, pass through a metal sieve. Not plastic - it'll melt! You can actually buy ready-sieved jam from cake shops.
   Put the cake on its chosen board, sticking it down with a teaspoonful of jam in the middle, and making sure it's centered.
   Paint the cake with hot jam using a bristle brush. Then take a bit of marzipan, softened by rolling in your hand, and plug the biggest holes you can find round the sides of the cake. Smooth them so they are flush with the sides. Once this is done, jam paint the plugs.
   Knead your marzipan until soft-ish and smooth - you don't want seams. Form into a rough circle or square to match the cake, and start rolling. You can get special spacers from cake shops to make sure it's an even depth. Use sieved icing sugar to stop it sticking to your worksurface.
   Once rolled out, carefully roll the pin underneath the marzipan and lift the whole lot up and onto the cake. Check it's covering the whole cake and reposition if not!

Smooth the top gently with a rolling pin or smoothers if you have them. Use your hands (take off rings!) to smooth the marz. over the edges and down the sides. If you do it carefully, the surplus will not fold. Eventually you get it down to the board and you can use a palette knife to trim off the surplus. Best done in two stages - then you can press it into the corner after the first trim and then do the second one close to the cake. Use smoother or jamjar to smooth the sides. Use your fingers gently to ensure no air bubbles around the edges. Check no cake is visible - should be now sealed to the board by the marz.

3. Marzipan for a Royal iced cake.
   Technique somewhat different as these cakes tend to need top edges which are right angled not rounded. This time you roll a circle the same size as the top of the cake, and place it exactly on it. Smooth, then trim any bits sticking out over the rim. Brush jam on the trimmed edge. Then roll the remaining paste into a sausage shape and roll into a strip which is slightly wider than the depth of the cake and longer than its circumference. With palette knife, cut the smallest strip you can off one long edge. This edge goes on the cake board. Put the strip round the cake, pressing it onto the sides. At the overlap, cut through both layers and discard the rounded bits so you get a neat join. Trim the protruding marzipan from the top edge. Smooth the whole cake, keeping the top edge at 90 degrees.

4. Fondant icing a cake
   Don't do this until the marzipan has gone hard on the surface: at least a couple of days. Instead of apricot jam, use recently boiled water or vodka/gin to sterilise the surface immediately before attaching the fondant. Else it's exactly the same technique as for 2) but with slightly thinner paste (about 5mm) and this time, you have to be very careful the shoulders don't crack! Knead it well before rolling. I watched this on the great British bakeoff a few months back and ended up cringing.

5. Royal icing a cake
   er! Difficult. You need a turntable. And a good book/video. I would recommend finding a good YouTube demo here, as the pro bakers make it look deceptively simple. You scrape it on in a thick layer, then scrape off while holding the palette knife stationary and turning the turntable. Then immediately scrape off the overhang. Repeat for sides. Leave to dry. Repeat. (I don't have much experience here, except for rough Royal icing, which is ideal for snowscapes)

Making the icing is also a bit of an art: I'd need to dig out my notes on this.
You shouldn't use an electric whisk as it introduces air bubbles which are the killer for good icing. All my tutors said Kenwood with K beater and a minimum of 1lb icing sugar.

Also you should use meri-white and not raw egg whites. Meri-white is sterile and so you don't end up worrying about little people or your favourite granny getting salmonella. I think the tradename has just passed over to Dr Oetker so it might be under that name in the supermarkets now.

Even if you use fondant icing, you still need Royal for piping. But then you're looking at making piping bags out of greaseproof paper, getting the PME writing and star nozzles...

(Did I say it's addictive?)

Maybe for another essay!

Very useful info thanks

And what is instant royal icing? How do you get it to look lovely and smooth on a cupcake rather than a splodged mess that goes over the edge of the paper case?

Thank you moonbells. Very useful.

I just bought (from Sainsbo's) ready rolled marzipan and icing. It's in a tube that looks like foil/cling film and I'm hoping it will take the bother out of icing my Xmas cake (when I get round to making it). Apparently it will fit an 8" round cake and the thickness is 3.5mm so should be OK for the marzipan but maybe a ting bit too thin for the icing? Anyway, that's what's going on and it will be luvverly and smooth (hopefully)

The only downside of the ready-rolled is that they are to some extent hardened, so may crack when you try and bend them over the edge of the cake. If that happens, the only recourse you have is to gather it up, knead and start from scratch in which case you might as well have bought a block. If you put the rolls in a warm-ish place then they'll be less hard to bend.

Or put a thickly piped swirl of royal icing along the edge to hide it!

You may be right moonbells and I really hope that doesn't happen or I will be complaining to Silver Spoon about my ruined cake . I really want to get it out and have a look at it. Anyway it still will be better than my attempts at picking the icing up on the rolling pin and draping! Cannot do draping.