where and what to buy for cake decorating.

[Twit]

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.

You should have kept the broken hore for a godfather style cake

horse

I do still have its head actually, now, do I know any dodgy Italians?

It's DH's birthday soon, perhaps he'd like a broken hore cake?

that's brilliant Moosy. I agree, you could make a funny gruesome cake with the headless horse

Now I have to have a nosy for stealth's cakes. Can't imagine dry ice on a cake!

ok unbelievably when I put dry ice cake into the flickr search it came up with loads of them! So not found the right one yet.

found it by the pirate ship. The science one is amazing. I'm a science teacher so love it. So cool!

very stealth I love penguins
(and if I was nozying at the wrong album that won't make any sense)

Ooh, I've just found Stealth's science cake too - it looks amazing in action!

Moosy, your horse is gorgeous, I love the eyelashes and the sparkles on the cake. Like someone else said, it's really girly without being pink.

I am struggling with my house. What I thought was a basic L shaped house with sloping roof actually involves a hugely complicated roof and changes in height on the walls. I'm a cake maker, not a sodding architect .

Sorry Debi I think you are in the wrong place

My fairy castle is just finished but won't hit flickr until the (proper) morning!

oh, then someone else has made a Leo pirate ship and a science cake (conical flask and test tubes)
It was holiday photos of what I think was South Africa.

Morning all, I have stuck my 2 irish dancing cakes on profile, the white and black one is the one I did quickly for dd1s friend for today, hope her mum is pleased,
I'm very pleased with the result as I did it really quickly last night

Must be my new 20" rolling pin dh picked up for me yesterday

Ahh - ok - I will have to go and change the permsissions on those then - only the cakes are meant to be public . Yes that would be me [duh] but it was a long time ago!

sorry I was being too nosy

No, not at all Debi - thanks for pointing it out

I am dying to upload photos of the castle - it came out really well and birthday girl was thrilled - but I managed to leave my camera there, so no photos until I find a way to get it back...

OK has anybody ever dyed icing ORANGE, I have paprika/flesh paste and want to know do I really need to go all the way over to cake shop to buy tangerine?
Don't want to buy orange sugarpaste or the cake will be too expensive!

Do you have red and yellow that you could mix together?

have red just although a friend might have yellow

I have done orange, but then I have tangerine (and yellow) pastes... so no creative suggestions.

Oh its ok captain cooks which is much closer than the only sugarcraft shop in NI,
had squires kitchen orange and I popped into today its somewhere I never go (fate)
And they have only started to stock them, but the rest of their stuff was ££££££

Was able to get purple too for the camp rock cake I'm doing

Glad you sorted it, I couldn't think of a way round it either! Will ypu let me know what you think of the SK paste colours. I only use Sugarflair as that's what my local shops sell but I want some alternative blues and purples. The Wilton colours are a bit rubbish, imo so I'm curious as to what the SK ones are like.

Finished the house cake, will add it later when I can get on my laptop. Tomorrow I'm doing a 50th cake and then I'm doing a 40th one for Sunday. Am feeling a bit caked out now!

No probs Olihan, can't wait to see your house

I have my MIL birthday cake, going to do the in the spa one, the hippo in the bath,
then following week I have 3 maybe 4[eek]

hi all,

can anyone recommend a cake book that will help me master figures? i need to make mini star wars lego characters for my boys birthday cake!!

(not a complete novice - but dont 'do' figures generally!!!!)

sowhatis - this book has quite a good section on figures, but TBH if you are doing lego star wars figures I would just get a 'real' one to model for you (my fallback for all animals is to get a playmobil version of said animal to come and pose while I copy it). As long as you use flower paste (or possibly modelling paste - normal icing with sugarcel added) and leave them to dry well before expecting them to stand up it should be fine - I would also put a bit of spaghetti into the bottom half to fit the top half onto IYSWIM. For the dark side colour the paste the night before to give the black a chance to 'develop' properly - and you could always paint them once finished for extra colour intensity?

thank you for your help stealth squiggle! xx

is my christmas cake ok just wrapped in cling film? I don't have an airtight tub big enough.

Looks like it won't be moving house with us as our buyers have just pulled out so goodness knows if or when we'll move.