Decorator's Triangle

Decorators Triangle

On Sunday my family attended a memorial for Bill, a lovely man that always had the biggest smile.  I brought a last minute cake with left over icing, mix, and some apple filling that I had in the pantry.  As I was icing it, I figured the cake shouldn't look too fancy, but it should still look nice.  In the back of my cupboard I had the Wilton Decorating Triangle.  I had never used an icing comb before, but gave it a shot and was pleasantly surprised.

This was an all-butter American buttercream.  With the comb gently against the side of the cake, I gave the turn table a spin and that was that!  For the top I gently placed it so the edge of the comb was in the center and spun again.  You can't press too hard or it will scrape away your icing and you'll see cake underneath.

I was pleased at how thin and sharp the plastic was, making the icing shapes smooth and consistent.  I'll have to try out the other sides with future last-minute cakes!

Happy 1st Birthday, Kai!

Happy 1st Birthday, Kai!

My co-worker's special little man, Kai, just turned one year old!  This was a fun, stress-free cake.  Kai's mommy requested buttercream, so I only used fondant for the accents.  

Stats:

• 6" x 5" round white cake
• 8" x 5" round chocolate cake
• 6" x 2" round white smash cake
• filled and iced in American Buttercream
• fondant accents

Wish I looked this good naked!

 

Kai's mommy Amy has been taking some decorating classes at Make It Sweet.  She requested that I use that shop's cake mix and icing recipe, which made things super easy for me!  The American buttercream was made with high ratio shortening.  It's been a long time since I've iced a cake with American buttercream, so I relied on Sharon Zambito's techniques and busted out the Viva paper towels!  

 

I'm not so good at getting straight buttercream :(  Hopefully no one really noticed.  Here's some wavy fondant accents to draw away attention!

 

The texture for the darker green was from rolling an all-thread rod against the fondant.  The lighter green had texture from the JEM fabric texture roller.  Looks like crepe!  

The plane was cut by hand from gumpaste.  I cut 3 of them, staying on the safe side, which turned out to be a good choice.  My first one broke while drying.  The second I outlined with black royal icing, but didn't like it because I didn't have black anywhere else on the cake.  The gray outline worked better with my colors.

The plane was secured to a wooden skewer with left over royal icing.  The cloud puffs were piped buttercream, gently shaped with a flat paintbrush dusted with powdered sugar.  I never knew you could sculpt buttercream this way, but I figured the sugar would allow me to manipulate the buttercream without it sticking to the bristles.  Worked well!

Royal icing "1" on top of a buttercream "1".  The clouds here are also piped and sculpted buttercream.  At the party some people had never heard of a smash cake.  Wonder if it's a regional thing?  

Happy Birthday, Kai!