Wedding Cake Hat Tricks

 Alright, I am not really a fan of hockey and I don't know what a hat trick is.  But I heard the fantasy football analysts say that Aaron Rodger's 6TD game was the equivalent, so it must be really freaking awesome.

Well, this cake has a hat, and wedding cakery is tricky, and this cake turned out beautiful, so it makes sense if you think about it long enough.

So for my craftiness, I have opted to provide to you the lessons learned and tips if you ever want to take on something like this.

1: Fire Hat- I blogged about it yesterday but I was so exhausted there was just no way I had it in me to blog very long by the time I got around to it.  I hate to see people try to recreate logos on stuff like this. We got an edible image printed that had the exact symbol on it.  That made it so much easier.  We made a fondant shield to put it on, and used white icing to attach it.  Never unless you are severely brave or don't have light colors in your image use colored icing behind an edible image.  ESPECIALLY royal icing.  Bad idea. Any moisture whatsoever gives it the tendency to leach color through. 

If you want to cut fondant easily without buying any extra tools, use a pizza cutter.  I would venture to guess they actually work better.  You can roll it along a straight edge or ruler if need be and to get the width you want.

I would argue you should never cover a cake completely in fondant.  It tastes terrible.  MAYBE if you make your own you can make it decent, but people grew up with grannies that made buttercream.  You want your cake to remind them of their dear ole granny.  Or their mom, if they are like me and did not have a buttercream making granny.

Maybe wedding cakes and cake pops are my overcompensation for it. ;)

This bride wanted fondant ribbon on her cake.  I HATE to see cakes with fondant falling off of them.  If you don't pipe at least some small piping above and below the ribbon you are taking a HUGE risk.

I put fresh icing on the back of the ribbon right down the center, press it in to the cake, and rub my fingers down the entire ribbon to smooth it out after it is put on.  The icing you use behind it buldges up the ribbon and you HAVE to smooth it out if you are a self-respecting caker.  In my opinion at least.  And ESPECIALLY if it is for a wedding.

It's the biggest day of their life, for crying out loud.  Spend the extra time and get that stuff smoothed on there.  It will stay on better anyway.

As you can see in the two pictures there are G's on the cupcakes.  We have a cricut cake that we got for $50 one time from cricut.com and broke it out for this cake. It knocks it out of the park.  If you want to cut something like fondant with it, you need it thin.  You want to shoot for something close to the thickness of coin (just 5 cents or so, nothing pricey here) or it will drag the blade across it when it pulls back up to go to the next cut and it just absolutely wrecks everything. I believe I ended up using medium pressure with a medium or low speed.  The more intricate you need it, the slower you better go. That goes for your regular cricut as well.

Do it right the first time, or spend the time doing it again.

That's a throwback to my grandpa.  Just so you know.

Gumpaste flowers add a lot to a cake but you want to do them in advance.  Bear minimum, they require 24 hours to dry.  That is non-negotiable.  I prefer them to fondant flowers because once they are set they are set.  Fondant tends to be a little less trustable.

I wanted to show this picture because I have two different styles of my lilies here.  I have harped about finding creative ways to drying gumpaste things, and I have two different lily methods.

1). Reynold's wrap cones: If you make a cone out of RW and lightly drape the lily over it you the orange one and you can tweak the ends a little by folding some back on the flower.  The downside is you cannot see what the visible part of the flower will look like until it is dry.  It tends to be easier to make the ends do cool things, but doesn't always turn out as pretty on front as you think it will.  This guy just happened to be exceptional.

2). RW "bowls" (made in glasses):  I also use RW to make a lining that is somewhat bowl/cone shaped to build the lily where it faces me and the edges drape over the side of the cup.  This method is pretty simple too and is nice because you can see it and make changes as needed.

If you make lilies make extra stamen.  Unless you buy them, in which case disregard.

Buy daisy forming bowls or use bowls or shape bowls with RW.  Daisies are cute, I have decided.

And BUY PEARL DUST!  Gum paste is DULL no matter what color it is until you add a little pizzazz.  Then it makes it beautiful.   Use multiple colors, especially for lilies since they usually have green centers, and give it something special.  Mix white pearl dust with color dust (the matte kind) if you need to make something special.

You aren't limited to only using one at a time, gimme a break! Mix and match those things.  I did for the orange on all of this.

Enjoy your cake tips!