Final Sugar Showpiece

A showpiece with bubble, blown, pulled, rock, and sand sugar, plus pastillage.

 To the left is my final sugar showpiece. It is not my best work, as there are many things I could have done to improve upon it. The main thing is that there are several interesting elements fine on its own, but as a whole did not quite work together. Also, my backboard base could have been much bigger. This would allow me more surface area to play with (plus meeting the 18" height requirement). In addition, some attention to detail would have helped. My pastillage was coarse and my sugar flower could have been more even (in terms of the petals). I tried my best with the mushrooms, and thought they turned out decent enough.

I think what I got caught up in was the inspiration for my piece. I was being too literal initially while creating my pieces, not abstract enough. I wanted to do a showpiece that reflected the main themes in Jack Kerouac's On the Road. So in my head I was loaded with visions of sugar blown mushrooms, mountain like bases, lotus flowers, pastillage smoke, and other trippy, psychedelic , Buddhist inspired icons. Well, my piece was trippy, but not in the sense I wanted.


 

My practice piece, with the mushroom and random "claw shelf"

Pulled and Blown Sugar

For me sugar was one of the most challenging mediums to work with. You have the extra challenge if it being a hot product, the need to work quickly, and the fact that sugar can be quite delicate. We learned how to make pulled sugar ribbons, flowers, and blown sugar balls. The pulled sugar ribbon was difficult to handle as I could not work fast enough to form a decent four ribbon strip. But once I got some going you could make a bow out of it. To the left was also my feeble attempt at making a pulled sugar rose. The petals are quite thick and can be way more delicate.  Below you will see some examples of blown sugar. The orbs are of varying sizes and thinness too. Chef advised against making orbs that are too thin as they would be far more prone to cracking. Eventually we could move on to making blown and shaped sugar pieces, such as mushrooms, dolphins, fish, etc.

Examples of sugar in pulled ribbon and blown form

First Sugar Piece

Our intro to sugars was very interesting. We learned a lot of different techniques and how they can be used to form a sugar showpiece. We learned how to make pulled sugar and pulled isomalt, rock sugar, and casting sugar. In addition we learned how to make coral, bubble, and sand sugar. The piece to the left uses many examples of cast sugar. The gold is sprinkled on while the cast sugar is barely set then torched with a blowtorch to get the windblown effect. At the base you see some bubble sugar and a sand cast sugar heart. The pieces were glued on with melted isomalt.

Final Three-tier Wedding Cake

 The final wedding cake process took us two days. We had the luxury of covering Styrofoam bases so that saved us time. We still had to do our best to cover the layers in fondant. I had a very difficult time with the fondant, which kept ripping on me. Chef suggested I move faster which did indeed help. Again, the fondant work in this was not the best as there was some tearing and elephant skin again. My ribbon work could have been better too. It was cut a little unevenly and there were some cracking around the edges. My gum paste flowers and piping work came out okay. The gold this time was mixed with almond oil as opposed to lemon juice. This created a more fluid texture that painted on better. The roses were okay, but I needed more filler flowers and leaves for sure.

Martha Stewart would be proud of all these cakes

Practice Square Two-tier Cake

On to the angles. We learned how to assemble and ice square cakes. It is a pretty straight forward process. The most challenging part was getting the four sharp angles and straight sides. This cake was an improvement from my last. There are more decorations so the cake just looks more interesting. The piping is done in royal icing and painted gold with luster dust. The flowers are a combination of Calla Lillies, roses, rose buds, and leaves. I used stephanotis for filler flowers. I was fairly pleased with this cake, except for the fondant work and icing work. The angles were not as crisp as they could have been and there was noticeable tearing and elephant skin on the fondant.

Two-tier Wedding Cake

 Eventually we moved onto making cakes using real cake and buttercream icing. The process for icing and covering a wedding cake can be quite extensive. Or at least for someone who is doing it the first time around. The cake to the left is another practice cake. The bottom base is colored in a Martha Stewart-esque pale green. I made hydrangeas and leaves for the flowers. I think the cake would have looked better if there was a fuller crown of hydrangeas topping the cake and if they were more delicate. Also, my fondant work could be better. When I cut into the cake later, I found out that I put way too much icing on. This resulted in a very heavy cake!

FIrst Wedding Cake

 The first day of wedding cakes we made royal icing and piped all sorts of different designs. We learned different techniques such as cornelli lace,  and embroidery. Eventually, we would move one to practice wedding cakes where we could apply royal icing if wished. The next few days we spent learning how to make gum paste flowers and roll out fondant. Both of which I found challenging to do. My fondant would keep ripping and I discovered it was a result of applying it on too slow.

The cake to the left was our first practice cake. It is a Styrofoam cake covered in plain white fondant. The cake is adorned with Calla Lillies and various hued billy balls (although, they are really fantasy balls). The border is a lace imprint. I thought this cake was a bit too plain. I could have worked on adding some more filler flowers to the cake as well as leaves. Also, Chef Webb said the placement of the lillies could be better. They should be facing one direction.