[Sca-cooks] Cake pans

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

Hey! Color flow is *not* always easier.

If you're going to use color flow, you might want to put sugar cubes
underneath it to support it and keep it off the icing. Depending on the
weather conditions and how long it's going to sit there, the moisture in
the icing can cause the color flow, which, after all, is basically royal
icing, to melt.

If you don't want to bother with color flow, and are still wondering how
to get that design on your cake, keep reading.

You know those tubes of cake decorating gel you can buy at the grocery
store? Well, if you take your design and draw it on parchment or wax
paper, then trace it FROM THE BACK with the gel, then lay the paper
gel-side down on the frosted cake, and smooth gently with your hand, then
peel the paper carefully off, you have a nice outline of your chosen
design on your cake that you can then fill in with colored icing. This
method works best when you've smoothed your cake frosting as much as
possible and let it dry a bit so it doesn't stick to the paper when you
transfer the design.

Lastly, if you are going to be using a lot of red or other dark colors,
you might want to start with chocolate icing and color it that way as the
large quantity of color needed for white icing to be that dark can give a
bitter taste. If you are using only a little, you can always use the
pre-packaged tubes of colored icing. Yes, it's a cheat. But a tube of
icing costs about the same as a new jar of color, and you'll use up rather
a lot of it if you are trying for dark colors.

Margaret

On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, johnna holloway wrote:

> I have trimmed off the other messages to reduce
> length and clutter.
>
> Another solution for a shield cake would be to do
> the 24 by 18 or whatever size pan you have.
>
> Once you know the size of the pan, cut a paper pattern
> that will fit on the top of the cake. Leave a border
> around the edge and do up the design of the birthday
> Lord's coat of arms.
>
> Then For the decoration--- either order or visit a store
> that sells cake decorating supplies and buy
> "Color Flow" Icing mix. You make the color flow
> up in the appropriate heraldic colors.
> Place the paper pattern under a sheet of plastic, like
> transparency grade plastic or clear sheet protectors.
> Or  use waxed paper. Tape it down so the sheets don't slide.
>  Then begin by outlining all the design elements in black
> color flow using a size 2 or 3 tip. Let that dry. Then you color
> flow in the rest of the colors. It's also called run-out work.
> If you can take a look at a cake decorating book, it should
> show how to do it. Let the design dry on the plastic until hard.
> Bake your cake and level it.
> Place the cake on a cake board and then decorate
> with white frosting for background. Then you carefully peel
> the plastic from the back of the color flow design and place the
> design on the cake. It's easier than attempting to ice a design
> on the actual cake... (unless you are Martha S. or have her staff
> of 30 kitchen people to do it for you.) We used to routinely
> do very elaborate Celtic Design flat cakes using coloring books
> for patterns with color flow fill-in work. 20 years or so ago.
>
> Johnnae llyn Lewis   Johnna Holloway