[Sca-cooks] Re: Cake Class

[Olwen the Odd]

>Elise Fleming wrote:
>
> > Selene wrote:
> > >We're mostly making flowers by extruding substances through a
> > pastry bag.
> > >As I understand it, sugar plate is mainly sculpted or molded with
> > in a mold made
> > >of wood or other hard substances.  The fondant class we're doing on
> > Thursday
> > >seems to be closer to this than the other class is.  I really need
> > to see sugar
> > >plate done right before I try it, just so I know what I'm shooting
> > for.
> >
> > Selene is correct.  Royal icing flowers, while eventually hard like
> > gum paste, aren't the same thing.  Fondant is like gum paste.  An
> > observation of mine:  Fondant, pastillage, gum paste, Mexican gum
> > paste all seem to be basically the same thing.  There are variations
> > in some of the ingredients, such as an added fat.  But generally,
> > one can form objects by hand, with cutting tools, or in molds, from
> > any of those.
> >
> > Alys Katharine
>
>Yay!  I love it when I'm right.
>
>Please tell me more about sugar plate.  I have pored over your fine work
>as chronicled in the Florilegium, but I would like some detailed
>description of what the stuff looks and feels like, wet and dry, so I
>know when I've got the mixture right.
>
>In gratitude,
>Selene Colfox
>
I am certainly no Alys Katharine, nor am I a noted for work in sugarplate,
but I have made and used it.  There is a good reason why I am not noted for
my work in that medium.  I do not like it.  It is not warm to the touch but
feels rather like the flesh of a dead person to me.  When I use it I have
found that by mixing in some marzipan I have a whole new substance I call
marziplate.  It is lots more flexible for the kinds of work that I do and
does not have that feel of the dead to it.  Of course, it could never be
documented but !hey! neither can lots of the items that I do.  Who could
document tacos?  Or twinkies?
Olwen

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