Sugar paste icing.....

Siren1

Hi all

I have volunteered to make my sister's wedding cake when she gets married in September, but as we live so far apart I am going to visit next month and said I would take a sample tier for her. She has asked for a sponge cake, which I should be ok to do, will do a layer of jam inside too, and I was thinking of using sugar paste icing, as I'm not confident in my ablities to use normal icing and make it look beautiful. Does anyone know if any of the supermarkets sell this or will I need to get online? Also, was thinking of decorating with flowers (iced) or something, I seen it on some wedding cake competition programme recently and it looked stunning. Not saying I can re-create that, but as it is my sister I will have a go. If anyone has any tips I would be immensely grateful as am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by what I have taken on, I'm a decent enough baker, but have never attempted a wedding cake before!

Groovygirl

You can buy sugarpaste in supermarkets but I'm not sure on the quality. I've never used it.

I've always used renshaw regalice whenever I've made my daughters birthday cakes.

I did do my own wedding cake (I'm not a professional). Mine was quite simple, punch out flowers (tiny) sort of a scalloped pattern with ribbon around the middle to match bridesmaid dresses and then my florist (bestman) put fresh flowers between the teirs to match bouquet. The flowers hide the plastic columns used to support the tiers.

Depends what your sister wants, you could have a metal tier, like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-Tier-Wedding-Cake-Stand-new-/250813874788?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Celebrations_Occasions_ET&hash=item3a65ac0264 or you can buy/hire one that is offset and then put small posies onto of it.

Try this store http://www.cakesforallukshop.com/ (I've bought different things from them but not icing) or ebay for icing.

I looked at so many shops online to see what was on offer and then I took different elements that I knew I could do.

Have a look at this site (it was one of the 1st sites I found when I searched) - http://www.partycakes.org.uk/page_1201549008038.html

teasleym

I make a lot of cakes and have done C&G in cake decorating and I just use Regal Ice from Sainsburys.

If you use Ivory its actually cheaper than the white and I think it looks better too!

For any equipment I use www.cakecraftworld.com , you can get cutters, ribbons, and all equipment from them and if you want you can even buy ready made icing flowers, leaves, decorations too!

Hope this helps!

wattywattwatt

I did a three tier fruitcake for a friends daughter last year and found that it was cheaper to buy the ivory icing and marzipan from tesco in 1kg packs than to buy it from my local cake decorating shop. I think it actually worked out about half the price for the icing and marzipan. I think I used the Regalice stuff and it was absolutely fine, although there is also a tesco own brand. TKMaxx quite often have cake decorating accessories in the homewares section at much cheaper prices than the specialist shops but it is a bit hit and miss. Take a look on youtube for cake decorating videos, they do make it look really easy but it's not actually that hard if you take your time! Good luck.

janetmw

Regalice (Dr Oetker) ready to roll is often available at Home Bargains and/or B&M. I'm sure the price will be lower than the supermarkets. It maybe nearing it's 'expiry' date, but if you intend using it on sponge cake, you wont be using it to far in advance or expect it to last too long.

HTH

Janet

Wiggly_2

I have made a couple of wedding cakes for friends but am not a professional, I just enjoy baking. One thing I would say to bear in mind is that if you make sponge layers they can only be made a day or so before the wedding as they will go stale very quickly. If you're doing a few layers this can be daunting if you then have to ice, decorate and stack them. You may want to suggest to her that she has at least one layer as a fruit cake as this can be made, iced and decorated well in advance. You can then make 'cutting cakes', made from sponge and simply iced and decorated which are kept behind the scenes. Once the cake is cut no one knows the difference, if it's the cake they've seen or not. That way the bride gets to cut a fancy decorated cake and you get to relax! I'm not trying to put you off as it's very satisfying and doing one for a relative is extra special.


As for the icing, as everyone's said, you can get the icing from supermarkets and it's good. If you've never used it before you can even get ready rolled icing that can be used on sponge or fruit cakes but it only fits up to a certain size cake so may not be of help. I think the ivory is softer looking too but it's a personal choice. You can get ready coloured icing on line or from cake making shops. It comes in lots of colours but it's easy to colour the icing yourself if you get the colouring pastes. Don't try liquid colours as they make the icing too soft to mould. Pastes are stronger and give better results.


As for doing flowers, there are lots of guides on the internet or try your library. The good thing is that flowers and decorations can be made well in advance and then stuck on using either edible glue or icing. There are loads of cutters available and they give nice results. If you can get your sister to agree on a heavily decorated cake it means any errors won't be noticed! Flowers en-mass look great and really do take the pressure off getting the icing perfect!


Good luck and enjoy making it.

Siren1

Thanks to you all for yr advice, especially the bit about the sponge going stale!! Common sense I know so am hoping to make, freeze and then ice a day or 2 before the big day. They originally said that fruit cake was fine and now they have changed their minds! Their perogative I guess but I will tactfully suggest 1 or 2 tiers of fruitcake and 1 of sponge. Hopefully they'll go for that. Am daunted by the icing but hope I manage it, but nervous about the icing flowers I want to put on it too, will I need to buy edible glue for that do you think, to stick them onto the cake? Now to find a good website - foolproof - for a step by step guide on how to do all of this! Thanks again everyone x

mkbswimstar

Will the sponge cake take the weight of the sugarpaste? A flavoured Madeira may be better as its a lot denser and can take a lot of weight. and it keeps for 2 weeks. Good luck.

supers

For a sponge birthday cake i dont think you can beat costco ready made for price and size really good value.

Siren1

mkbswimstar wrote: »

Will the sponge cake take the weight of the sugarpaste? A flavoured Madeira may be better as its a lot denser and can take a lot of weight. and it keeps for 2 weeks. Good luck.

That's a great idea, thank you, I shall do just that! When you say flavoured, what exactly do you mean? Sorry if that's a silly question.

Snakeeyes21

your taking a sample?
me thinks this is just a ploy to be able to stuff your pie holes with cake, under the guise that its all to do with research :rotfl: