ALOL lizzy are you going too?!

AAh fab cake petitecat !!

Tiddy your figures are great :-)

My ballerina has about a cm of skewer coming out of her skirt is that enough length to push her in and glue her down ? My elsa had a longer skewer but she was heavier, then on my nieces cakes when I arrived at my brothers she had created a huge air bubble under sp near her !! Shock horror luckily I used a pin to remove and it recovered I'm scared of this happening with ballerina !!

Maisie enjoy having her home xx

AHaha! Yes he is Lizzy :D

Fab cake Petitecat I agree I think the eyes go with the cartoony look. Thanks for the info I don't think my oven has that feature so I will try bake even strips next time, this time I just pressed on the cakes with a tea towel when they came out of the oven so they weren't to bad but I can be heavy handed so I have to be careful doing that.

Lovely figures Tiddy, sorry to hear your having car troubles.

Jo I wouldn't have thought you would need a skewer for your ballerina.

ARoxy, I might be teaching granny to suck eggs but... Have you tried smoothing your mix in the tin with the back of a spoon to even it out? Sometimes it can create ai bubbles when you pour in and that evens it out. Also I fill from one side to the other and then back, instead of pouring straight in to the middle. That seems to elevate unnecessary doming.

A

Thanks Roxy, so unsure whether snip off little bit of skewer and just glue her on or push it in ? What would you do ??

AExcellent tiddy :-)

Yep Kuuushi, me and hubby are there for the weekend :-)

Just a bit of royal should do it for your ballerina Jo I reckon, she's not top heavy or anything. I wouldn't worry about sniping the stock off, it won't do any harm.

AJo, is she going to be sitting down? If so I would put her on the skewer, if anything it will make her more secure. If your worried about air bubbles put a little pin prick just inside one of the legs!

Not sure if I've said but she is veeeery cute!

Lizzy, hubby2b and I will be there too! :D

I already do that with the spoon kuushi thanks maybe oven needs turning down a notch.

Jo if the skewer is already in her you might as well use it if you mess with it you could damage her, if you are worried about air pockets again you could use a cocktail stick to make a smaller hole first and then push your skewer in.

AThanks Lizzy I think I will leave the little bit of stick then. Kuuushi yes she is sitting down and her body is royal iced to her skirt which is quite wide so that will do a good job distributing her body's weight I think ! Thanks I think she is cute too and a little chubby ;-)

A

Off out with hubby now to ikea to look at wardrobes for built in affect I'm our bedroom so will be offline for a while.

Catch up later ;-)

A

I read somewhere to tilt the pan so the mix rises up the sides before you put it in the oven. Tried it on last night's cakes and it worked for the silicone pans, not so much for the metal...

ARoxylee, you can try tapping the whole tin on kitchen work top ones you have put the batter in. That help to get rid of any air bubbles. I use the flower nail and bake my cakes on 140c. But it does take longer time to bake. :-)

AThat's a great tip bashini, I do that! Really helps.

I bake my cakes on 150c

ALeah's back and it's as if she's never been away! No money left, tired out and a suitcase full of dirty washing! :-D

If my batter's not too runny I push it from the middle of the tin out towards the edges. The only cake I get a big dome on is a mud cake but the batters very runny so it's pointless pushing it out to the sides.

My leveller is exactly the same as the one you posted yesterday Kuushi. Well not exactly, it's a bit smaller but apart from that it's the same, same make and everything. I can't believe how much they cost and I can't believe I had something that expensive still languishing in it's box!

I always tap my cake tins on the side before I put thm in the oven Bashini and have been using a flower nail recently but the mix for this one was very liquid, I was rushing and it was just to try the recipe so I didn't use the flower nails I will next time thanks everyone. I baked them on 150 but it is a fan oven so maybe I need to lower even more. I only got the oven a year ago and have never had anything other than gas so I'm still getting use to it with some things, sometimes it blows the top of my cupcakes does my head in so have started putting a tray above to help.

I give them a shake then bash on the worktop a few times 

Aw Maisie, I bet you're glad Leah's home though! I'm glad she seems to have had a good time!

My purple cake has turned blue! I know it looks blue in the photo but it was actually a light purple. I'll have to get some good purple gel colours cos the one I have is just pants. Hopefully customer won't mind very much!

Have a question re flower and leaf veiners. Can I just buy one for each that will work on any flower I want? Or do I have to get specific veiners for specific flowers and leaves? I'm a sugar flower virgin here! I'd like to know what the bare necessities are when it comes to sugar flower tools :)

ASo I am still utterly cr4p at wired decorations then. Just tried to assemble the frozen one, broke two snowflakes, had a wobbly and threw the lot in the bin. RAWR!

Oh no Marvel! Sorry to hear that! 

ACool, we'll see you there then Kuushi!

Petite, if you get into it it's best to get specific veiners for realism, but if you're starting out you could always use holly products' ceramic veining tool. It gives a generic effect but is really useful, and as it's not for a specific size you don't need to worry about about whether your veiner is big enough for the petal you're doing. It's only about a fiver. I love mine :-) When you do buy veiners, great impressions are excellent.

AOh dear M4rvel. Deep breaths :-)

Oh no m4rvel! Sounds like me with the scarletts cake! Just ripped it all off and binned it..................but was the best thing i did....Deep breaths, count to 110 and go for it :)

A

Best colour to make cake batter purple is sugarflairs grape/violet. If you have the deep purple add some of the fuchsia to it and that goes a lovely purple as well.

It might look blue green on the crust but inside should be purple.

AThanks Siany I'll get sugar flair purple.

Lizzy, thanks! Hopefully Windsor cake craft will have it, otherwise I'll look online.

Marvel, hope you're ok x

Evening all :) 

How you getting on with the snowflakes m4rvel?

A

I've redone the elaborate one that broke, but I've also done a simpler one that I actually think I like more...

[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3261623/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Although I have now covered them all with edible shimmer...

Sorry going to be selfish here cos I have another question about sugar flowers. I have an almost full packet of Squires Kitchen instant mix petal powder. The instructions say 'sift before use. Slowly add 25ml of cooled boiled water and mix'. 

My problem is before I read these instructions, I'd used the powder to make a gumpaste-like mix. I used a couple of teaspoons. So now I obviously need to reduce the amount of water I should put in with the remaining powder.

My question is how do I know I have the right consistency once I've mixed the water in and start kneading? Will it be like gumpaste? I'd like to do it right because the packet cost £4.30 so I don't want to waste it. 

I am stupidly excited.  I booked onto a Dawn Butler course this Sunday.  Cant wait to finally learn how to use the airbrush that's been gathering dust since Christmas.

Cant decide if I should make the Dinosaur or the Dragon though.  Gahh.  I don't care, just really excited to be doing it.