After playing with my cricut cake I finally think I have it down. I thought I would share a picture and some tips for some people who have got theirs or will be getting it. I used wilton fondant with some gum tex added when I did mine and covered the cake in satin ice. That is all that I have tried but since I found that feezing it made the cuts cleaner I am thinking any should work. So here is what I did when I made the cake in the picture.
1. I applied shortening to the mat with a pastry brush, then rolled the fondant directly on the mat to a little thinner than a nickel, it doesn't have to be a perfect square or fit the whole mat, because when you go to cut you can move the blade to a starting spot and you can learn that in the cricut directions. Then I trim the edges where the fondant rolled goes over the lines on the mat so the roller does not roll over it, I didn't trim well enough the first time and some fondant rolled into rollers on the sides.
2. Put the fondant in the freezer for 15-30 minutes depending on how big of section you plan on cutting I found if I was just cutting a small piece less time, a larger piece longer time since you will be cutting longer it will thaw faster. Also freeze longer if the cut is really intricate.
3. Then while the fondant is in the freezer I go to the cricut and set it up to what I want it to cut so that it is ready right when I get it out of the freezer book marking pages in the cartridge book helps it go faster as well as writing down page numbers for what you want because letters are hard to find and so on. I found setting pressure on high and speed on medium worked best for me.
4. Take the fondant out and cut right away and try to go as fast as possible. I found that after it is cut and it thaws that it was just fine, also check your blade often to make sure it is clean. The fit to length button will let you set the image to how wide you want it to cut, I over read that when I was reading the book and that is really helpful especially when doing borders!
5. I decided on using Make the Cut for the program to use and I think I will be getting Design Studio as well It is easier to design on the computer than on the cricut itself. Make the Cut also has a wonderful forum on the Make the Cut website, so far it seems very easy to use and is on sale right now.
6. I aslo used the cricut cake with paper and cut some cupcake wrappers using a deep cut housing blade and the mat used for paper and they came out perfect. You have to have make the cut or a similar program in order to cut any files on the cricut. You can find all sorts of svg files on the internet and then you can just open them in make the cut and cut them on your fondant or paper! A great place to buy a deep cut housing blade is ebay and the mats are at walmart for like 12 bucks for 2.
7. I think I will be purchasing more mats for the cricut cake so that I can roll more that one color at a time and have them all in the freezer so then I just have to take them out and cut and that will make it go a lot faster.
I hope this is helpful for someone, I have only tried fondant and so far freezing it has made a huge difference, I wasn't doing that at first and was very discouraged. I haven't tried gumpaste yet but will be giving that a try soon.
1. I applied shortening to the mat with a pastry brush, then rolled the fondant directly on the mat to a little thinner than a nickel, it doesn't have to be a perfect square or fit the whole mat, because when you go to cut you can move the blade to a starting spot and you can learn that in the cricut directions. Then I trim the edges where the fondant rolled goes over the lines on the mat so the roller does not roll over it, I didn't trim well enough the first time and some fondant rolled into rollers on the sides.
2. Put the fondant in the freezer for 15-30 minutes depending on how big of section you plan on cutting I found if I was just cutting a small piece less time, a larger piece longer time since you will be cutting longer it will thaw faster. Also freeze longer if the cut is really intricate.
3. Then while the fondant is in the freezer I go to the cricut and set it up to what I want it to cut so that it is ready right when I get it out of the freezer book marking pages in the cartridge book helps it go faster as well as writing down page numbers for what you want because letters are hard to find and so on. I found setting pressure on high and speed on medium worked best for me.
4. Take the fondant out and cut right away and try to go as fast as possible. I found that after it is cut and it thaws that it was just fine, also check your blade often to make sure it is clean. The fit to length button will let you set the image to how wide you want it to cut, I over read that when I was reading the book and that is really helpful especially when doing borders!
5. I decided on using Make the Cut for the program to use and I think I will be getting Design Studio as well It is easier to design on the computer than on the cricut itself. Make the Cut also has a wonderful forum on the Make the Cut website, so far it seems very easy to use and is on sale right now.
6. I aslo used the cricut cake with paper and cut some cupcake wrappers using a deep cut housing blade and the mat used for paper and they came out perfect. You have to have make the cut or a similar program in order to cut any files on the cricut. You can find all sorts of svg files on the internet and then you can just open them in make the cut and cut them on your fondant or paper! A great place to buy a deep cut housing blade is ebay and the mats are at walmart for like 12 bucks for 2.
7. I think I will be purchasing more mats for the cricut cake so that I can roll more that one color at a time and have them all in the freezer so then I just have to take them out and cut and that will make it go a lot faster.
I hope this is helpful for someone, I have only tried fondant and so far freezing it has made a huge difference, I wasn't doing that at first and was very discouraged. I haven't tried gumpaste yet but will be giving that a try soon.
