Hi there, I was wondering if anyone ever made their own impression molds? Or has anyone tried buying the stuff to make your own molds and used a fake leaf? I want to be able to use a mold, but just not sure if I want to fork out the money to buy the veiners or not Thanks for any help!

I'd love to hear about this too. I have the silicone to do it, just don't know how to tackle it. I'd love to hear any suggestions. TIA

Dear hbarberycakes,
Thanks for your question. Please find in the link below instructions for a leaf mold that is in the make your own molds.com forum.

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-660481.html

Have fun, and let me know if you have any questions.

Dominic

I make leaf molds and veiners of all kinds, all the time. I just use a silicone putty from the craft department of Michales. It works perfectly. It's called Amazing Mold Putty.

I use the amazing mold putty for leif veiners, shells etc. I even liked the look of the knobs on my china cabinet and made a mold of them!

Okay so for the past year there have been posts about Amazing Mold Putty in this forum and I haven't responded because I have thought that for some people this is a readily available product in their area and if they like it great. But now it seems that this forum is becoming a place where the virtues of Amazing Mold Putty are repeatedly discussed. Though I may be making a mistake responding, I am going to give it a try.

I would like to create an analogy that may be useful in communicating my thoughts. Okay so lets imagine that you have your own cake business and down the road there is a high volume retail baking operation that competes with you for the wedding cake business in your area. You are known for quality cakes and they are known for cheap cakes. You explain to your customers that you use high quality ingredients and that your cake tastes better, looks better and impresses your friends and family in a way that cakes from the other operation cannot. The high volume retail bakery on the other hand can bang out a cake very quickly, it will be iced with buttercream from a bucket and the decorations are mass produced and so hard they will break your teeth. And it is CHEAP. Now we all know that no matter how much you promote your quality some customers will go for the cheap cakes and some customers will choose yours. The similarities and differences between Amazing Mold Putty and Silicone Plastique are as obvious as the differences described above between the cakes made by two different operations.

Let me identify the differences between Silicone Plastique and Amazing Mold Putty. Silicone Plastique is a stronger silicone that will make a mold that will last longer and be more resistant to tearing. Silicone Plastique has less oil in its formulation which makes it better for chocolate and sugar casting. Silicone Plastique gives you more time to make your mold so that you can take your time and work the material into every detail. Silicone Plastique is also firmer which makes it impress details into gumpaste and fondant that are sharper and more defined.

Amazing Mold Putty on the other hand is cheap and it will work for small projects that are not too big.

Okay so lets go back to the analogy I was describing before between your high quality cake business and the cheap high volume retail bakery down the street. How would you feel if during a consultation with one of your customers, someone barged into your shop and tried to convince your future customer to save money and get a cheap cake down the street. I am sure this is a situation you would like to avoid, yet some of the posts in this forum recommending Amazing Mold Putty have the same effect as the scenario I just described. You might feel that this forum is about mold making in general and since Amazing Mold Putty can be used to make molds it is fair game. In actuality this is a vendor forum where questions can be answered about MYOM products as they pertain to mold making. Here is how Jackie (Founder and President of CC introduced the MYOM forum back in November 2009.

Jackie Wrote, "Cake Central is excited to announce our partnership with Chef Dominic Palazzolo and his company www.MakeYourOwnMolds.com

MakeYourOwnMolds.com is your source for food grade silicone mold making materials that are safe and particularly well suited for creating food molds. These unique silicone mold rubber compounds have been engineered to comply with FDA regulations and designed to be easy to use. Because of the unique nature of the product and its endless possibilities, Chef Palazzolo will be making his team available on the Cake Central forums to help our members learn the process of mold making and answer any questions they may have about their products and their applications.

Additionally Chef Palazzolo will be writing a blog on Cake Central where he will share tutorial videos and various projects that can be accomplished with the MakeYourOwnMolds products.

MakeYourOwnMolds.com will also be contributing a percentage of all sales generated via Cake Central to help keep CakeCentral.com freely available."

This last sentence is particularly important because it describes a relationship that exists between MYOM and CC where purchases generated from this forum directly benefit Cake Central with financial contributions.

In closing, I hope you understand when I ask that recommendations for Amazing Mold Putty not be made in this forum and instead those recommendations can be taken and posted to the Non-Vendor forums that cover all things cake.

Thank You for Your Consideration,

Dominic Smile

Hi. I think its because I dont think I have the correct mold Im going to buy a better one www.makeyourownmolds.com

Can you tell me what has gone wrong when you have tried?

Dominic

I've made so many leaf molds before, they work well! However I always pick real leaves, clean them good and they are ready to go. I mold young pine cones too.
Although Chef Dominic's tutorial describes Silicone Plastique, I used Copyflex for this project as well, having no choice at the time, and that worked great too.
However, I recommend the real leaf coming off a tree, rather than the silk and other fake-ness. First of all, they hardly have so many amazing details, and with Dominic's silicone you can capture the smallest details on a real leaf.
And also because I don't like a dull mold I like a shiny one. A real leaf will be perfectly shiny (most kind) inside and if you decide to make sugar or chocolate leaves they will be so much prettier!

I don't want to open a can of worms, I take my chances.
About the Putty mold making product at Michael's. I will never use another ounce of it again. That was my very first try of mold making. I hated it because I was trying to make a nice detailed mold. It cured in 10 min, giving me absolutely no time work details, when it cured it was very rigid and easily breakable. I even posted a video on FB of me tearing the ready amazing putty mold apart using one hand. :/