How Do I Get The Balloon On Cake To "float"?
Decorating By punkin90 Updated 22 Nov 2014 , 3:59am by Bobeba
I was asked to make this cake. I can't figure how to make the balloon look like it's "floating". Does anyone know how to do this? I think it's on a wire and it looks like it's stuck down in the cake. I think the balloon is made out of fondant. It looks to me like the balloon would weigh too much and sink into the cake. Any ideas?
Maybe cover a malted milk ball with thin fondant.
That wire might travel down to the elephant's toe too. And just look like the balloon string's showing.
Does look like it goes into the cake--but I would build it into the elephant.
Yes and so I'd construct the wire to anchor into the elephant's foot and travel up through his leg and body and trunk poking out to hold the balloon then have the other little fake out squiggley come out like the balloon was just being held in his trunk and that it's the end of the balloon string, With my luck it would be top heavy so I would also plant a skewer into another foot so I could anchor the whole thing into the cake.
I tried to get the balloon to float using a small foam ball covered in fondant with 16 gauge wire. It gets off balanced and keep falling over. It looks like the wire may be down in the cake. I can't figure out how to tie that in to look like the balloon is floating. Sorry for all the questions. Any help appreciated. Thanks!
Yes and so I'd construct the wire to anchor into the elephant's foot and travel up through his leg and body and trunk poking out to hold the balloon then have the other little fake out squiggley come out like the balloon was just being held in his trunk and that it's the end of the balloon string, With my luck it would be top heavy so I would also plant a skewer into another foot so I could anchor the whole thing into the cake.
did you do this?? and it still falls?
Quote:
I tried to get the balloon to float using a small foam ball covered in fondant with 16 gauge wire. It gets off balanced and keep falling over. It looks like the wire may be down in the cake. I can't figure out how to tie that in to look like the balloon is floating. Sorry for all the questions. Any help appreciated. Thanks!
get the balloon up over the back of the elephant so it will balance
maybe take the wire and spiral it so there's more oomph to it
in fact the foot plant skewer should go into the cake at an angle
angling back under the elephant a bit to keep the balloon air born
but yeah if it's too late to hide all the engineering
stick the wire down into the cake
I am making the elephant ahead. It takes me a while to get things right sometimes . I haven't put a skewer in the foot yet. I did try to run the wire down through the elephants leg. The problem is the "balloon" keeps rolling around. It will not stand up. It has fell off the wire and when I finally got it back on it started leaning into the elephants trunk and messed it up so I started over. I added more gum paste and I am waiting for the elephant to firm up a bit. I am really afraid to mess this one up to
use some glue on the wire
it's a covered wire yes--not a slick uncovered wire
either a bit of gum paste made into a paintable substance
or i use egg white
the glued wire needs to be moist not wet
forget the balloon--put that on last
get everything going elephant wise
leave enough wire hanging out to become balloon string at a later point but do the big guy first
16 hmm--i'll go see if i got any like that
just stick a hole in each rear leg at a bit of an angle
so that later you can re-slide a long toothpick or a bamboo skewer into there to counterbalance the weight and pull of the balloon
i'd poke the bottom of the leg and twist it up in there
you can remove it while it dries then reapply it to assemble it
so long as you have the hole there to counter balance you'll be able to float the balloon
or you can dry it with the skewers stuck into foam too
do this in stages
I did not cover the wire. It didn't look like it was covered in the picture. If I put it into the cake I was going to put it into a straw. I do not think the elephant will get eaten. Would you cover it with fondant?
no not fondant--they come covered with paper--you can buy them that way
or they flip around on you
no worries--
if you make a spiral out of it down in the leg it will not flip
you have to anchor it somehow
the straw is a good idea
depending on which route you take
Sounds like we're doing the same thing this weekend! I have a little GP elephant sitting down with one leg extended into the air, and there will be about 5 balloons floating above him. Already have everything done, but won't make the illusion of the balloons floating away from him until I assemble the cake. Not sure what I'll be doing to accomplish that quite yet, but it will involve using extruded fondant string to fool the eye into thinking that the elephant is holding the balloons, but really the very long wires will be anchored into the cake. I just kinda figure that out as I go. This time, I just rolled balls of GP into balloon shapes and stuck paper covered into them.
It does sound like we are doing the same thing. I feel lucky I just have to worry with one balloon. Let me know how it goes!
Maybe I can give the balloon 2 strings. That may be what they did in the picture. It looks like one goes into the cake and the 2nd goes through the elephants trunk. I was just hoping to be able to do the one. Thanks so much for all of your help. If anyone else has any different ideas that we do I would love to hear from you. Thanks so much!
Ok to me, I see one string, and it goes straight into the cake. I think it's just an illusion of photography that fools the eye into thinking the elephant is holding it at all.
Goodness! I think you are right. I have looked at that elephant so long I must have started seeing 2 lol!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuma_couture_cakes/8254614793/in/photostream
This has some floating balloons. The balloons on the front are actually anchored straight in with wire, and the very top one inserted into the top of the manger. All the "strings" are just for show.
haha, wow AZCouture. I'm sure you have solved the mystery. I have seen Naomi's cake before and always wondered how the balloon stayed upright looking like it was floating. But your idea makes so much sense.
P.S. The cake linked is the bomb! Wow.
When I did this cake, the balloons were fondant with CMC added, which were then put onto wires. To stop the balloons moving around, the end of the wire in the balloon has a tiny 'hook' bent into it.
In the UK, we're not allowed to put wires directly into a cake, so they're inserted into a 'posy pick' which is then put into the cake.
http://www.patacake-parties.com/Birthday/files/page5-1060-full.html
HTH
Suzanne x
Very Cute ! Thanks for the info. I planned on inserting the wire into a straw in the cake.
AHi punkin90! I was wondering what you ended up doing to keep the balloon afloat. A friend of mine asked me to make this exact same cake for a baby shower, but I couldn't figure out what the balloon or elephant were made of. Thank God for Google! I found this thread but didn't know what the final result was. Did you make the elephant out of fondant too? Any tips greatly appreciated coz it's the first time I'll be working with fondant. Also, I'll be making the cake pale blue.Thank you!
Hi Aztec98! Thank goodness for all the wonderful CC members that helped me with the balloon. If you read the thread you saw where I thought the balloon was suppose to look like it was floating. A CC member pointed out that it was an illusion. Sure enough after I looked at the picture really closely, I could see the wire was hidden beside the elephants front leg to the back of the cake. I felt so silly for missing that. Anyway, I got a little Styrofoam ball and covered it in fondant also. For the wire, to keep it from rolling around make a hook on the end and insert the balloon. You can insert a wire into the cake and fill it with melted chocolate and insert the wire into that. You could make the balloon out of fondant, but I think that might add too much weight to it. The elephant I did make from fondant also. I had a hard time with that little guy, getting his tummy smooth. I used a small carving knife to help me get the shape. I believe some of my problem was the fondant I was working with. Last, I used lace like the picture I was given around the bottom of the cake and then piped dots above the lace. Good Luck!
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