I too steal my children's toys! I used their play food lettuce and tomato to imprint into fondant. I of course washed them thoroughly before.

Pastry Diva

Plastic Egg cartoons can be soaked in hot water, a few drops of bleach and washed with detergent. I leave my flowers on the wax or foil paper and transport them that way. This way they are cushioned.


ge978

The are some vinyl table cloth that have a diamond pattern embossed in it. The design is deep enough to be imprinted in to your fondant in the same way you would use the impression mats from cake decorating suppliers.


Princess

Thanks Princess - I never even thought of that before. Hopefully I can find one

This thread is so cool - I just figured out I could use my removable wine bottle holder (never used) that came with my fridge for a large curved surface. And the egg keeper (never used-always kept my eggs in their original carton) could hold flowers too. Thanks everyone.

I use the silverware caddy from my dishwasher to hold my bags of royal icing with a damp paper towel in the bottom so the tips don't dry-

Wow, I have gotten so many great ideas from you all.

The only thing that I can think of that has not already been mentioned, is that I use the cardboard that our 24 pack of bottle water comes in for a cake board. I just cover it with freezer paper.

Well Monday I used a baseball wrapped in saran wrap and dusted with cornstarch to make a fondant umbrella. I had to find a way to let it dry and hold its shape.

you can go to the dollar store to get pretty lacy plastic place mats to emboss your fondand and cut around to place prettily over the top of your cake!

LOL It's so sad before I put things in The recycle I think Hmmm what Can I use this for. Hmmm LOL... Just doing my part to save a tree I suppose.

And I am always looking for hardware items or even in some dollar stores To find items that can be used to create something on a cake.

Ge978 I kept looking at the impression mats and they reminded me of something. Then one day I was at my mom and she has a free standing closet she stores extra coats in. The closet had The same pattern. Then I remembered she had the tablecloth like it. It's just a plastic see through thingie. She used to use it to cover over her nice table cloths so we would not ruin them LOL. But it works just as well and if u can find one it's so much cheaper.

this is so funny i thought i was the only one that used my kids toys to decor. a cake. i use the play dou toy i had to buy my own cause my kids always used theirs and got tired of always washing them from the really playdou but its funny everytime i use mine cause when my kids see me using it my kids start to yell "yeah mommy is playing with playdou we want to play too" and i'm like oh no you not. this one is mine for my cake....and then they say we want to help you too ....i always good first to the dollar store and go straight to the kids section to see what new toy i can use to decor. then i go to wal-mart i also save my pizza boxes and store my dried flowers in their and they are very good for stacking on top of each other (i keep the good boxes not the one with all the oil)

This is a good thread! I've always heard that necessity is the mother of invention and these tips prove it.

I just put this in the thread about the baking strips, but thought it would be good to add it here too!

Those pins in the baking strips hurt my fingers really bad, so I started using the office supply store bulldog clips to fasten them together. They also work to be able to use the strips on the character pans. Janice

My mom bought it at a fabric store. The sell everything there from. I was thinking what other stores would possibly have it. I will have to speak with my mom to get an idea as to what nationally recognized stores might have it.


Princess

After I burned my baking strips (don't ask!), I started using towels that i cut into strips and soaked heavily. Worked out really well.

Occasionally I make plain sheet cakes that accompany a decorated cake. To make it easier to for the server (and to make sure they get the number of servings required) I score the cakes to give them lines to cut on.

I bought the thinest dowel rod I could find, and it's very flexible. I lay it across the cake to make the scores. It works very well!

I cut paper towel cardboard rolls in half (length wise) and use as "flower formers".

Plastic cups with foil over them for gumpaste flowers.

Canned food for proping up small cakes that I need ot cover in fondant (so I can get under there and trim away the excess with ease).

these are very cool tips... thanks everyone who posted them.. hehe

I save the ties that comes with the trash bags...great for twisting around icing bags to keep the icing down in the bag.

Styrofoam or plastic cups to mix icing in.

Ice tongs with teeth to imprint on fondant (haven't tried it yet).

I do too use dental insturments. cotton forcept for small things. small scisors and insturments for shaping.
and I use my tips upside down for differnt size circles when using fondant.
Michelle

I use a dry wall spackling knife to spread my frostings, I have 4", 6", and 8" wide ones. Works great with a round cake on a turn table, one spin and you're done!!!! Nothing like shopping for cake decorating tools at you local home improvements store.

Yeah! I love play-doh stuff! And polymer clay tools too!

This is a great topic. I am guilty of stealing Playdough toys also, I took a dolphin shaped cutter, patterened edge roller and a small wooden rolling pin from my nieces set. I use a scalpal for trimming fondant, paint edger and paint spatulas for smoothing icing, and I use my lazy susan as a turn table for bigger cakes.
Jackie

I forgot to add I use the long craft dowls from Michaels or Wal-Mart cut those up in all the sizes I need, they start off at like 19 cents per rod and each rod is like 3 feet long they have different thicknesses. I also use wooden skewers as dowl rods.

Jackie

If I'm using my flower nail and have to stop in the middle for some reason, I use an empty water bottle with some rocks down in the bottom to put the flower nail in. The rocks keep the bottle from turning over. I also use egg cartons, thoroughly cleaned, to hold royal flowers. They are still in their aluminum foil "cups", so they don't actually touch the egg carton. I also use the spongy shelf liner on top of my turntable (underneath the cake) to keep the cake from slipping, and under the turntable to keep it from slipping. I also use it every time I transport a cake so it doesn't move in my car.

all your ideas are awsome!!! I'm brand new to decorating ... I'm gonna be making a Garfield cake for my son's b-day. I saw a rolling pin to make a wood impression at a local bakery supply store for $24.00. Being such a perfectionist I wanted the box for Garfield to be PERFECT.... well after getting all these great ideas ..I went into my kids toys and guess what I found a toy that can make the same impression for FREE!!!!

I used the balloon method for making little chocolate bowls a couple of years ago. I got the idea from food network. Most of them worked just fine but I guess I had either a really weak balloon or chocolate that was too hot because one of them burst after I dipped it into the chocolate. OH MY GOSH! You can't even believe what kind of mess I had. Dried chocolate is almost impossible to get off of painted kitchen walls.

used shelf liner...the kind mentioned above to keep things from slipping...even the woven look placemats would work...
...press onto a crusted buttercream icing to give the impression of the baby quilt being woven...added grass tip fringe around the edges...big hit at the baby shower..

keep your ideas coming..

-tuna cans to bake make sample cakes in
-hair dryer to remove labels/stickers from pans and other items
-McDonald's happy meal figurines to decorate cake (stole from my kids, shh!
-Tweezers to hold edible pearls in place
-foam mattress to transport cakes, this is as good as using a non-slippery pad/liner. My DH idea, he put the foam in our van and the cakes do not move. It is a great idea when you want to transport the decorated cake on the base used for the pillars.

I love this thread...I also use a lot of the above mentioned but there are so many cool new tricks too!

I bought a $4.00 lazy susan from Ikea and it is the greatest turntable!

I also use a grated-cheese shaker that I filled with cornstarch. Just one shake and I'm ready to roll out the fondant!!! I keep it with my supplies.

I don't have a very large kitchen, so I store all my supplies in clear shoe-box size plastic bins. They are separated into categories. (Tips in one, tools in another, colors in another, etc...) Easy access and very easy clean-up.

Bubble wrap, I almost forgot about bubble wrap. I poured chocolate on it. When dry and the bubble wrap is pulled off, it makes a great looking "coral reef", just add your fondant/gum paste sea creatures.

I just found another one...a highlighting brush that came in one of those hair coloring box. I had an unused one and boy it works very well to clean those tips and couplers.