Hello hello!

My DH will be renewing our vows this year back home in Puerto Rico . I want to do a ocean/beachy themed wedding cake, but I don't have any molds or cutters.

My question to you is which cutters/molds to you like the most (quality, price, ease of use) and where did you buy them.

I'm also interested in buying new butterfly cutters and the same question there. Which do you think works best (cuts best), is a good quality product and is priced well.

Thanks for your help!

Ummm...thanks for your help?? Come on ya'll...I need your advice...I'll give you a dollar, okay?

How exciting! And, what a beautiful setting for renewing your vows! I love First Impression molds - they have a wide variety of shells, coral, creatures - whatever you need. Excellent quality and very easy to use. I have used some of the chocolate molds, too - the clear plastic ones. Not as much detail, but much more budget-friendly LOL. Don't know what look you're gong for in the butterflies, but Global sells several cutters/molds. Patchwork cutters has a bugs and butterflies set that can be painted after drying, and RVO has a beautiful hard resin mold with little fretwork cutters. They can be made to look a little different by cutting out in different area so they don't all look exactly the same. Are you making the cake there or trying to take it with you?

No we have about 3 cake decorators in the family in PR so I'll just make it there.

Thank you so much for the help. I was beginning to feel unloved! LOL!

Do you use the patchwork cutters (any of them)? I've never used them before and I don't get it by looking at the pictures how they are to be used. Sorry if I sound ignorant. LOL!

I know, but I feel like such a loser if I have to do that...someone else bump me! LOL! Just kidding, hey, I have until September before I need this so, I can be a little patient.
Sad thing is, I hardly ever visit anything that's not on the front page too.

I like the mods from first impressions. They have great sea theme things but they are expensive. The can be use with all types of mediums. I also buy life of the party molds for sea shells from concenpts in candy.

I bought my sea shell molds from Cal Java, they are soft molds & there are quite a lot in the set, lovely detail too & there are also 2 starfish. I like them a lot. My shell cake in my photo's shows you what they look like & pricewise very reasonable for the number of differet shells you get. Global have lovely butterfly cutters, my favorite ones are PME. Looking forward to seeing your cake.

First Impressions have lots of sea stuff!..
Edna

Thank you all so much! I want to start doing some practice runs before I do the real thing. I have to make it spectacular considering our first wedding cake was pushed to the floor before we were able to see it.
Oh! And I need a good groom's cake as well since my husband didn't know they existed and resents the fact that I didn't tell him about it. He's a chocolate freak and they don't do groom's cakes in Puerto Rico.

You can also do seashells out of chocolate using the plastic chocolate molds. I like Scott Woolley's butterfly cutters but Sunflower Sugar Art has a number of excellent butterfly molds.

At first I was a little set against doing chocolate, but then I realized we're probably going to shoot for December and it won't be that hot over in PR at that time of year, so it's probably going to be chocolate.
Bob: Do the butterfly cutters you suggested look realistic? I've seen some that actually have the little veins on the wings of the butterflies...

No, Scott's cutters are just that, cutters. No veining. Here's a link to them. http://www.cakesbydesign.cc/MetalCuttersAtoB.html

If you give me a moment I'll find another link to a cool way to do butterfly cookies.

I love to make chocolate sea shells and dust them. There is quiet a few on my website and here on Cake Central. I use some plastic type molds for chocolates and some molds are custom made and are pricier.

I love to dust them and add glitter dust!!!

Here you go, a gorgeous butterfly cookie: http://www.cakejournal.com/archives/how-to-decorate-cookies-with-rolled-fondant

Another option you have is gelatin butterflies. In my pix I did a very cool cake with teal butterflies all over it. They were gelatin and very easy to make. I've also got a few cakes with "stained glass" butterflies on them -- made from smashed jolly rancher candies. You have so many options when it comes to butterflies!

I have two weddings coming up in the Spring both with a sea theme. I bought a couple of molds and then decided that in order to get the variety I wanted it would cost me over $200! You figure that most of them are like $25-$40 which is really expensive! And Im one for something that looks realistic. Just a pet-peeve of mine. So I bought a 1lb of silicone putty from Makeyourownmolds.com and a bag of sea-shells from Walmart. Cost me $45 for all of it!
I finished my snail shell the other day and my husband couldnt tell the difference between the real one and my gumpaste version! Then I made a star fish and that came out awesome too! I also dip them in confectionary glaze so they get that shiny look to them the way some shells, especially snail shells, look.
I highly suggest doing this yourself! The silicone putty is so easy to use that someone with no experience can make one. And any of you that dont want to do it, I will make one for you and sell it to you cheap!!! lol

Congratulations Tita on renewing you vows. God bless your marriage.

Bobwonderbuns: I am speechless with those gelatin butterflies. Do you have pics. of the process? Can you share the recipe for the gelatin? Did you use molds? If you could pm me with whatever info. you think I need to make these butterflies. [email protected]. Thank you.

Here's a link to the kit I used. Diane and Michaelle are writing a book on how to make them which is due out this spring. http://www.cakeconnection.com/gelatin.htm

This are really neat butterflies really easy to use. They cut just like tappits and they have all
the details already in there and you can paint them if you wish..Of course this are gumpaste, not gelatin..I added them just in case..

Oh I saw that at the Mid-Atlantic show last year. It reminded me of a craft that I used to do with my sister back in the 70's where you dip the wire's in the solution and then the film dried. Looks really nice on cakes!

My gelatin butterflies are wireless. It's a new technique that's out now, developed by Diane Simmons and Michaelle Stidham.

Thank you Bobwonderbuns, I definetly want to buy that book. I am going to save the web site.
Thank you Edna, I love watching you on Youtube, you explain things really good.

Everybody I just want to thank you for all the advice, tips and guidance! I also want to humbly thank you for the blessings and good wishes for our marriage. Most people said we wouldn't make it more than 6 months because we were married fairly young, so celebrating our 10th anniversary is a really big deal to us. Thanks for helping me make it everything we want it to be.

Edna: MIRA QUE CHULA!! You look so fly in your YouTube video! You go girl! Thank you for the tips.

Bob: Your gelatin butterflies are so creative and orginal. I really like that idea, thanks for sharing so much with me

Elda: Thank you!

weirkd: I'm a HUGE do-it-yourselfer so I totally love the idea of making my own molds. I was telling Bob (I think it was) that I picked up a lot of shells the last time I went to the beach in Puerto Rico so I could actually mold them out of the same seashells that you'd find over there. Thanks for the suggestion.

Sorry, thinking out loud, it was Edna I was telling.

I just came from Puerto Rico last week!!!..
Edna

EDNA: THAT WAS MEEEEEEAN!! I'm stuck here in El Paso and was thinking about the holidays in PR: pasteles, coquito, parandas and here you are: "I just got back from eating lots of food and enjoying the beautiful island!" Thanks sooo much! LOL!

Bob: I truly wished I would've gotten in on the betting that was done on ours. I don't gamble much so I don't know if there's a term for winning all the money people lost on a bet, but that so would be me. Funny thing, my mother was soooo against my marriage to my husband when she first found out about it (I'm the baby of the family and I was 20 when I was engaged just out of college) that she told me I needed to see a psychiatrist because she thought I was certifiably crazy. Ten years later, she's always bragging about her son-in-law and how proud him she is, and how great he is to her and how much she loves him. She hates it when I remind her how against our marriage she was because she knew she was wrong about him.