If you want to make beautiful, edible decorations for wedding cakes, you can make sugar paste flowers, birds and other shapes to add to your cake for a beautiful and tasty result. Sugar paste, also known as gum paste or rolled fondant, is completely edible and can be molded into shapes just like sculptor's clay. You can make your own, buy a mix or purchase it ready to use.
Instructions
Make Rolled Fondant from Scratch
1. Mix together 1 cup of vegetable shortening and 1 cup of corn syrup in a large bowl using an electric mixer.
2. Stir in 1 tsp. of vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp. of salt.
3. Gradually mix in 2 lbs. of confectioner's sugar until it forms a stiff dough. Knead it by hand or, if using a stand mixer, use dough hooks.
4. Add more confectioner's sugar if the dough is sticky, and knead until smooth.
5. Store it in an airtight container either in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
Create Cake Sculptures from Sugar
6. Choose the shapes you want to make. Either choose some cutters to use (much like cookie cutters) or sketch a design you would like to cut out by hand. Some popular shapes for decorating cakes include flowers, dots or crescent moons and stars.
7. Mix up the sugar "dough" to decorate your wedding cakes. Ready-made sugar paste comes in colors, but if you are making your own, use gel color to tint your sugar paste rather than liquid color. Knead it until the color is even.
8. Dust your board with icing sugar and roll out the required amount of sugar paste for your wedding cake. Roll it thicker to cover a large surface or very thin to make sculptures for decoration.
9. Cover the entire cake with sugar paste, then decorate it with flowers, ribbons and bows, trees or animals. You can also cover the cake with icing and add sugar sculptures later.
10. Use a smoother tool to remove any marks or fingerprints from the paste. Then cut out your design using molds, cutters or a sharp knife.
11. Use water or a mix of water and confectioner's sugar to "glue" the sculpture together. Press the pieces together with your fingers and allow the sculptures to dry.
12. Dust the sugar paste with decorating powder such as a glitter dust. You may also airbrush it with food color for a more detailed look.
Tags: sugar paste, confectioner sugar, cake with, icing sugar, sugar dough, sugar paste, want make