Who is ready for September?!

Here are some updates of fun things that are happening soon!

First up, Patrice will be teaching a two day class on her gorgeous "Teacups and Roses" on Saturday and Sunday, September 17th and 18th. All the details can be found here.

There needs to be 6 students, so contact Jane to sign up now!

 Also, we have scheduled a Day of Sharing, right here in Jacksonville for Sunday, October 23! For those of you who don't know what a Day of Sharing is...imagine spending the day with 125 other cake artists, learning, eating, sharing, and just plain having fun! There will be demonstrations, a cake gallery (everyone is encouraged to bring a display!), food, vendors, and raffles, with the *BIG* prize being a new Kitchenaid Mixer!

For the Day of Sharing (DOS), we are looking for anyone that has a special talent and would like to share it with others. Or if you would like to work more behind the scenes and volunteer, here is a list of duties that we need to perform to make the DOS run smoothly. Plus, we need items for our raffle! If you have any cake items (magazines, cake decorating supplies, gently used cake pans or equipment, etc), please consider donating them! If you are interested in any of these things, please email me at SAGNFL@hotmail.com.  

We would be so grateful for your contributions!

Also, more details will be added as soon as I get them!

So, cakers, get ready for some FUN!!!

The End is Near...

For August, that is. Which means that our monthly meeting is almost here! Our next meeting is this Thursday, August 25th. We will start, as usual, at 7pm. We have a lot to share this month and I hope you all will join us! If there is anything you would like to bring, (ie. pictures, goodies, etc) please don't hesitate!

On another note, if you haven't signed up for CakeFu yet, you're missing out!  They offer online training videos from well-known cake artists, such as Sharon Zambito, James Rosselle, and Kerry Vincent. Tomorrow they will have Peggy Tucker (I just had the priviledge of taking her class at Convention)!

Here is what CakeFu had to say:
   "Peggy has gained an amazing skill in working with
    isomalt sticks to make cast and poured sugar
    sculptures, and she plans to share with us how she
    does it.

    (Plus, she has an AWESOME giveaway planned

    with a $100 value, so you need to be on the training

    for a chance to get that!)"

Sounds like an awesome technique to learn...plus a great chance to win! To watch these training videos, simply enter your name and address, and they'll send you an invite to watch.

Hope to catch up with everyone on Thursday!

Gelatin Slipper By Tami Utley

Sugar Delites sent out their August Newsletter with an awesome tutorial by Tami Utley! I posted below for your caking pleasure...you're welcome!

Gelatin Slipper
By Tami Utley
www.sugarartbytami.com

This slipper will not break or be affected by humidity and lasts years.  Although I did 2 thin layers of gelatin, you can probably use one layer of gelatin and still have a good slipper.




I use Knox gelatin. If you use a higher grade of gelatin you might need to adjust the amount of water, but don’t fret, this is not a fussy recipe so different proportions of water to gelatin will still get the desired effect.





I use a 2:1 ratio of water to gelatin.  Put 2 T water into a microwave safe glass bowl and sprinkle 1 T gelatin into it.  *Tip – if your gelatin is too yellow, add just a tiny touch of violet food paste color/gel to whiten it, however, you will find that the yellow won’t be noticeable anyway.




Let this sponge for 5 minutes.




Pop it into the microwave for about 10 seconds to melt the gelatin (some microwaves require less/more time due to power differences).  Stir and remove any un-dissolved gelatin.  Let cool a little, remove any foam and then heat again if needed in 5 second bursts to dissolve the gelatin completely.  Let sit again for the bubble/foam to rise if necessary.  You want the gelatin very fluid and runny so don’t wait too long.



While the gelatin is still warm , pour into the chocolate mold and coat the inside completely. At any time, you can re-heat the gelatin to liquefy it with a 5 second burst in the microwave.

Use a soft brush to paint up over all the edges of the mold and make sure the entire inside is coated.  This is because the gelatin will shrink as it dries and will pull away from the mold possibly causing a wrinkle in your desired shape.  Any bubbles in the mold can be brushed away quickly.



Pour the excess gelatin out and brush the excess off.

Let the gelatin in the mold sit for 2 minutes or so (depending on your weather and humidity) to firm up.  Once you can touch the gelatin in the mold and it won’t stick, re-heat the gelatin in the bowl (about 5 seconds in the microwave) and re-coat the mold a second time.  You will need to work a little faster, as the gelatin gets cool as it dries and will firm up faster on the second coat.

Pour off the excess and brush any areas needing touch up. Don’t continue to keep brushing the inside too long, as the gelatin will get sticky and rubbery. Turn the mold over to let the excess drip off.  Let dry overnight or, use a fan on low, blowing over the mold to speed up drying time to a few hours.

If your gelatin starts to get ‘gummy’,  ‘rubbery’ or sticky as you brush, it’s getting too cold and will ruin your piece.  You can heat this up with a hair dryer to warm up the gelatin again.  Or wait, re-heat the gelatin in the bowl and re-coat the mold.  Any imperfections will shrink as the slipper dries so will most likely not be noticeable.



Once dry, the gelatin will release from the mold and will just lift out.  Trim both sides of the slipper with a small pair of scissors.


You can leave the slipper closed at the top, but I marked mine with a felt tip marker and cut an opening on each slipper half.   Clear tape can be used to hold the slipper together temporarily to mark it evenly. 






Then pull the tape off to cut the opening.





Re-heat any leftover gelatin and paint it onto one side of the slipper and attach to the other half of the slipper.  Let this dry a few minutes until the two sides stay stuck together.  Depending on the weather, it may take more time to set.





Use piping gel to paint over the seam of where the slipper halves where joined together.



Pour rainbow disco dust over the gel to hide the seams.  Use a soft brush to brush away any excess dust.
Take a look at these beauties!!!  Cinderella shoe on a pillow cake?  Can you picture it???  Jen :-)

This can also be done with the larger 8 ½” mold, however, there is a bigger chance of the gelatin getting a ‘wrinkle’ since the gelatin shrinks as it dries. Depending on where the wrinkle is, it can be hidden with the disco dust.  It is also harder to cover the surface of the larger mold before the gelatin starts to cool too much and ‘gums’ up, so you must work much faster.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Tami, for this FANTASTIC guest tutorial!  I'm sure everyone is ooohhhhing and ahhhhing out there reading this :-)
 
Sugar Delites carries both the large and small shoe molds.  Here's links to both:
 
Large shoe mold ($6.00)

Small shoe mold ($3.00)

Here's a link to the rainbow disco (LOVE this stuff!)

Very awesome! Thanks to Tami Utley and Sugar Delites for sharing this with us!!!