Sugarworks Blog

No matter how insane the Halloween season is, when Innovative Sugarworks asks me to do a guest spot, I have to leap at the opportunity. It is ALWAYS an honor.

My inspiration this year comes from a love of three things, 80’s horror, Japan, and realism cakes! Last year, a big box on my bucket list was checked off when I visited Japan DURING HALLOWEEN! I was lovingly described as “Kawaii”....or did I hear “Kowai”? While the words SOUND the same, “kawaii” means “CUTE” and “kowai” means “SCARY”...

On Halloween night, we visited the “Kawaii Monster Cafe” in the Harajuku district, and I would say the seed of inspiration for this cake was born there. The perfect combination of cute and scary....and adding in one of my favorite things, food realism!

Since food cakes, particularly BURGER cakes, have been quite the trend, I chose a burger to be the subject for my KAWAII/KOWAI Zombie Burger Cake! So let’s get into it, creepies!

Let’s start with the cake! I chose dark chocolate cake with chocolate ganache spiced with cayenne and cinnamon (for a little kick!) for the top bun. And for reasons I’ll explain later, a classic rich butter cake for the bottom bun, also using the chocolate ganache.


I made three 8” rounds of the chocolate and three 8” rounds of the butter cake.

To create the top bun, I used two of my 8” chocolate layers and set aside the third. Looking at photos of gourmet burgers with those beautiful golden crispy buns, I carved away until I was happy with the shape....but it’s a bun, so we aren’t looking for perfection or symmetry. DOPE! 


Move on to the bottom bun, again, reserving one layer. Make sure the top is nice and flat like the bun was cut in half. Again, don’t spend too much time here.

Once you're happy with the shape, color some fondant with a tiny bit of ivory, a bit of brown, and some yellow until you achieve the light colored part of a bun. Roll out a thicker than usual circle large enough to cover top bun and lightly hit the entire surface with a torch.

This will help give a realistic texture to the bun later.

Cover the top bun. Embrace imperfections and wrinkles. Add texture by pressing balled up foil, wax paper, or a new scrubbing cloth. Use the pointed tip Sugar Shaper to add creases and indents, as well as that ridge that goes around the edge of a bun.

Using the torch, really hit the spots that a real bun would be toastier, letting it bubble, brown and harden. 
 
Next, using color dust, even out the toasty color all over the bun, hit the cracks, and be sure to leave lighter colors toward the bottom part of the bun.

When you’re happy with the color, LIGHTLY roll a small rolling pin over the surface of the edges of your bun. If you did things right, you’ll have a beautiful effect of a real, cracked, crispy buttery bun! 


Move to the lower bun, adding color, and much less torching, but enough to give more texture. Texture texture texture is what sells these things as BREAD!

Now, the reason we chose dark cake and light cake is to make a realistic and delicious burger patty. If you’ve ever made cake clay (the stuff inside a cake pop) you’re familiar with this.

Break up your reserved layer of butter cake and chocolate cake in a large bowl and add a few heaps of ganache. Using your hands, mix together until you get a sort of brown cake dough with lots of specks of lighter color in it. Don’t over mix or you’ll lose that variation. Pat the mixture down with your hands onto a piece of parchment to make a burger patty. Let it crack and break as you press it out. This adds to the realistic texture. Chill in refrigerator until firm.

Next, since this cake is a KOWAI (scary) ZOMBIE burger, we gotta make some brain slices! No worries. It’s easy, ghoul friend. I colored some modeling chocolate with a little bit of pink, a little blue, and a little black, until I achieved a grayish lavender brain matter color.

Roll out tubes of modeling chocolate and make random noodle shapes to create brain patterns. Use your Sugar Shaper with the small rounded end to refine some of the details. Once you’re happy with the look, enhance those details with a deep purple or black color dust. 


What else would be delicious on a Kowai Zombie Burger?! How about some fresh bat wings?!

Create the shape of the bones inside a bat’s wings with some floral wire. I used 18 gauge, but you do you, BOO. When you’re happy with the shape, lay out your pieces onto a piece of wafer paper. Prepare some flexique following the instructions, and brush gently onto the wafer paper, pressing the floral wires in. Move quickly because it sets up fast. Add another piece or wafer paper on top of the wire, sandwiching it between the two pieces. Brush both sides with your mixture until fully covered and allow to set for an hour. 


Next, dust the entire surface with cornstarch to remove any tackiness, flip over, and repeat. Using a small paintbrush and some red gel color mixed with vodka or an extract of your choice, add in some veins to the wings. The great thing about these wings is they have that semi-translucency letting some light pass through, so this detail adds some very cool realism. Finally, darken up the edges with some brown gel color and a stiff, dry brush. 



Next up, lettuce and cheese!

Because this burger is UNDEAD, we want lettuce that looks like it’s on its last leg...wilted, sorta greasy, and browning on the edges. Using REAL pieces of romaine lettuce, reinforced underneath with some balled up paper towels, you have a natural mold.

Wet a surface with some water tinted with green gel color and just a touch of yellow. Lay a sheet of wafer paper on top of the wet surface, and with a SOFT brush, very gently saturate the paper. It tears VERY easily and holes can form, so go slowly. Wet your romaine leaves with the same mixture, pick up the paper carefully, and lay it over the leaf. Using a saturated brush, gently brush the paper onto the leaf, trying to get the paper to hug every vein and textural element. Set aside to dry overnight.

When it’s fully dry, peel away the real lettuce. Trim away the edges. Add in color details to really make the leaf look real...I used green and brown gel color mixed with vanilla extract, NOT water, (or vodka works too). If some of your lettuce has holes, no worries! USE IT! Boil, I told you...we are going for rotting lettuce here! 


For the cheese, mix a bit of orange and just a drop of red into some yellow modeling chocolate to get that cheddar cheese look. Roll out 1/4” thick piece large enough to cover your burger and cut into a square. 


Now that we’ve created all the elements, it’s time to assemble your burger! I’ll show pics of how I put mine together, but once again, you do you.

I started with the bottom bun, some lettuce and pieces of brain, and then topped it with the burger. Then I added the cheese slice and hit the edges with a torch to make it look melted. More lettuce, more brains, and the bat wings! Add the top bun! Depending on the size of your cake, you may need to add some bubble tea straws and wooden dowels.


To add to the rotting undead burger look, I wanted to give it some more gross details and decided to make the buns look moldy. Here’s how I made the mold: I whipped up a batch of meringues!


Divide the meringue into three portions. Tint one with leaf green, another with leaf green and a bit of teal, and leave the other white. Dollop onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes at 200 degrees, shut off the oven, and leave the meringues in the oven for at least 30 minutes! That was wasy, right? Still, reward yourself by eating a few meringues. You won’t need that many. 


Next, using a coffee grinder, pulverize other lighter green meringues, two or three at a time, until you have a fine powder. Repeat with the darker green and then the white. This makes the white turn out a very pale green. 

To create the mold, the reason I love this powdered meringue mixture, is because you can take small clumps of it and press it right onto the surface of the cake and still have that powdery look that mold creates. It’s also much tastier than a mouth full of color dust! I start with white, then the lighter green, then the darker green. Use photos for reference and have fun with it. 


For the finishing details....I decided to sculpt a couple mushrooms and a big old worm and color them with a UV reactive color. 


I used the curved chisel tip to create spots for teeth in the buns and created a few teeth out of white modeling chocolate. I also made a tongue using a custom made mold, but you can achieve some cool effects and textures with foil. I dusted the tongue with uv reactive neon pink color dust. 


Finally, with the same fondant I used for the buns I added a little yellow modeling chocolate to create a warmer golden color, made some little eyes, and dusted the edges with some brown color dust and to make a few scared French fries and ketchup to place on the cake board.


And that’s it! Can’t you just see this monster zombie burger in an 80’s B-movie? Kowai Zombie Burger Terrorizes Tokyo!



Boils, ghouls, I hope you had fun with this one, and OF CORPSE, if you decide to make your own, PLEASE tag me in your photos! Either Sugar Freakshow on Facebook or @sugarfreakshowdsm on Instagram!

Happy Halloween!! (幸せなハロウィーン)

We are super excited to host Breanna and Bonnie of Arizona's Inspired Sugar as this month's guest artists! Breanna and Bonnie love all things related to Sugar Art and are always on the lookout for fun new techniques. They're making waves with their imagination and versatility- bringing a wide range of styles, ideas, and techniques into their craft. You can watch them bringing their skills to the competition stage on Season 1, Episode 1 of Netflix’s Sugar Rush.

Today Breanna and Bonnie are showing us how they made a customer's dream of realistic 3d dinosaurs a reality without breaking the customer's budget. These dinos are fun, realistic, and surprisingly simple. Check it out, and give 'em a try the next time someone orders a Jurassic BDay cake!

Supplies:

• Plastic Toy Dinosaurs
• Silicone Mold Putty
• Sugar Shapers
• Utility Knife
• Fondant, Gum Paste or Modeling Chocolate
• Tylose/CMC powder (if using fondant)
• Piping Gel or Gum Glue
• Edible Dusts
• Paintbrush

We are so excited to share with you our process for making realistic Sugar Dinosaurs! We discovered this technique when we had a client who really loved the idea of having 3D elements on her cake, but needed to keep it on a 2D budget. Her son was adamant that he did not want cutesy creatures on his cake- after all he was turning 7! They also didn’t want to add plastic toys.

So, we set out to see if we could find a quick and easy way to make some awesome looking dinosaurs without spending hours and hours sculpting. Having never made our own molds before…this was an adventure that surprised us with how quick and easy it actually was!

Part of what makes these so simple is the fact that they are not 360 degrees sculpted. The are flat on the back side, which was fine by us because we knew one would be attached to the side of the cake and the other to a big rock on top. We weren’t particularly concerned with there being a “backside”- the main thing was making a cool design quickly!

Step 1

Our local craft store carries this product called Easy Mold for about $24. This product is food grade non-toxic putty and is single use- meaning once you shape it, it can’t be reshaped into something else. There are a ton of other really awesome silicone molding materials out there though, so feel free to use whichever silicone mold putty you prefer.

We picked up two inexpensive plastic dinosaurs from Walmart (one was $6 and one was $8). Keep in mind that the size you pick is the exact size your mold will be, so plan accordingly. Make sure to clean them and let them fully dry.

Gather up your Sugar Shapers and prepare to have a good time!

Step 2

The Easy Mold comes with ½ lb of product which is split into 2 containers- white and dark purple. Our toys were about 6-7” in length, so one box was enough for both molds.

Remove half of each color and knead together quickly. Once you start mixing them together you only have about 3 minutes to work with this before it sets, so make sure you are READY! 

Roll into a log the approximate length and height of your toy, and about ¾” thick. You do not want to break it into pieces and try to add it in stages, it needs to be one solid piece of silicone. It will end up being a bit thicker around the edges. Just keep in mind that you do not want any super thin areas that could possibly tear, so if it looks thin, just work quickly to push the product in from the edges to thicken up the center.

Now, since we are only going to make one side of the Dinosaur, you don’t want to cover the entire toy. Just enough to get one arm/leg and a full body profile. Press on the putty firmly because you want to pick up all those awesome details from the toys. We wrapped around the legs a bit to make sure to get as much of the shape as possible. Just keep in mind that you need to be able to remove the toy. 

Remember- this sets in 3 minutes- so you have to be quick about it. Focus on getting the general shape. Now set it aside and don’t mess with it for 30 minutes, until it has time to set fully. Then remove your dino toy and be amazed at all the fabulous details!

Step 3

Woo! Time to mold! Feel free to use your favorite medium to create your dinos. We used fondant with about a tablespoon of Tylose added. Yeah…lots. You could also use some modeling chocolate or gum paste. The idea is that you want a very firm medium that will keep its shape as you pull it out of the mold, while allowing you to add additional detailing. 

Start with a pale shade of brown or green and roll it into the general shape of your mold. Then start pressing it in. Be sure to really press it into the face, arms and legs. Don’t be surprised if small details like the T-Rex’s tiny arms don’t come out though, you can add that in later. Clean up around the edges as much as you can. We like to kind of roll the fondant back from the edge to get a softer, less blunt look.

Flip your mold over so the flat side is on your table, then pull the mold gently up and off your fondant. Voila! This is a nice starter Dino for you to work with! No long hours of molding proportions, or struggling to get the face to stop looking like Barney.

Step 4

Now for the super fun part! Get out those Sugar Shapers and start to add in extra details! Set your toy Dino in front of you to use as a guide and start to work in extra wrinkles and deepen creases. We like to press in the eye and add a small ball of black fondant and a little eyelid to make the face extra realistic.

You may need to use a utility knife to cut off any extra fondant that doesn’t belong. If you take a close look at the area on the Triceratops between the font leg and the neck, you can see where there was a bit extra that didn’t get removed when we were cleaning up the edges and just needs to be cut off.

You can also see that this T-Rex’s arm did not survive the unmolding, so we had to fix it up a bit by rolling a little log and cutting the end to make a hand.

Now you are going to put your Molds to use a second time and make another set of arms, legs and horns. (We didn’t bother making a second arm for the T-Rex but you certainly can if you are feeling bad for his situation.)

Just press a bit of fondant into the molds, going up a little further than you want to show from the front. You are going to attach it to the body from behind (the flat side), with a bit of gum glue or piping gel, so you need a little extra length to work with.

Step 5

Dust with your favorite petal and luster dusts to bring out all those fabulous details!

We suggest starting with your lighter, highlighting colors. For example, on T-Rex we went in with yellow first, then added in shades of green, and ended with hints of browns and finally black. The darker colors really help all the texture to pop, however you don’t want to go crazy here with them. By adding a bit of dark brown to the creases around the arms and legs, it quickly makes your creatures so much more lifelike!

We also went in and added a few gray horns to the Triceratops and made sure to shade those a bit too. Dust is magic here folks. Don’t skip this step because this is what makes all the work the Sugar Shapers did really shine!

Step 6

Let them dry until they are firm enough to attach to the cake without drooping, or if you want to be able to bend them to fit the rounded sides, then make sure to add it right away. If you’re like us…and you went a little crazy with the Tylose…maybe you can add it to the cake within the hour. We are in Arizona though, so things get dry quick here.

We attached the Triceratops to the sides with a bit of piping gel. The T-Rex looks best if he has something else hanging out on top of the cake with him. This could be a Volcano, some trees, or if you are feeling super inspired like we were- a big rock. You could make this out of rice cereal if you want to cover a lot of ground or just a bit of fondant. The important part here is to help give him something to lean against in support and it also helps cover up the fact that his backside is not 3D.

We stuck a dowel through the rock into the cake with about ½” left for him to stick onto to hold him up. You don’t want to put a lot of pressure on those little legs.

There you have it! We hope this helps you the next time you need to create a realistic dinosaur! Have fun molding and Happy Baking! 

We hope you enjoyed this fantastic tutorial by Breanna and Bonnie of Inspired Sugar! And we also hope you yourself are now Inspired to try your hands at molded cake toppers!

If you want to see more of Breanna and Bonnie's excellent work, follow them online here:

Web: inspiredsugarcakes.com
Facebook: facebook.com/inspiredsugar
Instagram: @inspiredsugar

This month, our featured guest is the illustrious Reva Alexander-Hawk of Merci Beaucoup cake and pastry business.

Upon launching Merci Beaucoup, Reva rapidly achieved a reputation for creating innovative and tantalizing confections leading to appearances on top-rated televisions shows including Cake Wars, Ridiculous Cakes, Amazing Wedding Cakes and Wedding Cake Championship, among others. She has also received magazine coverage by leading international publications. Reva’s never-ending pursuit of excellence has led her to tackle new challenges, including; expanding her operations to the East coast, developing a book, and sharing her decades of insights and knowledge on the craft of baking through teaching.

Now Reva's shaking up the wedding industry with a new innovation. And she's going to tell us all about it.

The Making of a New Tradition…the Mother of the Bride cake

Now hear me out on this… We always hear that it is the Bride’s day but I think it is time to recognize and celebrate some of the others in the bridal party and dare I say… the Parents.

Having moved to the south eastern region of the United States- the state of Georgia to be exact, I have noticed that people here like their weddings big. And that every wedding has a Bridal cake and a Groom's cake. Well move over because it is time to make room for the Mother of the Bride cake! 

What a fun and original way to say Thank YOU to mom for putting up with your crazy ideas and saying yes to everything that you asked for. A Cake that is designed just for them with the flavor that they love and let me mention it again, that is just for them!

I am now offering this as an add on item for my clients especially when the discussion of flavors is at a stand still. With small personalized bridal party cakes everyone can have their favorite flavors presented to them.

Here I have an example of a cake that is simple yet elegant that has a big impact in a short amount of time. And with the help of the Innovative Sugarworks tool line the process doesn’t take too long at all.

Now I know you are asking yourself “do we really need more cake at a wedding?” And the answer is YES, always! But fear not, this is a personal sized cake and can be given as a gift before or after the wedding as well. (But it makes more of an impact if it is presented at the reception.)

I have used a mold to create the details of the cake, filling the mold cavity with the same color fondant that is on the base cake and using Sugar Shapers to push in the fondant to get all the details.

The thicker of your Sugarworks Sugar Smoothers is a great tool to scrape off any extra fondant from your mold. Then just pop out and adhere to the cake with water or sugar glue.

Use a soft brush to make sure your appliqué pieces are firmly attached.

Then paint over the appliqué pieces to create more depth in your cake design.

Once that has dried attach your flowers to the top.

You may have noticed that I have used both fresh and sugar flowers… yes, I am a rebel that way! I like to keep them guessing and I love to mix mediums on my cakes.

As you can see this addition can be done in a short amount of time but will leave the recipient with a lasting sweet memory. Mother of the Bride or even Father of the Brides cake, now this is a tradition I can get on board with.

And there you have Reva's new addition to the Big Day- a personal cake for mom (or dad!) to say Thank You for all they do to help make the day magical (or just keep the couple sane during the run-up to the event!) If you're a wedding cake designer, considering offering your next couple a package that includes a personal Mother of the Bride cake option! 

And if you want to keep up with all of Reva's new ideas and gorgeous cakes, find her online:

Web: Merci Beaucoup Cakes
Facebook: /MerciBeaucoupCakes
Instagram: @mercicakes

This month we are pleased to welcome Jennifer Kennedy to the Sugarworks blog! Jennifer is the owner and cake designer of Jenny's Haute Cakes outside Denver, CO. What began as a hobby seven years ago has grown into an incredible professional career! Jenny is most famous for her amazing sculpted and celebration cakes and has been featured in multiple magazines around the world.

Today, Jenny is teaching how to make a dragon cake topper using modeling chocolate and Sugar Shapers!

In this tutorial you will learn how to mold a dragon cake topper.

First we will create a structure for the dragon. For the structure you will need:

• 2 pieces of 18 gauge wire (approximately 12” long)
• approximately 28” of armature wire
• white floral tape
• needle nose pliers.

With three boys in the house I have accumulated quite a collection of plastic dragons over the years. If you can lay your hands on one, they are a fantastic reference for model making. They are not, however, necessary. You can Google search “dragon model image” and find 241,000,000 (yes, that’s MILLION) references. I prefer 3D references for modeling over 2D images. A photo of a 3D image is a great compromise. You can even use multiple references and pick and choose the parts of each you like best. Print the picture in color and enlarge it to the size you want the cake model to be.

I chose this plastic dragon because it is sitting in a position that is pretty close to the one I want for the dragon on my cake.

Now, Let's get to it!

Step 1:

Take the armature wire and, holding it up to your plastic model or to your photo, follow the curve of the body from head to tail. Trim the wire with the pliers.

Step 2a:

Take a second piece of armature wire with the head and begin wrapping it around the neck of the dragon, until you come to the shoulder area. Then bend the wire and follow the outline of one wing, then the other.

Step 2b:

Take a piece of 18 gauge wire and wrap it around the body in the middle just behind the wings. Repeat with the back legs. Leave the legs too long. You can use the extra length to secure the dragon to your cake, and to stick into Styrofoam as you are building the model.

Step 3:

Wrap the entire structure with white floral tape

Now for the fun part – let’s make a dragon!

First you will need about ½ pound of modeling chocolate and food color. I prefer to use Hot Hands Modeling Chocolate for two reasons: First, it doesn’t melt in my hands when I am sculpting, and second I can color it with regular gel food color. How cool is that?

You will also need:

• Mini-Tip Sugar Shapers, soft
• Piping gel
• 9” rolling pin
• Tylose powder
• Paint brushes
• 3mm gold dragees
• Black fondant
• Knife or scalpel
• Coffee straw
• Black food color pen
• Rounded stainless cuticle scissors (dedicated for food and sterilized in the dishwasher)
• 1 ½" ball of black fondant
• 1" ball of white fondant
• 1" ball of red fondant

Step 4:

Color your modeling chocolate with gel food color. I'm making a purple dragon, but since these are fantasy animals- any color will work. I recommend wearing gloves to keep your hands from matching your dragon. 

Step 5:

Begin covering all parts of the dragon body (except the wings and tail) with snakes of modeling chocolate. Make the snake for the chest area thicker. Also, make the back legs thicker than the front legs. If the modeling chocolate isn’t sticking to the wire you can paint a little bit of piping gel on the wire first.

Why aren’t we covering the tail yet? Because it gives you something to hold on to!

Step 6:

Smooth out the seams with the smooth side of your Sugar Shaper. Then use your red Sugar Shaper to create a crease at the back of the knees on the back legs and the front of the knee on the front leg (the front leg joints bend in the opposite direction). Pinch the back knee to give it shape, and use the small end of the orange Sugar Shaper to create a definition line in the leg muscle. 

Step 7:

Add a ball of modeling chocolate on the leg to create a foot. Flatten the ball with your finger.

Note: Leave the wire longer than the leg on one front leg and one back leg. You will want a couple of inches extra to secure your dragon to the cake.

Push that extra wire into the Styrofoam and then create the foot where the wire meets the Styrofoam. Use your small orange Sugar Shaper to create an indentation at the ankle.

Step 8:

Cut triangles out of the foot to create three toes. Then, use the orange Sugar Shaper to smooth between the toes and create an impression on top of the foot from between the toes across the top of the foot. Now use the small side of the yellow sugar shaper to create a crease at the end of each toe to create a claw.

Step 9:

Using the orange Sugar Shaper, smooth the seams from the leg to the body and create a crease. You can add a little water at the seam to help smooth it.

Now we get to move on to the head!

Step 10:

Roll a ball of modeling chocolate for the head. Mold the ball around the head wires with your fingers. Now cut the fondant between the top and bottom wire to make a mouth.

Step 11:

Using the small end of the aqua Sugar Shaper poke a small hole into the top of the head above the mouth to create nostrils. Pull up slightly to give the nostril shape. Next, use the big end of the orange Sugar Shaper to pull out the corner of the mouth. Then insert the big end of the yellow Sugar Shaper into the mouth and gently pull down to make the mouth open wider. We want room to add teeth!

Step 12:

Use the big end of the green Sugar Shaper to make a curved indentation along the jaw line. Then roll the side of the orange Sugar Shaper along the top of the head to create an indentation between the nostrils and what will become the tops of the eyes.

Step 13:

Make an eye socket by pressing the big end of the orange Sugar Shaper into the side of the head. Push in and up to create a brow area.

Step 14:

Paint a dot of piping gel in the eye socket and press in a gold dragee.

Time to make the ears!

Step 15:

Roll a snake of modeling chocolate approximately one inch long. Cut it in half. Roll the big end of the orange sugar shaper on each piece to flatten it and cup the ear. Do not roll the sugar shaper out over the sides. Pinch top of ears so they come to a point. Attach the ears to the back of the head about eye level. Smooth seam with orange sugar shaper.

Step 16:

Create a vertical line in the middle of the upper part of the mouth below and centered between the nostrils using the small end of the yellow sugar shaper. Then make horizontal lines up the snout using the large end of the red sugar shaper.

Step 17:

After working on the head I decided my dragon’s neck and chest were too skinny. It is always a good idea to periodically step back and look at your dragon and at the model and make any adjustments. If you made yours big enough to begin with, you can skip this step. But if you think you need more body, continue along. 

Wrap the modeling chocolate around the neck, creating a seam at the back of the neck. It will be easy to hide here when we add the spines down the back. Trim off the excess modeling chocolate and smooth the seams with the side of your orange Sugar Shaper.

How about a little magic?

Step 18:

Use the big end of the blue Sugar Shaper to create scales on the dragon’s tummy. Start from the bottom and work upwards. Align each scale between the ones beneath it – like laying bricks.

Step 19:

I want to make the scales on the back of the dragon look a little different and more defined than the ones on the tummy, so I will use a different method. Press the end of a coffee straw into the modeling chocolate to make a half circle. Make rows that are misaligned working from the tail to the top of the head, and then along the legs and feet.

Now on to the wings!

Step 20:

Roll out modeling chocolate at least twice the size of the wing. Paint the wire with piping gel. Then paint the back of the modeling chocolate with piping gel. Why do I do this when modeling chocolate sticks to itself? Well, I want to make sure it does and I want to be sure I don’t have any air bubbles.

Step 21:

Align the middle of the modeling chocolate with the top of the wing and fold it over the wing. Pinch the middle together around the wings. Trim off the excess modeling chocolate around the wire.

Then smooth the seam where the wings attach to the body using the big end of the orange Sugar Shaper. Gently run the large end of the orange sugar shaper along the wing inside the wire to define the bone structure of the dragon's wing.

Step 22:

Roll a long thin snake in modeling chocolate and attach it to the wings to create fingers. Make the top finger extend beyond the top of the wing to create a claw.

Step 23:

To enhance the shape of the wings, I decided to add a thin strip of modeling chocolate along the top of the wing. First I rolled out the fondant, then attached it. I rolled the bottom tip to a point.

Step 24:

Now it’s time to pump this dragon’s biceps up! Make a small snake and use the orange sugar shaper to thin the edges, leaving the middle thick. Now attach that bicep and smooth seams 3with orange sugar shaper.

Now on to the tail!

Step 25:

Roll a snake the length of the tail. Make an incision half way into the snake. You may see where I am going with this and wonder why I am not just threading the snake onto the tail. Well, here is why. The armature wire is hard to bend and so I would have to thread the snake along the curve of the tail which is a pain. Since we are putting spines all the way down the tale, I don’t have to worry about hiding a seam.

Step 26:

Paint inside the modeling chocolate with piping gel. Then wrap the modeling chocolate snake around the tail wire making sure the seam is at the top (so it will be covered by the spines). Now smooth the seam where the tail attaches to the trunk of the body and pinch the tip of the tail to make it come to a sharp point.

Next we will create the spines that run down the back of the dragon. I use black because I want to paint the spines gold and metallic paint shows up better on dark colors. For gold you can also use brown fondant. If you want to make the spines silver, definitely use black!

Step 27:

First you will need black fondant. Mix the fondant with approximately 1/8 tsp tylose powder. Roll out the fondant the length of the top of the head to the tip of the tail. Then cut out triangles along one side of the fondant.

They should begin small (for the tail) and get increasingly larger as you go up the back. The spines should then decrease in size until they are small again as they go up the neck to the top of the head. Cut the excess fondant from the side that will attach to the back of the dragon. Paint along the flat side of the spine with piping gel and attach it to the dragon body. If it is too floppy still, let it sit for a bit for it to dry enough to stand up.

Now let’s give our dragon some horns!

Step 28:

Roll a snake of black fondant with tylose powder into a snake about 1 inch long. Taper the snake at the ends and cut the snake in half. Then use your fingers to roll the horns thinner so that each half is approximately an inch long.

Step 29:

Use the red Sugar Shaper to make grooves on the horns to give them some texture. Curve the horns as shown in the photo and set them aside to set up so they hold their shape. Once they've set, attach the horns to the head above and between the eye and ear.

Step 30:

Roll a thin snake approximately ¾” long. This will become little horns on the snout. Cut the snake in half. You will want to cut them again so one half is bigger than the other. Then glue the horns to the snout with piping gel. Put the smaller horn in the front and the larger one in the back.

Now let's give this dragon a tongue!

Step 31:

Mix a small ball of red and white fondant to make pink. Use the side of your yellow Sugar Shaper to roll out an oval long enough to cover the inside of the mouth and have about 1/8” - 1/4” extending over the edge of the mouth. The part that sticks out will need to be a little narrower than the part that is inside the mouth. This is so it will fit between the teeth.

No dragon is complete without some dangerous fangs, so let's give him some teeth!

Step 32:

Roll a thin snake of fondant approximate 1 ¼ ” long. Cut that into 5 equal parts, approximately ¼ ” long. Then cut one of the pieces in half. Taper the ends of the two smallest pieces and two of the larger pieces. These will be the top and bottom fangs. Square off the ends of the two remaining pieces. These will be molars. Use the small end of the yellow sugar shaper to make small indentations diving the snake into 4 equal parts.

Step 33:

Glue the molar snake onto each side of the mouth at the bottom. Then use a knife to cut along the indentations you made to separate the teeth. Glue on the small fangs in front of the molars with piping gel, and the long fangs to the top of the mouth. They should be in front of the bottom fangs.

Now let's give him a little beard.

Step 34:

Get a small piece of black fondant. You will then roll this into a thin snake. Cut one end of the snake vertically (it will look a bit like a forked tongue). Then cut the fondant horizontally just below the fork so it is about ¼” long. Glue it to the bottom of the mouth toward the end.

Step 35:

Add a claw at the top of the wing using a cone of purple modeling chocolate. Blend the claw into the wing using the orange Sugar Shaper.

Your dragon is now ready for color! For this you will need:

• Purple and blue powdered food color (several shades of each)
• Metallic gold luster dust
• Vodka 
• A small paint brush for each color

Step 36:

Mix the gold with some vodka and paint the spines, horns, claws and talons and beard gold.

Step 37:

Paint the space between the fingers on the wings dark purple using vodka and powdered food color. Then shade the top of the back near the spine, behind the knees, and other creases with dry dark purple dust.

Step 38:

Using the same purple (or a different shade if you want to get fancy), dust the back sides of the back and legs and neck. Then take a cotton swab and wipe off the dust in the direction the scales face. This will leave the dust only where the scales are cut into the body and will give them more definition.

Step 39:

You can add highlights on the front/tummy scales by painting along the bottom arc of some of them with white powdered food color mixed with vodka. You will need to make the paint thick. As a final touch, use the black food color pen to draw a vertical line on the eye to make a pupil.

Voila!
That’s it! The dragon model is finished and ready to place on your cake!

We hope you enjoyed this wonderful tutorial, and we look forward to seeing all the dragons it inspires!

You can find more of Jennifer Kennedy's work online:

Facebook: Jenny's Haute Cakes
Instagram: @jennys_haute_cakes

This month, we are pleased to welcome Christine and Phil Jensen of Peboryon in the UK as our featured guest artists. Christine and Phil are renowned for their stunning wedding cakes, outrageous sculpted cakes, and for their regular appearances on the hit TV show Extreme Cake Makers. Today they're going to teach us the ins and outs of sculpted cake making using their beloved Ruby the Hippo cake.

A bit about us

Our cake design studio is based in Penzance in Cornwall in the UK. (Yes, it’s where Poldark is set and filmed). It’s a stunning, out of the way, rugged, coastal place to live, and just about the furthest point from anywhere else in the UK! Saying that, it’s an incredibly creative place for artists, craftsmen and designers who have gathered from across the globe. We make a living from Cornwall, using fabulous local ingredients and delivering our large sculpted cakes and wedding cakes all over the UK and sometimes internationally. In 2017 we were invited to become part of Channel 4’s Extreme Cake Makers show and are now filming series 4. The cake adventure continues.

Ruby The Hippo

Having created hundreds of sculpted cakes we’ve developed our own way of doing things. So, we thought it would be fun to share what goes into each step. The cake we’ve chosen is a real commission that was created for a client in the summer of 2018. The version in this video is half the size of the original Ruby the Hippo.

Step 1: Designing your cake (time: as long as you want!)
The most important part of creating a carved cake is the bit before you start. A great cake starts off as with great design. Each aspect has to have been thought through, from the overall shape, line, look and structural considerations, to the finishing details.

Step 2: Carving and the first layer of ganache (time: 4 hours)
This is the messy part. Cake everywhere and then the ganache comes out. They key to this stage is getting the cake carved accurately and that’s where templates can play a huge part. Getting that first layer of ganache on, is an art in itself. Good tools help enormously.

Step 3: Finishing the ganache and covering the cake (time: 6 hours)
The first layer of ganache is the foundation and goes on the cake quite quickly. The second layer of ganache and the smoothing can take quite a while, but it is such an important step. The shape of the ganache will be the shape the fondant takes. If the ganache is right the fondant layer will be right too. Then it’s time to cover the amazingly complicated shape you’ve just made! Quick hands and patience are the keys to getting a wrinkle free finish.

Step 4: Finishing touches (time: 2 hours)
The finishing touches are where your cake goes from good to great. It is the observation of a well painted eye, a shiny highlight on painted toes, the curl and colour of the lash. It’s when you get to enjoy your cake, and maybe fall a little bit in love with your work!

We hope you enjoyed this sculpted cake tutorial and that you learned a lot! If you want to see more of Phil and Christine's work, find them online at these links:

Web: www.peboryon.com
Facebook: Peboryon
Instagram: @peboryon

Now go get sculpting and try out what you learned today!

Rachel of Rachel's Enchanting Cakes in Chesterfield, UK recently got her hands on a Sugar Structure cake armature. She dropped us a line to tell us how much she loved working with Sugar Structures, and how easy it was to use. Don't take our word for it; listen to what she has to say!

"I am from the UK and recently purchased the Two legged Running Kit from you at Cake International.
Its absolutely AMAZING. I have fallen in love with it and making it my mission to open peoples eyes at just how innovative and amazing this product is!
I have literally just published this [video] to promote your product and show people just how easy it is to use."

Here's the video! Watch how easy it is to use a Sugar Structure and see this amazing Teddy Bear cake come to life!

If you're not following Rachel yet, you definitely should be! She makes incredible cakes and has a YouTube channel full of great tutorials showing you how to do it, too! Find her at these links:

Website: www.rachelsenchantingcakes.com
Facebook: @rachelsenchantingcakes
Instagram: @rachelsenchantingcakes
Twitter: @RachelsEnchant1
YouTube: Rachel's Enchanting Cakes

The Harry Potter fans among our ranks will know that today is the release date of the newest film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. What better way to celebrate an exciting new magical yarn than with cake?

Birthday Mischief Managed is a Wizarding World inspired collaborative cake project founded in July 2014 by Chef Mitchie of Mitchie's Munchies. Generally timing their annual reveals to coincide with Harry's (and author JK Rowling's) birthday, the project brings together talented artists from around the world who share a passion for all things Magic.

This year, to mark the highly anticipated new movie, the group has shifted their reveal from HP's birthday to the film's release. Likewise, this year's cakes all draw inspiration from the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise.

Here at Sugarworks, we are HUGE wizarding dorks. So naturally we were super stoked to learn that many of the artists involved used our tools in the creation of their magical masterpieces! Take a look at some of what's in store!

Laura of Dalton Cupcakes in New South Wales created a cake demonstrating what might happen if someone other than Newt Scamander opened his suitcase!

"Sugar Shapers are very versatile with a variety of mediums, I've used them with fondant, gumpaste and modelling chocolate. The silicone texture doesn't snag like regular hard plastic fondant tools and the variety of different tips/sizes/firmness means there's one for pretty much any job. Plus, they're comfortable to use."

★

Hiromi of Haute Sweets Doodles used her Mini-Tip Sugar Shapers to sculpt Newt emerging from his suitcase while a niffler rummages through a scattering of shiny objects.

Hiromi's tiny, intricate details call for a closer look. Check out those teeny necklaces and the texture in the niffler's fur!

"My Sugar Shapers are an invaluable tool to my work! They’re perfect for making detailed sugar pieces!"

★

For those of you smart enough not to open that suitcase, check out the work of Hailey from Hailey's Sweet Temptations in Virginia! Hailey used Sugar Shapers to model this realistic (and safely latched!) suitcase.

★

Jessica of Miss Shortcakes in Malaysia took a step back and used her Sugar Shapers to model a NYC facade with fantastic beasts spilling out of the windows onto the street below and the roof above!

★

Other artists chose to focus in on just one beast. Check out this amazing thunderbird by Shannon of Sweet Art Cake Company.

Or this zen-like creature that Liz of Liz's Cake Art dreamed up!

Chef Mitchie herself always contributes to the Birthday Mischief Managed projects. Check out her bowtruckle, Pickett among the potion bottles!

She's also made a little video showing exactly how she used Sugar Shapers and Sugarworks' Artists' Brushes to get that perfect wood grain for her base.
 
"Sugar Shapers are my sidekicks when I'm working on projects that require details that need to look legit. I'm especially fond of their ability to make wood grain out of soft mediums like fondant and modeling chocolate. And the Artists Brush set?! I have several! I love them so much, they don't shed, keep their shape, and don't rust. The larger brushes are fantastic for wider coverage, which were perfect for painting the 'wood plank' on my project. I also used the smaller brushes to shade the wafer foliage and detail bottles. And I gave my turntable a good workout on this project; good thing I have the expander!"

★

If you want to see the full line-up of magical mischief, check out the Birthday Mischief Managed website, Facebook, and Instagram! The big reveal is today, so you can feast your eyes on magical cakes before setting out to the theater for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald!

‘We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.’  -Joanne Rowling

Last year we took Halloween as the opportunity to spotlight a new, up-and-coming cake artist with a ton of skill, a ton of potential, and a real knack for making really gruesome edible horror-art. Well, the past year has been epic for Andrew Fuller of Guy Meets Cake, so we invited him back to defend his reigning title as King of Halloween!

By now you've probably heard the name Guy Meets Cake, whether from his viral "People Pot Pies" featured on sites like Atlas Obscura and Mashable, from his appearance on this year's Halloween Baking Championship, or just from seeing his bizarre cakes circulating the Internet (realistic placenta cake commissioned for a hospital party? hmmm...) Today, Andrew is going to show you how he made a dissectable anatomy cake, complete with organs that "bleed" when you cut into them. 

Well, here we are boils and ghouls! A year has passed and the spooks over at Innovative Sugarworks were insane enough to invite me back for this year's October guest feature. I DO BELIEVE they get credit for being the first to call me the King of Halloween, and now it is my obligation to defend the worthiness of that title.

So what have I conjured up this Halloween? It only feels right to really freak them out. Give them a cake they aren't sure if they have the guts to cut into. I have decided to share with you a step-by-step on how I created this realistic anatomy cake with a set of ribs and lungs that lift off to reveal a removable bleeding heart, and modeling chocolate guts. 

ON WITH IT!!

First thing's first, we need to bake some cakes! For this project, I baked two quarter sheet cakes of Red Velvet and one quarter sheet of Devil's Food. You can find my Devil's Food Cake recipe on another Innovative Sugarworks blog.

For the Red Velvet, I like to use this recipe that I found in a dusty old recipe box belonging to my mother, who may have gotten it from my great-grandmother, a great inspiration to my love for baking. I also use vanilla bean sugar, which is basically splitting a vanilla bean or two lengthwise and storing them in an appropriate container of sugar. It adds that something extra to the outcome of your cake and the longer you keep it, the more intense the sugar becomes.

You will need:

• 3 cups cake flour, sifted 
• 3 cups vanilla bean sugar (or you can use regular granulated sugar) 
• 1/2 cup dutch process cocoa powder 
• 1 tbsp instant espresso powder (optional) 
• 1/2 cup corn starch 
• 1 1/2 tsp pink Himalayan sea salt 
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp baking soda 
• 1 1/2 tsp white vinegar
• 4 large eggs 
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted 
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk 
• 1 cup milk 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1 tbsp Flaming Sword Elite Color Dusts by The Sugar Art 
• 1 tbsp Americolor Super Red gel food coloring 

Treat a quarter sheet pan with GOOP (equal parts shortening, vegetable oil, and flour) and line 2 with parchment.
In a stand mixer, combine all dry ingredients and mix on low until combined. Add eggs, melted butter, buttermilk, milk, vinegar, vanilla and food colorings, and mix at a medium speed until completely smooth, roughly 2-3 minutes.

Pour the batter into the pans, filling 2/3rd of the way to the top. Bake at 325 for 38-44 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack for 10-20 minutes before turning onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Cover completely while still warm and refrigerate to keep cake moist. Chill completely.

The best laid plans...

Now it's time to map out the cake! I searched a lot of images online, found a design i liked, and enlarged it enough to span 4 standard 8/12"x 11" sheets of paper. I cut them out and lined them up with each other, taping them together. There's my template! 

Lay your template on a piece of 1/4" foam board and cut out a board for your sheet cakes. Now place your chilled cakes onto the board, lay the stencil on top and cut out the basic shape of your design. The colder your cakes are, the easier it will be to carve them without any breaking or crumbling. And because this guy is a big cake, I'm using my Turntable Expander. He fits pretty nicely on there and otherwise I'd be balancing boards on my turntable.

Carving out the flesh

Slowly, with a serrated bread knife, start carving some shape and dimension to your cake, being careful not to take away too much cake. Round out the shoulders, take off the edges on torso and carve in your neck and chest. When you're happy with your shape, remove the top layer.

On a clean cake board, take your top layer and cut out the "good stuff" (the GUTS!) from the template and carefully carve out the cavity. SAVE THOSE CAKE SCRAPS! You'll be using them to make the heart.

Line up your first layer of red velvet, ice with ganache or buttercream, and carefully slide the top layer of cake from the board you carved it on in its place. IF you break any pieces, it's cool. Just glue them back together with your ganache or buttercream. If, like me, you're using devil's food for the bottom half, do the same here. Ice the entire cake with a light crumb coat and chill. For the second coat, use a Sugar Smoother to get those smooth rounded out curves and if you need to, use warm water and gloved hand to smooth it out. Return to refrigerator to chill. 

A bloody delight 

Time to make a little blood! (For the bleeding heart, of course.) In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 2 tbsp water, and 1 tbsp of fresh squeezed lemon juice. Simmer until raspberries have broken down and sugar is completely dissolved. Press through a chinois or fine mesh strainer, and chill completely.

Be still my heart...

To make the heart, add ganache to some scraps of cake and combine with gloved hands until you achieve a clay like consistency. I'm never precise with this, so I would say add a tablespoon of ganache at a time until you get there.

Let chill for 15 minutes. Take out a ball of your cake clay about the size of a tennis ball and roughly shape out a heart. Wrap it in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.

Now we add the raspberry "blood" that will ooze out when you cut into it. 

Make a well in your chilled heart for the sauce. I melted some coating chocolate, tinted it with some Flaming Sword Elite Color dust, and painted the well, making sure there were no open spots.

Let that harden in the freezer for a couple of minutes, and then fill 3/4 of the way with your sauce. Normally, I cut off enough of the TOP of the heart to create my well, then I paint the underside of that top piece with more coating chocolate and while it's still melted, secure it back in place. This time, I tried it from the underside of the heart. I think slicing off the top is easier, but both work. You do what works best for you. Now you have a barrier insider your heart that keeps it from seeping into the cake clay before you cut it. Allow to chill for a few minutes, then cover with modeling chocolate.

I used the firm pointed chisel Mini-Tip Sugar Shaper to create lines for texture and muscle fibers and the soft bone chisel Mini-Tip Sugar Shaper (that's the orange one) to sculpt in some arteries and define the chambers of the heart.

To color the heart, I used Sugarworks' Artists' Brushes to dry brush the arteries, the chambers, and along the perimeter of the heart using some more Flaming Sword Elite Color dust. Then I used a fine tip brush to add in some smaller veining. I mixed together some of the Flaming Sword and Ice Blue Elite Color dusts until I got a deeper shade of a reddish purple and went back in around the perimeter, blending it with the red to add some depth and dimension, as well as hitting spots with creases or crevices.

As an added option, you can also mix a bit of color dusts with vegetable shortening to create a paint. Then you can stipple on even more more color with a piece of paper towel. If you make any mistakes or add too much color, just use a clean piece of paper towel and some vegetable shortening to buff it away.

A place to keep my heart...

OK! Use your heart to figure out how much space you need to take out of your torso cake. Once you carve that out, it's time to cover! I decided to do this in two steps. First, I used white modeling chocolate to cover the cavity that all the goodies will be squished into.

Pressing it into the hole I created for the heart, I then take the firm mini pointed tip Sugar Shaper to carve in some muscle fibers. You don't necessarily have to do this, but I wanted the cake to look cool even after the heart was ripped out. Using the same dusting and wiping away techniques as I did with the heart, I color the hole and texture I just took the time to carve in.

Check your work and see if the heart fits into its hole. Remove the heart.

Now for skin

We're going for corpse skin here, so I'm going to make my own modeling chocolate using a color combination for creepy, dead-ish skin that I've perfected with much practice:
Melt 5 cups of white candy melts in the microwave in 30 second increments. To get the "sort of dead looking, but maybe a little freshly dead" skin color with a slight translucent effect, add 2 drops of soft pink, 1 drop of leaf green, and just a toothpick dip of ivory gel colors to 1 cup of light corn syrup and heat in microwave for 20 seconds, just enough to make it runny and not so cold it shocks the melted candy.

Fold the corn syrup into the melted candy JUST UNTIL it is fully mixed and the consistency changes to a soft ice cream consistency. Turn onto a cookie sheet covered in cling film. Spread out your mixture and cover with more cling film. Leave it to cool for at least an hour.

After an hour, unwrap and knead the chocolate (it will be firm) until it becomes smooth and pliable with no lumps. If you have lumps, you can pop it in the microwave for 5 seconds at a time and knead them out. Now that you have your modeling chocolate in the perfectly creepy and lifeless greyish-pink shade, knead it together with equal portions modeling chocolate to fondant until fully combined. I used Renshaw Ivory fondant.

If you used ganache to cover your cake, lightly coat the surface of the cake with vegetable shortening. On a clean surface dusted with a blend of cornstarch and confectioner's sugar, roll out your fondant/modeling chocolate to about an 1/8".

If you have the Sugarworks Artists' Turntable and Turntable Expander, this next part is SO MUCH easier. Roll your chocolate onto a dusted rolling pin and quickly cover the cake. Ensure all areas are covered and smoothed down quickly. Then, using the SOFT large bone tip Sugar Shaper, start creating the definitions of crevices in the neck, arms, etc. until it's nice, smooth, and well defined. Cut away the section that was already covered earlier for the cavity. 

The guts of the matter

TIME FOR THE GOOD STUFF!! My client wanted the guest of honor to be able remove the heart and cut into it. But anatomically speaking, the heart is obscured by the lungs and ribs.

So first thing's first. Using the template AND your covered cake for reference, cut out a piece of cake board and cover with modeling chocolate for the lungs/ribs.

I defined the sternum and ribs with the soft bone chisel Mini-Tip Sugar Shaper. And I gave texture to the lungs and added little porous textures to the bones with the mini soft tip pointed chisel.

I painted the lungs with the reddish purple color dust blend i created earlier and wiped it away with some shortening and a paper towel so it just stained the chocolate and stayed in the crevices. I did this same thing with the ribs and a bit of cocoa powder mixed with corn starch.

Because it is on a cake board, if the heart sits up a little, you can gently bend the board to create an arched effect of the ribs, which also add a little extra realism and dimension. Set aside.

I created my organs all from the fondant chocolate blend that I created earlier, in the order they fit into the body. In other words, some organs are on top of and/or obscure others. Once they are in, they are in. So take that into account, pull out your old anatomy textbooks, (or, you know- Google it because it's 2018...) and save yourself a headache.

For me, I put the heart in place, and started with the stomach, creating a general shape and adding a few wrinkles and creases. Next up, the large intestine. I hand shaped a piece to fit that was roughly a banana and placed it in the cavity under the stomach.

I then shaped the large intestine using the soft tip bone chisel Sugar Shaper to get the shape I wanted.

For the small intestines, roll out a long tube of chocolate slightly thicker than a pencil. I found it easier to cut that into sections and just kind of work them into their rightful home, watching the curves and turns I saw in the template.

For the liver, I essentially paid attention to the template and created what I felt best resembled a liver....and maybe a chicken breast, going back to check and see that it fit it neatly under the heart, above the large intestine, and slightly overlapping the stomach.

I painted everything with the same techniques and color palette as earlier with the heart. The liver was exclusively the purple color, while the rest had a little of both the purple and the red.

After checking to see that the ribs and lungs fit nicely once everything was added in, I used some remaining pieces of the homemade modeling chocolate to create the skin that had to be cut away to reveal the organs. To give it that gnarled fatty look of the skin tissue, I used both ends of the firm regular AND Mini-Tip Sugar Shapers bone chisels.

Cut them to size and secure with a bit of water. Once again, I used the dust and wipe technique here.

Finishing touches

I created the clamps that hold open the chest and abdomen by tinting some modeling chocolate to a pewter color, then cut them out with sharp blade and dusted with metallic silver color dust.

And because the devil is in the details, (and this IS the season for devils!) I used a skewer and more of the pewter chocolate to create a trocar. A trocar is a surgical instrument with a three-sided cutting point enclosed in a tube, used for withdrawing fluid from a body cavity. I had one on hand and, what can I say? It inspired me.

By adding a touch of Flaming Sword Elite Color dust to some clear piping gel, I made a little blood to spatter on the cake board. After conferring with my client and to add to the realism, I decided the best option for a cake board was to use a stainless steel tray.

For that final creepy effect, I SPARINGLY and methodically used an alternation of vegetable oil and confectioner's glaze to give all of the organs and the ribcage that wet, freshly splayed open look.

THERE YOU HAVE IT. This cake was fun, challenging, and most definitely wowed the crowd. If you're looking to up your Halloween game this year, this should do the trick.

Oh, and HEY....catch me on season 4 of Food Network's Halloween Baking Championship and watch me compete against other talented bakers for $25,000, airing Monday nights at 9/8C.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Yours CRUELLY,
King of Halloween.....I mean....Andrew Fuller.

We hope you were super grossed out by this dissectable anatomy cake! And we hope you're now inspired to make something ghastly yourself this Halloween! If you want to see more of Andrew's weird, kooky, creepy, and gruesome edibles, here's where you can find him:

Facebook: @guymeetscake
Instagram: @guymeetscake
And check out his new collaborative project, Sugar Freakshow!

And if you want to see the cutting of that bleeding heart, you can watch the video his client shot on Facebook!

Viki Kane is the owner of SugarKane Cakes & Confections in Encinitas, CA. Since opening in 2012, she has proven herself to be not only a talented baker, but a skilled decorator as well. Along with running her business, Viki has appeared in numerous wedding blogs and cake publications, as well as television appearances on several Food Network shows. She was the first 2x Cake Wars winner and most recently, winner of Wedding Cake Championship. She has also been featured on the series, Ridiculous Cakes.

Television craziness aside, Viki enjoys sharing her talents through teaching and involvement in community programs like Icing Smiles and Depressed Cake Shop. Inspiring others to embrace their own creativity and try something new is something she finds immensely gratifying.

Today Viki is going to talk to us about the giving nature of bakers and the importance of good planning in executing the magic of a perfect cake.

As a baker and decorator, it’s always nice to be able to give in such a unique way to family and friends on special occasions. It’s a lovely reminder as to why I do what I do and always brings me back to why I originally began baking so many years ago. Bakers are, by nature, givers and nothing makes us happier than seeing the joy in the faces of the recipients of our creations.

When Michael and Paul asked me to be a part of their 4th of July wedding celebration, there wasn’t much deciding to do. The wedding would be held on Camano Island, about an hour north of Seattle, and is absolutely gorgeous during the summer. I’ll be at the wedding anyway- of course I’ll make the cake! Oh, and while I’m at it, why not make some custom shortbread cookies for all the guests too! Oh Lord….what have I gotten myself into!?!

Since I live in southern California, I had to figure out the logistics of how to make all of this happen. Baking away from the comfort of your own kitchen always presents challenges, often ones you don’t realize until you are in the middle of it all. Proper planning is crucial, especially when working in unfamiliar territory. You need to make sure you have all the proper tools, ingredients, baking equipment, adequate work space, adequate storage space, and know how to transport the finished product safely and effectively.

Fortunately, we bakers are a close-knit community and always willing to help each other out when duty calls. A good friend of mine who lives in Seattle was planning to be out of town the same week we were planning to visit. How’s that for luck? She, of course, kindly offered up her home, kitchen, and any tools and supplies I may need to complete my cake. I knew she would have all the same quality supplies I’m used to in my own kitchen, so that meant less I had to pack. Woohooo!

I arrived 3 days early to allow plenty of time to shop for ingredients, bake all the cakes, make the fillings and buttercream, decorate, and allow for any hiccups along the way. Baking day had arrived, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. I opened up the windows, turned on some tunes, and set to work. In between bakes, I had time to check out the stunning view from the back deck. Not a bad day in the kitchen, not bad at all.

Cakes baked, buttercream made, lemon curd set…..time to start assembling! Having an Innovative Sugarworks Artists' Turntable handy was such a huge help. I absolutely love mine at home, but wasn’t looking forward to traveling with it. Even though it’s pretty lightweight, the less I had to bring, the better. This thing is a workhorse! It’s sturdy, level, has a non-slip base, and has a clever locking mechanism on the side for those times when you just need your cake to stay put.

It’s the morning of the wedding; the cake is all put together, perfectly chilled, and ready for transport! I was thrilled to have access to yet another handy Innovative Sugarworks product, the Cake Porter! My cake fit perfectly inside the medium sized model. All I needed was a little non-slip mat on the bottom, just for extra assurance, and we were good to go. And with the clever insulated cover, the cake stayed nice and cool during the long ride to the wedding. The cake and cookies all arrived safe and sound!

I just needed to place a few fresh flowers on the cake and wait for show time. To make things a little easier on myself, I baked, decorated, and packaged the cookies ahead of time and brought them onto the flight as carry on….one less thing to worry about.

The ceremony was incredibly lovely and touching, with absolutely gorgeous weather and scenery to top it off. Can’t think of anything that could have made it better….oh wait! A surprise polka band coming through the forest to get the dancing started! And if that wasn’t perfect enough, the beautiful firework display over the water after the sun set was stunning. What an incredible day and night! Congratulations to a truly amazing couple that I am so proud to call friends…..may you have many love and laughter filled years together!

We hope you've enjoyed this uplifting journey along with Viki as she used her incredible talents to give her friends a breathtaking cake for their special day! Truly a memorable piece for their memorable day!

If you want to keep up with Viki, follow Sugar Kane Cakes and Confections on social media:

Facebook: Sugar Kane Cake and Confections
Instagram: @sugar_kane

Tissi Benvegna is the owner of La Torta che Vuoi Tu and inventor of TLook eye tools. Best known for her amazing doll-like sculpted sugar figurines, Tissi developed TLook to make face modeling quicker, easier, and more accessible to new artists and professionals alike.

Today, Tissi is going to demonstrate how she made an adorable cat out of sugarpaste using Mini-Tip Sugar Shapers and TLook eye tools.

 We hope you enjoyed this tutorial! You can learn more about Sugar Shapers here:
https://www.sugarworks.com/collections/sugar-shapers
And about TLook here:
https://www.sugarworks.com/products/tlook

And you want to keep up with all Tissi's new creations, follow her online:
Website: www.latortachevuoitu.it
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You might recognize Jamie Louks as the face of Jamie Nicole Cakes, or from her super-fab face sculpting video tutorial. Today Jamie is going to demonstrate how she stacked and sculpted cake on an Innovative Sugarworks Sugar Structure to make this adorable lion cake for a school reunion!

First things first- you've got to decide what size cakes you're going to use, and how many. This lion had to feed a lot of people, so he's got to support a lot of cake. I had a few options on how I wanted to distribute the cake, but I thought the cutest look for this lion would be a huge head with a relatively smaller body. That would give him a cartoonish, exaggerated cuteness that I thought would be a real crowd pleaser.

So I used 10" round cakes for his head and 6" square cakes for his body. I baked four of each size (the squares will get placed side by side for a 6" x 12" rectangle) and before I started stacking I used a cake leveler to level the tops flat, and to cut each cake in half for twice as many layers when stacked. Having more thinner layers serves the dual purpose of extra deliciousness (more frosting!) and making the cake easier to carve because there's more buttercream to firm up.

The next thing you've got to do is assemble your armature, affix it to your base board, and add the cake boards that will support your cake. Sugar Structures are completely interchangeable, with pre-made kits available as well as individual components. So you really can design an armature to fit your vision. For this lion, I started with the Standing 4-Legged kit and customized its head with some expansion components to support the massive cake-head I'd envisioned. If you're deviating farther from the kits, I recommend you sketch out your design, measure your sketch for scale, and put the whole thing together a few days before your cake project just to be sure everything goes the way you'd planned.

The base plate will need to be screwed into your  base board. I use a power drill because it's super fast, but a hand screw driver can work, too. Assemble your armature and stand it on your baseboard so you can shift it around until you get a position you like. Then trace around the base plate and mark where the screws will go. Now take the base plate off your armature, line it up with your marks, and screw it into the board.

*Note: We recommend a 1/2" or 12mm thick plywood for the base.

Once you have your armature constructed on your base board, it's time to add the cake board. I took the top neck segment with the head washers off so they wouldn't get in my way. For his body, I used an 11" x 5.5" foamcore board. If you recall, my body cakes will equal 12" x 6", so I've got a little overhang to cut off as I carve the body. This design is pretty stable, with his body evenly distributed on a plane parallel to the ground, so I'm just going to set one board on the frame, using ganache to help adhere it. It's a little hard to see in the video, but I've carved out gullies for the armature to nest in so the board sits firmly in place. I'll include a still image so you can see:

The weight of the cake will keep the board in place pretty darn well, but later I'll add crispy rice treats to the underside for further stability (as well as to shape his belly!)

Next you'll stack your cakes on his body board. This is mostly just like stacking any cake. The only real difference is the rods for the neck and tail sticking up. I just slid my cakes over them, but you want to exercise care when you do this so your cakes don't break apart. If you're worried about the damage, you can also cut a small piece of cake out before you stack each layer. I alternated the filling of each layer between a strawberry buttercream and a lemon basil curd. You'll notice after the second layer my cakes were level with the end of my tail rod. At this point I added in the wire that will be his long, tufted tail. Then I just continued stacking until all my cakes were on.

And now we carve! Carving is where you first really start to exercise your artistic eye. If you're having trouble envisioning the shape your cake needs to become, reference images can be super-duper helpful. This can be a drawing you've made of your cake idea, or photos and graphics from books or the Internet. Any of those will give you a good image to compare your work to and keep yourself on track.

Here are some tips that I've found useful:

• Start with your cake as cold as possible. The colder your cake is, the firmer it will be and the cleaner your cuts will be. 
• Use a long, thin knife with a little flex to it. (Bread knives generally work well). 
• Carve at an angle rather than straight up-and-down. This will give you smoother lines, more organic shapes, and lessen the risk of accidentally cutting off too much. 
• Use small cuts! It's easy to keep carving more off, but not so easy to add cake back on. So cut small amounts off and go slowly.
• Save those scraps! (Ok, you can eat a little, but save most of them- they're super useful) Mash your scraps up with some buttercream like you're making cake pop dough. This is now an excellent building medium for adding shape to your sculpted cake! You can see in this video that I added some at the front and back of the body to build up his shoulders and rump.

Once I had his basic body shape carved, I used RKT to form his legs and the underside of his belly. Using cake for these small parts is problematic and usually isn't worth the trouble for the small amount of servings you get out of it. You can use modeling chocolate for these if you prefer, but like I've mentioned- I love RKT. I used a white chocolate ganache to help adhere the RKT to his body board and to add firmness and stability.

Next, I went back in with a smaller knife to refine the shape of the body and legs. Once it was where I wanted it, I covered the whole thing in ganache and smoothed it out with my Sugar Smoothers. 

Now I'm ready to work on the head. I used 6" and 9.5" foamcore rounds for my cake boards for the head. The 6" will go at the bottom and the 9.5" will be in the mid-point, or widest part, of his head. I prepped my round cakes by doing an initial basic carve on my Turntable Expander before I stacked them on my lion.

Once I've prepped my rounds, I can stack them on my Sugar Structure. I've got a 4" Sugar Structure washer at the base of his neck to give me a stable, flat surface for my first round cake board (the 6" one). At this point I stack and fill my layers just like any cake. When I've got half of my rounds stacked, I'm ready for my 9.5" cake board. I used bubble tea straws to support the weight of the upper head cake, just like you would if you were stacking a normal tiered cake. And before I placed the 9.5" board, I added another 4" Sugar Structure washer for added support and stability.

Now all that's left is carving this sphere into a more head-like shape. The same carving tips as above apply here. And just like the body, once I had the shape where I wanted it I covered the whole head in ganache and smoothed it out.

His head looks surprisingly geometric before I put his face on, but once you've made a couple sculpted character cakes you'll get the hang of how much detail you really need in your carving and how much is really about modeling the fondant blend you cover with and the outer components and accessories. 

That's all folks! I hope you found this tutorial helpful and informative, and I hope you're all jazzed up to try your own sculpted cake now!

If you want to keep up with my latest creations and tutorials, follow me on social media!
Facebook: Jamie Nicole Cakes
Instagram: jamienicolecakes

You probably recognize Joyce Marcellus as the face of Toxic Sweets Shop. But did you know Joyce has been creating edible art for over 10 years? She specializes in hyper realistic food made from different sugar mediums.

In addition to running Toxic Sweets Shop, Joyce is co-creator of Sweets University and The Cake Bar Cake Show alongside fellow cake artist Kassy Jimenez. She has been featured in numerous magazines including Cake Masters and The American Cake Decorating Magazine, among others. Most recently, Joyce won Cake Wars Season 4 Episode 6 on Food Network!

Today, Joyce is going to show you how to replicate 2 popular ice cream truck items you may recognize from your youth. But there's a catch! As with all of Joyce's creations, things are not what they seem... These "ice cream" treats aren't ice cream at all! Read on to see what she's done!

With Summer here, our days are filled with ice cream truck music! And what better way to pay homage to the delights of summer than with a sugarcraft tribute to two popular ice cream truck items? I'm going to show you how I made a Tweety Bird pop and a classic ice cream sandwich out RKT and fondant. And as an added bonus- Rice Krispies don't melt in the summer heat!

Tweety Bird Ice Cream Supplies: 

• 6 Rice Krispie Treat Packages
• Yellow Edible Art Paint
• White Edible Art Paint
• Sky Blue Food Color (Americolor)
• Orange Airbrush Color (Americolor)
• Innovative Sugarworks Sugar Shapers Pointed Chisel (Blue 6) Square Tip Chisel ( Yellow 4) Bone Chisel (Orange 2) Trip-Tip Chisel (Orange 1) 
• 2 Paint Brushes
• Paint pallets
• Rolling Pin
• Pizza Cutter
• Mat
• White Fondant ( Satinice )
• Ice pop Stick (Any craft store)

Directions:

Step 1
Unwrap 6 packages of rice crispy treats and start to press and shape into tweety birds head. (Use google image for reference).

Step 2
Use your Sugar Shapers Bone Chisel (Orange 2) to make eye ball indentations and to form the cheeks. Use the Trip-tip chisel (Red 1) to make better indentations on the cheeks. Use the Pointed chisel (Blue 6) to shape the mouth.

Step 3
Roll out the white fondant, thick enough to cover the rice texture. Cover the top and cut the excess. Then pick up and lay a second piece of rolled out white fondant and trim excess, just like you would panel a cake.

Step 4
Using your Sugar Shapers Bone Chisel (Orange 2) re-indent the eyes.

Step 5
Take a small amount of white fondant and color with your sky blue food color. Once the right color is achieved, roll two small balls for the "gumball" eyes.

Step 6
To paint the mouth, mix a dot of orange airbrush color with yellow edible art paint. Using a fine brush, paint the mouth.

Step 7
Using yellow edible art paint, paint the entire face, being careful around the eyes and mouth. Use your Sugar Shapers Square Tip chisel (Yellow 4) to create a indentation for the ice pop stick and insert stick.

Tah-dah! A convincing, yet unmeltable Tweety pop! And now on to the ice cream sandwich!

Ice cream Sandwich Supplies:

• 2-Rice Krispie Treats Packages
• Chocolate Brown Food Color ( Americolor )
• Black Food Color (Americolor)
• Innovative Sugarworks Sugar Shaper Pointed Chisel (Blue 6)
• Rolling Pin
• Pizza Cutter
• Mat
• White Fondant 1lb ( Satinice )

Step 1
Remove Rice Krispie Treats from packaging and squeeze together short side to short side to create the right dimensions for the ice cream portion of the sandwich.

Step 2
Using your rolling pin, roll the two treats to flatten and help blend the seams.

Step 3
Roll out white fondant thick enough to cover the texture of the rice. Once rolled out, place your fondant over the treats and trim the excess.

Step 4
Mix a portion of the white fondant with the brown gel food color and a smaller portion of the black food color. Then add a little black at a time to get a nice dark chocolate color.

Step 5
Roll out the dark chocolate fondant. Place your "ice cream" block on top of the rolled out fondant and use your pizza cutter to cut out the cookie thins for the sandwich.

Step 6
Repeat for the top cookie thin of the sandwich. Then use your Sugar Shapers Pointed Chisel to make indentation holes.

And there you have an imposter ice cream sandwich! I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial, and enjoy fooling your  friends with these "ice cream" treats!

This is Joyce’s first time using Innovative Sugarworks Sugar Shapers and she states “Now i understand why they are loved and essentials tools for the sweets artist!” She is working on a full ice cream truck tutorial coming soon using our 2 Legged Running Sugar Structure and Sugar Shapers with these ice cream treats added! Make sure to subscribe to Toxic Sweets Shop to find out when and where it will be released!

To learn more food tutorials check out her “ A La Carte ” online restaurant with many individual food tutorial from broccoli to fish!
www.ToxicSweetsShop.com

And follow her on social media!
Instagram: @toxicsweetsshop
Facebook: toxicsweetsshop