Cake Decorating Time and Cost-Saving Tips

This beautiful baby cake was decorated by Shauna.

Let's face it, times are rough--even for us cake designers. Our members are great at sharing ways to save money with sugar art:

1. Use a cheap kitchen cabinet space saver to dry gumpaste flowers. - Dina
2. Wet and wring clean old towels and use in place of store bought baking strips. - Jessie
3. Make your own cake release by mixing equal parts of flour, shortening, and vegetable oil. - Jessie.
   
4. Fondant rolling pins are often expensive and are too small for large jobs. Take a trip to Home Depot or Lowe's plumbing aisle and pick up a piece of PVC pipe long enough to cover a large cake.- Dianna L.
   
5. Pick up a piece of clear vinyl from a fabric store to cover your working surface. You can use this to help pick up a large piece of fondant to drape your cake without sticking your fingers through it. Another thing is if you fold it in half and roll out your fondant in between it - it helps keep your fondant from drying as you roll it out. - Dianna
   
6. When not in use, a long bread tin can be used as a flower former. - Lynn
7. During your downtime, makes lots of buds and flowers in one color (such as white or light pastel). When you need to decorate a cake, airbrush or dust those stored flowers with color to suit the occasion. - Jessie
   

Great Stuff for Your Cake Displays and Cookie Bouquets!

Trying to save money on your cake displays? Why not think "out of the cake box" and make your own cake dummies? Great Stuff is an expandable urethane foam available in hardware stores. It is lightweight, does not contain fiberglass, and is great for molding cake dummies in shaped or character pans.
1. Prepare the pan by spraying thoroughly with vegetable cooking spray.
2. Cut a piece of cardboard the size of the pan.
3. In a well-ventilated area, fill the pan about 1/3 fill of the foam.
4. Place cardboard cut-out on top of the foam in the pan and press down firmly.
5. Put a couple of books on top of the cardboard to compress the expanding foam and to minimize air bubbles.
6. Let dry 1 hour and release from the pan. Let air dry overnight, then decorate!

Great Stuff is also great as a filler for clay pots when making Cookie Bouquets. Place pebbles or sand in the bottom of the pot and fill with the foam and air dry overnight. Cookie Sticks can be placed directly into the hardened foam.