Quintbelles Insider: Tonee and Rod

The bride, Tonee, saw a photo in a magazine and wanted something similar for her wedding cake. Her gown was gonna look frilly too so the cake design is perfect for her!

Original photo. This cake is inspired by Cake Concepts.

Her theme consisted of a wide array of colors but we decided to pick one particular color -- turquoise-- and designed the cake around it.

Photo from Chum

Front View

Cake Top

Insider tip: Use foams to prop up the skirt while it dries. Makes for better frills :)

The Thermometer

For the longest time, we have been eyeing candy thermometers. I don't know what took us so long before deciding to do so~ they're great for a multitude of things but best of all, you don't have to second guess the temperature of whatever it is you're doing.

Two recent cakes were made out of boiled icing and to make that icing, you'd need to boil sugar and water up to a certain degree 260degrees to be exact-- and since we didn't have this nifty gadget yet, we were eyeballing the temperature of the mixture.

Based on a chef (from cravings), you can test sugar temperature by using your fingers and some cold cold water.

Here is something I found on the internet:

Tests for Sugar Temperature

To water test, fill a small bowl with cold water, remove ½ teaspoon of sugar mixture from the saucepan and drop into water.
Leave for one minute, then test using thumb and forefinger.

Thread 110 - 114°C (230 - 238°F)
The sugar mixture will form a fine thread if pressed together then pulled apart.

Soft Ball 114 - 118°C (238 - 245°F)
The sugar mixture will form a soft ball which can be squashed flat.

Hard Ball 118 - 138°C (245 - 280°F)
The sugar mixture will form a ball which will hold its shape when pressed.

Small Crack 138 - 152°C (280 - 305°F)
The sugar mixture will separate into threads that will snap cleanly.

Hard Crack 152 - 163°C (305 - 325°F)
The sugar mixture will separate into threads which are brittle and hard.

Caramel 174°C (345°F)
The sugar mixture becomes golden in colour.

The problem with this is that it's not accurate. By the time you figured out which stage it is, it might already be too late. Hence, our two not quite perfect attempts on boiled icing. We dont have pictures to show though but trust me, it wasn't pretty!

Our third attempt though was perfect! It was the right consistency, it was easy to spread and was easy to decorate with. Now we just have to figure out how to make it smooth! Any tips?

Books on Cake Decorating

Over the years, we've purchased a lot of books on cake decorating. Here are some of our favorites:

Confetti Cakes Cookbook

We love this book because her cake are so dainty and pretty. Elisa Strauss also clearly explains how to make the fabulous using layman's terms! People without cake decorating backgrounds can still do it like a pro!

Cakes To Dream On

This book is by Colette Peters. The photos inside are just amazing but the degree of difficulty is really way up there-- after all, the tag line of the book is A Master Class in Decorating.

Ace of Cakes

Just because we're huge fans! And its good to know their concerns are our concerns too-- like having cutting lines on the back of stripes and delivery logistics issues!

Wouldn't it be great if some time in the future, Quintbelles will come out with a cake table book, too? Like Pastry Bin's Caked In Sugar!

Tips for Joining Bazaars

Below is a post we wrote two years ago for Filipina Homebakers Online Group (July 2008) *********** We are not expert bazaaristas, but a few stints the past few years taught us a couple of things: 1) sell a product that is unique. Some organizers make sure there are no redundant products so you won't compete in an event where there are 5 to 6 suppliers of cupcakes or brownies! But as homebakers, we should experiment and come up with new and exciting things to offer the market. 2) sometimes packaging matters When targeting the Christmas market, it is important that your super delish baked goodies come in pretty packaging too! It doesnt have to be extravagantly packaged, a simply christmas-y accent would do or maybe a gift card that comes with the goodies. 3) Consider the crowd attracted to the Bazaar. Location is very important. Different bazaars attract different crowds thus it affects what products will sell. A high end bazaar would most likely have people who prefer sugarfree goodies than a low end bazaar. 4) look for bazaar organizers with good reputation You'll get less headaches if the organizers are actually organized. Do they have specific media plan for the event? Flyers? Ads? Are there other activities to bring in bigger crowds? Will they be charging entrance fees? Note that its not bad to participate in bazaars with entrance fees, sometimes you actually know what kind of crowd will attend the event. Try to get feedback from other Bazaaristas. 5) Check the dates and time of the bazaar Are they open during the weekdays? weekends? What time are they open? During office or school hours? After office hours? How many days? If you are required to stay until closing, will you have someone to prepare for the following day's goodies? These are the things you have to consider. Make sure to ask whether the location is airconditioned or open air, covered or open space! Because Icings melt! 6) Calling cards (and flyers) are a must Not all visitors will buy during the event. They will probably buy a box or two and if they like your product, they might order by bulk! So always have calling cards ready 7) Start Planning! Christmas is around the corner! Most of the bazaars are starting to offer booths. So if you're planning to join, better start early! :) These are the things we feel important to share! Do you have others?

Decorating Tools

Quintbelles has been baking and cake decorating for about 15 years. If Malcolm Gladwell is correct, we are about to hit the big time soon. Calculating the total amount of time we've clocked in cake decorating, we have about 8,000 hours each! That's a lot of time in the kitchen, right? But we have to continue to learn new things!

Here are some things we'd like to share regarding Equipment and Tools we use:

Xacto blades are awesome.

For the longest time, we've been using disposable large cutter blades-- but xacto blades can make more intricate cuts and shape! Perfect for making chinese characters too!

Dry pastry brushes makes you feel like paleontologists excavating fossils but they're really perfect to brush away excess powdered sugar in the cake.

Wet pastry brushes are great for everything else-- painting on the cake and gluing pieces of sugar decos.

Not all cake deco tools are needed. Craft tools are great too! But make sure that to use them solely for cake decorating.

What tools can't you do without? Leave a comment! :)