Photo Gallery: Put a feather in your cake

by Dina Cimarusti, Alliance Bakery, MODERN-BAKING

Dec. 15, 2011

1. For the top tier, cover a 6-in. round with purple fondant. Cut scalloped pieces out of white and orange fondant, and layer them on the cake. Use a cutter to cut “v”s out of fondant and place them along the edge of the white scalloped design element. Roll a rope of white fondant and coil it around the top of the tier.
2. Cover the middle 8-in. round with orange fondant. Cut a strip of white fondant that is thicker in the middle and narrower at the ends. Place it around the bottom border of the tier.
3. For the bottom tier, cover a 12-in. round with purple fondant. Cut scalloped fondant pieces out of orange and white, and layer them on the cake. Outline the orange scallops with strips of tan fondant. Cut “v”s out of the tan fondant and place along the edge of the white scalloped decoration.
4. Use a small paintbrush to paint purple sideways “v”s along the tan border and straight lines down the white scalloped fondant. Then, accent the tan border by painting a thin purple line along the border.
5. Use tip No. 2 and purple royal icing to pipe lines in a sunburst pattern on the orange scalloped fondant. Make the lines thicker at the top and narrower at the bottom. Pipe an orange line of royal icing at the ends of the purple lines on the white scalloped fondant using a cut paper tube.
6. With a paintbrush and liquefied gold luster dust, paint the cutout “v”s outlining the white scalloped fondant.
7. Create round bezel settings out of white fondant. Roll the fondant into a small ball and flatten. Then, use the end of a dowel to hollow out the center of the disc. You will need eight settings for the entire cake.
8. Paint the settings using liquefied gold luster dust and attach one to each dip of the orange line. Roll balls of white fondant in pearl dust and place in the center of each gold setting. Cut an oblong half circle out of white fondant and place at the bottom center of the orange fondant. Use a combination of agar gel and gold luster dust to pipe a shell border using a cut paper tube.
9. On the top tier, recreate most of the design elements of the bottom tier, including the piped starburst, painted purple lines and piped orange outline. Paint the fondant “v”s with liquefied gold luster dust.
10. Attach the four remaining gold settings to the top tier, and place white fondant “pearls” in the center.
11. On the middle tier, use a paintbrush to paint a truncated line along the top and bottom of the white fondant border.
12. Create two large flowers out of white gumpaste. Use a paintbrush to paint a purple truncated line around the edge of the larger petal. Create a large gold center with a fondant pearl in the middle.
13. Shape purple and white plumes out of gumpaste, and after drying, place them on the second tier of the cake. Position the gumpaste flower in front of the plumes and add white gumpaste leaves that have been accented with liquefied gold luster dust.
14. On the top tier, use white, purple and orange plumes. Position the gumpaste flower on the edge of the tier and add white gumpaste leaves.
15. Finish the cake by piping simple gold bottom borders on the top and bottom tiers using a cut paper tube filled with agar gel and luster dust. Airbrush water over the entire cake to remove any excess icing or cornstarch.

Inspiration can come from the most ordinary places. An ad for china inspired this art deco cake design. The bold color combination is recreated with fondant and several fondant and gumpaste design elements. The simple geometric shapes used in this design create an eye-catching cake that will appeal to the mod customer.

Dina Cimarusti, head decorator at Alliance Bakery, Chicago, has been decorating for five years and previously worked for Cookies By Design and Jarosch Bakery, Elk Grove Village, Ill. She also has experience as a pastry chef.