Photo Gallery: Ready Set, Cut! ...your cake designs

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1. For a princess cake, begin by creating a crown. Sheet gumpaste to 1.5 mm to 2 mm thick. Use the cutting machine to cut out all the pieces for the crown, including a decorative band and flowers. The files needed for this cake can be downloaded from www. /var/www/pisces/www/site-files/modern-baking.com/files/archive/modern-baking.com/modern-baking. You also can use them as a template and cut the gumpaste with an X-Acto knife. The tiara at the bottom of the photo was cut out at the same time for a different project.
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2. Wrap the large section of the crown around a cut-off 2-liter soda bottleﾖthe crown is sized to fit exactly. Glue the sides together with CMC (carboxy methyl cellulose) glue. Then, glue the smaller decorative band around the bottom, overlapping the seam by about a quarter inch to lend stability. Allow the crown to dry for about 24 hours.
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3. Use a ball tool to indent the centers of the gumpaste flowers. Roll the small circles of gumpaste into pearls.
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4. Once the crown is dry, lightly coat it with vegetable shortening. Then, over a sheet pan, sprinkle edible rainbow glitter over the crown until it is well covered. The vegetable shortening helps the glitter stick to the gumpaste, and pouring the glitter over a sheet pan allows you to catch the excess glitter to use again.
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5. Attach a flower in the center of each point of the crown using buttercream or CMC glue. Coat the gumpaste pearls with pink edible glitter, and place one in each of the flower centers using buttercream or CMC glue. The completed crown can be made ahead of time and kept in dry storage, or you can keep the parts separate and put them together as needed for custom orders.
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6. Use the software for the cutting machine to create a template for flowers of different sizes. Gumpaste for decorations that donﾒt need to stand upright should be sheeted to 1 mm to 1.5 mm thick.
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7. The machine cuts the flowers out of the gumpaste quickly and easily.
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8. Use a ball tool to indent the centers of the flowers, and place them on bubble wrap to dry into a slightly curved shape. These can be made in advance in large quantities so they are ready to place on a cake at any time.
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9. Cut a cameo template out of cardboard or heavy paper, and center it on a quarter-sheet cake. The template can be made using the cutting machine. Airbrush pink over the entire cake, creating a gradient effect with darker pink at the bottom and lighter pink at the top. Airbrush yellow starting around the cameo and going halfway down the side of the cake.
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10. After airbrushing, remove the template. Pipe a white wavy ribbon bottom border using tip No. 104. Overpipe the bottom border with a reverse shell border using tip No. 17 and a pink and white striped bag. Add a white triple-layer border around the cameo using tip No. 101.
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11. Cover the entire cake with pearl dust using an airbrush. Add lime green vines with tip No. 3. Place the gumpaste crown in the corner of the sheet cake. After the gumpaste flowers have dried, arrange them on the piped vines. Pipe a pink or yellow dot in the middle of each flower with tip No. 3. Add leaves with leaf tip No. 352 in the same green as the vine. Complete the cake by sprinkling a small amount of rainbow glitter on the top of the cake.
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1. For a tiered rubber ducky cake, stack a three-layer 6-in. round on top of a three-layer 8-in. round. Cover the entire cake with lime green fondant. You can use one sheet of fondant since it is a small cake, or you can cover each tier individually before stacking.
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2. Use the cutting machine and software cartridge to cut two layers of waves out of blue gumpaste. One should be smaller than the other to make the lapping waves appear random. If you want a more uniform overlap, cut the waves the same size and trim one at the bottom.
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3. Cut yellow ducks out of gumpaste using the machine and software. Adhere them to the bottom tier of the cake using CMC glue or buttercream. The heads of the ducks should extend slightly above the top of the tier.
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4. Add the larger layer of blue waves around the base of the cake, adhering it with CMC glue or buttercream. Slightly offset the second, shorter wave on the first wave. Pipe orange duckbills with tip No. 4 and add black eyes using tip No. 3.
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5. To create a topper for the cake, use the cutting machine to cut two numeral 1s out of blue gumpaste. Attach a wooden coffee stirrer to one of the numerals with CMC glue. Glue the second number onto the first. Then, attach a yellow duck to finish the topper.
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6. Cut the celebrantﾒs name out of blue gumpaste using the machine and software, or use a stencil and X-Acto knife. Attach the letters to the top tier of the cake with CMC glue or buttercream. Add the topper, and pipe white bubbles randomly on the cake with tip No. 6. Lightly coat the bubbles with edible rainbow glitter. For a finished look, cover the cake board with the same lime green fondant as the cake. Add a ribbon to the edge of the board with hot glue and pipe a few more bubbles.