Clark - Elegant Lace Cakes

www.stitchcraftcreate.co.uk

Over the last five to ten years, lace has had an enormous influence in the fashion world, particularly in the wedding industry. This trend was enhanced by the vintage phenomenon, which in turn made its way onto the cake scene. Those of you who are familiar with my work will know how much I love and am influenced by bridal lace, and many of the cakes in this book have been inspired by beautiful wedding dresses. But thats not completely it if you look anywhere in the world of fashion at the moment you will still see lace featuring heavily on all kinds of garments, from tops and trousers to shoes and scarves. Lace prints are also incredibly popular with stationers and graphic designers; often seen in wedding invitation design.

Traditional lace cake design dates back to the late nineteenth century, when bakers would carefully pipe with royal icing to create extremely elaborate centrepieces for wedding cakes; a technique that required great skill and patience. Nowadays, as trends in sugarcraft evolve and new products are becoming easily available, we are able to transfer lace motifs onto cakes more quickly and simply using a variety of techniques and mediums. These include icing appliqus, brush embroidery, moulds, stencils, royal icing and the recent introduction of cake lace. The style of lace we see today is more contemporary, often teamed with beautiful textured fabrics or featuring isolated appliqus that add a touch of flair.

In this book I share my favourite methods and techniques for creating and replicating popular lace effects, and cover a range of skills for you to learn and adapt for your own designs. I would strongly recommend reading the front section first, which dives straight into the main lace techniques found in the projects. If you are a beginner, it is also a good idea to take a look at the end section in advance: this covers all the basic baking and decorating techniques, together with delicious recipes for cakes, cookies and mini cakes.

The twelve main projects are aimed mainly at beginner to intermediate level decorators, although a couple of the royal-iced cakes require slightly more skill. Each project features an alternative design often a simplified version of the main cake offering a great alternative if you are short of time or dont want to take on a big task. Dont forget, you can easily downsize many of the projects to cater for smaller numbers by reducing cake sizes or the number of tiers. The tables in the Recipes and Techniques section will help you to calculate the size you need for your event.

By no means do you have to replicate these designs exactly they are there to inspire you and to showcase some of the many possibilities for creating your own lace textures and effects; whether you are hoping to match a particular fabric or pattern or just want to create something that looks amazing!

I hope you enjoy it!

The following checklists contain the basic equipment you will need for baking the cakes in this book, plus any handy tools for creative work. There are so many ways to achieve beautiful lace effects and I have listed my favourite tools and the essential equipment that can be used to create them. Any specific tools that are needed in addition to these basics can be found in the You Will Need lists at the start of each project.

• Cake tins for baking cakes
• Cupcake or muffin trays (pans) for baking cupcakes
• Baking tray (sheet) for baking cookies
• Wire racks for cooling cakes

• Electric mixer for making cakes, buttercream and royal icing
• Kitchen scales for weighing out ingredients
• Measuring spoons for measuring small quantities
• Mixing bowls for mixing ingredients
• Spatulas for mixing and gently folding cake mixes
• Greaseproof paper or baking (parchment) paper for lining tins and to use under icing during preparation
• Cling film (plastic wrap) for covering icing to prevent drying out and for wrapping cookie dough
• Large non-stick board for rolling out icing (alternatively you may roll out icing on a workbench using a dusting of icing sugar to prevent sticking)
• Non-slip mat to put under the board to prevent it from slipping on the work surface
• Pastry brush for brushing sugar syrup and apricot masking spread or strained jam (jelly) onto cakes
• Sharp knife or scalpel for cutting and shaping icing
• Large and small serrated knives for carving and sculpting cakes
• Cake leveller for cutting even, level layers of sponge
• Large and small palette knife for applying buttercream and ganache
• Icing or marzipan spacers to give a guide to the thickness of icing and marzipan when rolling out
• Icing smoothers for smoothing icing
• Spirit level for checking that cakes are level when stacking them
• Cake scraper to scrape and smooth buttercream, ganache or royal icing; used in a similar way to a palette knife

• Large and small non-stick rolling pins for rolling out icing and marzipan
• Turntable for layering cakes
• Double-sided tape to attach ribbon around cakes and boards
• Cocktail sticks (toothpicks) or cel sticks for holding sugarpaste details in place
• Edible glue for sticking icing to icing
• Edible pens for marking details on sugarpaste
• Cake-top marking template for finding/marking the centre of cakes and marking where dowels should be placed.
• Clear alcohol for mixing into dust to paint on icing and for sticking icing to marzipan
• Trex (white vegetable fat) for greasing the board, pins and moulds

• Flower cutters for cutting different types of decorative flowers from rolled-out flower (petal/gum) paste
• Eyelet cutters for cutting out petals and small holes from flower paste
• Scroll cutters for making decorative borders and details from flower paste
• Strip cutters for cutting thin strips from flower paste for borders and details, such as vines
• Piping tubes (tips) of different sizes for cutting out very small decorative holes from flower paste and using with a piping (pastry) bag to pipe royal icing
• Punches for cutting flowers and other shapes from wafer (rice) paper

• Stencils a quick and easy way to add intricate detail to cakes and cookies (see )
• Ball tool used with a foam pad to make indentations on flower paste details, such as cupping small flowers
• Frilling tool for frilling and softening edges
• Dresden tool