Cake decorating with dolores777 and pwd sugar March 13, 1996

"What equipment is considered essential? Where do we get it?" 

 So many of you have asked:::here is the way to our cake decorating area of AOL again: From the AOL opening screen, use Keyword 'Cooking Club', In the top center 'brown' box, click on 'Cook's School', Then on Cake decorating Online...here you are...now add to your <favorites> with the little <red> heart at top of screen you are on. DO visit 'Discuss Cake Decorating.' Add your input please. We have a great time there.

For addresses of suppliers and web sites check first in 'Discuss Cake Decorating' before asking. Its all there. And any that aren't WILL be as soon as anyone requests.

Of course, all supplies mentioned in our articles are also available from Sugarcraft right here: Cake Decorating Supplies 

From Dolores

THE PROPER TOOLS ARE THE ESSENTIAL OF ANY BUSINESS. GET THE MOST DURABLE SO THEY LAST YOU FOREVER.

 *MIXERS*: There is no substitute for a kitchen aid mixer. Choices:

<WHERE TO GET MIXER 3: from a store which sells used equipment - used, about $1,000.00 & up

Tip: any mixer larger than the 20 quart cannot be lifted by a woman - full of whatever.

*PANS*: aluminum pans will not rust. Of course these will last longest. <<<but>>> if they aren't washed <<<very>>> clean after each use they'll turn <<<black>>> eventually. We scour ours special every so often and remove any yellowness. Buy the more popular and increase your collection as needed. Try to find other ways to use your shaped pans too. Wilton offers suggestions in their year books.

VERSITALITY: some pans have many uses. The book pan, petite doll pan, horseshoe & others can be used for many occasions. I always tried not to buy so many character-shaped pans. When the fad is gone, the pan is useless. Instead, I tried to use another means to get the shapes i needed. I have written a book called "100 petite doll pan characters you can create" - $6.99...I'll give you an example: use 2 petite doll cakes on-side for a football. Besides, these will fit well on any size cake you need to put it on. And you can make a scenery around it.

 *AIRBRUSH*: the most essential 'high-priced' item after the basics may be the airbrush. (Kopykake brand - around $150.00). I like the kk brand best. I also like the small compressor that comes with it. Some of the more expensive compressors require a special valve you can adjust - so that it doesn't blow holes in your icing lol. The kk is very durable and plenty good enough for starting out. Since the compressor and air gun come together as a set. You can always replace the compressor later on. Big compressors <<<do buy one with the valve!>>> Will cost as much as you paid for the airbrush set to begin with (or even more). The Kopy kake airbrush is available at Sugarcraft for $150.00 and we guarantee it. Three bottles of 2oz each colors come with it - red, green & yellow. Sets are avail. In 4 or 8 oz bottles (11 bottles in each set). The 2 oz will last a long time,

FYI: you must use airbrush colors with the airbrush...not...the regular ones, liquids nor pastes.

 *BOOKS*: books are essential for ideas. And to show your brides. I don't see how you can get by without Wilton's year books. They contain different ideas every year....collector's items too! These date back to the early '60's.

WEDDING CAKES: my favorite wedding cake books are "TRADITIONS" by bakery craft (I did the cakes for this book) $6.99. Now out-of-print - but we still have several. The cakes are colorful and traditional. My other favorite is Wilton's "celebrate wedding cakes" also recently out-of-print! (none left). And of course my book: "100 PETITE DOLL PAN CHARACTERS YOU CAN CREATE" - $6.99. No matter how many books you have, people will want what you don't have!

*CAMERA*: recently Pwd sugar gave you a lot of info on cameras. Cameras are especially important to retain ideas. <<<never be without it!>>> We have 'built' albums of cakes we've done. We have so many that we now have several occasions divided into several albums. Otherwise, people must look through too many pictures to ever choose a cake. Gosh, i'd love one of those new ones that don't take film & attach to my computer LOL!

 DONNKIM: I enjoyed the info on the camera Pwd. Taping the flash worked well for me 

 New stuff: always check out my newsletter for new decorating items available. I upload it to AOL and my web site the 1st of each month. My home page: http://w3.one.net/~proicer/index.html 

 Have you found Pwd sugar's <<cake order forms>> in our cooking libraries yet? They are in the chat's library section. 

(From Dolores) : This will be announced soon. More than likely we'll start about 9am Sat. & Sun. Then there is a big dinner Sat. night. Sun. night we have a sharing evening. (2 dinners included in the price) This is always fun. Some people do demos and you just mill around.

 Announcement::: OHIO ICES day of sharing is April 26, 27th in Columbus OHIO at the maker's mark hotel. This one is a 6-state dos! Fun! For more info call: Ohio ices representative Caroline Haney at (216)641-0257

 
From: Pwd Sugar

 WHAT EQUIPMENT IS CONSIDERED ESSENTIAL? If I was starting all over again this Wilton's equipment list would be where I would start.

I prefer the parchment paper for bags. Why? They are always clean, not slick, don't have a stale smell and most important I can throw them away instead of washing. They can be refilled, torn in half or fourths for smaller bags for little detail work.

ESSENTIAL TIPS - 2, 3, 7, 14, 18, 21, 32, 48, 65, 69, 104, 127, 233

I have multiples of all of these tips and many more but these are used the most. When making roses I always use several shades of color. The center of the rose is darkest and then the petals become softer in color toward the outside of the rose . Therefore I nearly always use 2 or 3 tips when making roses. The only tip I would want a couple for is the 233. It stops up easily and that makes it ways to change and clean out. Most of the other tips we just unroll the parchment bag and change the tips. Several small angled spatulas for mixing colors and smoothing buttercream stencils one good quality large straight spatula for icing your cakes.

PASTE FOOD COLORS - one each of pink, yellow, green, moss, blue and two each of black, red and brown. The black, red and brown require more color to be used.

 A REALLY GOOD HEAVY DUTY MIXER IS ESSENTIAL and probably the most expensive thing you will need. Most of us use the kitchen aid mixers. I personally have three kitchen aid k-5a's in my own work kitchen. We use all of them every week. And we have two bowls per mixer. Invest in the heavy duty mixer - it should last you a life time unless you abuse it like some of us do.

Purchase the best quality pans you can afford. Not the Kmart specials. You will probably be using these pans for the next 20 to 30 years - so quality will insure better performance from your pans over an extended period of time. Wilton's and Parrish's magic line pans are both good quality pans. Shaped pans take up a lot of your storage space. Mickey mouse, Donald duck, Cinderella and etc. Pans can only be used for the cakes for your family and friends that you are not selling. Remember these are copyrighted pans and you cannot legally sell cakes made in them. Learn to do designs that you can do on sheet cakes and don't invest in those unless you have lots of storage space.

 BOOKS - the Wilton yearbooks give you new ideas each year at a very economical price. Add to your collection as your interest and skills grow.

You can order directly from Wilton's if you do not have a local supply shop that carries candy and cake decorating equipment.

To branch out from Wilton's I would check out Roland Winbeckler books that give good basic ideas and are really good practical cakes. There are books from England, Australia, South Africa, and other countries as well. Check your local cake shop to see what is available. It helps if you can see what is inside the book before buying after all some are beginner level and many are advanced skill level.

When Dolores and I began decorating many years ago there were no classes and no shops available. We more or less had to learn the trial and error method. I had been decorating about five years before i even knew about Wilton's equipment. There was no sharing of information and equipment had to be special ordered. The maid of Scandinavia at that time had a catalog that we could order special almost anything imaginable for your candy and cake decorating. Now available from sweet celebrations is a catalog of the same general type of merchandise. You can receive this catalog by writing a postcard to sweet celebrations - PO Box 39426 - Edinah, MN 55439 and requesting their new catalog due out in April. No charge for this catalog. Country kitchen has a catalog available at country kitchen - 3225 wells street, ft. Wayne, in 46808 and the cost is $5.00. You will receive a gift certificate for $6.00 with the catalog and you can apply that to your first order. Not a bad deal.

New York. If you are looking for specialty equipment - you might want to write beryl's cake decorating equipment - P.O. Box 1584, north Springfield, VA 22151 for their free catalog. Nicholas lodge has a catalog that his company will mail to you. You need to send them your name, address, zip and they will mail it back to you or call 1-770 -453-9449 and give them that information. His address is the international sugar art collection - 60 60 McDonough drive suite d - Norcross, ga 30093

 More basic equipment that you will need as your skills grow. Flower formers and the lily shaping set of nails for royal icing flowers some good paintbrushes to be able to paint designs on your buttercream cakes with separator plates for wedding cakes. When i sold my shop 10 plus years ago i left all of my equipment there. I was not planning on continuing to stay in this business. When i began to do wedding cakes again i knew what was the most stable of the separator plate set ups and that is still the only Wilton set up i use. It is called the crystal-clear cake divider set. If you have a 97 Wilton yearbook it is #4 on page 154. This set up can not lean or fall down it is completely stable. The legs go through the cake. If i want white legs i use the plastic dowel rods (pg 156 #13) over the clear legs. If I need longer or shorter legs i have my husband cut lengths from 5/8" dowel rods and cover those with the white plastic dowel rods. With these options I can have many various heights (2" - 13") with this one separator set up. The clear legs are great with the use of fresh flowers because they really let your cake and the flowers shine. The legs blend in with the background and don't announce that they are holding up the cake.

If I was beginning again today I would probably consider the plates on top of page 157 and the legs on page 156 #'s 2 or 3. They will give you the same type of set up - except that you only have legs that are 5, 7 and 9 inch lengths. The advantage of this set up is they do have the plates in 1 inch increments from 6 to 18 inches diameter.

 Turntable - the best on the market right now (in my humble opinion) is a reversible turntable in two sizes. It raises the cakes about 6 inches from the surface of the table. One side is round and the other is a large rectangle. This turntable is from Suter's craft shop, 328 Oakcliff Ave, Richmond, VA 23236 phone 800-524-3006 (they sell wholesale only to shops) Ithink the turntables retail for around 25 t0 35 dollars.

Large cooling racks, large sturdy flat cookie sheets (for flipping your cakes) Cake Leveler, you own close-up photos, sketches or pictures in scrapbooks of flowers, side designs, lace points and your cake photos (for future customers to be able to see what you can do).

 A fondant smoother is useful in smoothing buttercream icing cakes as well as the rolled fondant icing cakes. We use one of the smooth surface paper towels with the fondant smoother for a very smooth buttercream icing.

 As you business increases you will find that you want to increase your skills and purchase some specialty equipment. An airbrush would be my next addition of equipment. This is an expensive purchase but it would be to your benefit to buy one of the good compressors to go along with the airbrush itself. From creating a soft background color on your cakes to doing portraits this is a wonderful tool. It does require lots of practice and a little artistic ability. There are many effects you can arrive at only with an airbrush. The soft blending of color can be beautifully applied on your cakes. You probably have all seen the overuse of an airbrush in some bakeries. Just know with practice it can be a very effective tool.

 A DEHYDRATOR is useful for drying things quickly. Such as royal icing flowers, lace points, gumpaste flowers and etc.

 Country kitchen has a catalog available at country kitchen - 3225 wells street, ft. Wayne, in 46808 and the cost is $5.00. You will receive a gift certificate for $6.00 with the catalog and you can apply that to your first order. Not a bad deal. New York cake &baking distributor has a catalog available for $3.00. Mail $3.00 and your name and address to NY cake & baking distributor - 56 west 22nd street - NY, NY 10010.

 You can also order from Dolores in her shop in OHIO - her information is on her web page and I am sure she can give that to you. Dolores tell us what type of equipment you sell in your cake shop. ANSWER: Essentially we carry everything for making cakes, candies, cookies, pies and other fancy desserts. We carry all tools. We carry everything from the current Wilton catalog AT THE SAME PRICES. We also have everything that Country Kitchen and other retailers carry. In 'middle America' here in Ohio, I've been told our prices are cheaper on many generic items. We carry the items from 'Pampered Chef' MUCH better prices here! We don't yet have a catalog. You can call us at Sugarcraft between 9:30-5:30 EST. Ask for Sue to place orders. We accept most major credit cards. Only shipping charges are added. NEVER a handling fee.

 If you are looking for specialty equipment - you might want to write beryl's cake decorating equipment - P.O. Box 1584, North Springfield, VA 22151 for their free catalog.

Nicholas lodge has a catalog or a product listing that his company will mail to you. You need to send them your name, address, zip and they will mail it back to you or call 1-770 -453-9449 and give them that information. His address is the international sugar art collection - 60 60 McDonough drive suite d - Norcross, GA 30093 the product listing is no charge (free). The catalog is $5 with a $5.00 credit on your first order.

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