Reddit mentions: The best dessert & candy sculpting tools

I use an American buttercream:

4 sticks (1 lb) unsalted butter
8 cups (2 lbs) powdered sugar
3 tbs of heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp kosher salt


I live in Phoenix, and have a difficult time with my buttercream melting, so I use cold butter that I cut up.

Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer, cream the butter in the mixer, scrape the sides, and repeat a couple times.

Sift the powdered sugar and then put it all in the mixer with the butter.

Run the mixer on low until it’s combined. Mine is very thick and pretty clumpy at this point. It doesn't look like it could be frosting.

Add the liquids and salt, and then whip it on medium high for about three minutes.

This colors great using gel. If you were only using one color for the full batch, you can add it now and blend it in with the mixer. If not, you can divide the frosting up into bowls and blend by hand.

This will make a very stiff buttercream which is great for succulents! If you wanted to make a thinner frosting for basic coverage, you can add more cream 1 tbs at a time until you get the desired consistency. (I just used 6 tbls in a batch and could have even done more, but it all depends on your needs and climate.)

I really like using kosher salt because it gives that savory surprise to the frosting. (I'm not a fan of super sweet/cavity-inducing frosting.) This has a good balance and kinda tastes like ice cream!

This recipe is for a vanilla buttercream. If you want to chocolate buttercream, you can replace a cup of powdered sugar with a cup of cocoa powder. Sift the cocoa first and add it with the powder.

From there, the flavors are endless!!! You can add peppermint extract instead of vanilla to the vanilla or chocolate buttercream. Or orange juice and lemon instead of the cream and vanilla.

As for piping supplies, I use:

Wilton 55 piece master tip set (I mainly used petal and leaf tips, but it all depends on what kind of succulents you are making. You do not need this full set and can buy a few of the basic tips! I noticed from some tutorials that this set didn't have all the tips for succulents, but it worked well for me. This set also comes with 2 of the standard size flower nails.)

3 inch flower nail (I liked the standard one, but really enjoyed the size of this to make the bigger succulents, but ended up using it for all sizes.)

Parchment paper (this was a blessing! It's too hot to pipe directly on the nail... Or I just don't have the skills yet. Just cut the parchment into squares a little bigger then your intended succulent and attach it to the nail with a little buttercream. Pipe your succulent on the parchment paper, then place the finished succulent and parchment on a cookie sheet, and freeze until you are ready to decorate.)

Flower lifter (really helped for placement)

As for piping pointers, just try to work fast and keep your buttercream covered so it doesn't crust over before you use it. It's best to work in smaller batches because you can get melt (at least I had to.) There are a ton of wonderful and helpful online tutorials that will show what tips make what succulent/flower.

Most importantly, number 1, don't forget... Have fun!! I completely failed way too many batches before a few reddit angels led me to the perfect buttercream recipe. After that, all you need is a little bit of practice and you'll do an amazing job!

Best of luck and I'm here if you (or anyone else) need anything or wanna share successes and failures!

This is probably WAY to much information, but I am really excited about it! And am already ready for my next cake and challenge!

And... You of course can do this for cakes and cupcakes, but I also did terrariums with the leftover succulents and cake scraps! I have already written a novel, but I can share additional pictures and information for the terrariums, if you're interested.

=)

My biological mother isn't in my life but I have a "second" mom. Actually, she's /u/bubblybreath's mom. She's currently going through treatments for breast cancer and is an incredibly strong and brave woman that I love dearly.

This is a quote someone sent me when I lost my Grandpa. Truth is, nothing will make you feel better...but you will learn to live with it. <3 I'm so sorry to hear about your loss and I sincerely hope things start to look up for you.

Ma would love this. She loves to bake and makes exceptional cupcakes!

Others have linked their kitchen aid mixers, and I agree. Any stand mixer is a godsend. I have a sunbeam - because my husband couldn't fathom spending 300 bucks on a kitchenaid, but 400 on a console?

But i give you.. the Springform cake pans. My own set are pretty much dead after nearly 20 years of use. Missing the bottoms to all but one, and spots of rust, very dented. They are superior to those stink normal cake pans because you just pop the spring on the side and carefully ease away the side, then pop the ring off. Once that's done, a knife eased between the cake and the bottom and BOOM. Done. Cheesecake? BOOM. Angle food? They have a bottom for that! They a multi-tasker and we all know Alton Brown loves multi-taskers. Your arthritic hands will love them. And I conveniently have a 13 dollar set in my kitchen list that I oh so want to replace my aging ones.

And then you have yourcake leveler. My friend bought me this a couple years ago after a disastrous incident with a Spongebob pineapple house. Disastrous. Horrifying. There was yellow icing everywhere and a crying kid. I can't cut that level it would seen. It was like yellow and green icing Armageddon.

last, and honestly, it's necessary above all other things. Silpat mats. Not the red silicones, you want to look at the clear center with the orange/red outline. Non-stick, helps with baking, I have about 4 of them in my house in all sizes. Some as gifts, others I bought myself. I have even the real original french brand :D Well I did, till my husband //cut// on it and was like 'Oh, this isn't a cutting board". You'll throw out your wax paper, your parchment- okay maybe not your parchment - and convert to silpat. They are seriously, the best damn thing ever. I don't know why.

So those are my three must haves, though the springforms are the only thing on my actual amazon list. SO let's do it in the kitchen, because it can get messy!

Two years ago my boyfriend moved across the country to live with me. His best friend "James" drove out with him and was supposed to stay a week before heading back home. Once he got out here he didn't want to go home. We said that "James" could stay with us rent free (and we would pay for his groceries) while he as searching for a job as long as he cleaned the house and let my boyfriend use his car (as we couldn't afford to buy our own vehicle yet - and my boyfriend would pay for all gas/car maintenance during this time). Well, "James" ended up never looking for work, let the car's insurance lapse, never did any cleaning in the apartment, ate us out of house and home, and complained whenever we took the car (we would always ask in advance and whenever he wanted to use the car we never put up a fuss). After four months of catering to this man-child, we finally had to kick him out. He then lived in his car on our street for a month afterwards, until his mother finally paid all his travel expenses for him to go home.

I hope that your situation improves soon, just try to stay sane and remember that good things happen to good people - even if it may take a while of putting up with someone like your annoying family member. You are a much better person than I am to be able to put up with that for so long!

“Cheer me up, Scotty!”

[Cake Decorating Tools] (http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-2104-6667-12-Piece-Cupcake-Decorating/dp/B000NBNHT2/ref=reg_hu-rd_add_1_dp)

The old man is snoring!

One of my favorite things to do on days stuck inside is bake!! CUPCAKES!! Ok, so really it's for decorating but much better than the method I've been using. :) I also enjoy spooning frosting directly into my mouth.

Write on! Here's something writing related! I have this book and I love it. :) Here's an item under $5 that I could really use! :) Thanks so much for the contest!

It looks like the clone wars cupcakes used fondant or possibly gum paste. (Wilton has a good website for tips about fondant http://www.wilton.com/decorating/fondant/) You roll that out and use cookie cutters or cutting tools (http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-1907-1107-Gum-Paste-Modeling-Storage/dp/B00175RMF8) to the shape you want. Like edible clay. The fondant stays soft and mold-able while the gum paste dries hard and crisp.

The cake looks like just plain frosting. You'll need a good butter cream recipe and pastry bags. Practice "writing" with the pastry bag (http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Piece-Cake-Decorating-Set/dp/B000LNQ73K/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1291141678&sr=1-1) on wax paper or something similar to get used to it. If you don't want to use pastry bags, buy the tips and use ziplock bags with a corner snipped. For the cakes, make sure you let them cool totally, and then put on a base layer of frosting to deal with the crumbs that will inevitably try to come off the cake. Once you have that, then use your colored frosting over top to decorate. That cake has a base layer of chocolate, and the other colors are layered on top. Don't use liquid food coloring to get the colors you need as it could affect the texture of the frosting. I like gels.

Personally I always need more plastic piping bags, and love getting new piping tips (especially something non-traditional like these). You could get things like meringue powder, almond flour, a microplane, a macaron mat, whole nutmeg, cute hot pads or an apron, citrus juicer. When I'm making these kind of gift baskets I try to stay away from brightly colored items (unless that's really that persons taste) because those tend to be trendy and The colors go out of style.

Great cake! Tip: keep it fondant you are not working with (and by that I mean the one you are not kneading or putting on top of a cake) wrapped in selfclinging plastic, inside a ziplock. You can also use Crisco to avoid the fondant from drying. Bonus: try to get one of those nice fondant smoothers to do it like a pro!

Anything from Bath & Body Works (any scent is great, I like the Warm Vanilla Sugar or Japanese Cherry Blossom, but love to try new scents).

Wilton Smoother

You should see if your local craft store has Wilton Cake Decorating classes. I took a few classes at Michael's Crafts while back and they were a lot of fun. The courses cost about $25 and the kit is about the same. The classes are taught by Wilton certified instructors and meet once a week. You bring in a prepared and frosted cake, some prepared frosting and decorate it in class. The various classes cover beginning cake decorating all the way through advanced gum paste decoration. I think the third course even teaches about making wedding cakes.

If you can't find a class nearby you might consider buying the course kits and working through them on your own. The people at /r/cakewin could probably answer any questions you have. This practice board is really helpful. It comes with the beginner kit but you can buy it separately if you want. You put the pictures of the design you want to practice under the clear plastic cover and pipe directly onto the board. I kept a few cups of plain Crisco buttercream in a ziploc container just for practicing with. Since it was just shortening and sugar I could use the same frosting over and over again.

Course 1 Kit

Course 2 Kit Flowers and Boarders

Wilton® Cake Decorating Course Locator

Wilton® Cake Decorating Course 1

Make sure you level the layers before you start building.

If they're sliding around it may be the frosting is too soft/melted. If you're making the frosting yourself make sure it's stiff enough to keep from squishing out the sides.
But if it's a certain frosting that isn't made to be stiff, you can get some acetate strips and build the cake in that, then let it chill in the fridge so it sets a little.

Hope this helps!

I bought these: Wilton Gel Icing colors and Wilton Decorating Basics Student Kit

I also got a way too big 14x4 inch pan and "parchment circles" which made it SO easy to get the cake out of the pan without destroying it.

And made this (actually simple) cake which my daughter loved: http://imgur.com/a/1z75d

I mixed colors into the cake batter and just dumped pink and purple batter into the pan together without mixing. It came out cool! The cake is a single layer but 3-4 inches high. The cake was too big for our small group, we ended up throwing some out a few days later when we didn't finish it all.

The icing was one big batch and set aside some bowls of it for accent colors and mixed up a bunch of green, then slathered it all over that cake and let it dry for an hour before doing some fancy-looking stuff with the decorating kit. I scratched the letters on with a toothpick before icing so I had a good idea where they would fall before I started.

I did it all little too late though, and missed some sleep finishing the icing. I forgot it needed to cool before icing, and I didn't defrost the icing I had made in advance early enough. The design took about an hour to finish up.

Everything that has been said - crumb coating, cold cakes, rotating cake stand - but also get a metal bench scraper, or something similar. Makes it easier than using a spatula.

I have both of these, but I still prefer my bench scraper over the Wilton thing.

https://www.amazon.ca/AmazonBasics-Multi-purpose-Stainless-Scraper-Chopper/dp/B07255T6SW/

https://www.amazon.ca/Wilton-417-1648-Icing-Smoother/dp/B007E8KCJA/

Is it these?

http://www.amazon.com/Cake-Boss-Decorating-4-Piece-Dinosaur/dp/B00FB9R6C0/ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

They're for fondant, but looks like they'd work for cookies too.

>I think a quality, albeit a possibly niche one, is that cupcakes are more consistent in terms of portions per serving than a cake. If you were concerned by calorie or sugar intake, it's easier to have a more accurate measure with cupcakes that are more uniform in portions than haphazardly slicing a traditional cake.

There are cake cutters/servers, for both round and rectangular cakes, on the market that you can use to get consistent cake portions.

Pastry wheel, for like sheets of uncooked dough.

Modern one: https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-2103-315-Pastry-Wheel/dp/B001BO76HO

My first concert (that I wanted to see) was Switchfoot of all bands. Weird to think about really lol. Who's on first.

I used this set from Wilton! Used the middle one for this pattern :) https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-417-1154-Icing-Smoother-Comb/dp/B007E8KCCM/ref=pd_aw_fbt_79_img_2/138-0664085-1140843?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B007E8KCCM&pd_rd_r=6feee8e4-c0b3-4f3e-986f-3b5410e44333&pd_rd_w=psQy7&pd_rd_wg=akKbt&pf_rd_p=6e6afc8a-fbbd-4649-97cf-4e08f5113612&pf_rd_r=43Z0C69EGRNEJH6YT88T&psc=1&refRID=43Z0C69EGRNEJH6YT88T

Wilton comb set. Very affordable. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007E8KCCM/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1527445926&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=wilton+comb+set&dpPl=1&dpID=41XTlLZT8EL&ref=plSrch

/r/specializedtools for those "jello cake leaf syringes". Seriously, a company makes those. Tooling and everything.

Edit: of course amazon sells them... fuck...

Thank you! To get the stripes, I put on a thick layer of the black buttercream, and then used this ridged cake comb to make the grooves https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Icing-Smoother-Comb-Set/dp/B007E8KCCM. Then I popped it in the freezer for 30 minutes, then piped the individual colors into the ridges and smoothed it out and removed the excess with a regular cake scraper. I watched loooots of videos on Instagram to figure it out but it was still quite tricky.