This past week I had the privilege of attending one of Bronwen Weber’s cake decorating classes. As I said in a previous post, she is the owner of Frosted Art in Texas and is also a frequent competitor on Food Network’s Challenges. She is an amazing teacher and I would highly recommend taking any one of her classes…hopefully I will have the chance to take many more! This class was held at the French Pastry School in Chicago and was an amazing experience for me. The class was on cake sculpting, which was something that I had never really done before, so I was definitely excited, but also a little nervous. Each person in the class did their own cake and we had to finish both of them in 3 days…which might seem like a lot of time, but when you are sculpting a 2 foot dinosaur and a person’s head, time seems to fly by. Although everyone in the class completed both cakes, as you will see in the photos, we didn’t have time to put the finishing touches on them…like covering the cake boards and other details that help the whole cake come together, but nonetheless I hope you have a fun time checking out the photos and seeing how crazy the process is to make a dino out of cake.
As you can see in this photo, the whole cake structure was made out of PVC pipe, which as a pastry girl I really haven’t used to often. At least my dad is a plumber though, so next time I make a 2 foot dino I can get the PVC for free!
We covered the arms, legs, and head in modeling chocolate, which is basically just chocolate and a sugar substance like corn syrup or glucose and tastes somewhat like a Tootsie Roll. This is such a great technique to use since the modeling chocolate stays right where you put it and will not fall down…amazing! You can also mold it just like you would play dough and then it hardens slightly to hold its shape. Two places you can buy modeling chocolate are at Surfas Restaurant Supply or Pastry Chef Central. You can also make your own modeling chocolate. A recipe for that can be found at Epicurious.com.
After we covered the body with modeling chocolate, we stacked the cake onto the body frame and carved it into the shape of a dinosaur’s body…or at least we hoped it would come out that way!
Next we covered his body in buttercream. After he was nicely lathered up, we covered his arms, legs, head, and body in fondant. Right after we covered the dino’s body in fondant we had to work very quickly to make impressions into the fondant with our hands, so that we could add a life-like quality to him and give his body some definition. You can buy fondant at multiple places like your local Michael’s, cake decorating store, or online at places like The Baker’s Kitchen. You can also make your own fondant and you can find a good recipe at What’s Cooking America.
We then spray painted his body to give him even more definition. I had never spray painted a cake before so this was quite a learning experience.
And finally here is my finished dino cake. I really wish I had the time to add some rough terrain to the board to make it looked like a finished project, but overall I was pretty happy with my first sculpted cake. As you can see by the photo of my dino and I, he is quite large and so sadly I couldn’t bring him back with me on my flight to California. Come back soon to see the new cake…a chef’s head on a plate!
Tags: 3-D cakes, animal cakes, Browen Weber, cake sculpting, Cakes, Cooking Classes, fondant, spray gun
You’ve got to be kidding me!! You are amazing! I guess you have to eat the cake before it eats you!
Unbelievable!! I can’t wait to have an event to utilize your cake expertise.
Eileen
Wow!! Amazing website—So many beautiful pictures and great sources at my fingertips. In this case, a picture really is worth more than 10,000 words.
Rosie
Great job!!! You are very talented and annointed. May God continue to bless all the works of your hands as HE prospers you
Awesome cakes! I wish you could be here the 24-25th of this month for our Cake Show! Bronwen is a member of our cake club as she used to be the head pastry chef here in Austin at the Texas Culinary Academy. Our Show Director is Jennifer Bartos who is Bronwen’s partner in crime at all the cake challenges. Nick Lodge will also be here.
http://thattakesthecake.capitalconfectioners.com/
It’s going to be a great show. We have 175 entries and growing!
Kyla
Kyla, now you have me trying to figure out how I can get there…ahhh!!! It sounds like so much fun! Well, I’ll let you know if I can con my mother into coming with me, since my husband has to work that weekend. Cross your fingers!
That would be awesome! If not, plan for next year. Our big show is the end of Feb each year though we have different celebs. Bronwen is a regular, though. Sunday we have a big showcase demo. It’s $90 but it’s a full day of demos by Bronwen, Nick Lodge, Steven Stellingwerf, Autumn Carpenter and Earlene Moore. Earlene is the queen of cakes. She’s going to be teaching her amazing lace on cakes techniques.
What an honor to attend Bronwen’s class. The picture series you took was so informative! Thanks for sharing.
You are sooo talented! It is amazing what you can do… I enjoy looking at this website, and I look forward to more classes at chuch :~)
That is amazing. I wish I could take a course with Bronwen but unfortunately there aren’t any in my area. You’ve inspired me to try making it on my own. Do you have a list of required materials? I have never made a sculpted cake before so I’m not sure how to build the PVC structure.
This is so cool. What did you use to glue the pieces together and can you explain how the round plate works? I’m going to attempt a pvc structure for the first time and could use some tips.
TIA
Mary Ann
Hi:
I would love to find out how to find a class that Bronwen Webber is teaching. I was wondering if you could let me know how to contact her and find out when she is giving one again.
Thanks so much
Janna
That is great! I would love a class from her as well. Glad you had the experience. Thanks for sharing.
Thank u so much for sharing your experience! It looks like it was a lot of fun.
Would you by chance know what that round plate is called? I went to Home depot to get the same materials, but the employees had no idea what the round plate was called or where I could even find it. (but everything else like the pvc pipes and flanges were definitely available =)
Hey! Your cake is amazing! Keep it up, as you can make anything look great!
I’m curious what airbrush you used in class or one you own. I want to purchase one, but don’t know where to begin. Thanks!
janan
What kind of cake did you use? I want to sculpt a cake for my niece’s graduation and I have used white box mixes before, but they are challenging since they are sooo moist.
Love the dinosaurs!
Cindy
Hi.. thanks for sharing.. Do u need to sterilize the pvc pipe?? if yes, how to sterilize it?
blessings,