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It is necessary to use butter in the butter-cream because butter hardens when chilled. All-shortening buttercream re-mains too soft when chilled and will not work with this method. It does not matter what temperature the cake is when you apply the lace wrap. The process may be speeded up by placing the cake in the freezer. If you have hot wet knifed the cake make sure that the sur-face is dry. The buttercream must at-tach or it will not work.
CHOCOLATE LACE
Frost a cake with a chocolate frosting
like ganache or cover a cake with rolled chocolate fondant. Melt semi-sweet
chocolate over hot water. Place the sili-cone wrap face up on a sheet of
parch-ment or wax paper. Spread a thin layer on the melted chocolate on
the lace wrap. Clean off excess chocolate from the edges. Pick up the lace
wrap using the tabs, and quickly place it in the de-sired position on the
cake. Pat the wrap lightly until it adheres to the frosting. Leave the
lace wrap on the cake and chill until the chocolate is set. Peel off the
wrap to reveal the lace. Repeat on other areas of the cake until the desired
effect is achieved. Use this same technique for white candy melts. They
can be used over butter-cream or white candy clay covered cakes (also called
chocolate leather). Small chocolate designs can be created by piping
chocolate directly into selected areas of the wrap. Allow to set and flex
the wrap to remove. Candy melts can be thinned with a small amount of oil
or melted shortening. The thinner and softer the chocolate or candy is,
the eas-ier to cut the finished cake.
BUTTERCREAM-CHOCOLATE COMBINATION
Alice Call of Illinois created this
inter-esting mixture. Thin an all shortening buttercream like Wilton's
Snow White Buttercream with a small amount of water. Add melted candy melts
to the buttercream. (About 1 part candy melts to 2 parts buttercream).
Keep this mix-ture over hot water to prevent it from seizing up. Spread
the lace wrap with a thin layer. Remove excess from around the edges. Quickly
place on a frosted cake, pressing in to assure con-tact with the frosting.
Firm the lace wraps by placing in the refrigerator for a short amount of
time or place thoroughly chilled flexible sports wraps beside the silicone.
The addition of the candy melts
will darken the buttercream lace. You might want to tint the frosting used
on the cake to adjust color.
ROSEMARY WATSON, 23 North Star Drive,
Morristown NJ 07960 201-538-3542 or 800-203-0629
AP BUTTERCREAM
(AP = Almost Perfect)
2 Cups (1 Lb.) Butter
2 Cups (1 Lb.) Shortening
1 Cup (3 Oz.) Dry Milk Powder
1/2 Cup (4 Oz.) Water
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 Lbs. Sifted Confectioners Sugar
1/2 Cup (4 Oz.) Thawed Pasteurized
Egg White or alternative* Beat together
butter and shortening for about 5 minutes.
In a small bowl combine water and
dry milk powder. Add vanilla. This can be combined in a blender if necessary.
Add to the butter shortening mixture sifted confectioners sugar, milk mixture
and pasteurized egg whites. Beat until smooth. At the beginning the mixture
will look too soft and grainy. This will gradually change to a stiff, smooth
and workable buttercream.
Use a hot wet spatula to perfect the fin-ish. This frosting will never crisp like sweet buttercreams.
* If frozen pasteurized egg whites are not available substitute 3 or 4 Table-spoons meringue powder and 1/3 Cup cold water. Beat until dissolved and soft peaks form.
Sweeter Variation: Up to 1 pound addi-tional sugar may be added. This will produce a firmer buttercream
FYI: Rosemary was a well known cake decorator who was one of the first, if not the first, to use these lovely lace molds. She developed many wonderful designs which were much sought after in the cake decorating world. Her tools and molds are all sold out.
The designs below are no longer available.
But many others are - HERE
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