Marvelous Molds has done it…..Again!

Hi Cakeland!  I am so happy summer is finally here – better late than never I say.  One of the things I love about being in this industry, is the people I get to talk to and deal with on a regular basis.  Now you all know I am a cake toy JUNKIE!  Imagine my excitement that day in May when I get a text from my BCF (for you newbies, that’s Best Cake Friend) telling me to go check out the new products up for pre-order online at her store Icing Inspirations.  They were called “Onlays” ….

 The first few patterns I saw were very cool – knowing Marvelous Molds made them, I had no question about the quality – everything MM does is top of the line.  What had me intimidated was the time it would take me to transfer the intricate designs onto my cake – time is $$$ after all!  Then I watched Chef Dominic’s (owner of Marvelous Molds and creator of Onlays) master class on using onlays.  I was blown away!  I was intimidated for no reason. If anything, the  Onlays were going to make my decorating even faster.  Who could ask for more?  My pre-order was placed, and all that was left for me to do was to sit back and wait (and dream up all kinds of new cake designs).  In true Icing Inspirations style, I got my order in record time, and worked my busy wedding cake schedule over a bit to make time to play….and make a tutorial for my readers of course ;)

 

My Icing Inspirations Onlay Order (plus some other cool stuff)

I picked two onlays for my first attempt – took every ounce of my being to edit it down and stick to a simple, yet elegant design.  The onlays I used for this tutorial are called ooh la la (top tier) and double wedding ring (bottom). 

I started with 3 dummies covered in pink fondant.  The middle tier was hand painted with silver highlighter mixed with lemon extract. 

To do the bottom tier, I rolled black fondant mixed with a bit of gum tragacanth (Fondarific is my fondant of choice)  the width of my Kitchenaid Pasta roller attachment to a number 2 – very important to note: the “cutting blades” on the onlay are the perfect height for a 2 on the KA.  Tip: Roll and cut all of the pieces you will need and keep them under layers of plastic wrap.

 

 

I lightly corn starched the onlay and tapped the excess out. 

Place the piece of fondant  on the onlay and press well to “cut” your pattern.  Brush the back of the design with adhesive (I love this edible sugar glue by Rainbow Dust). 

 Remove the negative spaces (those areas you don’t want attached to the cake).  Line the straight edge of the onlay flush with the base of the tier and rub/press the silicone to get a good adhesion to the cake. 

 

Continue this until you get the desired look you want. 

 

Something awesome that Chef Dominic has done is to create the onlays to be 2 times pi long.  For the not so math savvy, this is exciting because it means that on any EVEN diameter round cake, you will get perfect fitting without any seams meaning on a 6 inch round, 3 onlays fit perfect (8 inch uses 4, 10 inch uses 5, 12 uses 6, so on and so forth).  The Onlays are also constructed to line up to one another perfectly as you can see in the picture above.

I allowed the fondant to dry a bit before painting silver with the same mixture I used on the middle tier.

I repeated the process with the ooh la la onlay on the top tier, except I placed it in the middle of the tier.

 

Stack your cakes and embellish your cake drum as desired.

 For the flower and embellishment on the top tier, I used pink 50/50 in Elissa Strauss’ new beaded button molds.  For the flower center, I added a 20g wire bent in an “L” and allowed it to dry. 

 The other buttons were made same way (sans wire) and allowed to dry.  I painted all of the buttons with a silver paint pen by Rainbow dust.   And brushed the center with sugar glue and dipped in pink disco dust. 

 

The flower petals were made using Peony cutters by Collette Peters (2nd and 4th biggest).  I veined the wired petals using James Rosselle’s Parrot Tulip veiner and dried in an empty apple tray. 

To get the curl on the tips, I simpleyplaced my ball tool on the top edge of the petal and using firm pressure, bring it towards the center. 

The petals were then dusted in Hot Pink petaldust and steamed to set the color.  I taped the petals around the center, and voila – a gorgeous fantasy flower!

 

Using white chocolate, I attached 5 buttons to the top tier and placed the flower.  Trim the cake seams with diamanite ribbons.

 

The onlays went on the tiers so easy and made the cake look very sophisticated!  Best of all, my decorating time was cut down immensely! 

The finished cake!

I have already ordered the majority of the onlays and will be finishing off the set shortly.  I have already heard from a contact of mine from Marvelous Molds, that these are the first patterns in a series, and new patterns will be added in time - I.  CAN’T.  WAIT!!

If you wanna get your hands on some onlays, head over to the Marvelous Molds site.  They retail for between 12 & 29 dollars – very reasonable for the quality you get!  Everything (including Onlays)  I used on the cake for the tutorial is available at Icing Inspirations (links to individual items are included wherever possible ;) ). 

Keep your eyes posted here for more product reviews and tutorials in the future.

Happy Caking!