Custom Silicone Molds with Ron Ben Israel 2010

I have to be honest...the real title of this class was "Bring on the Bling"!! But, as you can tell from the lack of sparkly decor on my cakes, I am admittedly not much of a bling girl. It's not that I don't like bling...I absolutely do! It's just that I haven't really learned how to incorporate it into my design style yet. So what better opportunity than working with Ron Ben Israel to figure it out, right?!

This second class also took place at Minette Rushing's Custom Cakes in Savannah, Georgia. Be sure to check out her Sugar Seminars site for all the great classes she offers through her studio!

We began our class learning the properties of silicone and the fundamentals for using it to make molds. Ron gave some great demonstrations, and then we were off to our work stations to create multiple molds of little acrylic jewels.

Here are some photos from our first project...

Carefully placing and sticking our jewels to our boards...a painstaking process:



Silicone poured over the gems:



And the result of our labor:



When we filled these molds with sugarpaste...we ended up with these great little pieces:



Our next project was to take the individual gems we made and create a compound mold to be used on our cake! I struggled for a while putting the little pieces together until I finally came up with a piece that looked like a jeweled medallion. We poured silicone a second time, and I ended up with a mold to make the piece in the left of the photo:



Ron did a great demo on how to use the molds with melted Isomalt, and created some beautiful little candy gems:



We stopped working with the molds long enough to cover our Styrofoam dummies with fondant, and to construct and "bling" our sugarpaste poppies:



Our final project was to create a cake design using our newly created bling molds and flowers! We were also given gorgeous sparkle dusts in gold, silver, platinum and pearl to paint to our heart's content!

I need to let you know that I tend to work S-L-O-W-L-Y...and this class was no exception. I had GRAND plans to place my medallions on the cake, and paint them with pearl centers and antique silver details...and then add my poppies accordingly. What I ended up with is the following (no laughing, please!!):



And here's a photo of it after I had outlined the entire design with royal icing dots...thanks to the lovely Kate Essenberg for the wonderful photo:



I totally ran out of time...but fortunately, Ron really liked the design in white on white...and I actually did too. So much for trying out my first "bling" - sorry Ron!

My wonderful friend Sharon Alexander from Sweet Sensations was kind enough to take the unfinished cake back to her shoppe in Atlanta, and will treat it to the "bling-ing" it deserves!

Here are a few of the finished cakes from class...

My friend Lisa from Flour Confections...I loved the little square-shaped molds she made and how she put them all together:



My friend Tandra who is Pastry Sous Chef at The Capitol Hotel...I loved how her design had a Parisian feel to it:



My friend Blanca's gorgeous cake...I loved her molded pieces and how she styled her poppies:



And no surprise that my friend Kate and I get along so well...she loved the look of the white on white too! I loved her medallions and overall design:



There were so many beautiful designs in class...everyone did an amazing job! I'm hoping I'll have even more photos soon to write an additional post!

Thank you, Minette, for your wonderful hospitality and for taking such amazing care of all of us!

And thank you, Ron, for your time, patience and expertise, and for sharing your incredible talent!

Copyright © 2010 by Jacqueline Butler of Petalsweet Cakes. Content of this blog (including text, photographs and layout) is the property of Jacqueline Butler. Please feel free to use the ideas and concepts discussed on this blog, but please do not claim any of it as your own work. Thank you!

Custom Silicone Molds with Ron Ben Israel 2010