Friday, March 12, 2010

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!
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22 comments:

BellaLovesPink said...

I love your white on white! Such a neat technique!!

Donna said...

Great post. Thanks for sharing.

Ron Ben-Israel said...

Thank you Jacquie for such a thorough coverage of the classes. You are a triple threat - cake designer, photographer, and a writer. I'm waiting for your book!

Jennywenny said...

Very cool, and very you, I love the subtle design.

Kate said...

That Kate's cake is AWESOME!!!! :) This is a great post, too! I mailed your copies of the class photos on Thursday, so you should get them soon.

Elins Cards and other handscrafts said...

Amazing Jacqueline :o) Love all yours designs.. You did great on the class.
Elin xx

Chelsea said...

Hi Jacqueline. Beautiful work! I've had a year off from cake making and am just itching to get back into it and your work is such an inspiration!!! It's also wonderful to get a peak into an RBI class, something I hope I can attend in person some day.

I have a question - the flower and scroll pieces you used for creating the molds. What are they? Are they architectural decoration elements? I'd love to know what they are/where to get them so I can start playing!

Cheers,
Chelseair

Jacqueline Butler said...

Thank you so much everyone!

**Ron - I will be working on a book proposal soon!! Can't wait to share it with you!

**Chelsea - Yes! Jump back in and let me know what you are doing! Would love to see your work! The scroll pieces were given to us in class...they are wooden, and I believe someone said they came from a craft store! Have fun...and report back! Jackie

Unknown said...

Love the cake . . . gorgeous. If only Ron in Kuala Lumpur, Iam sure will attend his class.

faithy said...

Great post Jacqueline! i think your white on white cake looks awesome!

Brandy L said...

WOW WOW WOW! These are amazing. I love the molds and you did an amazing job on the white on white cake!

Cindy said...

I'm wondering about the poured silicone -- I make my molds out of the amazing putty where you have to knead it together and squash the item into the silicone. Did you find the poured silicone to be easier to use, and where do you get it?

Unknown said...

What a fantastic post! Thanks so much for sharing x

Miniature Patisserie Chef said...

Your classes sound so fun, and I'm sure you had a fabulous time! Love the pics, thanks for sharing!!

Pei Li

Ana said...

Is this just regular silicone rubber? Or is it some kind of special silicone rubber because it'll be in contact with food. Silicone is not toxic once its all dry as far as I know. What brands of silicone rubber would you recomend?

Jacqueline Butler said...

Hi Ana! The pourable silicone we used in class was classified as "food grade". When I got home, I found it on a site called makeyourownmolds.com - it's called CopyFlex. This was the first time I had used silicone, so I am not experienced with it. There is a lot of great information on the site I mentioned...I would recommend taking a look! Jacqueline

Unknown said...

What an interesting way to use silicone as a tool for designing a dummy cake. Just the looks of it makes me hungry and eat it (before I learned that it is a dummy cake). This also made me more interested in using silicone to create fun and dandy things just like helmets, silicone keypad, jewelry, etc.

Jan said...

White on white! That was a wonderful design you and Kate did... You made wonderful silicone moulds too out of those jewels! Those medallions are so cool... Keep it up Jacqueline!

Unknown said...

Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…
Silicone molds

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jacqueline Butler said...

HQ Mould...thank you. You will need to contact Ron Ben Israel directly as I was a student in a class he was teaching.

Jacqueline Butler said...

HQ Mould...thank you. You will need to contact Ron Ben Israel directly as I was a student in a class he was teaching.