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Feeds about 15 adults & takes about a day to make in total (broken over 2 days with baking & the drying time for the heel)
My friend Louise is one of the nicest people I know. And one of the most beautiful people I know too. She is also a talented graphic designer -she designed my business logo & has also done all of the graphic work for my kids’ summer parties that were organised by RockPaperScissors. You can see the photos here & here. She is also very chic & sophisticated (don’t you hate her already?). So you may ask why I have made her a kinky looking boot for her birthday designed for a chunky foot rather than the kind she likes which are elegant and stylishly fashionable and slim enough to fit her supermodel type legs. My only excuse is that it was a mistake. Sometimes we go wrong & things don’t turn out as we had hoped! Sculpted cakes are a bit difficult because by the time you realise you have gone wrong you have maybe been working on it for a day or two so there is no way to start from scratch. Luckily Louise liked the cake -or at least she said she did, she is also polte & well mannered 🙂 Anyway if you ever want to make a kinky looking boot for someone with fat feet here is how you do it!
I first made the heel with black flowerpaste using the mould from this shoe set. I put the mould in the freezer for 30 mins and then I was able to remove the heel easily without squashing it out of shape. If you do this it may sweat when you first take it out-sugarpaste & flower paste don’t like the humidity of the freezer, but it will soon dry out. I left the heel to dry overnight on a flower sponge pad This was enough time since it will be lying on its side. If you are making a 3D upright shoe it would be best to leave it to dry for 3 days together with the sole..
I then made a template on paper. I used the polystyrene drying ramp, which is part of the shoe set, as a template to draw the curve of the sole. Then I used a photograph sent by Louise’s husband of the kind of boots she likes to draw the top part of the boot by eye. In the picture you may not be able to tell but the paper is sitting on top of very thin foam core board (μακετόχαρτο). I retraced the outline of the boot (without the heel) so that the pencil was pressed into the foam core board & left an outline underneath. I then used a craft knife to cut the foam core. Because I knew the cake would gain volume once I added ganache & sugarpaste I put the foam core board about half a centimeter smaller than the paper template. However my boot came out chunkier than expected so it should have been more like 1cm smaller at least..
I have a 20cm mudcake here chilled so it’s firm & easy to carve & it has been cut into 3 layers. I give this recipe at my seminars so I’m not gonna give it to you here! Anyway it’s a great moist mud cake created by moi & is perfect for carving & tastes great too. So this stage is a bit like a puzzle but I managed to cut 3 layers of boot shaped cake out of the 3 square layers with lots of cake spare.
This cake will feed about 15 people. There would be 40 guests at the party but I knew I couldn’t make the cake bigger because of the heel being a certain size due to the mould (making it free hand wouldn’t be worth the hassle & wouldn’t look as good) & because of the size of the sole template which is designed to match the heel.. So with the cake scraps & some extra cake I made cake pops to feed the rest of the guests .
If your foam core board is not covered with food safe paper you will now need to make a piece of greaseproof paper the same size as your foam core board boot shape & stick it in place with a little buttercream or ganache. You can then put your cake on top. We need the board underneath so we can pick the cake up later. Sandwich your pieces of cake puzzle together with buttercream or any other filling of your choice (Just make sure it is non-perishable). For sculpted cakes I usually put a thinner layer of filling than usual -especially on a cake like this where I don’t need to add too much height. So now your cake is stacked you can now start making your first cuts. Use a serrated knife & start rounding off all the sharp corners. Have a look at a photograph of a boot. I decided to make the left foot so there is more shape around the bridge of the boot etc. Look where where the ankle is & where the boot goes in & out & try replicate it. We go over the whole cake first making the rough cuts. Then we go in again & make some more refined details
Above you can see the cake has been curved in all the right places & whilst studying a photo of a real boot I cut some grooves for the creases. make sure your cuts are deeper & more exaggerated than needed since when we add ganache & sugarpaste we will lose some definition. Once the carving is done we can pick the cake up & put it on our plexiglass work board. If at anytime during this process the cake has become too soft to work with, cover it in cling film & whack it in the fridge for 30 minutes. I put my fridge at 1 degree C so that it chills fast. It will also make your tomatoes as hard as apples.
At this stage you can also test your sole & heel. I drew out the sole template on a piece of paper (for the left foot) & tested it against the boot. Since the boot is on its side the sole is about 2 thirds the width of a normal boot and so needs to be trimmed along the bottom side. Once I got the piece of paper the right size I could use it as a template to cut a piece of sugarpaste (with CMC added) the same size. I then left the sole to dry on the drying ramp a while to get the right shape.
Now we ganache. Only a thin layer is needed -I spread it on with these 2 palette knives (here & here) & used by fingers to smooth any edges & define the creases in the boot. If at anytime the shape is a bit wrong you can trim your cake, trim the foam core board underneath with a craft knife & re-ganache.
Your cake is now ready to be covered in sugarpaste, you just need to prepare your zip first.
Hi my name is Sam & I am an addict. This is why I have two, yes TWO not inexpensive zip moulds . Since I am not only a user I am a dealer I know there are many other addicts out there who will understand why I have two zip moulds. I also have my eye on bringing another two zip moulds to the shop, it is unbelievable the variety of zip pullers there are out there & you never know when you might need the correct one for the cake. So for this boot cake I realised I needed the longer, thicker zip from one mould in combination with the more decorative puller from the other. I used black flowerpaste since I had a bit left over from making the heel & because it is strong & dries fast. You could just as easily use black sugarpaste with CMC added. I mixed Comet White edible dust with dipping solution for a pale silver finish. After it has dried make sure you use a clean dry brush to buff it up & get rid of any loose dust.
To cover the boot in sugarpaste I used my own brand of sugarpaste Artisan bakers by Cakes By Samantha which is a nice pitch black & is the best for covering cakes in my opinion. I first made a small piece to cover the top of the boot (where theoretically the whole where you insert your foot would be). I rolled a piece thinly with my 3mm spacers & stuck in place. I then used a craft knife to cut down to size.
Next I measured the boot to see what size piece of sugarpaste I would need to roll out. I usually roll my sugarpaste out thickly for various reasons but for the boot I needed it thin (3mm) so that I didn’t make the boot any chunkier but also not to lose the crease detail I had made in the ganache. Once rolled out I cut a straight line across the top that would be the top of the boot -it sticks out 2-3 past the edge of the cake so it looks like a dark hole where the foot goes. I then cut around the boot & used my fingers to define the creases etc. I already had a 45cm x 35cm drum covered with white sugarpaste. I had prepared it the day before so that it had time to get hard.
Put some royal icing on your drum & stick your cake in place. Use edible glue to stick the heel, sole, zip & zip puller in place. If you want you can also put a thin red layer on the heel & sole. I tried & failed several times to make it in one piece but I couldn’t get the shape right so I did it in two separate pieces using the sole template again for help. I then rubbed out the join using one of my favourite tools the Dresden tool.
Now my first mistake was ending up with a chunkier boot than intended by underestimating how much bigger the boot the cake when the ganache & sugarpaste was added. This was the second, bigger mistake. Using the wrong ingredient to shine the boot. Making the boot sooo shiny is what changed it from elegant-even-if-a-little-too chunky to kinky bondage boots.I used this spray. The other problem was that the spray has a yellow colour & yellowed the board & also pooled & was generally nasty looking -I had to add the name like this & a few well placed candles to hide some of the mess (it doesn’t show in the photo). Luckily the cake was to be presented in a dark bar so the yellow couldn’t be seen & the boot didn’t shine too much! Now don’t get me wrong the spray has it’s place. Gus’s bag for example looks amazing with the spray -but it can be sprayed & then put on the drum. The boot would be more difficult because of it’s shape & the heel. If you did want it that shiny you could also paint it with glucose & water/alcohol. You can see this post here about making your sugarpaste shiny. However if I was making this boot again & I wanted the shine of polished leather & not a PVC style shine I would have got out my old friend Crisco & give it a once over.
Thanks for reading & don’t forget you can buy most of this stuff from our shop, 11 Ivis Metamorfosi or from our eshop which you can find by clicking here.
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