How to roll out the finished mastic for the cake. beautiful approach

There are several popular recipes for mastic for cakes. Each hostess can choose her favorite. Someone buys ready-made mastic in pastry shops, some prefer making it from powdered sugar with water or milk. Creating a work of art from your own cake is also a matter of fantasy, it can be floral or children's, or any other theme. But there is a moment that interests everyone - how to make mastic shiny?

In order to give a smooth, beautiful gloss to the surface of the cake, there are a couple of proven methods. The most convenient and inexpensive is to cover the mastic with a mixture of honey and vodka in a 1: 1 ratio. Before use, honey must be thoroughly dissolved so that there are no lumps, then you can start applying. Lubricate the mastic with this mixture using a brush with soft hairs. When the vodka evaporates, only a shining sheen will remain on the cake.

If a certain amount of excess mastic is bought or made, the question arises of how to store the mastic? Mastic is not a perishable product, the main thing is to protect it from moisture and drying out. A regular plastic bag is well suited for this purpose, if desired, a plastic container with a tight lid. Store in the refrigerator, ideally no more than a week.

Many are interested in how to make marshmallow mastic, as this product has become very popular with confectioners. Marshmallows are poured over with water or lemon juice and melted in the microwave. Powdered sugar is added to the liquid mass and kneaded to a solid dough. Such mastic can be made shiny by smearing its surface with a liquor with a pleasant fruity aroma. You can also add shine to parts molded from mastic, such as lilies.

There is also nothing complicated in how to make a lily from mastic. There are many master classes on making flowers on the Internet, the main thing is to give the finished product an attractive look. To do this, the prepared flower petals, laid to dry, must be covered with a mixture of honey and vodka; for this purpose, a thin soft brush is also used so as not to leave unpainted areas. Many housewives are interested in how to make marshmallow mastic if there is no microwave? Marshmallow melts perfectly on a conventional electric and gas stove, as well as in the oven. The only condition is to make sure that the mass does not burn and stir constantly.

So, the main secrets of how to make mastic shiny have been clarified! Now it's up to the small - next weekend we bake a delicious cake and decorate it with our own mastic, giving it a great gloss! And let the first "pancake" not be lumpy!

You first got together decorate the cake with buttercream And of course, you immediately have a lot of questions?
Most importantly, arm yourself with inspiration, imagination and good mood! And about some subtleties and secrets when working with mastic we will tell you in this article.

So here are some helpful tips:

What base to choose for mastic?
Always, before covering the cake with fondant, apply the right base, it will help to even out the surface of the cake and hide any imperfections. It could be: butter cream, hot apricot jam, ganache, boiled condensed milk, marzipan mass.

Protect the mastic from moisture otherwise it may melt. That's why, it is forbidden apply mastic on a wet base (whipped cream, soaked cakes, sour cream, etc.)

How does mastic harden?
Mastic dries out when exposed to air for a long time.

How to roll out mastic?
There are several options:
1. You can roll out the mastic with a rolling pin on a flat surface, and so that it does not stick, sprinkle the surface with starch or powdered sugar.
2. It is convenient to roll out the mastic between two large plastic sheets greased with vegetable oil. When rolled out, you can simply remove the top sheet and transfer the mastic directly on the polyethylene onto the cake. When you cover the cake, you can separate the second sheet.

3. You can use a special non-stick mastic mat.

How to cover the cake with fondant evenly?
First, measure the diameter of the cake and the height of the sides, add a small margin (about 5-10 cm), and roll out the mastic to the desired size. When shifting to the cake, the mastic will stretch under its own weight and lie flat. After that, take a special round knife for mastic and carefully cut off the unnecessary, leaving about half a centimeter in reserve. Then carefully tuck the edges of the layer under the cake. If waves and bumps form on the cake, smooth them out with a spatula.

What to do so that the mastic layer does not tear?
If you cover the cake with sugar paste, you do not need to roll it out too thin, about 2-3 mm is enough.
This is due to the fact that during the coating of the cake, a thinly rolled layer of mastic can tear, and all the roughness and imperfections of the cake base will also be visible.
When you transfer the mastic to the cake, it will additionally stretch under its own weight.

What to do if the layer of mastic with which the cake was covered nevertheless broke?
Don't worry, we'll fix it! A defect can be corrected, and seams and patches can be easily removed with a wide brush moistened with water, smoothing the brush to a smooth surface. If air bubbles form under the coating, you can simply pierce this place with a needle and smooth it out.

How to remove traces of starch or powdered sugar from a product? Just go over with a slightly damp, wide brush and brush off the remaining starch.

How to add shine to sugar mastic?
After you have finished decorating the cake, cover the fondant with a 1:1 solution of honey and vodka. It is convenient to do this with a silicone brush. Vodka will evaporate, leaving no smell, leaving only a pleasant sheen.

How to paint mastic?
To achieve the desired color, special food coloring is best suited. They can be added directly to the mastic, or applied with a brush to the surface of the product. You can use natural dyes: for green - spinach juice, for red - beet juice, for orange - carrot juice.

How to dye sugar paste black?
Mix dyes of the following colors: red, blue and yellow. The ratio depends on the shade you want to get:
For neutral black: 1 part red: 2 parts blue: 1 part yellow
For black with a green tint: 1 part red: 1 part blue: 2 parts yellow
For purple-tinted black: 1 part red: 1 part blue: some yellow
For black with a red tint: 2 parts red: 1 part blue: 1 part yellow.

How to mold figures from mastic?
If you want to connect different parts of the figures or attach finished decorations to the mastic coating, you only need to lightly moisten the junction with water. Also, for gluing different parts of mastic figures, you can use protein or protein with a small addition of powdered sugar.
To make colored figures, it is not necessary to use mastics of different colors: you can mold figures from plain white mastic, dry them, and then paint the finished figures on top with food coloring.
Try to make large figures in advance so that they dry well.
Volumetric figures, such as flowers, attach to the cake not long before serving. Otherwise, if you attach them and put the cake in the refrigerator, they may absorb moisture from the environment and fall off.

Good luck and creative success!

I store the mastic in the refrigerator, but not more than 2-3 weeks ... Even well-packed, it loses elasticity over time and crumbles during sculpting and rolling. 10-12 hours before working with mastic, I take it out of the refrigerator and keep it on the table at room temperature. Before work, I stir it well so that it becomes soft.

Factory mastic can be stored much longer, since it contains conservatives - this is its plus and minus.

About figurines: depends on what figurines. If this is a type of dragon (elephant, shoes and everything like that), then yes, I sculpt in advance, dry them, and then they serve only as decoration, it is simply impossible to eat them. But such figures have one advantage - they can be left as a keepsake.

But I sculpt the flowers and immediately put them on the cake - it's easier to put the "bouquet" this way, firstly, and secondly, they can be eaten with the cake ...

And in general, I decorate all cakes, especially for children, as they say at the last minute, so that the mastic decoration does not have time to turn into stone (unless it is specially conceived), so that everything is really edible

What to lay the mastic on!?
.
Only for buttercream or ganache. I smear the cake on all sides with cream and give it time to cool in the refrigerator. I make impregnation with either jam or confiture ... whoever loves what. Jam sticks the mastic on the frozen cream and prevents it from slipping during the transportation of the cake and when cutting.

never reheat the marshmallows in the bag

Tips on how to cover a biscuit with sugar fondant(I found it on some forum, you need to know this!)

First, the biscuit must be smeared with cream, boiled condensed milk or jam to even out all the irregularities of the biscuit. On the surface of the biscuit prepared and primed with cream, boiled condensed milk or jam, sugar mastic will lie evenly and smoothly, there will be no protrusions and irregularities.
After the surface of the biscuits is prepared, you need to measure the diameter of the workpiece to cover the cake.
The diameter should be no less than the diameter of the biscuit, plus double the height and another 5 centimeters for folds and bumps.
For example, if you have a cake with a diameter of 20 cm and a height of 5 cm, then you need to roll out the mastic to cover the biscuit to a diameter of at least 35 cm = 20 + 2x5 + 5.
It is convenient to roll out confectionery sugar mastic on a table greased with butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar, and even better between two sheets of plastic film, the mastic rolled out on plastic film is very easy to transfer to a biscuit, this can be done directly with the film, which then you just need to separate from the mastic and continue leveling the mastic on the surface of the biscuit.
The thickness of the rolled sugar mastic to cover the biscuit should be about 5 mm, after you put it on the cake and level it, it will stretch to the required 2-3 mm.
If you roll out sugar mastic immediately to a thickness of 2-3 mm, it can easily tear when handling it.

How to knead the mastic?

Mastics are different, and they all knead in different ways. We will dwell on marshmallow mastic as the simplest one (if you don’t know, marshmallows are such candies like “Bon Pari”). To prepare this mastic, you will need, in fact, the sweets themselves and finely ground powdered sugar, which will interfere with the melted candy mass.

The finished marshmallow mastic should be homogeneous, dense and plastic. To achieve this result, it is important not to overheat the marshmallows (it is enough to heat the sweets until they begin to swell and melt). If during kneading the sugar mass remains sticky for a long time, do not stop there: keep mixing the powder until you get the mass of the desired consistency. If our mastic, on the contrary, turns out to be too hard, slightly heat it in the microwave, knead it with your hands and continue kneading. If the sugar-candy paste began to crumble, add a drop of water or lemon juice to it, and then continue kneading again.

How to roll out mastic?

'Secrets There are two ways to roll out sugar mastic: on a table sprinkled with starch or powder, and between sheets of polyethylene lubricated with vegetable oil. The only disadvantage of the first method is that the rolled mastic layer will have to be “unsticked” from the surface of the table and kept on weight. If you choose the second option, you will need to remove the top layer of polyethylene from the rolled mastic, turn the layer over, evenly cover the cake with it and only then separate the second layer of polyethylene. However, thin polyethylene (for example, cling film) is not suitable for our purposes: here we need to use something thicker and more substantial, like a film for greenhouses.

What to do if the mastic breaks all the time?

You are probably used to rolling pizza dough and are guided by the principle "the thinner the better." Alas, this number will not work with sugar mastic. The thickness of the rolled layer should be approximately 2–3 mm (no thicker is needed either). Thinly rolled mastic has two whole minuses: firstly, it can tear during the coating of the cake, and secondly, all the “flaws” and irregularities of the culinary masterpiece will be visible under it.

It is also possible that when kneading the mastic, you used “coarsely ground” powdered sugar, in which whole sugar crystals come across. There's nothing to be done: such a mastic will tear even when rolling.

If the layer that covered the cake nevertheless broke at the most crucial moment, do not despair. Seams, patches and other shortcomings can be easily “plastered” with a wide brush dipped in water. With this brush, the cake is stroked until its surface is perfectly even. And if air bubbles suddenly appear under a layer of mastic, try to pierce it with a needle in these places, and then gently smooth out the “holes”. You probably did something similar if you ever had to glue wallpaper.

How to cover the cake with fondant evenly?

It is very simple to avoid ugly folds on the “sides” of the cake: you just need to roll out the sugar mastic with a large margin (at least 10–15 cm) and so that this margin is maintained around the entire circumference. Then the mastic will stretch under its own weight and lie flat on the cake. After that, take a round pizza cutter and carefully cut off “everything that is superfluous”, leaving about half a centimeter in reserve. If the "sides" of the cake turn out to be wavy, align them with a spatula.

And if the base began to shine through from under the layer of mastic?

Most likely, the matter is in humidity: sugar mastic is very sensitive to it. Either you used the “wrong” cakes, or you went too far with impregnating the cake, or you didn’t follow the storage conditions. It is necessary to store the finished cake in a tightly closed airtight box or in a plastic bag (and preferably no more than 2 days).

What should be the cake itself (base)?

As a base for the cake, it is recommended to use dry biscuits, butter cakes or purchased cakes. As for the cream under the coating, the easiest way, perhaps, is to work with marzipan mass. If you don't like marzipan, take classic buttercream, boiled condensed milk or ganache (chocolate buttercream). In this case, you will have to put the cake in the cold for a couple of hours and only then apply a layer of mastic. If the cream does not have time to completely harden, ugly dents may form on the surface of the cake after coating with mastic.

In no case do not use sour cream and all kinds of impregnations (sugar syrup, liquor, confectionery rum, etc.) for the base. Remember that any mastic dissolves very quickly upon contact with moisture.

How to paint mastic?

It is best, of course, to use special food colors, but they are not always and not always found everywhere. You can replace dyes with ordinary paints for Easter eggs, but this must be done carefully, since egg paints usually contain salt, and our mastic should not turn out salty. Therefore, it is better to take not powder paints, but paints in tablets that do not contain salt. If you are categorically against "any chemistry" in food, try natural dyes: for green - spinach juice, for red - beet juice, for orange - carrot juice. It will turn out, of course, not so beautiful, but it is 100% harmless.

The most difficult thing is to paint the mastic black. To do this, you need to mix as many as three dyes: blue (2 parts), yellow (1 part) and red (1 part). It is very important to strictly observe the proportions, but even so there is no guarantee that we will get the shade we need - neutral black. Depending on the dyes used, it may be slightly greenish, slightly reddish or with a violet tinge.

Another way to get black mastic is to first prepare brown mastic (for example, with chocolate or burnt sugar), and then add a drop of blue dye to it.

Is it possible to store the finished mastic?

Yes, you can! There is nothing in the composition of the mastic that could deteriorate in a few days. For storage, the mastic is recommended to be well packed in polyethylene or put in a plastic container with a lid. It is not necessary to put this container in the refrigerator: the mastic just needs to be protected from moisture and air so that it does not dry out ahead of time and does not get wet. By the way, underused marshmallow mastic can be stored in the freezer for up to 2 months.

’Secrets How to "make" mastic shine?

To make the sugar mastic covering your cake shine, apply a layer of honey-vodka solution (honey and vodka in a 1: 1 ratio) with a soft brush on it. Don't worry, the vodka will evaporate quickly and won't affect the taste or smell of the cake in any way.

Aerobatics - mastic figures

In fact, it is no more difficult to sculpt figures from well-prepared plastic mastic than from plasticine: special talent is not required here. In order to connect different parts of the figures or glue decorations on the mastic coating, you just need to slightly moisten the place of gluing with water. To make colored figures, it is not necessary to use mastics of different colors: you can fashion figures from plain white mastic, dry them, and then paint them on top with food coloring. To remove the remnants of powder or starch from the finished figures, “walk” over them with a damp brush.

Homemade cakes have a special energy: they convey the warmth of the hands of the mistress of the house, the special mood of the holiday for which they are prepared. It is ideal when this dessert is original, masterfully decorated. It will be very useful for a hospitable hostess to learn about the varieties of mastic and learn how to make mastic for a cake at home, and also make holiday decorations from it, surprise your family and guests. Let's look into the variety of recipes and find out if it is so difficult to create such a sweet beauty.

Mastic is an elastic confectionery mass, reminiscent of plasticine in its properties. The most ornate confectionery decorations are made from it, but working with this confectionery requires a certain skill and skill that will be honed with experience. From the very beginning, you need to know some culinary tricks, how to work with mastic.

The basis of mastic is powdered sugar, which is better to sift through a fine sieve before cooking. If unground grains of sugar get into the mass, it will tear when rolling. After cooking, the mastic must be wrapped in polyethylene and put in the refrigerator for 20 minutes - this time is needed for the mass to become more plastic. The finished mass, tightly wrapped in polyethylene, can be stored for 2 weeks in the refrigerator or 2 months in the freezer.

Dyes are added in the process of kneading sugar dough. If you need mastic of different colors, first knead the uncolored dough and separate a piece of the required size, and place the rest of the mass in polyethylene to prevent drying. A piece of dough is formed by hand into a circle with a recess in the middle and, adding a few drops of dye there, knead until a uniform color is obtained.

At first, culinary equipment, which is in every kitchen, will come in handy for work. The mastic is rolled out with a wooden rolling pin on the table, the edges after covering the cake are cut with a round pizza knife, some figures are squeezed out using cookie cutters. Skillful housewives use spoons of different sizes to make flower petals: they fill the recess with rolled dough, pick up the leftovers along the edges, and connect the finished petals.

When the passion for decorating cakes develops into a favorite hobby, it is worth purchasing special tools. The first purchases can be a smooth plastic rolling pin for rolling out the mastic, silicone mats with markings (larger size - to conveniently roll out the covering for the cake, smaller - for rolling out the elements of the figures). Stacks for modeling, cutting for a variety of flowers, leaves, butterflies, silicone molds will help in the work in order to form the same type of small shapes - letters, buttons, beads.

It is very important that the base of the cake, which will be covered with mastic, is not wet: first it must be covered with butter cream and put in the refrigerator until completely solidified, because the mastic will dissolve upon any contact with the wet cream. Crafts from mastic must be made in advance, preferably two weeks before the preparation of the cake, so that they have time to dry in the air. Finished jewelry is stored for several months in a tightly closed container.

Recipes for making homemade mastic for decorating cakes

First you need to figure out how to decorate, what idea you want to realize: for example, cover the cake with a patterned bedspread, sculpt a sophisticated rose flower, or make a model of a sports car. Then you need to choose which mastic is best suited for these purposes. For many housewives, it is important that the composition of homemade mastic includes affordable simple ingredients, and that it has universal use.

Honey

This mass is softer than sugar, does not crumble, does not crumble, so it is very convenient to use it for covering the cake, forming decoration details. Cooking Ingredients:

powdered sugar - 900 g;
honey - 175 g (in volume this corresponds to 125 ml);
water - 45 ml;
gelatin - 15 g.

We do this:

Soak gelatin in water for 30 minutes.
Heat a mixture of honey and gelatin in a water bath.
Set aside a glass of powdered sugar, pour the honey mixture into the rest, knead the sugar dough, gradually mixing in the remaining powder.
The mastic is ready if, when pressed, an indentation from the finger remains on it.

Sugar

Good for sculpting figurines, flowers. We will need:

powdered sugar - 500 g;
water - 60 ml;
gelatin - 1 teaspoon;
lemon juice - 1 teaspoon;
vanillin.

The process is step by step:

Soak gelatin for half an hour, then heat in a water bath.
Addition of lemon juice, vanillin. Adding a little powdered sugar, knead the mass to a state of elastic dough.
The mass must not be allowed to become too hard, because then it will crumble during operation.

Dairy

This mastic is made with the addition of powdered milk, sometimes baby milk formulas or powdered cream are used instead. For cooking, you will need 160 g of powdered milk and other ingredients:

powdered sugar - 160 g;
condensed milk - 170 g;
lemon juice - 1 tsp.

Cooking method:

Mix dry milk and powder in a container.
Add lemon juice, condensed milk.
Knead plastic dough.

Chocolate

For its preparation, dark chocolate is used - milk or bitter, but mastic is also made with a bar of white chocolate. One of the recipes:

Melt 100 g of dark chocolate in the microwave, add 1 tbsp. lies. honey and stir.
How to check readiness: tear off a piece of dough, roll into a ball and flatten with your fingers - the edges of the finished mastic should not be torn. Chocolate roses from such a mass look very impressive.

This is how chocolate mass is prepared according to a different recipe. You will need:

dark chocolate - 100 g;
cream 30% - 40 ml;
marshmallow sweets - 90 g;
powdered sugar - 2 tbsp. false;
cognac - 2 tbsp. false;
butter - 1 tbsp. lies.

Recipe step by step:

Melt the chocolate completely in a water bath.
Without removing from heat, add marshmallows, stirring constantly.
When the marshmallow is half dissolved, add cream, butter, cognac and mix until the mass becomes homogeneous.
Remove from heat, add powdered sugar.
Knead until the mastic becomes like an elastic dough.

From condensed milk

A commonly used type of mastic, because due to its oily, soft structure it is convenient to use it for wrapping cakes of various shapes, sculpting medium-sized figures. The mass with condensed milk is tasty and eaten with pleasure. In addition to 200 g of condensed milk, you will need:

powdered sugar - 160 g;
dry milk - 160 g;
lemon juice - 2 teaspoons;
cognac - 1 tsp.

Mix the powder and milk powder, gradually pour in the condensed milk. Add cognac, lemon juice, knead the mass well. Such mastic will not be white, it always has a yellowish tint.

From marshmallow

Marshmallow marshmallow mastic is very popular, for its preparation it is better to buy plain marshmallow candies or divide them by color before cooking. You will need:

200 g marshmallow marshmallows,
500 g of powdered sugar,
1 tsp. butter.

Step by step preparation:

Put marshmallows and butter in a container and heat in the microwave for a few seconds so that the marshmallows begin to melt.
Stir the mixture with a spoon until a homogeneous mass is obtained, add powdered sugar in small portions.
The finished dough should feel like plasticine.

From gelatin

This type of mastic is called pastilage: it is indispensable when you need to make strong details to decorate a cake, for example, handles for a basket, but it is practically inedible because it is very hard. When dried, pastilage retains its shape very well, which is why it is sometimes used to make templates for sculpting figurines with fine details. Cooking Ingredients:

powdered sugar - 240 g;
starch - 120 g;
gelatin - 1 tbsp. lies. with a slide;
cold water - 60 ml;
citric acid - 1 teaspoon;
honey, preferably artificial - 2 tsp.

Pour gelatin with water for 30 minutes, then melt in a water bath, add citric acid, honey.
Separately, mix the starch with the powder and gradually add to the gelatin mixture until a homogeneous smooth consistency is obtained.
Line a bowl with cling film, pour the mastic into it, wrap it with cling film and refrigerate until the mass stops spreading.
Before use, the pastilage should be kneaded well, if it is very cold and cannot be molded, it should be put in the microwave for 5 seconds.

Floral

The ability to work with flower mastic is a testament to the skill in the confectionery business, because it is used to sculpt delicate, realistic buds. This mixture is the leader in decorating wedding cakes. Cooking Ingredients:

powdered sugar - 550 g;
gelatin - 10 g;
water - 50 ml;
lemon juice - 20 ml;
corn syrup - 60 ml;
cooking oil (shortening) - 20 g;
carboxymethylcellulose - 10 g;
egg white - 2 pcs.;
icing bleach - optional, to give a snow-white color.

Cooking technology:

Add water to gelatin and leave to swell.
Place powdered sugar, cellulose, bleach (if any), lemon juice into a mixing bowl.
Warm the soaked gelatin in a water bath, stirring, add confectionery fat, then corn syrup.
Remove from heat, turn food processor on medium speed, add liquid in a thin stream to powdered sugar.
Then switch the combine to high speed, add protein, lemon juice.
As soon as the mass turns white and becomes homogeneous, immediately stop mixing.
Put the mastic on a greased work surface, form a sausage and pack tightly in cling film.

The mass is left to rest at room temperature for about 20 hours before starting to use it in culinary creativity. Such mastic is stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 months, in the freezer - up to 6 months. Before you make a cake, you need to defrost it without using a microwave.

How to make colored or shiny mastic

Before you make colored mastic for, you need to determine exactly what colors will be needed and what dyes will be used: special purchased or natural dyes made from fruits and vegetables. If natural dyes are preferred, they are made a few days in advance and can be refrigerated.

To get a vegetable dye, the berries are crushed, the vegetables are rubbed on a fine grater, the resulting juice is squeezed through cheesecloth. When adding vegetable dyes, you need to be aware that they give a less saturated color compared to store-bought food dyes. If more natural dye is added to enhance the color, the mastic may turn out with a bright aftertaste of the added juice and will be more liquid, therefore, it will be necessary to add more powdered sugar to achieve the desired consistency.

Herbal ingredients give these colors:

shades of red- juice of cranberries, strawberries, raspberries, red currants, various red syrups or red wine;
rich pink color- beet;
yellow- infusion of saffron or lemon peel;
green color- spinach;
Orange color- carrot juice or orange zest;
blue and purple dye- juice of grapes, blueberries, red cabbage;
Brown color- cocoa powder, strong coffee or sugar burned in a pan (in proportion with water 5: 1).

Purchased food colors are divided into the following types:

dry- have a powdery appearance, before adding to the mastic, it must be diluted in water (take paints on the tip of a knife for 1 tablespoon of water);
liquid- it is better to add them to the mastic instead of water;
gel- thicker and more concentrated dyes than liquid ones, and more economical.

By mixing dyes, mastic of various colors is obtained. For example, yellow, green, and red dyes mixed together create a black dye, which is added to the paste to give the dough shades from light gray to deep black. The choice depends both on the product and on the occasion: wedding cakes abound in white, pink, golden hues, and children's cakes in all colors of the rainbow.

After sticking figures to decorate cakes, they often leave traces of starch or powdered sugar, which were used to roll out the mass. To make the mastic mass shine, you need to dissolve 1 tbsp. lies. honey in 1 tbsp. lies. vodka, apply the resulting mixture at the last stage of preparing the cake with a soft brush. The vodka will evaporate, leaving no taste or smell, and the jewelry will have a glossy finish.

Video

Forming a variety of cake decorations is a confectionery art that even a novice hostess can learn. After watching our selection of videos, you will notice for yourself all the important nuances of making different types of mastic, you will see practical techniques on how to cover a cake, patterns, glue pieces of mastic and beautifully process seams.

Photo of beautiful cake decoration

On a birthday, a cake is the main decoration of the table; it can already be a gift to a birthday person in itself and often reflects his interests and hobbies. For men, they often make cakes with decor on the theme of fishing, sports, cakes in the form of a book, a case with money. When the hero of the occasion is a woman, she will be pleasantly surprised by a cake with decorations in the form of a bouquet of her favorite flowers, a luxurious bow or weightless butterflies. If the occasion for the celebration is an anniversary, it is appropriate to decorate the cake with numbers according to the number of years of the hero of the day, using food coloring with gold or silver glitter.

There is a place where fantasies can roam when decorating a cake with mastic for a children's birthday. Desserts for the little ones are decorated with figures of angels, they make inscriptions, how old the baby is. Older children will be surprised by the figures of their favorite cartoon characters, cakes in the form of toys or cars, covered with multi-colored mastic. Such decorations are sometimes combined with marshmallow cake decoration. Pastila can be bought or also cooked at home. Cakes with themed decorations are appropriate on the occasion of significant events, for example, when a child goes to school.

Those housewives who have good practice in working with mastic can even bake a wedding cake at home. Tiered wedding cakes are popular right now. To blend in with the theme of the wedding, they can be upholstered in colored mastic in a specific color and include matching decor. The primacy in decorating these cakes is occupied by flower mastic, which is used to sculpt graceful figurines of doves or many flowers that cannot be distinguished from real ones.

Sugar mastic is a unique confectionery material that is widely used to create jewelry: in color, figurines, ruffles, reliefs, inscriptions. Mastic is similar in structure to plasticine, so invite your little helpers to make jewelry yourself. Modeling will allow you to develop fine motor skills of the hands, and unlike plasticine, mastic does not contain harmful substances, so it’s not scary if the baby eats a piece.

Special equipment, silicone molds, plastic molds expand the boundaries of the use of mastic. You can get acquainted and purchase all the most necessary tools on our website in the section "tools for working with mastic".

Despite the fact that working with sugar tests is not difficult, there are a number of subtleties and nuances, knowledge of which will be useful to both novice confectioners and professionals.

The first difficulty encountered when working with mastic is it's too sticky. It appears from the elevated temperature of the room, from the warmth of the hands and even from excessive humidity (for example, if the palms sweat) and, if the mastic was prepared independently, due to the wrong proportions of the ingredients.

Here, powdered sugar and ordinary corn starch (or rice) will come to the rescue.

If the self-made mastic is very sticky, then just keep kneading it with powdered sugar. In fact, mastic is a sugar dough, where the powder acts as flour.

If the purchased mastic sticks, then it is enough to dust the work surface and hands with corn starch and continue working.

The mastic should be rolled out on a flat surface sprinkled with starch and powdered sugar or on specialized embossed rugs that will give the mastic an original pattern.

You rolled out the mastic and were about to transfer it to the cake, but did it break? Definitely, you overdid it: you need to roll out the sugar dough with a thickness of 2 to 4 mm. Too thinly rolled dough not only breaks, but also shines through all the bumps in your cake.

Now, perhaps, about the most important question: how to properly cover the cake with mastic. The first step is to prepare its surface.

Confectioners use a thin layer of marzipan, ganache or buttercream to level the mastic. No other creams, including cheese on butter, will work, because the sugar dough can leak.

It is most convenient to level the surface of the cake in three stages:

· The surface of the cake, from which all the tubercles and irregularities were previously removed, coat with a thin layer of butter cream to remove all excess crumbs. Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

· Take the cake out of the fridge and brush the cake with a thick layer of cream. Place in refrigerator for 10 minutes.

· Once again, take out the cake and use a hot knife or spatula to remove excess cream and level to a perfectly flat surface. Put in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.

The cake can be covered with mastic as soon as the cream has hardened.

Apply a layer of sugar dough to the side of the cake, then roll the mastic off the rolling pin onto the surface of the cake with rotational movements away from you.

Press the mastic with your palms, trying not to touch and press with your fingers to avoid dents on the surface.

There will be no wrinkles on the sides of the cake if you roll out the mastic “with a margin”. First of all, it is necessary to smooth out the “reserve” so that it lies without wrinkles and folds.

If everything is even, you can cut off the excess. It is convenient to do this with a special mastic knife, which can be purchased in our store.

Flowers or figurines from mastic should be sculpted in advance and allowed to dry for at least a day.

It happens that when tightening, bubbles appear on the mastic: it is enough just to pierce them with a needle and smooth this place. The same should be done if the mastic is torn. The most convenient way to level the fondant on the cake is with a special iron, which you can also find in our store.

Cake covered with fondant should be stored in the refrigerator covered with a box so that moisture does not accidentally get on it.

It happens that the cake, which was taken out of the refrigerator, is covered with droplets of water. This phenomenon is called condensate. On the cake, it appears due to a sharp temperature drop.

It is very important to let the cake dry naturally, that is, you do not need to rub the fondant with dry wipes. Such actions can lead to damage to the appearance. If the cake was painted with paints, then do not worry: they will not flow from condensation.

How to decorate mastic?

To add shine on the surface of the sugar dough, mix honey and vodka in proportions of 1: 1. Apply the mixture to the cake with a soft brush and let dry. The vodka will fade and shine will appear.

The cake decorated with kandurin looks very impressive.

There are two ways to decorate:

· Dry way. With a brush, pick up some paint from the can and shake it on the cake. The dry method is more convenient to use on large surfaces.

· Solution. Vodka is added drop by drop to 1-2 grams of Kandurin. It should not be a thick consistency, but not runny either. This method is convenient for drawing details and patterns, for decorating flowers from mastic.

Coloring the mastic should be gel dyes. You can, of course, use powder dyes, but the consumption of such dyes is much higher, so getting a rich color can be difficult and costly.

Gel dyes are odorless and tasteless and, importantly, do not change the structure of either purchased mastic or prepared on their own.

To glue the parts and fix the figures on the cake, you can use a neutral confectionery gel, plain water, and even fresh egg white. The principle is simple: lubricate the base of the part with the necessary amount of gel, water or protein and fix it on the cake.

How to store mastic? Be sure to wrap tightly in cling film to avoid moisture and prevent the sugar dough from drying out.

Store in a cool dry place.

If the mastic still dried up, it can be reanimated with confectionery glycerin.

Mastic is a universal assistant for a confectioner. With its help, it is easy to turn fantasy into reality. There is not enough time to make and dry figurines or flowers? We are glad to offer you ready-made decorations. Take a look at the "Mastic Decorations" section: we are sure that you will find a bouquet or funny sugar and marzipan figurines to your liking.

Inspiration to you, friends!