How to secure a cake dummy…
You may find that covering or icing a cake dummy with sugarpaste or fondant can sometimes be more difficult than covering an actual cake!
But why is this…?
Well, there is little weight to a cake dummy. This means you can often find yourself chasing them all over your workspace.
So how can you overcome this problem? ?
I used to use candy melts to stick the dummy to an acrylic board. However, this meant that I didn’t always have a flat base once I removed the dummy from the board. So, trust me when I say, the last thing you want to have to do is pick off chocolate from the bottom of your decorated cake just to level it out.
I have now created my own dummy covering board. I find that these work a treat. Created in multiple sizes for different cakes, they certainly make life a lot easier.
Equipment
- Cake drums of various sizes
- Pencil
- Cake template or ruler
- Hammer
- Nails
Method
1.Using the cake template or the ruler, mark the centre of the board. This needs to be completed on the underneath side of the board.
2. With a pencil mark the areas of the board within the dummy size you are looking to secure. I always use 5 nails just to ensure that it’s secure.
3. Make small indent marks to ensure that the nails will go straight through.
4. Hammer the nails through making sure that the bases of the nails are not proud or the board will wobble when it’s flipped.
5. Push the cake dummy onto the nails. This is now secure and will not move around as you are covering it. Your dummy is now ready to cover with sugar paste. I use crisco to attach sugarpaste/fondant to dummies. Simply massage it onto the polystyrene and you are good to go.
Tool Tip
I bought the cake template from kit box when I first started cake decorating. I find this really useful when needing to mark the centre of boards or dowelling cakes etc.
You can buy these top marking templates from Amazon for £10.99
