Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network November 2016 | Page 27

Step 5: Roll out the fondant until it is about 4-5mm thick. Do not make it too thin as it will be too fragile. Place your pieces on top of the fondant and using a sharp knife, cut around to make the shapes and then leave to dry out overnight. I did the same with black fondant to make the shape of the hat. Step 6 & 7: While the pieces are drying, you can go ahead and make your twig arms. Cut your lengths of 18 gauge floral wire in half. You will probably need about 8 halves for each arm. Now to make your twigs, place your floral wires together at varying lengths so you can make different little parts of the branch. It is easier to do small branches individually and then tape them together to make the one branch. Once you are happy with the shape of your branches, tape them all together with your brown floral tape and then mould them into the shape of the twigs you want for the arms. Step 9: Only put the royal icing down the centre of each piece as that will be the only part that touches the cake. Position them on and gently press until it sticks. Step 10: The body piece obviously goes first and it leans on the cake board so that is easy. For the head, stick on and if you are worried that it could push down, use some pins to hold the head in position until it dries. Continue the same with the top hat and then let the royal icing dry. Step 8: Fast forward to the following day and you now have all your dried snowman pieces. Have your royal icing ready in a piping bag for your glue and you are ready to assemble. Step 11 & 12: After the first layer has set into place, add on the nose and the scarf and you will probably need to hold in place with your pins. Again leave it to set. In the meantime, get your painting equipment ready – pallet, brushes, edible art paints and rose spirit. I wanted to lightly wash the background cake (as you can still see some of it) with a frosty blue watercolour. I diluted the pastel blue Edible Art Paint in rose spirit until I got the nice pale blue I wanted. I then lightly brushed around the cake at the back with the paint. This paint dries very quickly and is perfect for the watercolour finish you want. * If you have used buttercream for your cake, you could always tint your buttercream blue and use this as the background cake.