Well, let's start with

Why sometimes does the base begin to show through through the coating of sugar mastic?

Any type of sugar mastic used to cover the cake is very sensitive to humidity, so it is necessary to protect the cake covered with sugar mastic from moisture.
First, you need to use dry biscuits, butter cakes or store-bought biscuits as the base.
Secondly, don’t be too zealous when soaking the cake in sugar syrup or liqueur.
Thirdly, a cake covered with sugar mastic should be stored in tightly closed airtight boxes or plastic bags.

How long can a cake covered with sugar fondant last?

If the cake is wet then it will take longer for the cake to dry
If the cake is very dry, then there is a danger that after two days the mastic that covers the cake will warp.
It is also necessary to keep in mind that in dry and hot climates the shelf life of a cake covered with fondant is shorter than in cool and humid climates.

Why does sugar mastic break?

When rolling out sugar mastic, it is worth considering that its thickness should not be very thin. It is enough to roll out the mastic to a thickness of 2-3 mm.
In addition to the fact that the thinly rolled mastic may tear while covering the cake, all the unevenness of the base of the cake is visible under the thinly rolled mastic.

On what basis do you roll out sugar mastic?

There are several options for rolling out mastic.
1) sugar mastic can be rolled out on a table sprinkled with powdered sugar or starch
2) it is convenient to roll out the sugar mastic between two large sheets of polyethylene, which are greased with vegetable oil.

The advantage of the second method is that it is not necessary to separate the mastic from the polyethylene to cover the cake. After the mastic is rolled out to a thickness of 2-3 mm, it is enough to remove the top sheet and transfer the mastic on polyethylene to the cake and only when the mastic already covers the cake, separate the polyethylene from the mastic.

With this method, I did not get a smooth surface of the mastic because I used thin polyethylene, which, when rolled out, slid down and formed folds. But I liked the resulting “structured” surface of the mastic, so I did not take thicker polyethylene.

I think polyethylene, which is used for greenhouses, will allow you to get a smooth surface, since it is dense enough not to form wrinkles when mastic is rolled through it.

How to make sugar mastic on a cake shine.

To make the sugar mastic on the cake shine, after you have finished decorating the cake, cover the mastic with a solution of honey in vodka in a 1:1 ratio.
To do this, take a soft brush and, moistening it in the solution, apply a honey-vodka solution to your creation. After a few minutes, the vodka will evaporate and your cake will become shiny.

How to paint sugar mastic black

You can paint sugar mastic black in different ways. All experienced cake decorators note that it is not always possible to choose the desired color quickly. You need experience and knowledge of the laws and rules of color mixing.

Someone will ask why black mastic is needed, well, at least to make such a ladybug.

The first method of painting mastic 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 black with purple undertones: 1 part red: 1 part blue: a little yellow
For black with a red tint: 2 parts red: 1 part blue: 1 part yellow

I did this: I diluted dry dyes separately, each color in a drop of water. Then, taking as a basis the dye that should be more, she added the rest of the colors to it. I received a black liquid dye, which when mixed into the mastic gave a rich gray color. As the amount of dye increased, the color became darker, resulting in black with a purple tint. I was happy with the version of this black with a purple note.

I didn't get pure neutral black. I think this is because my red was not red, but raspberry, because so far I have not been able to find a dye that gives a real red color. Dye E122 is raspberry or fuchsia, but not red, although it is called red.

The second method of obtaining black mastic
You can tint the mastic brown with burnt sugar or make chocolate mastic and then add blue dye to it.

The third method of coloring sugar mastic black

Take black dye and paint the mastic black

How to store mastic and for how long?

Any sugar mastic can be stored for several days, up to a week, in well-closed plastic bags or plastic containers.

There is nothing to spoil in sugar mastic; it is important to simply protect the mastic from air so that it does not dry out and from moisture so that the mastic does not get wet.

A few tips when working with marshmallow mastic
1. When buying candy, the name does not have to be “Marshmallows”. It is enough that the name contains the combination "..mallows.." or "..mallow..".
For example, “Chamallows”, “Frutmallows”, “Mallow-Mix”, “Mini Mallows”, “Banana Mallows”, etc.
In Russia, marshmallows are produced by the Nestlé company - “Bon Pari, tutti-frutti soufflé” and “Bon Pari, soufflé”.
2. Powdered sugar for mastic should be very finely ground. If there are sugar crystals in it, the layer will tear when rolling.
Depending on the type of candy, you may need much more powdered sugar than indicated in the recipe, so you need to stock up in large quantities in advance.
If the mastic remains sticky for a long time during mixing, then you need to mix in the powder until you get the desired consistency.
3. In NO EVENT should a mastic coating be applied to a damp base - to soaked cakes, to sour cream, etc. The mastic dissolves quickly from moisture.
Therefore, there must be a “buffer layer” between the fondant and the cake. This could be marzipan or a thin layer of buttercream.
If you are using buttercream, then before applying the mastic, you need to let the cake sit in the refrigerator until the cream hardens.
4. To glue different parts of mastic figures or to glue decorations onto a mastic coating, the gluing area should be slightly moistened with water.
5. When exposed to air for a long time, the mastic dries out.
Some figures, for example, flowers, cups, spoons, plates, tables and chairs, are best made in advance and allowed to dry well.
6. Marshmallow figures can be decorated with food coloring on top.
7. If the mastic has cooled down and began to roll out poorly, then you can warm it up a little in the microwave or hot oven and it will become plastic again.
8. You can store unused mastic in the refrigerator (1-2 weeks) or in the freezer (1-2 months), after wrapping it in plastic film.
9. Finished dried mastic figures should be stored in a tightly closed box in a dry place. These figurines can be stored for several months.

If the layer of mastic that covered the cake breaks

And all these seams and patches can be easily removed with a wide brush, which you dip in water and “plaster” until the surface is perfect, smoothing out the mastic and sealing the seams and imperfections. And where there is an air bubble under the mastic (I see that you have bubbles there), you can simply pierce it with a needle and smooth out this place with your hand.

Which cream is better to use under coating?

It is better to level the cake:
– butter cream
– boiled condensed milk
– ganache
– marzipan mass

In the first three cases, the cake must be refrigerated so that its surface hardens.

At what stage is oil added to the mastic?
I added oil when I put the mastic in the microwave.

How to remove traces of powdered sugar and starch from finished figures? polinad2007 wrote:

When we make flowers, traces of powdered sugar remain on them and to get rid of these traces, you need to hold the flower over steam (a boiling kettle or a saucepan of boiling water) for a few SECONDS. Just don’t overdo it, otherwise the flowers will float.
This should be done with well-dried flowers.

Tata_Jez wrote:
Polina, and I have traces of powdered sugar, starch, etc. I remove it with a brush when I cover the flowers with the glitter solution

How to mix marshmallow mastic:
The mastic should become homogeneous, dense, non-porous, non-sticky, and plastic. If during work the mastic becomes too elastic and hard, you need to heat it a little in a micro, knead it with your hands, or if it overheats, mix it in the powder and continue working. If the mastic begins to crumble, you can add a little water or lime. juice and knead again.

A little about the batch itself. I read a lot of tips on how to make marshmallow mastic. I am categorically against completely melting marmyshki and stirring them until smooth. I heat them up, wait for them to swell and immediately pour them into the pan. powder and knead. If you overheat them, the mastic will become grainy and crumble. And one more moment, when the marmyshki are very heated (actually melted) when adding sugar. powder it (powder) begins to gather in lumps very. dense and these lumps then interfere with your work...

How to cover a cake evenly with fondant
There will be no folds on the sides if you roll out the mastic with a large margin and when you start covering, the mastic will stretch well under its own weight and lie flat. Only the leveling cream under the mastic should be very strong. well cured so that no dents appear during coating.
When I cover a cake with fondant, I have at least 10-15 cm left around the entire circumference. Then she has weight and can stretch out. I first smooth out this entire stock on the table so that it lies without wrinkles, and then the sides of the cake are easily smoothed. And then I just use a pizza knife to cut everything evenly in a circle, leaving 0.5 cm in reserve (otherwise the mastic may rise). That's the whole secret.
But I don’t think it’s worth doing anything thicker than 3mm. This is fine.

Girls, join us and write your tips

Nowadays, elastic mastic is extremely indispensable in creating true confectionery masterpieces. It is used to decorate cakes and make figurines for decorating all kinds of pastries. But the mastic itself looks very boring and uninteresting. It looks like white plasticine, only sweet and edible. Products made from such a product will come out monotonous and faded. Dyes for sweet mastic, which can be either natural or synthetic, will add the missing beauty and brightness to the cake.

What dyes are there?

Dyes can be liquid, gel and dry:

• . Liquid colorants. With their help, creams for confectionery products and drawing protein mass are colored. Such tools can be used anywhere.
• . Dry dyes for mastic. Produced in powder form. With their help you can give the desired shade to any confectionery product. Diluted in boiled water or alcohol.
• . Gel dyes. In some ways they are similar to liquid dyes. They are concentrated, which allows them to be used extremely economically and in doses. Various creams and glazes are colored using these means. Often, paint is added directly to the dough to make it unusual.

Some are afraid to use synthetic paint for fear of harming their health. These fears and doubts are unfounded. If you still have doubts, you can prepare food coloring for mastic at home from available and inexpensive products. Preparing natural dyes for elastic mastic is not at all difficult.

Making your own food coloring

A yellow or brown tint will come out of the roast, which is extremely easy to prepare.

1. To do this, pour five parts of granulated sugar into a deep bowl and pour in one part of water, place the container on low heat and boil until a thick mass of a beautiful dark brown color is formed.
2. Next, remove the pan from the stove and add water in small portions, stirring constantly.
3. The resulting solution must be filtered.
4. To obtain a yellow tint, you can take crushed saffron. It is poured with warm water for a day, after which it is filtered.

The source of the brown color can be chocolate or strong coffee. Depending on how you add the required dye to the mastic, the result will be obtained.

From beets you can get delicate pink and rich red colors. Depending on the concentration of the juice, one tone or another will be obtained. Grate the beets on the largest grater, transfer them to a container and fill them with water, cover with a lid and boil for at least an hour. After which the liquid must be drained and the beet pulp squeezed out.

A pinch of citric acid is added to this solution, so the solution will remain bright and saturated. No less beautiful shades of red can be obtained by boiling the juices of any red berries. Making dyes to give different shades to mastic at home is not at all difficult.

The orange color will come from juicy carrots, grated on a coarse grater and fried in butter. The oil will not burn at all if you first grease the pan with vegetable oil. After about five minutes, the carrots will become soft and can be removed from the heat. The slightly cooled mass is squeezed through double gauze or thick fabric.

Spinach will serve as a source of green shades. It is passed through a press or crushed in a blender, then wrapped in cloth and squeezed out. A richer tone will be obtained if you boil the spinach juice over low heat for about forty minutes.

Blueberries and grapes will produce purple and lilac dyes.

Color mix

But what if you want to create something special, but there are too few available shades? How can you replace dyes for mastic to get a new color? You can get the desired color by combining certain means:

• . yellow + blue = green
• . green + black = dark green
• . yellow + lilac = light green
• . yellow + green + white = light green
• . red + green = swamp green
• . lilac + pink = lavender
• . green + yellow + orange = blue
• . red + purple = plum
• . red + yellow + blue = burgundy
• . white + red = pink
• . yellow + orange = peach
• . yellow + red = orange
• . white + green + yellow = lemon
• . yellow + red + white = beige
• . brown + orange = terracotta

Secrets of making paints

For many home cooks, it remains a mystery how to paint mastic with dry dyes without spoiling the elastic mass. Even an inexperienced pastry chef can cope with this task if he uses food coloring for elastic mastic.

You only need a drop of gel dye. The paint is added directly to the material and vigorously kneaded until a homogeneous plastic mass is obtained. It is necessary to mix very intensively and quickly, otherwise the mass will harden and the color will be distributed quite unevenly.

When using dry products, you can paint the mass in two ways. In the first case, take an ordinary toothpick and dip it into the dry dye, and then into the mass itself. Do this several times, and then mix the mastic. Stir until the color is evenly distributed.

In the second case, just a little dry paint is placed in some container. Just a teaspoon of paint is enough. Add 3 drops of water or lemon juice into the container, then mix well. Place this mixture directly into the mastic dough and knead vigorously. Now you know how to make dye for elastic mastic quickly and easily.

Of course, it’s a personal matter for everyone, which dyes for mastic are better to use: homemade or synthetic. It is important to remember only one thing: you cannot save on your own health, so you need to choose the best. If you choose a synthetic mastic dye for your cake, carefully read the composition on the packaging. And if you prefer to make homemade dyes for plastic mastic with your own hands, use the ripest and freshest products for this purpose.

Having prepared your next confectionery creation, you want to decorate it in such a way that it will delight everyone. For this purpose, they are often used, with which you can not only cover the cake, but also make various decorations, figures, and patterns. But for this, the mass is first colored. It is at this stage that novice confectioners encounter difficulties, not knowing how to color mastic with food coloring correctly.

To avoid making mistakes, read the coloring tips. From the article you will learn about a diverse selection of dyes, and become familiar with the nuances of their use. This means you can create a sweet piece of art!

Food dyes: classification

Conventionally, dyes can be divided into natural and synthetic. Both the first and second ones can be used to paint both mastic and icing, dough, ice cream, and cream.

Dye selection

Before you buy a dye, you need to familiarize yourself with the purposes for which each type is suitable.

Mastic is a very famous product today. It is used to cover cakes, to make figurines for decorating confectionery products, and to create primitive toys. However, the mastic itself is an ordinary white mass, similar to plasticine. And in order for products made from mastic to be authentic and diverse, it must be painted. But not everyone knows how to do this positively.

You will need

• – food coloring (gel or dry);
• – gouache paints;
• – toothpicks;
• – brushes.

Instructions

1. The most primitive and harmless method of painting mastic – use of food coloring. If you take gel ones, then you only need to drop each one a couple of times from the bottle onto the material. Then knead the mass thoroughly and get a homogeneous lump of graceful dough, from which you can now create. Just remember that you need to mix the dough with the paint vigorously so that the mastic does not harden and the color is distributed evenly.

2. If you are using dry dyes, you can paint mastic two methods. The 1st one looks like this. Take a toothpick and dip it into the dry dye, then pierce the mixture itself with it. Repeat this several times, then start mixing the dough. Do this until the color is evenly distributed. If you feel that the color intensity is not enough, add dry powder again using a toothpick.

3. The 2nd method of coloring mastic with dry dyes looks like this. Place a little dye of one color or another in a small container. You only need a teaspoon of the product each. Drop 2-3 drops of plain water or lemon juice into it (diluted citric acid will also work) and stir. After this, place this mixture into the mastic dough and mix.

4. If you are not going to eat mastic figurines, you can paint the starting material with ordinary gouache paints. You will also need 1-2 drops of them. Try not to pour too much, on the contrary, you risk spoiling it mastic – the tea simply breaks due to excess moisture. Just like with food coloring, stir mastic and paint. Start creating.

5. Allowed to color mastic and after the fact. To do this, make a figure, combine its parts together, and let it dry - traditionally, the mastic dries for about a day. Next, take markers or paints and a brush and start coloring. Again, remember that it is impossible to wet the material too much - your toy may leak.

Homemade cakes are a little easy to bake - they are bound to look great. What can you come up with for decoration if you don’t want to create the usual cream roses on every surface? It is very primitive to prepare confectionery mastic at home, the basis of which is condensed milk.

For 150 g of condensed milk you will need a glass of powdered sugar, a teaspoon of lemon juice, as well as powdered milk or cream - approximately one and a half glasses. Occasionally more powdered cream is required. Consumption should be controlled easily during preparation and kneading of the mass.

In a deep bowl, mix milk or cream with powdered sugar. Add condensed milk, stir. Prepare your work surface. The mastic will need to be kneaded like dough. Sprinkle the surface on which you will do this with powdered sugar. After this, put the mixture from the bowl onto it and knead until it stops sticking to your hands.

If you think that the mastic is too sugary, you can replace some of the powder with potato starch. When you add it, the mass will stick to your hands less. If you have glycerin, add a few drops - this will help the mastic become more beautiful and flexible, and not dry out during storage.

The mastic is considered ready when it reaches homogeneity. The result should be an elastic, flexible mass, reminiscent of plasticine in its properties. When the mass is mixed, you can begin to sculpt figures from it. Cover the surface on which you are going to do this with powder. You can roll out mastic on it without fear that it will stick to the table.

To get different colors of the pastry mixture, divide it into parts and add food coloring to each of them. To achieve a chestnut or beige color, you can use cocoa powder. Pink and scarlet colors are obtained by adding berry syrup.

Decorations must be made in advance - they must dry before serving or decorating the cake. To dry, they need to be wrapped in film or placed in a suitable container and covered with a lid. If the mass remains, it can be stored in the refrigerator. Before sculpting from it again, leave it for 30 minutes in a room at room temperature, in film, so that the mastic becomes soft and more flexible.

Video on the topic

Baking mastic is an effective way to decorate a cake the way you want. It is easy to use, graceful, stores well and looks charming on the cake. Mastic can be used to decorate a wide variety of desserts - from themed cakes to multi-tiered wedding cakes.

Often when working with mastic you need to paint it some color. This can be done by using special food colors of the required shade. And if the choice in stores is not pleasing and you cannot find the required shade, these tips can come to the rescue.

· If you cannot find the required food coloring or despite the use of chemical coloring, you can use juices. Spinach juice will give the mastic a clear green color, beetroot juice will give it a scarlet color, and carrot juice will give it an orange color. For a clearer color, you can defrost the spinach and squeeze the juice out of it. A more concentrated color is obtained by boiling spinach in a small amount of water and straining.

· Yellow color can be obtained from turmeric. To do this, you need to brew turmeric with boiling water (1 tablespoon turmeric, 2 tablespoons boiling water), let it brew, then strain. The resulting decoction can be used as a yellow dye.

· The purple color can be obtained from elderberry juice. Another way to get purple dye is to boil shredded red cabbage in a small amount of water.

· It is very difficult to paint mastic black without black dye. In this case, craftswomen use a mixture of 3 dyes: one part each of red and blue and two parts blue. The resulting blackness depends on the shades of dyes that were used. The color may not be entirely black, but slightly greenish with a hint of purple.

· Another method to get a black color is to add burnt sugar to the mastic, getting a chestnut color. After this, adjust the color using blue dye.

Use these tips and your desserts will delight you and your guests with bright colors.

Note!
You should not pour dry dye into the mastic. You will not be able to stir it properly, and the mass will turn out spotty and with lumps.

Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant is sitting. A familiar phrase from childhood that always helps out if you have forgotten the sequence of the color spectrum. And if this issue can be resolved only with the help of a humorous statement, then the issue of food coloring cannot be easily resolved either. What is the difference between dry and liquid dyes? Why does chocolate curl when dyed? What is better to color fondant or cream for a cake? And this is only a small part of the main questions about food dyes. But this is the ingredient every pastry chef comes across most often! Let's look into the details.

Let's start with classification. All food dyes can be divided into several groups: dry, liquid, gel, kandurins, sprays, food markers. In addition to the variety of release forms, dyes are divided into two large (and very important!) categories based on their chemical basis: water-soluble and fat-soluble. You can read on the packaging which of the two categories a particular dye belongs to. If the dye is fat-soluble, there are usually markings: choco color (from the manufacturer FoodColours), oil candy color (from AmeriColor), the word “Varnish” (from Russian manufacturers) and others like that. Water-soluble ones are often not labeled, so if you don’t see a special sign or inscription on the packaging, then this dye is definitely water-based.

We all know from school courses that the different densities of water and oil (and products containing it) do not allow them to mix with each other. One of the most common confectionery mistakes is adding the first coloring that comes to hand into chocolate. Of course, it may magically happen that you come across exactly the right dye, but most likely not. The chocolate will curdle, turn into a plasticine mass and go in the trash. We decided to make your painful thoughts a little easier when choosing a particular dye when coloring different products and have compiled a visual diagram.

Dry dyes.

Powdered dyes. Most often they are diluted in water or vodka before use. Used for coloring biscuits, creams and chocolate. In the latter case, the dye is not diluted with water, and do not forget about the marking (oil) on the packaging. In addition, all dry dyes can be used in dry form as a pigment. They are used to color mastic or wafer paper, for example, when creating sugar or wafer flowers. Using dry dyes applied with a brush or sponge, you can achieve smooth and natural transitions. Among other things, dry dyes are an important assistant when preparing French Macaron cake. No excess moisture, uniform coloring and economical consumption.

Gel dyes.

Universal water-soluble dyes that are suitable for coloring biscuits, mastic, icing, creams, meringues and much more. They have a thick texture, rich color, and good hiding power. Gel colors are the most necessary tool for creating unique cakes. After all, it is among them that you can find the necessary shade for a cream or mastic. The palette of gel dyes is very diverse, especially AmeriColor. In it you can find not only several shades of pink or green, but also unusual “dusty” colors with mysterious names “moss”, “pumpkin”, “cypress” (We’ll talk about them in more detail next week!).

Liquid dyes.

Less dense, flowable water-based dyes. They are less suitable for coloring creams and mastics, but they can still be used to color almost any mixture. You should be a little more careful when working with them, as excess moisture can destroy the texture of the product being painted. Overdoing it with liquid coloring when making cupcakes can result in an unstable cream, and the fondant can become overly soft and sticky. But liquid dyes are ideal for direct coloring. With their help you can draw on the surface of a cake, gingerbread and on mastic. Also, the use of liquid dyes when coloring biscuits (for example, for red velvet) is a more rational and economical solution.

Kandurins.

A special type of dry food coloring with characteristic shiny particles. These particles come in different fractions, that is, grinding, which makes some kandurins look like solid shiny dust, while others consist of powder with sparkles inside. They can be used either dry or diluted with water or vodka. With their help, you can give any product a shiny shade. Kandurins are usually applied to the surface of cream, mastic, icing, and chocolate. The most popular shades of kandurins: gold, silver, copper. These shades are indispensable when creating metallic cakes. And if in the case of chocolate it is recommended to apply kandurin in dry form, then on cream or mastic in a reconstituted form. In these cases, the shine will be maximum and the coverage will be uniform. Kandurins are also indispensable for the finishing decoration of cakes and cupcakes - a few strokes of a dry brush are appropriate for almost any design.

Sprays.

In addition to traditional types of dyes, dyes in the form of sprays are becoming especially relevant. The most commonly used are gold, silver and mother-of-pearl options. Using a spray you can achieve a uniform metallic color. The spray can be used to cover any, absolutely any surface: chocolate, mastic, pasta and, most importantly, cream. After all, there is no other option to cover the top of a cupcake with glitter, for example.