Sculpting website just "lovely" for the cake designer

I on occasion like to put sculpted figures on my cakes.  I will be the first to admit that sometimes I lack a creative mind in this area.  Oh, I can come up with the ideas with what I would like to put on the cake, but I am not always the best at the intricate details of the figures.  So, I was looking for a tool to guide me, you know, maybe some type of tutorial to shed some light on my short-comings in figurine making.  Well, I came across a website that I simply must share with you.  It has the most wonderful tutorials for figurines that I have come across yet.

The name of this website is Lovely Tutorials.   I will warn you in advance that the website is in Russian, but you can still get the general idea from the photos presented on the page.  The website operator works in polymer clays, but the same techniques can be applied to fondant figures (you may need to mix in some gumpaste for some figures).  I found many different figures that I would like to give a try.

So, if you are not good at the fine details, slip over to this website.  You may find something to help you.  I just love the little frog figures.  You can also find some good figures on Pinterest as well.  If you aren't a member on Pinterest, and would like an invite let me know.  Just send me an email, and I see if I can't help you get up and running.

 Good luck with you figurine sculpting.

No-Fail Sugar Cookies

Now I know what your thinking, what does cookies have to do with cake decorating and design.  Well, let me tell you.  You can decorate cakes with many different mediums...gumpaste, fondant, buttercream transfers, royal icing transfers...and yes, cookies.  If you don't believe me, do some surfing on the web.

I found this Sugar Cookie Recipe on cakecentral.com, and it was posted by Jackie.  There is also a tutorial posted by antonia74  showing an exact method to bake these cookies perfectly without fail. These cookies are awesome, and if you follow the instructions as she has given them, you will have some really awesome cookies.

I won't go into significant detail, because as I have said, there is a complete tutorial here.  I just wanted to expand your mind to another method of decorating.  Halloween is coming up.  Imagine a cake with tombstone cookies or a haunted house cookie with frankenstein peeking his head around the corner.  A ghost cookie coming out of the cake with crushed up oreo cookies for the dirt.  Let you imagination go wild.  If you have a cookie cutter for it,  you can do it.  Ideas can be limitless if you can cut the shapes out freehand. 

Here are some pictures of cookies I made with my grandchildren.  Give them a try.  We had a blast!