The covering from sugar mastic quickly turns simple home-made cake into a true piece of art. Ideally smooth, brilliant mastic will hide small mistakes of the confectioner and will become a magnificent background for a decor: chocolate monograms, marzipan figures, lace from sugar coating.
Mastic coating: features and advantages
Confectionery mastic – plastic weight from mix of icing sugar, the purified fat and lemon juice. Sometimes add a little glycerin to it, allowing weight to keep longer elasticity. Correctly prepared mastic smooth, homogeneous, it is easy to paint it in any color food colors. An essential remark – the high caloric content of a product. That ready cake didn't turn out too luscious, it is recommended to reduce amount of sugar in cream and to use impregnations from sourish fruit syrups.
Basic purpose of mastic – reversing of cakes, cakes and cakes. Dense glossy weight creates ideally smooth covering, hiding the minor defects allowed at baking of cake layers. Mastic keeps a cake form, doesn't allow cream to spread, serves as a fine background for a decor. It is possible to make jewelry of sugar weight: volume flowers, garlands, figures, various inscriptions and monogram. The cakes and cakes decorated by mastic perfectly are watched in photos and videos.
It is possible buy ready mastic or confectionery fondant in specialized shops, in departments for restaurateurs it is sold by blocks from 1 to 5 kg. However the self-made product turns out not worse, besides house mastic can be stored in the fridge, using as required.
Mastic preparation: the step-by-step recipe for beginners
Those who only begins to master subtle art of home-made pastries need to learn to do the most plain mastic. It is possible to prepare it approximately for half an hour, from the specified quantity of products 600 g of elastic weight will turn out.
Ingredients:
- 500 g of very small icing sugar (disregarding a product for expansion and topping);
- 75 g of a white vegetable fat (it is possible to replace with melted lard);
- 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.
Lay out fat in a deep frying pan and kindle on slow fire together with lemon juice and couple of spoons of water. Add a half of a portion of icing sugar, bring mix to the boil, but not boil. To stir slowly constantly frying pan contents, trying to obtain total homogeneity and elasticity.
To pour a part of the remained powder into a bowl of the mixer and to lay out hot fat preparation. Shake up on small turns, in the portions adding sugar powder. Strew with powder a clean and dry board, lay out mastic and hands to knead it to ideal smoothness and plasticity. At the end of process add food color in the form of liquid or gel to weight. That color sent homogeneous, mastic is stretched several times in the form of long sausage, and then put several times.
Cake covering: stage-by-stage approach
That cake ideally kept a form, it is better to cover previously it with a layer of marzipan and only then to wrap up in a layer of sugar mastic. The round product with a diameter of 20 cm requires 700 g of a product if pastries square or fancy, it is necessary to prepare not less than 800 g.
That home-made pastries looked professionally, it is necessary to work step by step and not to hurry. An important condition – before a raskatyvaniye of sugar weight cake it is necessary to measure and put the sizes of diameter and height increased by 2. Then on the board powdered with starch to roll thin layer with diameter equal to the received figure. If pastries round, mastic is rolled in the form of a circle, for square cake the square from sweet weight is necessary. You shouldn't do layer too thin, otherwise sugar weight will creep away and will begin to flow. If it seems too soft, it is possible to add a little more icing sugar and it is good to knead weight hands. It is also necessary to arrive if mastic before wrapping of cake was stored in the fridge.
It is convenient to stack an elastic sugar covering by means of the rolling pin powdered by starch. On it freely wind the rolled layer, transfer it to the center of cake and carefully liberate countries. The hands powdered with starch it is necessary to stretch slightly layer from mastic, densely wrapping cake. To cut off surplus in the lower part very sharp knife. It be not necessary to throw out them – sugar mastic can be rolled and made of it flowers again.
Jewelry for cake: a master class for beginners
Classical cake will be decorated especially by roses. It is simple to make them. That petals well held a form, for a covering to add a little more icing sugar to mastic, weight has to be elastic, but rather dense.
Separate a small piece from a piece of mastic, drip dye and knead to total homogeneity of color. For cores of roses to roll mini-cones, to roll the remained mastic in layer and small dredging to cut out circles. One rose requires 5 pieces. To inwrap residues of mastic in a film and to place in the fridge, in the open air weight zavetrivatsya quickly and begins to crumble.
Lay each round petal under food wrap, pressing a finger, to slightly extend one end. Moisten more rib-steak with water and wrap up around a cone. To serially attach all petals, forming of them a bud. Slightly to turn off outer edges that the flower became more magnificent. Lay roses on the plate laid by a tissue and leave for drying. To strengthen a decor on cake, to squeeze out a drop of fresh fondant on the lower part of a rose and to slightly press down a product to a surface.