Modeling chocolate and other cake advice

Her pages are a bit dense visually - but lots of good tips.

I like her idea of putting the plastic chocolate through a pasta roller to get thin thin ribbons. Pasta rollers are so handy - great for making crackers, and things like handkerchief pasta with herbs pressed between the layers.

Ok, my aunt says she frosts her cakes when they are frozen and when it thaws it gives it an "antique look" (which is pretty cool), but if you want it smooth then thaw it first. She has never worked with the modeling chocolate tho! Hope that helped with the icing part!

Look here, boomer, this lady has a son who requested a snake cake as well..

http://sarabakescakes.blogspot.com/2008/06/gabes-snake-ake.html

Thanks for asking! Hmmmm..... I wonder if "antique look" might resemble snake skin.....

I've seen that cake, CJane! Isn't it cute?

There are some cool snake cakes out there but I don't think I qualify to copy them:

I was looking at the cake photo you linked and started thinking....

Could I make a python using magic shell (you know the ice cream topping that hardens when it gets cold)?

A python has pretty free form markings....



I found a recipe to make it but I can't seem to find out if it has to hit something very cold to hold it's shape. I know that once it hardens it stays hard (but I don't know if it "sweats").

I wonder if I could put it all together in the garage where it's cold.

At least magic shell tastes good!

Hey....... maybe I could freeze the cake pan and pour the magic shell over the bottom of that, remove the spots and slip them onto the cake......

Why don't you make an ice cream cake, boomer. Form the snake body
from vanilla ice cream (or some light brownish flavor) and then you could
add magic shell wherever you want to. Perhaps get some sprinkles for outlining the markings and for they eyes. For the tongue you could get one
of these red licorice and split it...

Rather than modeling chocolate, you might be able to use chocolate curls that you make by melting chocolate, spreading it out in a sheet pan and then making the curls. Here's a video to watch as well as a textual explanation with photos:



http://candy.about.com/od/workingwithchocolate/tp/Chocolate-Curls.htm

This site has 50 snake themed cakes with photos and details of how the decorating was done on each and what materials were used:

http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/birthday-cake-decorating-idea.html

Here's a suggestion for forming the cake into a snake shape. They used a bundt pan and cut out each of the "bumps" and put them back together in the form of a snake. It naturally gives a bumpy look to the skin so that all it needs is some frosting and decorating.

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/slippery-snake-cake-686426/



Rather than frosting, you could pour melted chips over the cake using chocolate, butterscotch, mint, white and other flavored chips that are available at most groceries. Pour each in a specific pattern to mimic the colors and pattern on a snake. You could soften the texture of each by adding a bit of condensed milk to the melted candies before pouring. That way it will be softer and less likely to crack and crumble when it solidifies.

Here's another one using the same bundt cake pan idea.

That's been my favorite "how to" baking site to go to for many years when I want to better understand something about the chemistry, ingredients and techniques for baking almost anything.

She used to have all her recipes freely available on the site too, but now she has them in a forum that you need to subscribe to.

HEY! What about colored coconut?

You can color it any color, and you can press it in so you get kind of a scaly texture and it tastes good. Plus, it would be easy, especially if I worked in sections and went with the coral snake idea.

Do you think that would work?

Hmmm. Ice cream cake, huh? That's not a bad idea! I've never made an ice cream cake before so I'm not sure how it works sculpturally.

I love the idea for using the licorice whip as a tongue!

Thanks butrflynet!

I might end up with a long squiggle cake but right now I have my heart set on a semi-coiled snake. A long cake would certainly be easier to serve though....

I love those curls but not sure how I would use them on a snake.

I'm not sure if you've looked at any of the disgusting taste threads (they must happen about every six months) - but coconut is one of those love it/hate it tastes/scents/textures.

Yeah.... after I posted that I started wondering if coconut counted as a tree nut and therefore should be avoided in case anyone has nut allergy.

I was surprised to find this is a pretty hotly debated issue.

At the store today I picked up some magic shell but I also found something called chocolate glaze that hardens on room temperature surfaces. It looks like it can get a bit drippy, which would be a problem. I bought some to experiment with!

What about ground up cookies?

Now that sounds good..