Cake Decorating Help

Flasher · Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:35 am

My daughter's birthday theme this year is Tropical Safari. Think Luau meets Safari . . . bright flowers mixed with wild animal print.

I'm not having any problem with the cake design itself. I've got a handle on the flowers and design. The thing that I'm struggling with is the base which is supposed to look like a bamboo box. I've tried pretzel rods which were too big. Then I tried those little pretzel sticks, which were just too skinny. I've been looking on line for ideas, but maybe my search terms aren't quite right. Anyway, I'm having a hard time thinking of things I can use for the look of bamboo. I'm sure there something obvious out there, but I'm just missing it.

Any ideas?

Shutterbug · Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:50 am

Will be thinking on this today. When is her birthday? I have a party supply store near hear Maybe I can go up on Monday or Tuesday next week and see if there is anything or get ideas?

kate W. · Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:51 am

I've made and decorated many cakes but I've never tried to imitate bamboo. That's a tough one. The only thing I can think of is those rolled up Italian treat that usually is served with coffee-they have hazelnut, chocolate, etc fillings. For the life of me I can't remember what they are called. Never mind. I id some research and finally found what I was talking about. Here's a link http://www.amazon.com/Pirouline-Rolled- ... B00006IDK9

Monroe1218 · Sat Jul 25, 2015 3:49 pm

I was thinking of those Pirouline cookies as well - but if the pretzel rods were too big, these might be too. Here's a link to the Pepperidge Farm variety they call Pirouette.
http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/ProductDe ... ?catID=734

JillinIN · Sat Jul 25, 2015 4:13 pm

Does it need to be edible? What about dowel rods? If you need to add some color to make them look a little more like bamboo you could use brown and yellow Wilton gel coloring.
Dowel rods are safe to be touching edible parts of the cake. They are often used to stabilize tiered cakes, such as wedding cakes. They are poked into the cake to support the plate that the next tier goes on top of.

JillinIN · Sat Jul 25, 2015 4:19 pm

You also might make your own with royal icing. You could use a large round tip squeeze out the size you need on wax paper and after it hardens add some detail with Wilton gel color. Shorter pieces might be easier to remove from the wax paper without breaking and then can be "glued" together with more royal icing.
If you need a recipe or have questions let me know. I've been decorating cakes for over 30 years and was a wilton instructor for a while.

christinec68 · Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:09 pm

Monroe1218 wrote: I was thinking of those Pirouline cookies as well - but if the pretzel rods were too big, these might be too. Here's a link to the Pepperidge Farm variety they call Pirouette.
http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/ProductDe ... ?catID=734

I used the French Vanilla flavored pirouette cookies for a beach themed cake I made last week. You can cut or break them easily for varied lengths. It looked great and they are delicious cookies. I have a picture on my phone I could upload if you want to see how it looked.

butterfly843 · Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:49 pm

What about those edible cake sheets, you can get one with bamboo printed on it and wrap around the cake

Scrap Bug · Thu Jul 30, 2015 9:14 pm

You can use fondant - very easy to do.

Flasher · Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:09 pm

Thanks for all the ideas! I had forgotten about those cookies! I think I'll start with those since that seems the easiest for now!! I appreciate all of the suggestions!

Niki · Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:39 am

here is a video about making bamboo out of fondant
https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=Al ... t-700&fp=1

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