How to:
Creating and Applying Piñata Texture
TOOLS:
- powdered sugar in a muslin bag for dusting
- silicone rolling pin
- different colors Fondant (page 57)
- pastry wheel
- ruler
- damp tea towel wrapped in plastic wrap (see page 134)
- utility knife
- fine-tip paintbrush
- 1:1 mixture of water and corn syrup
Dust your surface with powdered
sugar. Using the silicone rolling pin, roll out the fondant into a
rectangle ⅛ inch to ¹⁄16
inch thick. Rotate the fondant evenly as you roll, as you would for
a piecrust.If the fondant begins to stick, dust more powdered sugar
on the surface.
Use the pastry wheel and ruler to
trim a 12-by-6-inch rectangle from the fondant.
Use the pastry wheel and ruler to
trim the rectangle into three 12-by-2-inch strips. Cover with the
plastic-wrapped tea towel to prevent the fondant from drying
out.
Trim each strip into four
3-by-2-inch pieces, covering the pieces with the tea towel as you
work.
Work with one rectangle at a time.
Use the utility knife to cut fringe on one long edge, leaving a
½-inch-wide section un-fringed on the top of the rectangle.
To attach the pieces to a
fondant-covered cake, use a fine-tip paintbrush to dot the back of
the un-fringed edge with the water–corn syrup mixture. (Work with
one strip at a time.) If applying to an iced cake, apply directly
on the chilled icing without the water mixture.
Apply to the cake one strip at a
time, creating a complete row around the cake tier. Start from the
bottom of the cake tier, and then add each row on top of another so
that the fringe covers the un-fringed section of the piece
underneath. Every now and then, alternate the colors of the rows to
create a festive stripe pattern. To finish the top of the cake,
continue layering the fringe in a circular pattern until it’s
completely covered.