Put pictures on cakes is a great way to add a personal touch to any special occasion. It’s a fun and creative way to make your cake stand out from the rest. With the right tools, you can easily transfer any image or design onto a cake. The process requires some patience and practice, but with a few simple steps, you can create a beautiful cake that will be the talk of the party.
In order to understand how to glue a sweet picture on cake or other type of cupcake, I suggest you first learn what sugar paper is.
There are quite a few subtleties that are important to consider when you want to glue a sugar picture onto a cake. For example, whether the photo print needs to be insulated from the cream, what kind of cream the paper can generally be placed on, whether the sugar paper needs to be covered with a neutral gel, and so on.
I will cover all of these nuances in this article. But if you are interested in learning more about sugar paper itself, I suggest you read the article “What is sugar paper” (article not yet released).
What kind of creams sugar paper is suitable for
It’s very important to sort out which creams are suitable for sweet photo printing work, and which are absolutely not. After all, as you know, confectioners work with a variety of textures and flavors of cream – butter cream, protein cream cheese, cream cheese on butter, cream cheese on cream.
Sugar paper consists of a lot of sugar, accordingly, it is very disliked by moisture and begins to absorb it almost immediately. This means that you should not use creams with a high sugar content to work with such paper. Now for more details:
- Cream-cheese on cream. This cream is definitely not suitable for working with sweet paper because of the content of cottage cheese (or other similar to it) and cream. After a very short period of time, the sugar paper will absorb moisture from the cream, which will cause cracks, and the photo print itself will be much less clear and bright.
- Buttercream. If you add oil to the cream – a direct source of fat – the moisture will be absorbed by the sugar paper worse. But in order to avoid the formation of cracks in the cake, it is important to consider the proportions of ingredients in the cream.
- Protein cream. Such a cream can be used when working with sweet paper, because it contains protein and sugar. The photo print retains its colorfulness, does not bloat and does not let the cream crack. However, it is better to cover the picture with a neutral gel before use.
- Also, photo printing on sugar paper “likes” chocolate-based creams, mastic coatings and icing. The main thing to remember about the amount of moisture and oil in the cream to get the best quality results.
How and how long to store the sugar picture
To achieve quality results when working with sugar paper, you need to remember how long the printed picture is stored separately from the cake, how long it is stored on the cake. I will also tell you how to store sugar paper at home.
So, important rules for storing sugar paper:
- To avoid the rapid drying out of sugar paper, it should be stored urgently in a special package;
- temperature changes harm sugar paper, so store it at room temperature;
- Also, direct sunlight can destroy its texture and properties, you should avoid it.
Thus, proper storage of sugar paper will allow it to serve you longer, preserving its properties.
A printed drawing on sugar paper can be stored for up to a month, but I still don’t recommend that you store it longer than a week at home. The photo print can simply dry out and lose its properties.
Sugar pictures glued on cream will be able to keep their appearance without defects for 3 to 6 hours. That’s why confectioners and recommend applying such decorations only before giving desserts to customers.
What will be needed to work with a sugar picture
How to work with sugar paper, what tools will be needed? I suggest you read more about the list of necessary items to easily glue a sugar picture on the cake. But I will say right away, this list is approximate and each confectioner personally decides for himself what he is comfortable when working with sugar paper.
- Gloves. It’s no secret that sugar does not like the heat of the hands, which means you can damage the photo print, transferring it to the cake, cupcakes;
- A stationery knife or scissors. As a rule, it is very convenient to work with sugar paper with a stationery knife if you are transferring a picture on a mastic sheet. Scissors are needed to cut out a picture of the size you need. Both tools must necessarily be dry;
- backing paper. It is worth using if you are originally attaching a sweet stamp to the mastic. To make it more convenient for you to cut the mastic sheet further, I advise you to use a backing.
- A mastic iron and a silicone rolling pin. With these tools, you will find it easier to work with the mastic sheets.
Given the above recommendations, you will be able to properly arrange the sweet decoration on the cake or other dessert.
General rules for working with a sugar picture
Before I tell you about how to decorate a sugar picture on the cake, I will briefly enumerate a few important nuances, which should be taken into account when working with sugar images.
- Initially, choose a sugar picture of maximum resolution;
- The picture should be on a light background, and preferably on a white one;
- it is important to take into consideration what kind of cream you are going to lay the sugar picture on, or it can be just a biscuit, mastic or something else;
- When working with a sugar picture it is important to keep your hands and all the surfaces absolutely dry;
- after you have applied the drawing on the mastic sheet, it is important to let it dry for several hours;
- before laying the prepared photo print on the cake, make sure that it stands on a flat surface;
- Remember, liquid cream can dissolve the paper, oil-based cream can stain the paper – it is important to calculate the correct proportions in the cream.
Applying a photo print on mastic
Sugar paper is best laid on a mastic flat surface. When I wrote about confectionary gel, I drew your attention to the various subtleties in working with it. I will clarify, however, that it is advisable to first grease the printed sugar image with the decoration gel, and only then carefully transfer the design to the cake. It is also important to isolate the sweet stamp from the cream in order to avoid bubbles. They occur if the surface is not perfectly flat.
Algorithm of applying a sugar image using mastic:
- Roll out the mastic sheet on a substrate or on a sprinkled starchy table. For decorative figures, thickness of 5 mm, for covering the cake – 2-3 mm;
- On the back side, grease the picture with neutral gel;
- Transfer the sugar print to the rolled out mastic sheet and trim off the excess with a stationery knife;
- Let the product dry for a few hours;
- Transfer the finished product to the cake or cupcakes. You can transfer both to a layer of cream (remember that fondant does not like moisture!) and to unsoaked sponge cake.
If the surface of the dessert is creamy, as is often the case with cupcakes, pastry chefs use a special lining of mastic. It is cut to the exact size of the picture itself, dabbed with decor glue, and then the image is placed on it.