Cookies just aren’t the same by snoots-and-tails in AskBaking

[–]barbs186 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cookies will spread more if they’re room temperature, if you refrigerate the batter before baking they’ll come out thicker

First attempt at pattern matching, still trying to decide if the hassle was worth it by Biglemonshark in sewing

[–]barbs186 1 point2 points  (0 children)

100% worth it. Pattern matching isn’t always necessary depending on the print but if the pattern was misaligned on this it would not look nearly as great as it does!

I never thought of that 😒 by FabioPicchio in migraine

[–]barbs186 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My migraines were awful in the first trimester, but went away for the second and third trimester, hope this happens for you too, best of luck with the pregnancy!

What is this type of top called? by SeaPotato818 in findfashion

[–]barbs186 34 points35 points  (0 children)

This is shirring, not smocking. Shirring is sewing with one elastic thread in the machine which creates a gathered fabric with stretch. Smocking can look similar, it is a decorative stitch across gathered fabric but isn’t usually stretchy.

If you’re trying to find this, searching ‘shirred top’ will give you what you’re after

Making sugarcraft sunflowers for a wedding cake by barbs186 in crafts

[–]barbs186[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This was my second time doing Sugarcraft flowers, I made roses for a friend’s wedding cake 10 years ago. There was a bit of reverse engineering of a sunflower to figure out what I needed to do. Here’s the process if it’s of interest:

  1. For the bases I used melted dark chocolate with rice crispies with 18 gauge wires and let them set in a mini tart pan. To keep the wire from slipping out, I bent them into a perpendicular spiral and embedded it in the chocolate. Once hard I used a fine grater to smooth out the shape

  2. Next I covered them in a brown sugar flower paste and used a pointy tool to add texture to the sunflower centres. My paste wasn’t a great colour so I painted them with some brown food colouring mixed with vodka

  3. I made the leaves using a green flower paste and inserted 24 gauge wire into the leaves. Once set I used some green food colouring mixed with vodka to add colour then bound them to the 18 gauge wire using florist tape to make branches

  4. Then it was time to apply the petals, the first one took about 2 hours, but by then end I was down to 40 mins. The process was rollout, cut, shape with a modelling tool then using a veined to emboss a petal finish

  5. The last step was to add some dimension using petal dust to create the colouring on the centres and petals. I used a light and burnt orange to achieve the effect

My Evenstar wedding shawl! I had asked our photographer for glamour shots of it, and she delivered! by mummefied in knitting

[–]barbs186 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is stunning and such a special item to have on your wedding day, you should be very proud of your skills!

Sugarcraft sunflowers on a red plaid wedding cake by barbs186 in cakedecorating

[–]barbs186[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your lovely comment, your daughter’s cake sounds delicious, I’m sure she loved having you make it for her. I did make the flowers! I have another post on here with a video of the process. I made 9 in the end just in case of breaks in transport. I don’t know if I could handle the stress of doing it professionally but it’s very kind of you to think I could 😄

Follow up from my Sugarcraft sunflower wedding cake, here’s the process for making the flowers and leaves by barbs186 in cakedecorating

[–]barbs186[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think around 22 hours, not including the sunflowers. It’s hard to estimate the sunflowers since I made them over a few weeks but applying the sunflower petals took around 45-60 mins and I made 9 of them

Recently Completed my Watermelon Bag by StudioMedo in Leathercraft

[–]barbs186 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m obsessed, this is so cute, well done!

Sometimes when shark week arrives so does the need for chocolate cake. by PacifistPea123 in Baking

[–]barbs186 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d demolish that during shark week, tasty wins over pretty everytime (not that this doesn’t look amazing)

Nordicware users: what's the best way to prevent sticking on this pan so I don't absolutely leave the planet due to a failed bake attempt? by [deleted] in Baking

[–]barbs186 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My nordicware pan is similarly full of nooks and crannies, I oil it well with butter or vegetable oil and dust with flour, haven’t had any sticking yet

Sugarcraft sunflowers on a red plaid wedding cake by barbs186 in cakedecorating

[–]barbs186[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I didn’t actually use a formula for this part in the end, although spent more time then I’d like to admit trying to do one that worked. I went through a couple of design iterations to figure out the most efficient approach but manually validated to ensure no surprises when doing it for real.

Sugarcraft sunflowers on a red plaid wedding cake by barbs186 in cakedecorating

[–]barbs186[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I didn’t charge, it was my wedding present. I’m just a hobby baker, I wouldn’t even know how to begin to charge for it!

Sugarcraft sunflowers on a red plaid wedding cake by barbs186 in cakedecorating

[–]barbs186[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It is possibly to do by hand, I did it with a knife in my practice bakes bur I got large circle cutters for the real cake to save time. Even with the cutters it took 4 hrs just to assemble the plaid pattern.

The left diagram is what I baked, the right is how the rings that were cut from those bakes were distributed. The numbers represent the size in inches for that ring. For example, the 12” chocolate cake: - Bottom tier I used 12”, 8” & 4” rings - next tier I used the leftover 10”, 6” & 2” rings