It’s a rainy, gray morning here in Missouri, and to brighten things up, I want to talk about cake.
Quick reminder: All of my tiny food tutorials are 20% off until tomorrow at midnight. This is my last sale until November!
I love going through my folders of old Mouse Market pics, looking at my tiny food from years past. So, shall we take a walk down memory-cake lane? 🕰️
Let’s do it…
This strawberry-banana cake was the very first piece of tiny food I made as an adult. It was the first thing I listed in my Etsy shop, allllll the way back in 2009.
I had just learned about liquid clay, which was an absolute revelation to me.
I used polymer clay as a kid, but either liquid clay didn’t exist back then or it didn’t exist in my world. I still remember how thrilling it was to whip up my first batch of frosting, my mind exploding with possibilities. I could make cupcakes! And melty ice cream! And whipped cream on pie! And and and… 🤩
And then I discovered translucent clay.
It took me a while to figure out how much to use. For instance, here’s an early Boston cream pie that incorporates translucent clay. Compare it to the yellow cake above. Do you see the difference?
But now, compare it to this Boston cream pie, which contains even more translucent. It’s subtle, but the cake looks more realistic, the yellow less chalky. It also helps that my crumb texture was a little more delicate here.
Translucent clay can be tricky, because different brands produce different levels of translucency, and the temperature and baking time affect the results as well. In addition, adding translucent to a darker color of clay will yield different results than, say, white or ecru clay.
But regardless, as you’re experimenting with your preferred brands, adding at least some translucent clay to pretty much any tiny food will improve the results. In my tutorials, I give helpful guidelines for every project.
Let’s look at more cake! Like this almond bundt…
Or this candy-topped cake…
For a while there, I was in a fondant phase, which allowed me to create more sculptural details, like this Cheshire Cat…
In the Candy Land cake below, I learned how to make my fondant layers more even, so they didn’t have the slightly puffy appearance of the Alice in Wonderland cake above.
Isn’t tiny food the best?? 🥰 Okay, one more: a woodland take on Bûche de Noël or Yule Log…
Ready to make some tiny food of your own?
Don’t miss my Tutorial Flash Sale—20% off all tutorials until tomorrow at midnight. This is the last sale I’ll be running until November!
Want to dive into tiny baking in particular?
I have an already discounted boxed set with five dessert-focused books, and you’ll get an additional 20% off until tomorrow at midnight. (Want every tutorial I’ve ever made? Get The Ultimate Collection.)
Happy mini making!
Mo and the Mice 🐭
