Cover Your Cakes in Sugarveil!

This lace wasn't piped, it's molded!

     Have you ever been piping an elaborate lace design on a cake and thought "MY GOD! THERE MUST BE AN EASIER AND FASTER WAY TO DO THIS!"? Well, the good news is, that there is an easier way to do it, SUGARVEIL! Just what that heck is SugarVeil? Well, SugarVeil is a brand name for a product called "confectionary lace." There's also some other brands like "SugarDress" but from what I can tell, sugarveil arrived on the scene first. It starts as a dry mix, then you add liquid and mix it into sort of a goo. Once it's the right consistency (think, royal icingish) you can pipe it, spread it out or work it into thin silicon molds. You let it set up either at room temperature for a few hours or in a 200 degree oven for a few minutes and you have this magical product that peels away but stays flexible!! You can attach it to your cakes, smooth it over cupcakes or decorate cookies with it. It's totally edible and pretty tasty and it allows you to make a ton of perfect lace quickly.

 
 
  Have I peaked your interest? Let's get into the how-to. For my photos, you should be aware that I
am using "SugarDress." I have, however, recently switched over to working with SugarVeil and saw a lot of really great stuff from them at the ICES convention. In fact, the creator of the product was there to demonstrate how to use it! I'm not an expert on this stuff yet, but it's just so cool and fun to use that even as a novice it was really approachable and I would definitely recommend trying it! Both products work about the same way.
 

Magical White Powder...
No, not that white powder....
This is before icing it up.

   The first thing to do is follow the instructions that come with your product to mix it up to the proper consistency. SugarDress involves a powder and some sort of magic liquid goo, SugarVeil is just a powder that you mix with water. It's pretty straight forward and no more difficult than making a little bit of royal icing.

  SugarVeil has different suggestions for mixing based whether you are going to spread your sugarveil into a mold or pipe it out by hand. If you are going to pipe it, you will want a slightly stiffer consistency. If you are going to spread it into a mold, you will want a runnier consistency so that it will flow into all the nooks and crannies.

SugarDress, silicon mats and tools of the trade.

     If you are going to pipe the SugarVeil you can free-hand it onto a flat surface, which is pretty cool. It makes it a lot easier to pipe than trying to pipe directly on the side of a cake and you could follow a pattern really easily by piping onto transparent acetate over a template. You would then let your design set up completely. Next, and this is the really awesome part, you can peel it up off your acetate and directly apply it to your cake, cookie or cupcake! It's so cool! It's flexible, so it won't snap like royal icing could (but be careful because you can still rip it if you're not careful.) I just about lost my mind the first time I peeled it up! My husband and business partner, it should be noted was less excited than I was.

    If you are going to mold it, you can use one of the many silicone mats that are being made for this

The blue mats and all those packets on the left are my
SugarVeil haul from the ICES convention.

product. There are a ton of different patterns to emulate everything from lace to burlap, spiderwebs to steampunk gears. And, the mats all have a TON of detail. So much detail that it looks like you have real lace on your cake. The downside? The mats aren't cheap. The upside? Hopefully you will save so much on labor while making such gorgeous cakes that it will be worth it. Also, the designs are SO pretty. There are a quite a few brands on the market selling these mats, so shop around for a design you like. Also, some mats have just about a 14" length of design while some bigger mats have 3- 14" lengths. I would really recommend getting the bigger one, otherwise, if you have to cover a whole cake with lace you might get stuck repeating the process over and over again. That would sort of defeat the labor-saving appeal.

   Using the molds is pretty easy. You start with your pourable SugarVeil and you treat it sort of like you are going to grout some tiles. You pour it over your mold and then use an offset spatular or a rubber scraper to spread it over the entire mat. Then, you use a straight edge (like a rubber bowl scraper or on the stiffer scrapers that they sell specifically for this purpose) and you carefully scrape over the entire mat and remove all the excess SugarVeil  that hasn't been pushed into the mold. Once the surface of your mat is clear, you can allow it to dry at room temperature or you can dry it in a 200 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. I would recommend adding a second coat at this point, then dry it a second time before trying to remove it from the mold.

Above you can see me applying the Sugarveil,
Spreading it out and removing the excess.

   

This how it looks after coming out of the oven.

    Now we're at the exciting part! Once your SugarVeil  is set and you can carefully peel up an edge,
you turn the entire mat over (so the SugarVeil is facedown) and carefully peel the mat away from the lace. This seems to work better than trying to peel the lace up out of the mat when it comes to preventing tears. Try to use an even hand (or your scraper) when peeling the mat away, and keep an eye on the extra delicate parts, they may need a little help out of the mold to prevent tearing.

I know, I'm pulling the sugarveil up exactly like I told you not to. But you might not be able to see it the other way!

    Now you've got some really awesome flexible confectionary lace and it's ready to go onto your cake! You've saved yourself hours of piping time! Your lace looks awesome! Just brush the back with piping gel (or maybe watered down royal icing) and attach it to your cake. You can cut away what you don't need with a pair of scissors of a craft knife. You can also paint your SugarVeil with an airbrush or by hand to add some pop.

It's so flexible and delicate! Seriously,  SO cool.

    If you're not quite ready to put it on your cake, that's totally fine! Another awesome thing about SugarVeil is that you can roll it up, or gently fold it, put it in a plastic baggie and will stay good and flexible for a really long time! We're talking, months! OR you can let it set up hard, store it, then bring it back to life with a little steam or a moist paper towel. HOW COOL IS THAT!? You can get ahead on those wedding cake details for June (when it's crazy) in March (when it's slow)!

My secret shame, I didn't pipe this lace!!

   So, while I really love SugarVeil and I think it's super fun to play around with, I do feel a little www.sugarveil.com and see a bunch of photos of stuff they've made with the product. You can also check out SugarDress products at www.globalsugarart.com where there is also a ton of other decorating product. I don't want you to think I've been paid off by theSugarVeil people, I haven't, I'm not nearly that important!! I'm just really excited about this cool, and still fairly new, decorating product.
guilty when people compliment the lace and I know that wasn't really all that hard to make. That's the kind of person I am, I'm bad at taking a compliment. I will always be more impressed by a cake that is completely hand piped than one which uses molds, but that doesn't mean the cake is any lovelier. I don't think SugarVeil can or should replace all hand piping, but it is a super cool tool that belongs in any cake shop. It also invites creativity to use the SugarVeil  in ways that you can't use royal icing. When I saw their booth at ICES I basically bought everything because it was just SO cool. If you have the chance, check it out. You can buy it from their website
 
    If you are interested in having a beautiful lace cake, but aren't quite prepared to make it yourself, check out our website www.frostedfoxcakeshop.com and get in touch. We'd love to make a gorgeous cake for you, especially if you're interested in using some gorgeous confectionary lace as part of the design. If you enjoyed this, like us on Facebook too (www.facebook.com/frostedfoxcakeshop) and pass it on to your friends! Feel free to message us with any questions you have!