Thinking Outside the Cake Box

 I still had some butter cream fondant and decided to have a little fun with it. I made a special little cake for my family. I used cutters and impression molds I purchased from the clay art section of my local craft store. These leaf cutters are for working with Sculpey but they work really well for this medium. That is a good place to look for tools that can be used for fondant/gumpaste cake art. They were on clearance and I got quite a few different leaf styles for less than $6. Awesome!

I also use scrapbooking Fiskars tools for some of the things I make for my cakes. In particular I like the texture plates. They work really well with the fondant and gumpaste.

I have two more examples. First is my fondant rolling pin. It is really just a section of pvc pipe. It cost me $1.99 as opposed to the $21.00 Wilton wanted for their fondant rolling pin. Mine is longer and easier to handle. Works like a dream. :) Second is a high density foam roller that I use to smooth out my butter cream icing. It looks almost like fondant when I do it that way. A nice alternative for folks who don't really care for fondant but like the way it looks. Neither of these are cake decorating tools but they do the job quite nicely. Both are excellent tools.

Think outside the cake box when it comes to cake decorating tools. You might be surprised with what you can find in the craft store, or your local hardware store. You can let your imagination run wild. Just make sure you choose things that are non-toxic and dedicate those tools to only working with food.