Vivian Pham, cakes

Her cakes can completely range from each other, but in each genre she seems to keep a similar style. I like that she has a real modern take on some of her cakes and it's very up to date with themes that are popular today. My favorite style of her cakes are the really beautiful and detailed cakes that are mainly color schemed around gold. This style of hers looks very influenced by rococo and it just looks so elegant and beautiful. She also ranges with shape and structure having top heavy cakes and centered sphere cakes which shows that a lot of planning and artistic and structural knowledge will have been incorporated.

How to make edible sand and water for a cake

To make sand for a cake you can use biscuits or cookies to the color you want and crush them up, some examples of these are:

• graham crackers.
• vanilla wafers.
• shortbread cookies.
• you can also add sparkling sugar or Cake Sparkles into the biscuit crumbs to add a glisten to the sand.

To make water for a cake you can:

• Use piping gel that you've colored.
• Sparkles Gel which is a brand of piping gel which adds a glisten to the water.
• Cover the water section in white acing and create wave like lumps of icing which you can then cover with the piping gel, or you can use a spatula.
• Use butter cream in different shades and use a spatula.
• Use gelatin which works good for ponds, but it has to be directly on cake because it's too wet for fondant.

EDIBLE GEMS

If you get some molds and spray them with cooking spray then it will prevent the gems from sticking when you try to get them out. You don't have to do this if you're using silicone molds. Melt the sugar at 260-275 degrees F and then pour the mixture into the molds and wipe away any access. When they've cooled and set you can take them out and they should be hard, shiny and clear and you can dust them with edible dust to add an extra shine. A problem with this is that if you don't control the temperature right then you're sugar may turn yellow. Another ingredient you could use instead from sugar and probably a better option is to use isomalt as it will always stay clear. A disadvantage of the isomalt is that consuming too much of it can give you a bad stomach, although small amounts are perfectly fine.

Buttercream Flower Tips

You start with a piping bag with the tip size 150 and stiff consistency butter-cream icing. Hold bag at 

90° angle at 6:00. You should start piping at edge of cupcake and work toward the center. Pipe a 

left-cupped petal, then a right- cupped petal.

Move the tip down about halfway on first petals. Squeeze to pipe a right-cupped petal.

Continue squeezing, moving the tip halfway down on previous petal to pipe another right cupped 

petal, then pull down toward the center of the cupcake.

Repeat sequence to cover cupcake, turning cupcake as needed.

You will need to start with a piping bag and a rose petal tip (preferably sized 104). To start you

should place the larger end of the tip in the center of the cake and squeeze whilst then spinning

the cake and squeezing in a rainbow like motion. Carry on piping in a rainbow like motion to create

 petals surrounding the middle rosette. Keep each petal overlapping the next and gradually build

outward.