How to make sugar paste for a cake: a recipe with a photo

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Not a single purchased cake can truly replace the care and sincerity that hostesses invest in homemade cakes. However, despite the warmth of homemade sweets, they rarely look as attractive as the masterpieces of experienced pastry chefs. You can correct the usual state of affairs with the help of self-made mastic.

A few words about the famous decor

Pastry mastic is considered an excellent edible material for decorating all kinds of products: muffins, cakes, pies, cakes and even cookies. Decorate your pastry with it and turn it into a real piece of culinary art.

What mastic is not made of: edible gelatin, condensed or powdered milk, chewing marshmallows, honey. However, the most popular is considered to be the sugar mass. Most often it is used to create all kinds of figurines, ornaments or cover the entire cake.

Of course, the preparation of sugar mastic requires certain skills and dexterity. Besides,it is very important to learn how to work skillfully with this capricious material. But in reality, you only need a few hours of free time and following some recommendations. Believe me, it's actually quite easy. Having mastered the cooking technology and the recipe for sugar mastic, you can easily decorate literally any of your pastries.

Description

Of course, ready-made material can be purchased at any specialized store. But if you want to make sugar mastic at home, it will not be difficult. Moreover, the availability and low cost of home-made desserts have always been considered important arguments in their favor.

In terms of its consistency, sugar mastic is unusually elastic, easily takes the necessary shape and is perfectly molded. That is why it is considered the best material for decorating desserts. This mastic is perfect for wrapping cakes and creating a variety of edible figurines.

Features

A few simple tricks will help you skillfully prepare high-quality and amazingly delicious sugar mastic.

• Usually the basis of this material is powder. It is advisable to purchase a store-bought product and sift it at least a couple of times before use. After all, if at least one sugar crystal gets into the mastic, the mixture will simply break when rolling, or it will turn out to be completely heterogeneous.
• After kneading, the material must be sent to the refrigerator for at leasthalf an hour.
• When working with mastic, the table should be periodically sprinkled with powdered sugar or starch.
• The finished material can be stored in a closed container on a refrigerator shelf for two weeks. And in the freezer, you can leave it for 2 months at all.
• If you want to make colored mastic, you can add liquid, dry or gel food coloring to it. The last option is the most affordable and easy to use.
• Be aware that sugar paste is extremely sensitive to moisture. It is commonly used to coat dry and buttery cakes. If the base is too wet or the cream drips from the surface, send the dessert to the refrigerator to set. Please note that at the slightest contact with the liquid mass, the mastic may simply dissolve.
• It is best to build the figurines in advance, about a week before making the dessert itself, so that they have time to dry well.
• Don't neglect adding citric acid to the mastic dough. This ingredient not only adds flavor to the product, but also prevents premature drying of the material.

Classic DIY sugar mastic

The material prepared according to this recipe is very tender and tasty. Working with such mastic is a real pleasure. Preparing a sweet mass for decoration is actually not such a laborious task. Only one thing is important - to follow the chosen recipe exactly in the manufacturing process.

So, to make mastic you will need:

• 200g milk powder;
• same amount of powder;
• 3 teaspoons brandy;
• the same amount of lemon juice;
• 270g condensed milk.

Be sure to stock up on plenty of powdered sugar - always keep it nearby during the kneading process. After all, it may well turn out that the prepared product is simply not enough for you.

How to make sugar paste

First of all, sift the powdered sugar several times in a row. Then add milk powder to it and mix thoroughly. It is most convenient to knead the mastic immediately on the table. Gently fold in the condensed milk into the dry mixture. Start kneading the dough gently until smooth. Now add freshly squeezed lemon juice and work the mixture with your hands for 15 minutes. As a result, you should get a rather elastic, soft mass with a viscous consistency. This mastic is very pleasant and easy to work with.

If you want to give your product some shade, you need to do it at this stage. Please note that a few drops of dye is enough. After adding the dough, knead by hand so that the color is evenly distributed. To begin with, it is best to tear off a small piece of mastic, supplement it with dye and knead. This way you can evaluate the resulting color and decide if you need more or less pigment. By the way, in addition to purchased dyes, you can use natural products, such as carrots, beets, citrus zest, blackberries orcurrant.

Wrap the prepared material in polyethylene and put in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. The cooled mass is much easier to roll out and glue. Properly made sugar mastic for cakes has a pleasant matte finish. At the same time, it remains very tasty and elastic.

Gelatin sugar decor

To make this mastic you will need:

• a third of a glass of water;
• 0.5 kg powdered sugar;
• 10g gelatin;
• a pinch of citric acid.

Proceedings

First of all, fill the gelatin with boiled, but already cooled water. Leave it to swell for an hour and a half. Then place the container with gelatin in a water bath and bring it to complete dissolution. Now add citric acid to the liquid and let the mixture cool.

Sift the powdered sugar several times, forming a slide out of it. Make a small well in the top and pour the gelatin mixture into it. Now it remains to knead the dough as quickly as possible - it should turn out snow-white and matte. It is very important to achieve mass uniformity. At this stage, the preparation of mastic from gelatin and powdered sugar can be considered finished. As you can see, this recipe is even a little easier.

If you want to color the mastic, then you need to do it right now. Remember to knead the mixture vigorously with your hands.

In order for the mastic not to stick to the surface and it was convenient to roll it out, wrap itpolyethylene. Of course, it is desirable to cool it in advance. If you are preparing figures from your mastic, use water to glue the parts. To do this, gently moisten the bonding points with literally a drop of liquid.

Marshmallow mastic

This method of making sugar decoration is considered one of the most popular today. This is due to the fact that marshmallow mastic - that's what chewing marshmallows are called - is very easy to prepare, unpretentious and perfectly moldable. It is a real pleasure to work with such a dough - it effortlessly takes the desired shape, does not stick to the skin, is evenly colored and easily rolled out. From such material it is best to create a variety of figures and small design details. Although mastic made from powdered sugar and marshmallows is also suitable for covering the cake.

To prepare such material, prepare in advance:

• 2 tablespoons of water;
• 200g marshmallows;
• 300 g powder.

As you can see, the set of products is minimal. And the cooking process is not particularly difficult.

Progress of work

First of all, you need to melt the marshmallows. To do this, put the lozenges in a deep container, add water to them and put in the microwave for 5 minutes. If you wish, you can also melt the soufflé in a water bath, but it will take a little longer.

In order to make the mastic dough as elastic as possible, while melting the marshmallow, you can add a small piece of butter to it. And insteadwater, freshly squeezed lemon juice can be added to the mixture, which will save the decor from excessive cloying.

After the marshmallow reaches the desired consistency, increasing in volume, start adding sifted powdered sugar to it in small portions. Stir all ingredients thoroughly until smooth. As a result, you will get a rather dense, thick mass.

Keep in mind that this mastic should not be too tight. You need to add powdered sugar until the mixture stops sticking to the skin. Then form a ball from the prepared dough, roll it in the powder again and wrap it in plastic. Put the finished workpiece in the refrigerator for half an hour. After the set time, the mastic will become more dense and less sticky. Now you can form decorative elements from it.

Try not to overuse powdered sugar. It is better to put it less than required, and then add. After all, too tight mastic is almost impossible to fix.