Clay gun vs. Sugarcraft gun

If you are at all interested in cake decorating and if you are fond of decorating with fondant and gum paste, you probably are dreaming on buying one of these:



Well, I did too and I decided to share my view on couple of things concerning this little contraption.

First of all it is discustingly overpriced! I was stunned when I found the better made metal clay gun at Michaels for only $10!



Just for the record, I got the sugar gun for $45.
Second of all, whoever got the idea for the design was definitely not a cake decorator but somebody who envies ( a lot) the golden hands cake decorators have and wants to incapacitate them permanently with this thing. Believe it or not, I've tried everything- adding water, adding shortening etc and my hands were hurting like hell when I tryied to work this thing!

The clay gun is sooooooooo much better! It's metal ( not cheap plastic as the Sugarcraft gun, that cracked after the 3rd use) and if your hands are tired you can simply press it on tabletop and it will work for you without you having to lift a finger :-) I am sorry, but I am spoiled that way. Whenever I can delegate some of the things I have to do to any kind of machinery, I do and I don't feel bad about it.

So, let's sum up here!

The clay gun:
- way easyer to use ( you don't need to mix your fondant or gum paste with any other thing to just make it "squeeze" through, like with the sugarcraft gun)
- way cheaper ( + $30 is a lot!)
- way sturdier ( cheap plastic vs metal?!)
- doesn't try to inflict permanent damage to your hands
- it's small but a little bigger than the sugarcraft gun

The Sugarcraft gun:
- requires a lot of strength to work it out ( forget about it if you have tennis elbow or carpal tunnel)
- ridiculously ( and unjeustifiedely)overpriced
- very fragile ( as I mentioned you can't compare metal to cheap plastic)
- very small! You have to screw and unscrew the top ( or bottom) just to add more and more dough if you want to get a longer rope. Simply a pain.

Overall conclusion:
I highly recommend the clay gun, compared to the sugarcruft gun!

Scooby Doo step-by-step tutorial

As I promised here is the step-by-step instruction how to make Scooby Doo.

1. Shape a piece of fondant ( gum paste) into a ball.


2. Squeeze the sides to form the body like this:


3. Form the leg like this:


4. Glue the legs to the body


First the back legs, then the front paws


5. Make the face


6. For the ears start with a small fondant ball, roll it out and then pinch the top side together:


7. Add the nose and eyes and then a couple of freckles and voila, you have the head and body!


9. Glue the head with water and/or attach it with a toothpick to the body.


10. Add the "Scooby" spots on the back and arms.


11. Don't forget Scooby's collar! :-)

Scooby Doo birthday cake

My son is a huge Scooby Doo fan and after watching 2000000000 times the episodes, I think I am a fan too :-).
For his birthday we had a Mystery party with a Scooby Doo cake.
I have a tutorial step by step how to make Scooby that I am going to post next time.



Just when I made the cake and we were ready to go, I've noticed I've written down mistery, instead of mYsterY and I had to fix it, but unfortunately I don't have pictures of the fixed cake.Have some mercy, English is not my native language after all :-)



I just love this little guy! :-)



The cake was with ready made vanilla and chocolate thin layers, with walnut ganache and fresh strawberry filling.
Take a peek at the piece ;-) Yummy, huh? :-)