This is the next in our series of educators featured in our Bake Twentyfive issue. Each weekday, we will spotlight a new instructor or educator in the fields of baking, pastry, and chocolate.
Cake decorators have learned new tricks in recent years to make their creations look spectacular and taste great, too.
“In today’s world, there are so many more things we can print on than ever before,” says Mike Terry, a Certified Master Sugar Artist and pastry chef instructor with Bakery Professionals.
With more than 30 years of experience in cake decorating, Terry has helped educate many professional and aspiring cake decorators. With over five years at Ivy Tech Community College as an Adjunct Pastry Chef Professor, he has taught 200 level classes in Bakery Merchandising and Marketing; Cakes, Icings and Fillings; Advanced Decorating and Candies; and Wedding.
Speaking at an IBIE educational session on Edible Decorating Technology, Terry listed the following examples: icing sheets, premium icing sheets, luster sheet-s, wafer paper, premium wafer paper, chocolate transfer sheets and Simi Transfer Sheets, an edible paper from Icing Images that is used to apply semi-transparent designs on Isomalt.
“Wafer paper, made from a potato starch base, is ideal for creating accents,” Terry says. “For vibrant photographs, wafer paper is not the best, but luster sheets are amazing to print pictures on. They add bling. Simi Transfer Sheets work with today’s hotter mediums such as Isomalt, DECOgel, edible lace products and Flexique. You can print anything you want on Simi Transfer Sheets. Just peel off the backing, it’s perfectly printed on your Isomalt.”
Now digital cutting technology is newest frontier in cake decorating design. Terry discussed the advantages of the Silhouette Cameo, a tool to design, cut, and create with ease.