Baking cakes at home is a hobby of many housewives. Significantly improve the appearance of the finished product will help the use of mastic. What is it and how to use it - read the article.
Mastic for a cake for a close-fitting: preparation method
Mastic is a sweet decorative material that allows you to make a confectionery product in an original and bright way . Ready-made mass is sold in stores, but the best will be self-made mastic for wrapping the cake. At home in the manufacture, you can adjust the taste of the paste and its consistency, as well as be sure that it is made only from natural ingredients.
Marshmallow Mastic
It is convenient to work with this paste, as it easily rolls out and does not harden during cake wrapping. Solid marshmallows give a single color, and when using different marshmallows, you can achieve several shades without adding dyes.
Required:
- 100 g marshmallows;
- 200 g of powdered sugar;
- 4 tsp milk;
- a small piece of butter.
Marshmallows are finely chopped and filled with milk. Next, you need to either heat the mixture in a microwave or melt in a water bath. When the marshmallows begin to melt, butter is added to it. Souffle can be removed from the fire when it is completely dissolved. Powdered sugar is added in parts to the resulting workpiece. The mass is constantly mixed. Readiness can be determined by its consistency - the best mastic for tightening the cake should resemble an elastic dough and not stick to your hands. The resulting mass can be stored in a cool place for up to 3 months.
Milk mastic
Easy and quick to prepare milk mastic for wrapping the cake. The recipe includes inexpensive products, and to create a paste does not require special skills in cooking. Ready mass tastes good - condensed milk makes mastic look like toffee.
Required:
- 1 can of condensed milk;
- 200 g of powdered sugar;
- 200 g of milk powder;
- 2 tsp lemon juice.
Powder, milk and lemon juice are mixed. Next, it is necessary to attach the condensed milk in parts, while kneading the workpiece until it becomes dense. A ball is formed from the obtained homogeneous mass, sprinkled with powdered sugar and cooled in the refrigerator for 12 hours. Before starting work, the mastic should lie down at room temperature for half an hour. Such a workpiece can be stored for up to three months, provided that it is protected from drying out.
Honey Mastic
A distinctive feature of this mastic is its softness. The finished mass does not crumble and does not crumble, and also helps to mask the external imperfections of the cake.
Required:
- 950 g of powdered sugar;
- 125 ml of honey;
- 15 g of gelatin;
- 45 ml of water.
Pour gelatin with water and wait until it begins to swell. Then we add honey to it and heat it all over low heat until the gelatin dissolves. The honey mixture is added to the icing sugar, and then it all mixes well. If the spoon does not cope with the density of the mass, then it should be kneading with your hands. The blank must lie in a plastic bag 30 minutes before use.
Ready mastic for dressing the cake can be stored for 3 months at room temperature, and up to a year - in the freezer.
Gelatin based mastic
The gelatin mastic for the cake for covering is considered universal, so if after preparation of the cake there is a blank, then flowers or figures can be made from it. The sweet mass turns out to be very soft and easily rolled out with a thin layer, necessary for covering the product.
Required:
- 10 g of gelatin;
- 450 g of powdered sugar;
- 1 tsp lemon juice;
- 4 tsp water.
Gelatin is soaked in water and then cooked on low heat until it dissolves in a liquid. Stir the mixture periodically and do not bring to a boil. Next, mix the icing sugar with gelatin and lemon juice. The mass is mixed until completely homogeneous, covered with cling film and put away in the refrigerator for an hour. After that, you can begin to cover the product.
The prepared mastic for the cake for tightening is stored carefully packed in cling film or an airtight container. In the refrigerator, this is up to 3 months, and in the freezer compartment - up to six months. Before cooking, you need to get the mastic in advance so that it warms up to room temperature.
Mastic coloring
Homemade mastic usually has a white or yellow color. To give the finished product brighter shades, you can use the following options:
- In the process of mixing the workpiece, add dry or gel dye to it. It should be borne in mind that, having painted all the mastic in one color, you will get a plain cake. If it is planned to make decorative figures from the prepared mass, then this option of coloring will not work.
- The ready-made mastic for the cake for covering is painted in different colors by separating from the total mass of pieces of the desired size. To do this, the tip of the toothpicks is painted with bright gel and colored dots or lines are applied to the workpiece. After that, the piece is thoroughly mixed so that the color is evenly distributed.
- To obtain a brighter shade, it is necessary to color the mastic after the cake has been covered with it. The gel dye is diluted with a few drops of vodka, and then applied to the product with a sponge.
If you do not want to buy artificial colors, you can use natural products. Beets, pomegranates, cherries, carrots, cranberries, orange and blackberries give vibrant hues.
Covering the cake: step by step instructions
- The surface of the cake should be made smooth, since any bulges, tubercles or pits will be visible under the mastic. To make it even, you should coat the top and sides of the confectionery with a thin layer of cream that will smooth out all the bumps. After applying it, the cake should be cooled in the refrigerator.
- The kitchen table is abundantly sprinkled with starch or powdered sugar, and then homemade mastic is laid out on it. To close the cake, it is necessary to roll it with a rolling pin to a thickness of 5 mm.
- The mastic layer is carefully transferred to the cake.
- It is necessary to smooth the rolled mastic: first from above, and then from the sides. When smoothing, you need to make sure that no air bubbles form - this will ruin the appearance of the product.
- Excess mastic is cut off along the bottom edge of the cake.
If the close fitting is not very neat, you can mask the flaws by decorating - cream inscriptions or voluminous figures.
Rules for working with home mastic
There are several general rules that you should adhere to when fitting the cake yourself with mastic:
- To prepare the mass, you should carefully choose the powder. In the presence of large sugar crystals, the slimming may break.
- Mastic is not applied to cream made from sour cream or excessively soaked cakes, as the coating may dissolve from contact with moisture.
- If the mastic for the slimming cake has frozen and stopped rolling, then heating it in the microwave will help. After that, it will again become plastic.
- To give the coating of the cake a mirror shine, you need to lubricate the slurry with a solution of vodka and lemon (1: 1). The smell of alcohol from the product will disappear, and the glossy shine will remain.
Homemade mastic does not require large expenditures of money or time, because it is prepared from simple products. But now any cake can be turned into a small work of art that will delight loved ones and surprise guests.