What Gauge Wire For Cake Decorating

Once again, I'm coming back to the Superman Bursting out a Cake {Exploding Cake Tutorial}. This will be the last installment of this series of tutorials. Are you ready?How to Put Stars on Wires for Cakes... let's go!

How to Put Stars on Wires for Cakes

If you missed previous ones, here are the first 3:

Superman Bursting Out of a Cake {Exploding Cake Tutorial}: Part 1
Superman Bursting Out of a Cake {Exploding Cake Tutorial}: Part 2
How to Add Ribbons and Ribbon Borders to Cake

So today, I'm going to show you this simple tutorial on how to put stars on wires on a cake. This tutorial would also work for other shapes. I've done music notes on wires before.. and balloons on wires for this Hello Kitty Cake!

The supplies you'll need are:

Rolling Pin
Mat or smooth surface
Cutters
Fondant/Gum Paste
Wires (I usually use 22 gauge, 6" long)... I also buy them here.)
Sugar glue (made with tylose) or just water (read more about this here), or even melted chocolate works perfectly!
Paint brush
Shortening and/or corn starch (to prevent sticking)

So, to start, you're going to roll out your fondant. You'll want it pretty thin and if you want the fondant to dry a little stiff, be sure to mix some tylose in (or use gum paste). Be sure to coat your surface with shortening or corn starch to prevent sticking (not necessary if using a seasoned mat).

I use The Mat to roll out all of my fondant and it's probably one of the best investments I've made in my arsenal of cake supplies. Granted it's less than $20 - so it's not a huge investment, but worth every penny!

Next you'll cut out the stars (or other shape). Cut out twice as many as you want of the finished product (if you need 10 stars, cut out 20).

Then paint one side of the stars (the side you don't want to show) with sugar glue or water. If you use water, be sure to use a very, very thin coat so it doesn't run or drip out.

Then lay a wire in the center of the star...

and sandwich another on top of it.

Now you could go ahead and use them right away, but you risk them maybe sagging or sliding down the wire. It's best to let them dry at least overnight!

But when you are ready to use them, here's how I do it. While you could stick them directly into the cake, that might not be "food safe" and they may lean over or sag.

So when I get them all done, I put several of them together (I can usually squeeze 4 or 5 in at once) and slide them into a coffee straw. Then I bend them to spread them out! Just FYI, I buy my coffee straws at Walmart, on the aisle with the paper products (paper plates, plastic wrap, regular straws, foil, etc.).

And insert the straw into the cake! If you have or want lots more, just use more than one coffee straw and insert them right next to each other in the cake! I used two on this cake.

Superman Exploding Out of a Cake 2

And that's that... a finished Superman cake!

If you have questions about this tutorial, please leave them in the comments and I'll answer!

How to Put Stars on Wires for Cake

Rose Atwater is the founder and cake decorator behind Rose Bakes. She is baker, cake decorator, author, wife to Richy and homeschooling mommy to 6 wonderful kiddos! Her work has been featured in American Cake Decorating Magazine, Cakes Decor, Pretty Witty Cakes Magazine, Huffington Post and Cake Geek Magazine.