April 2020 – Cristina Arévalo- The Art Cake Experience

So, what is a Decorated Gelatin?

27 de April de 202027 de April de 2020Leave a comment

Many people, including students who attend my courses, have the idea that decorated gelatins are gelatin-covered cakes, in some cases, it can be true, however, in this case, they are real gelatins made in different ways for different decorative finishes.

Decorated gelatins are original and artistic creations where different techniques are used to decorate the gelatin-based dessert.

Let me share with you some tips on the different types of decorated gelatins.

There are several types of decorated gelatins: hand-painted, two-dimensional, three-dimensional, 3D gelatin flowers, and decorated with printed wafer or rice paper.

hand painted gelatin

Hand-painted gelatins are freehand painted where the decorator transfers the entire drawing and paints with edible ink.

little cow gril gelatin

valentine´s gelatin

butterfly gelatin

Rabbit Two dimensional gelatin

Two-dimensional are those gelatins that combine painting and applications made out of the gelatin sheet to give a two-dimensional finish to the work.

Three-dimensional gelatins are those that are made in several layers where we can see the different decorations to “float” inside the gelatin creating a three-dimensional effect joined by transparent or translucent gelatins to allow you to see the different decorations and elements.

Decorated Gelatin

Mermeid Decorated Gelatin

Gelatins decorated using prints on wafer or rice paper are an excellent option for transferring very complicated drawings or photographs. Also, a quick and easy way to decorate for beginners

These three types of work can be done with the recipes and techniques taught in my Level 1 Decorated Gelatin workshop.

Finally, we have the latest trend in gelatin decoration; the 3D gelatin flowers inside clear gelatin, this technique may need a lot of practice to achieve excellent results, however, no special tools are required. I teach this technique by using different instruments such as knives, syringes, spoons to be able to mold flower petals inside transparent gelatin.

3D gelatin flower

These sweet and delicate treats will be the center of attention at your party or a beautiful edible decorative piece to complete your sweet table.

Here are some tips and tricks on how to use gelatin from my series of articles called Gelatin tips. Give it a try and if you want more information about how to learn to make all of these beautiful gelatins don´t forget to contact me!

Remember to like this post, comment, share, and subscribe!

Love,

Cristina

Coconut Gelatine

21 de April de 20201 Comment

Trying to find new flavors for the 3D gelatin flowers and since the weather is getting warmer and calls for more tropical flavors, I found a recipe from the ” Asian Gelatin Flavors”.

There is some information that these 3D gelatin flowers are originally from Asia and then became popular in Latin America, even though, Latinamericns claim that they invented it and the Asians copy them.

All I know is that being self-taught I found my own technique and instruments to work with in order to make these beautiful flowers with everyday knives and pharmacy store syringes. However, I am always open to trying new flavors so I found this very tasty recipe for my friends and students.

So, here I share with you these Coconut gelatins that are very clear and work perfectly to make the 3d Gelatin Flowers. Besides is very fresh and tasty, excellent for summer!

The base is made from coconut water, so you won´t have to include flavoring or essences or even add more sugar. With all the variety of brands of coconut water available in the market, you can even choose the amount of sweetness, light products or even bio or natural ones.

Ingredients:

3 cups of coconut water

1 cup of water

56 grams of clear powder gelatin

125 grams of sugar ( optional)

3 ml of lemon juice or 1 teaspoon of citric acid

Ingredients Clear Gelatin — Coconut clear gelatin

To make the gelatin is very simple:

1.) Mix the coconut water, the sugar (optional) the lemon juice or citric acid.

The Experience

3D Gelatin Flowers

2.) Then in another bowl, hydrate the gelatin with the water. Add the gelatin to the water and leave it to rest for a minute so the grain of the gelatin will expand and hydrate. Then heat it in the microwave at low temperature without boiling it.

3. ) Finally, mix together the liquid gelatin and the coconut water and let it rest for 5 minutes before pouring it in the container for the gelatine. Then place them in the fridge for 24 hours to solidify and to make the flowers.

If you want to check out the process of making the 3D Gelatin Flower, please check out this video on my YouTube channel so you can see how it is done.

Try out this recipe, it is tasty and fresh for the summer. I really hope you like it!

Don´t forget to like this post, comment, share and subscribe!

Love,

Cristina

What to post during this quarantine for your cake business.

13 de April de 2020Leave a comment

Fellow bakers, cake artists, cake designers, and cake decorators; these times have been hard for us. This forced isolation has made us face our fears, live in uncertainty, and wonder about our future and the future of our business.

Only one thing has remained true during this time and even better than ever and that has been the Internet and Social Media.

We have faced this 30 days so far ( for me) of quarantine, without work or just some few loyal clients, but in the other hand filled with new friendships from around the world, days full of tutorials and live events on Facebook and Instagram, learning for free from the best in the business and trying to keep ourselves busy and entertained so we can focus on the positive instead of falling into depression.

We have seen a rapid increase in live tutorials and online classes. Everybody is going live and teaching something, but why? Maybe in the desperate attempt to keep our business alive, our just to keep ourselves busy, maybe because possible future customers are online more often and have a better chance to see our products or maybe because we are bored and need something to do.

All the reasons above are more than valid and I can only encourage everyone to do it.

However,

These are sensitive times and we don´t want to be just selling when maybe our friends or customers are having a hard time with this virus, are sick or have lost someone. We cannot escape from that reality as much as we want to.

So, here comes the title of this post: what to post and how to post it during this quarantine.

I´ve been reading a couple of articles on digital marketing where I got inspired for writing this post, but I wanted to give you an input form a cake business point of view.

We should be communicative, talk about what you do, show your product and don´t stop marketing. It will be a waste of an opportunity now that more people are online every day. However, don´t expect a lot of sales, instead let´s focus on growing your community, help your clients, offer solutions and build a relationship.

For our cake business, this will translate on keep showing your wonderful cake art, even if you are not doing anything new show your older pics. Mention that special client, tell the story behind your cake, find new friends online with your cake passion and things in common, offer your clients to reschedule their orders and maybe send them a cookie or a treat to tell them that you are thinking of them.

Watch the tone of your posts, remember that people are more sensitive than ever. We need to be more human, be empathetic, offer compassion, provide value to your audience and even ask for help.

Post positive captions to your pictures but without forgetting the current situation. Share positive posts and be there to help others.

Try to be empathetic, I know we are in the middle of a hard time, but you can´t ask a client to understand that you can´t cancel an order in a harsh way and from your desperation and fear. When you empathize with your client situation, this person will feel appreciated and will listen to your option to reschedule instead of canceling and order.

Some ideas for your Social Media Posts and where to post them

Inspirational quotes
Older posts or pictures
Baking at home
Creative work
Offer help on a topic (like a recipe or a decorating tip)
Educational videos, lives, Instagram lives, IGTV or stories
Update your profile accounts: New pictures of you, location, links, about page
Share some awareness of the virus situation, without going too deep into the negative and keeping the prospective of your cake business.
Help others selflessly: help your client or share a fellow cake artist´s work.
Be there just to talk and keep each other company
Join groups related to cake decorating and baking and interact as much as you can.
Meet people from around the world, comment and share their work.

And most importantly, remember we have more time! Use that to your advantage: Learn, think, create, reformulate your business, see things from a different point of view, enjoy what you were missing when you had your busy schedule and stay active in social media, you never know where that can lead you in the future.

I really hope this post has helped you and that you have enjoyed it because I loved writing it for you.

Stay safe, stay home and stay creative.

Don´t forget to like, comment, subscribe and share.

Love,

Cristina

“Ponqué” or Pound Cake?

6 de April de 20206 de April de 20202 Comments

Venezuela, my home country has a very special and important cake recipe called ” Ponqué” and recently I found out something quite funny about this recipe.

My great grandmother, Cecilia, also known to all of us as ” Pitica” had a very special recipe called ” Ponqué Delicado”, written by hand on my mom´s recipe book, has been the cake recipe to go to any time we have a celebration at home and ended up being one of the recipes that I use the most for my cakes.

The funny thing is that a while ago, I was watching TV and the recipe that was on the cooking channel was a Pound Cake recipe, and looking at the ingredients and the preparation, I realized it was practically the same as my Great grandmother´s recipe!

What?

Light bulb on top of my head!

” Ponqué” is just a lost in translation word for ” Pound Cake”. All our lives we have been baking a Pound Cake, believing that it was a very ” Venezuelan” thing and happened to be just this, Pound Cake. However still very good, and I, of course, have to say that my Great grandmother´s recipe is the best!