Baking / Icing gift question

Munstermad

Hi there my 13 year old daughter wants items to cook and bake with for Christmas.. Has anyone any advice on what to get and where? Not the child type stuff, I'd like to get her something more grown up.. Thanks

boomkatalog

Munstermad wrote: »

Hi there my 13 year old daughter wants items to cook and bake with for Christmas.. Has anyone any advice on what to get and where? Not the child type stuff, I'd like to get her something more grown up.. Thanks

I did something similar for a friend last year. Bought a pretty storage box in Dunne's and I filled it with one of those metal things for applying icing, a recipe book, some rubber bun cases (they're much handier than a bun tin as you fit more in the oven), a packet of tubes of writing icing from tesco and some cookie cutters. You could also include some of the ingredients for basic cupcakes, or some bottles of food colouring and vanilla essence etc. You'd get everything you need in tesco and Dunne's but keep an eye on aldi, lidl and pound shops for cute cookie cutters or rubber cake moulds in fun shapes.

Munstermad

That's a fantastic ideas, thanks a million!!! Am heading off now to start it!!
I am going to get her some of the coloured icing blocks too and colours/dyes??..
Have your or any sugar craft fanatics advice on what basics (not goodalls, I've been told) are best to buy...

banbhaaifric

Tk maxx often has some great stuff in their cooking section, and some unusual/quirky stuff too.
There is a new website as well called stuff4cakes which is based in Ireland and does loads of stuff including the gel colours, sparkles etc. I think delivery is around a fiver.

Cherrycola

If you are anywhere near a Decobake they do a great selection of coloured sugar paste, good quality too. They do their own brand stuff but also sell renshaw and covapaste( though I think they only stock big packs of white or ivory in covapaste) my favourite to work with from a cake decorating point of view is covapaste, its more pliable.
But if it's something she's only just getting into then any of them will do really, even the Tesco own brand sugar paste is not too bad if you're stuck.

You could also get her white sugar paste and a few pots of gel/paste colours, and she can colour the sugar paste herself, which would be great fun. Make sure it's gel or paste colours though, as liquid colours don't work with sugar paste. Wilton brand or Sugarflair gel pastes are great, and last for ages cos you only need a small amount on the end of a toothpick to get good colour.
I would also suggest getting her one or two books on cake decorating or modelling, so she could make little figurines for cakes etc.
I have a few of these myself

http://www.amazon.co.uk/20-To-Make-Animals-Twenty/dp/1844484785/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1381846155&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Easy-Party-Cakes-Debbie-Brown/dp/1741961122/ref=pd_sim_b_12

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carol-Deacons-Little-Christmas-Cakes/dp/0955695406/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Debbie brown and carol deacon are particularly good for beginners.

As far as tools go, don't splash out too much until you see if it holds her interest, but as a starter kit a small fondant rolling pin, a few cutters, piping bag and nozzles, cupcake cases, sugar decorations, that sort of thing.
There's also a beginners sugar paste dvd by Cannaboe Confectionary that would be great, I did one of her courses and she's very good.

Any other questions just ask.

Munstermad

Wow, thanks a million, some excellent advice there! Really appreciate it!

Cherrycola wrote: »

If you are anywhere near a Decobake they do a great selection of coloured sugar paste, good quality too. They do their own brand stuff but also sell renshaw and covapaste( though I think they only stock big packs of white or ivory in covapaste) my favourite to work with from a cake decorating point of view is covapaste, its more pliable.
But if it's something she's only just getting into then any of them will do really, even the Tesco own brand sugar paste is not too bad if you're stuck.

You could also get her white sugar paste and a few pots of gel/paste colours, and she can colour the sugar paste herself, which would be great fun. Make sure it's gel or paste colours though, as liquid colours don't work with sugar paste. Wilton brand or Sugarflair gel pastes are great, and last for ages cos you only need a small amount on the end of a toothpick to get good colour.
I would also suggest getting her one or two books on cake decorating or modelling, so she could make little figurines for cakes etc.
I have a few of these myself

http://www.amazon.co.uk/20-To-Make-Animals-Twenty/dp/1844484785/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1381846155&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Easy-Party-Cakes-Debbie-Brown/dp/1741961122/ref=pd_sim_b_12

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carol-Deacons-Little-Christmas-Cakes/dp/0955695406/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Debbie brown and carol deacon are particularly good for beginners.

As far as tools go, don't splash out too much until you see if it holds her interest, but as a starter kit a small fondant rolling pin, a few cutters, piping bag and nozzles, cupcake cases, sugar decorations, that sort of thing.
There's also a beginners sugar paste dvd by Cannaboe Confectionary that would be great, I did one of her courses and she's very good.

Any other questions just ask.

Mrs Eire

I use a site called Cakebits.ie. They have a huge range of items for decorating cakes and are very reasonable. They deliver really quickly too.