Puffed Embroidery

PUFFED EMBROIDERY TECHNIQUE
By George Fowler

In the above photo, the pink heart was inserted into

the white heart using the puffed embroidery technique.

I learned the Puffed Embroidery technique at Diane Shavkin's demo at the 2000 ICES Convention. In her demo she used a fondant-covered cake. I simplified my cake by using a cake covered with buttercream and placing the puffed embroidery design on top of the cake.

Materials

Fondant (two contrasting colors)	Large heart cutter	Mat or board to roll gumpaste on
Gumpaste tool	Smaller heart cutter that can be inserted inside large heart	Roller to roll out gumpaste

First, cut a white heart from rolled fondant. Then cut a smaller heart out of the center and remove. Place the white heart centered on top of the cake and use a needle-like pointed tool to make the stitch marks around the inner edge of the white heart. The stitches are made by making indentations with the pointed tool.

Using the same small cutter, cut a pink heart from tinted fondant and carefully place inside the white heart. If it doesn't quite fit, you can use a small roller to help enlarge it enough to fill the opening. Using the needle-like tool, form the stitches around the outer edge of the pink heart, thus making it appear to be stitched inside the white heart. Making the stitches around the pink heart will also help to make it fit more perfectly inside the white heart. (If you cut the pink heart from a thicker piece of fondant, it will have a more "puffed" look.)

The completed heart with the tool used. When placing the heart on a cake you could have a pearl border around the outside edge of the white heart.

When using this technique on a fondant-covered cake you would cut our the designs before covering the cake. Therefore, when covering the cake with a single sheet of fondant, you would need to take great care to get the design centered and the cake covered without the design becoming distorted very much.

An alternative would be to cover only the sides of the cake with fondant. Make the top piece the same size as the cake. Cut out the design and place the fondant on top of the cake. Then use a fondant rope border (or whatever type of border you choose) to cover the seam around the cake where the sides and top meet.

Other Puffed Embroidery Ideas

The white rabbit was inserted inside the blue plaque using the puffed

embroidery technique.

The ghost was inserted in the gold plaque using the puffed embroidery

technique.

The shamrock was inserted into the plaque using the puffed embroidery

technique.