A Weekend of baking - Afternoon tea cake - Part 2

This weekend I carried on with the Afternoon tea table cake and covered the cake board in celebration ivory sugarpaste, and then made all of the letters for the text on the cake. I have some letter cutters that I have used previously, but I thought that they were too big and clunky for a delicate and sophisticated cake such as this. As a result I bought some fmm letter cutters, or Tappits which I think is the technical term! If you want to buy some, you can find them on the fmm website here.

I followed the instructions on the back of the packet, mixed my sugar paste with some Tylose powder and then used the strip cutter to press out a single strip. I have discovered the joy of cornflower when creating things out of sugar and it really is a bit of a game changer! It was so much easier to handle and didn't get sticky at all which was so much easier.

After cutting out the strip I turned it vertically and then dusted the cutter with cornflour. I then cut out the letter horizontally on the cutter and tapped it to release the letter.

And then nothing! The letter was stuck in the mould and this happened to every letter I tried to cut out! I had to use a scriber needle to prise every one of the letters out of their mould which really was  a giant pain and took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Due to this some of the letters got a little deformed which I wasn't very happy with. I tidied them up as best I could and then left them to dry. When I attach them I will paint over them lightly with a little water to remove any spare cornflower and hopefully smooth out any imperfections. 

Having done a little research I can reveal the following tips for using Tappits:

• Roll out the sugar paste as thin as you can, 1 - 2mm is ideal
• Once you have cut out the strip, leave it to dry for around 10 minutes (it might be easier to cut out all of the strips that you might need so you can cut out all of your letters all at once)
• Dust the moulds with cornflour using a pastry brush
• Rub the cutter over the mat or worktop to make sure that the letter has been released from the other fondant
• Tap the cutter multiple times and leave the letters to dry before you use them on the cake to avoid distorting them