Sugar mastic

Baking cakes at home is a hobby of many housewives. The use of mastic will significantly improve the appearance of the finished product. What is it and how to use it - read the article.

Cake mastic for covering: preparation method

Mastic is a sweet decorative material that allows you to decorate it in an original and bright way. Stores sell ready-made paste, but the best would be homemade mastic for covering a cake. When making it at home, you can adjust the taste of the paste and its consistency, and also be sure that it is made only from natural ingredients.

Marshmallow mastic

This paste is easy to work with, as it rolls out easily and does not harden while covering the cake. Single-color marshmallows give a single color, and when using different marshmallows, you can achieve several shades without adding dyes.

Required:

100 g marshmallows;
200 g powdered sugar;
4 tsp. milk;
a small piece of butter.

Marshmallows are finely chopped and poured with milk. Next, you need to either heat the mixture in the microwave or melt it in a water bath. When the marshmallows begin to melt, butter is added to it. The soufflé can be removed from the heat when it has completely dissolved. Powdered sugar is added to the resulting mixture in parts. The mass is constantly mixed. Readiness can be determined by its consistency - the best mastic for covering a cake should resemble elastic dough and not stick to your hands. The resulting mass can be stored in a cool place for up to 3 months.

Milk mastic

Milk mastic for covering the cake is easy and quick to prepare. The recipe uses inexpensive ingredients and doesn't require any special cooking skills to create the paste. The finished mass tastes good - condensed milk makes the mastic look like toffee.

Required:

1 can of condensed milk;
200 g powdered sugar;
200 g milk powder;
2 tsp. lemon juice.

Mix powder, milk and lemon juice. Next, you need to add condensed milk in parts, while kneading the mixture until it becomes dense. A ball is formed from the resulting homogeneous mass, sprinkled with powdered sugar and cooled in the refrigerator for 12 hours. Before starting work, the mastic should lie for half an hour at room temperature. This product can be stored for up to three months, provided that it is protected from drying out.

Honey mastic

A distinctive feature of this mastic is its softness. The finished mass does not crumble or crumble, and also helps to mask the external imperfections of the cake.

Required:

950 g powdered sugar;
125 ml honey;
15 g gelatin;
45 ml water.

Fill the gelatin with water and wait until it begins to swell. Then add honey to it and heat it all over low heat until the gelatin dissolves. The honey mixture is added to the powdered sugar, and then the whole thing is mixed well. If the spoon cannot handle the thickness of the mass, then you should knead it with your hands. The workpiece should lie in a plastic bag for 30 minutes before use.

Ready-made mastic for covering a cake can be stored for 3 months at room temperature, and up to a year in the freezer.

Gelatin based mastic

Gelatin for covering is considered universal, so if there is a blank left after, you can make flowers or figures from it. The sweet mass turns out to be very soft and is easily rolled out into a thin layer necessary to cover the product.

Required:

10 g gelatin;
450 g powdered sugar;
1 tsp. lemon juice;
4 tsp. water.

The gelatin is soaked in water and then simmered over low heat until it dissolves into the liquid. The preparation must be stirred periodically and not brought to a boil. Next, mix powdered sugar with gelatin and lemon juice. The mass is mixed until completely homogeneous, covered with cling film and put in the refrigerator for an hour. After this, you can begin to coat the product.

The prepared mastic for the cake is stored carefully packed in cling film or an airtight container. In the refrigerator this is up to 3 months, and in the freezer - up to six months. Before cooking, the mastic must be taken out in advance so that it warms to room temperature.

Coloring mastic

Homemade mastic is usually white or yellow. To give the finished product brighter shades, you can use the following options:

While mixing the workpiece, add dry or gel dye to it. Please note that if you paint all the fondant one color, you will get a monochromatic cake. If you plan to make decorative figures from the prepared mass, then this coloring option will not work.
Ready-made cake mastic for covering is painted in different colors by separating pieces of the desired size from the total mass. To do this, the tip of a toothpick is painted with a bright gel and colored dots or lines are applied to the workpiece. After this, the piece is thoroughly mixed so that the color is evenly distributed.
To obtain a brighter shade, it is necessary to paint the mastic after the cake has been covered with it. diluted with a few drops of vodka, and then applied to the product using a sponge.

If you don't want to buy artificial dyes, you can use natural products. Bright shades are produced by beets, pomegranates, cherries, carrots, cranberries, oranges and blackberries.

Covering the cake: step-by-step instructions

The surface of the cake should be made smooth, as any bulges, bumps or pits will be visible under the fondant. To give it an even shape, coat the top and sides of the confectionery product with a thin layer of cream, which will smooth out all the unevenness. After applying it, the cake should be cooled in the refrigerator.
The kitchen table is generously sprinkled with starch or powdered sugar, and then homemade mastic is laid out on it. To cover the cake, you need to roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 5 mm.
The mastic layer is carefully transferred to the cake.
It is necessary to smooth the rolled out mastic: first from the top and then from the sides. When smoothing, you need to make sure that no air bubbles form - this will ruin the appearance of the product.
Excess mastic is cut off along the bottom edge of the cake.

If the covering is not very neat, you can disguise the flaws with decoration - inscriptions made of cream or three-dimensional figures.

Rules for working with homemade mastic

There are several general rules that should be followed when covering a cake with mastic yourself:

To prepare the mass, you should carefully select the powder. If there are large sugar crystals, the cover may tear.
Mastic should not be applied to sour cream or overly soaked cakes, as the coating may dissolve upon contact with moisture.
If the cake fondant has frozen and stopped rolling out, heating it in the microwave will help. After this, it will become plastic again.
To give the cake coating a mirror shine, you need to lubricate the covering with a solution of vodka and lemon (1:1). The smell of alcohol will disappear from the product, but the glossy shine will remain.

Homemade mastic does not require a lot of money or time, because it is prepared from simple ingredients. But now any cake can be turned into a small work of art that will delight loved ones and surprise guests.

Homemade cake is the most delicious dessert and many housewives know how to cook it.

All stages of its preparation, provided the recipe is followed and fresh and high-quality products are used, are not particularly difficult.

In addition, modern household appliances significantly facilitate work and reduce the time spent in the kitchen, which is a big advantage compared to those not-so-distant times when, in order to obtain a fluffy cream or sponge cake, you had to rotate the whisk by hand until exhaustion.

The cost of homemade desserts is an additional argument in favor of preparing them with your own hands.

But the question of decorating a homemade cake causes a feeling of uncertainty, at a minimum, for many. There are different ways to solve this problem: the cake is simply not decorated, or ready-made confectionery products are used - chocolate medallions, pieces of marmalade, nuts or raisins in chocolate or glaze. Of course, this is the way out. But this solution does not satisfy those for whom confectionery art is a favorite hobby, in which there is a desire to constantly improve their skills.

Decorations made from sugar mastic for cakes at home were invented in the middle of the last century, when there were no electric mixers and “smart” ovens with timers and thermometers, but the need to create beauty in everything already existed. Therefore, methods for creating jewelry were invented that were simple and quite feasible. One of these methods is sugar mastic for the cake. At home, this decoration option is not at all difficult. To overcome the far-fetched fear - “I definitely can’t do that” - it’s enough to remember how in childhood each of us sculpted figures from plasticine. There was no fear then, right? So everything will work out.

You can buy ready-made sugar mastic for the cake in specialized stores. Preparing it at home is also not difficult.

Sugar mastic for cake at home - basic technological principles

First, let's look at the question of what mastic is and what result you need to get in order to easily create decorations of any complexity from sugar mastic for a cake at home.

As already mentioned, the consistency should be similar to plasticine: flexible, with a cohesive structure, without lumps. Sugar mastic for a cake at home should not harden immediately. This condition is feasible when using appropriate binding components.

These properties are inherent even in ordinary dough made from wheat flour: after all, the dough also dries out, maintaining a certain shape, if left in the air. If wheat flour is boiled, it turns into a sticky mass. But this ingredient is not quite suitable in terms of taste for sugar paste. Therefore, professionals introduced sugar flour as the main ingredient into the confectionery mastic, that is powder. Carbohydrates make up almost 100% of the mass of sugar. They, although they have binding properties, do not have the flexibility inherent in flour due to the lack of protein, unlike flour. Flour contains approximately 70% carbohydrates, but the remaining 30% contains moisture and fats, as well as proteins that can absorb and retain moisture. That is, this small amount of proteins is enough to create the necessary plasticity. But the fats contained in flour will significantly make the mastic heavier. Therefore, another component is needed, with a lighter structure. Starch does not contain fat, has both a loose structure and binding properties, so adding it to powdered sugar creates the desired consistency of sugar mastic for a cake at home. Confectionery mastic is created in industrial conditions collagen based, contained in gelatin. Thanks to the use of industrial technology, a higher quality paste is obtained. Gelatin does not contain fat, and the high content of animal protein allows it to bind crystalline sugar carbohydrates to obtain a plastic paste.

Sugar mastic can have different densities, taking into account its purpose. So, by adding more water, you can get a consistency that is thin enough to cover the surface of the cake using the pouring method. Making figures, flowers, lace from sugar mastic for a cake at home requires a thick sugar dough so that it retains the desired shape.

In a word, in order to quickly and easily learn how to work with mastic, you need to know its biochemical composition and physical properties.

This will help not only to successfully cope with confectionery mastic purchased in specialized stores, but also to prepare the desired paste yourself.

Sugar flowers are flavored with different flavors using additives. For this purpose, it is possible to use fruit syrups, but then the amount of added water must be reduced, taking into account the moisture contained in the syrup.

Another important point: Sugar mastic recipes often contain ingredients such as glycerin and glucose. Please note that these components are sold only in specialized stores. Although they have a similar name to the components used in the manufacture of confectionery products, their composition is somewhat different from glucose for injection and glycerin for external use, sold in pharmacies. You should also pay attention to the quality of food colorings that help create culinary masterpieces. When purchasing colorful powders, make sure they are edible. Otherwise, it is better to use available natural paints contained in ordinary products. Here are some examples:

Orange color can be obtained from carrot juice;

Yellow– when adding turmeric powder and Indian saffron to sugar mastic for a cake at home;

Crimson, any shades of pink - from beet juice;

Red color– from the juice of cranberries, pomegranates, strawberries, raspberries, cherries; If you add a little lemon juice to cherry juice, you get a blue color;

Blue color can also be obtained from the juice of red cabbage, blueberries, red grapes;

For getting Green colour it is necessary to squeeze the juice from spinach leaves (it has a neutral taste, without aromatic oils);

Brown color for mastic can be obtained by mixing powdered sugar with cocoa powder or adding melted dark chocolate to the mastic.

Other colors and shades can be obtained by combining the listed food colorings. Remember that orange and red fruits contain a fat-soluble vitamin, β-carotene, so to obtain the rich color, juice from the fruits must be extracted using a small amount of vegetable or animal fat. You can get the desired color by infusing the listed products in alcohol, followed by evaporation.

Now you can get sugar mastic for a cake at home in any color and realize your most daring and sophisticated ideas for decorating your own culinary masterpiece. All that remains is to prepare the mastic by choosing an acceptable recipe.

Recipe 1. Sugar mastic for cake at home, milk-based

Ingredients:

Fine powdered sugar 120 g

Dry cream of any fat content 160 g

Corn starch 80 g

Condensed milk 8.5% 110 g

Glycerin (special) 50 ml

Vanilla or fruit flavor, alcohol

Citric acid 5 g

Water for acidic solution 20 ml

Preparation:

When using dry milk concentrates, you can use products with any fat content, since the dry substance when mixing sugar mastic for a cake at home will not have time to transform the fats it contains and transfer it to the dough. Fats will begin to work as soon as the product is consumed, participating in the creation of taste and in the digestion process.

Dilute citric acid in water. You can use lemon juice instead. Combine all dry mastic ingredients. If mastic of different colors is needed, then the dyes can be dissolved in an acidic solution, dividing it into the required number of colors. In this case, it would be appropriate to replace the water for the citric acid solution, for example, with beet juice, which will produce a mastic of a bright pink or raspberry color. To achieve pale pink shades, combine beet juice with water to reduce the concentration of food coloring, but do not reduce the acid content, otherwise the mastic will dry out very quickly, which will prevent you from working with it to create decorations. Be sure to sift the powder so that the mastic turns out very plastic and the sugar crystals do not break the structure. Add the dry mixture to the condensed milk, first stirring vigorously with a silicone spatula, then transfer the dough to a silicone surface and continue kneading with your hands. When making jewelry, take the required amount of mastic and cover the rest with film so that it does not weather or dry out. It is also better to roll out the mastic in a thin layer using silicone rolling pins of different thicknesses. If necessary, dust the working surface with powder. To add gloss, finished mastic products are brushed with a brush dipped in syrup with the addition of glycerin.

Recipe 2. Sugar mastic for cake at home on a gelatin base

Ingredients:

Powder 600 g

Lemon juice 30 ml

Starch, corn 50 g

Gelatin 20 g

Glycerin 1 tbsp. l.

Water 200 ml (for jelly and to dissolve gelatin)

Vanilla 2-3 g

Glucose 10 ml

Preparation:

Brew starch in water. When it has cooled to room temperature, add glycerin and glucose to the resulting jelly. Separately, dissolve the gelatin in a water bath, without raising the heating temperature above 40ºϹ. Sift powdered sugar more than the required amount for preparing mastic, so that if necessary, use it for the desired consistency, sprinkle the surface of the work table on which you will knead the sugar dough. Knead the dough from the bulk of the powder by first pouring starch jelly into it, and then melted gelatin. Add the liquid ingredients gradually, while working vigorously with a silicone spatula and mixing the entire mass. Continue kneading the mastic on a table or silicone mat until the mastic acquires the desired plasticity, homogeneity and at the same time no longer sticks too much to your hands. Cover the finished mass with film and leave for a while so that all the ingredients react with each other.

If you need to get mastic of different colors, then divide the finished white mastic into parts, add the dissolved dye and continue kneading the dough until an even, uniform color is obtained. When sculpting flowers and shapes, use powdered sugar to roll out the layers, sprinkling the sugar dough. During the sculpting process, all colors of mastic should be covered with film to prevent a dry crust from forming: take only the amount that is necessary to make a flower or figure, and immediately hide the rest under the film. Think in advance about how to arrange the necessary flowers and shapes for drying, prepare the necessary forms for them in order to fix the dough in the desired position.

Recipe 3. Sugar mastic for cake at home, poured

Ingredients:

Milk 200 ml

Powder 800 g

Lemon juice 50 ml

Gelatin 40 g

Preparation:

The consistency of the finished mastic should be similar to thick sour cream. This mastic is designed to smoothly cover the surface of the cake when complex relief patterns are not required.

Pour powdered sugar into boiling milk and, having dissolved it while stirring, remove the milk syrup from the heat and cool it to 30-40ºϹ. Dissolve the gelatin in water and, after straining it, pour it into the milk mass, beating both parts with a mixer at low speed. Add vanilla or the desired fragrance, dye if you need to give the coating a certain color and lemon juice. When the finished mastic has cooled and thickened a little, pour it onto the surface of the cake, starting from the center: the mass should flow off the cake randomly. Place the cake on a stand with a side so that the mastic does not spread across the work surface and stain the refrigerator shelves. The surface of the torus must be perfectly smooth. To prevent the mastic from sliding across its surface, it is advisable to make a layer of marzipan, or dust the top of the cake with starch, cocoa powder or powdered sugar, depending on what ingredients suit the product. Also, before filling the cake with mastic, it is advisable to cool it well so that the mastic hardens faster. Carefully collect the remaining liquid mastic that escaped onto the dish when pouring. You can add powdered sugar to them, knead stiff sugar dough and make curly decorations for the cake: border, bow, lace. You need to glue the parts of the sugar figures to each other using a brush dipped in water.

Recipe 4. Sugar mastic for cake at home, protein

Ingredients:

Squirrels 5 pcs.

Cognac or liqueur

Lemon juice 50 ml

Powder 1.0 kg

Gelatin 30 g

Water 100 ml

Glycerin 40 ml

Preparation:

Beat the chilled egg whites until stiff foam, gradually add the sifted powder, without stopping beating. Add lemon juice to the protein mixture, add vanilla and cognac. Having dissolved the gelatin, pour it hot into the whites, continuing to knead the dough. When the mass thickens, transfer it to a work surface sprinkled with powder and bring the mastic to the state of a stiff dough, cover with film and after a couple of hours the mastic is ready to work with it.

Recipe 5. Sugar mastic for cake at home, honey and chocolate

Ingredients:

Dark chocolate 2 parts

Honey, flower 1 part

Preparation:

For chocolate cakes, or cakes covered with chocolate icing, this sugar mastic recipe is a real boon for stylishly decorating a chocolate dessert. Making chocolate honey spread is quite easy. The only drawback: chocolate-honey mastic must be prepared in advance, because for plasticity it must be kept for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator, in plastic packaging.

Melt the chocolate over a steamer and pour in the honey, stirring constantly, until you get a thick mass that will stick off the dishes. After cooling slightly, wrap the mastic in film.

Recipe 6. Homemade sugar mastic for cake with marshmallows

An effective way to obtain the desired consistency of sugar mastic for a cake at home is using marshmallow candies. They are candies made from gelatin and corn syrup. In industrial conditions, these ingredients are whipped into a sponge, adding flavorings and food coloring. Adding these sweets to the composition of sugar mastic for a cake at home greatly simplifies the task of preparing sugar dough. If you want to get the best possible result, then use these candies only as an additional ingredient for dough viscosity, in combination with gelatin mastic prepared according to recipe 2 described above.

Ingredients:

Marshmallow part 1

Gelatin mastic 2 parts

Preparation:

Mix the sugar dough as directed in the second recipe above. Melt the marshmallows over steam, but do not overheat. Grind the candies first so that they dissolve as quickly as possible. Do not use a microwave; it will dry out the marshmallows, making the dough difficult to work with. By steaming them and thereby moistening the mass, you will make your work easier when kneading the dough. You just need to prepare the marshmallow mastic in advance, letting it rest at room temperature in an airtight container. Make sure that the candies you use are fresh and choose a white color so that the mastic does not turn out ugly, with a gray or brown tint.

Recipe 7. Sugar mastic for cake at home from marmalade

The marmalade contains a fruit base and agar-agar. Only the marmalade for mastic needs to be sorted by color to get a specific color of mastic.

Ingredients:

Powdered sugar 700 g

Marmalade 250 g

Water 50 ml (or lemon juice)

Preparation:

Prepare a water bath for marmalade. Cut it into small pieces, place it in a smaller container, fill it with water and steam it, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula. Bring the fruit mass to a temperature of 60-70ºϹ so that it acquires a gelatinous consistency. Sift the powder, pour it in a heap onto the silicone surface and make a depression into which pour the melted marmalade in small portions and quickly knead the mastic. This mastic requires heat. When working with it, keep the mass sealed in film, next to a heat source.

Marmalade mastic can be used to prepare flowers. To tighten the surface of the cakes, add more water to the mixture and use the pouring method.

Sugar mastic for cake at home - useful tips and tricks

Sugar mastic is a troublesome type of decoration. To make sure that the decoration from it will be successful, prepare both the mastic itself and the decorations from it in advance, before you start baking the cake.

Sugar mass in sealed packaging can be stored in the cold for up to two months, except for protein mastic. Finished jewelry should dry indoors in low humidity.

To make it convenient to cover the cake with a layer of sugar dough, use a silicone mat and film. Roll out the mastic on a silicone mat, covering the dough with film. To transfer the rolled out mastic to the cake, all you need to do is remove the film from one side and turn the mat over, smoothing the mastic through it onto the surface of the cake.

To work with mastic, on the one hand, it is convenient to lubricate your hands and the mat with food-grade glycerin, but on the other hand, the readiness of the sugar dough can be determined by how easily it comes off from your hands. Shortly before the consistency of the mastic becomes visually plastic, to check it, wash off the glycerin film from your hands and try the sugar mass with your hands without a protective coating to determine its readiness.

Homemade cakes have a special energy: they convey the warmth of the hands of the mistress of the house, the special mood of the holiday for which they are prepared. It is ideal when this dessert is original and skillfully decorated. It will be very useful for a hospitable hostess to learn about the types of mastic and learn how to make mastic for a cake at home, and also make holiday decorations from it and surprise your family and guests. Let's look at the variety of recipes and find out how difficult it is to create such sweet beauty.

Mastic is an elastic confectionery mass whose properties resemble plasticine. The most ornate confectionery decorations are made from it, but working with this confectionery product requires a certain dexterity and skill, which will be honed with experience. From the very beginning, you need to know some culinary tricks on how to work with mastic.

The base of the mastic is powdered sugar, which is best sifted through a fine sieve before cooking. If unground grains of sugar get into the mass, it will tear when rolling. After preparing the mastic, wrap it in plastic and put it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes - this time is needed for the mass to become more plastic. The finished mass, tightly wrapped in polyethylene, can be stored for 2 weeks in the refrigerator or 2 months in the freezer.

Dyes are added during the mixing of the sugar dough. If you need mastic of different colors, first knead the uncolored dough and separate a piece of the required size, and place the rest of the mass in polyethylene to prevent drying. Use your hands to form a piece of dough into a circle with a depression in the middle and, adding a few drops of dye, knead it until a uniform color is obtained.

At first, you will need culinary equipment, which is found in every kitchen. The mastic is rolled out with a wooden rolling pin on the table, the edges after covering the cake are cut with a round pizza cutter, some figures are squeezed out using cookie cutters. Skilled housewives use spoons of different sizes to make flower petals: they fill the cavity with rolled out dough, pick up the leftovers around the edges, and connect the finished petals.

When your passion for decorating cakes grows into your favorite hobby, it’s worth purchasing special tools. The first purchases may be a smooth plastic rolling pin for rolling out mastic, silicone mats with markings (larger for conveniently rolling out cake coverings, smaller for rolling out elements of figures). Stacks for modeling, cuttings for a variety of flowers, leaves, butterflies, and silicone molds will help in the work to form small figures of the same type - letters, buttons, beads.

It is very important that the base of the cake, which will be covered with mastic, is not wet: it must first be covered with butter cream and put in the refrigerator until completely hardened, because any contact with wet cream will dissolve the mastic. Crafts from mastic must be made in advance, preferably two weeks before preparing the cake, so that they have time to dry in the air. Finished jewelry is stored for several months in a tightly closed container.

Recipes for making homemade mastic for decorating cakes

First you need to figure out how to decorate, what idea you want to realize: for example, cover the cake with a patterned blanket, sculpt a sophisticated rose flower, or make a model of a sports car. Then you need to choose which mastic is best suited for these purposes. For many housewives, it is important that homemade mastic contains accessible, simple ingredients and has universal use.

Honey

This mass is softer than sugar, does not crumble or crumble, so it is very convenient to use for covering a cake and forming decoration details. Ingredients for cooking:

powdered sugar – 900 g;
honey – 175 g (in volume this corresponds to 125 ml);
water – 45 ml;
gelatin – 15 g.

We do this:

Soak gelatin in water for 30 minutes.
Heat the mixture of honey and gelatin in a water bath.
Set aside a glass of powdered sugar, pour the honey mixture into the rest, knead the sugar dough, gradually mixing in the remaining powder.
The mastic is ready if, when pressed, an indentation from your finger remains on it.

Sugar

Good for sculpting figures and flowers. We will need:

powdered sugar – 500 g;
water – 60 ml;
gelatin – 1 tsp;
lemon juice – 1 teaspoon;
vanillin.

The process consists of:

Soak the gelatin for half an hour, then heat it in a water bath.
Adding lemon juice, vanillin. Adding powdered sugar little by little, knead the mixture until it becomes an elastic dough.
You must not allow the mass to become too hard, because it will then crumble during work.

Dairy

This mastic is made with the addition of milk powder, sometimes baby formula or dry cream is used instead. To prepare you will need 160 g of milk powder and other ingredients:

powdered sugar – 160 g;
condensed milk – 170 g;
lemon juice – 1 tsp.

Cooking method:

Mix dry milk and powder in a container.
Add lemon juice, condensed milk.
Knead into a plastic dough.

Chocolate

To prepare it, they use dark chocolate - milk or bitter, but they also make mastic with a bar of white chocolate. One of the recipes:

Melt 100 g dark chocolate in the microwave, add 1 tbsp. lie honey and knead.
How to check readiness: tear off a piece of dough, roll it into a ball and flatten it with your fingers - the edges of the finished mastic should not tear. Chocolate roses made from this mass look very impressive.

This is how the chocolate mass is prepared according to a different recipe. You will need:

dark chocolate – 100 g;
cream 30% – 40 ml;
marshmallow candies – 90 g;
powdered sugar – 2 tbsp. false;
cognac – 2 tbsp. false;
butter – 1 tbsp. lie

Recipe step by step:

Melt the chocolate completely in a water bath.
Without removing from heat, add marshmallows, stirring constantly.
When the marshmallows are half dissolved, add cream, butter, cognac and stir until the mixture becomes homogeneous.
Remove from heat and add powdered sugar.
Knead until the mastic becomes like elastic dough.

From condensed milk

A frequently used type of mastic because, thanks to its oily, soft structure, it is convenient to use for covering cakes of various shapes and sculpting medium-sized figures. The mixture with condensed milk is tasty and is eaten with pleasure. In addition to 200 g of condensed milk, you will need:

powdered sugar – 160 g;
powdered milk – 160 g;
lemon juice – 2 teaspoons;
cognac – 1 tsp.

Mix powder and dry milk, gradually pour in condensed milk. Add cognac, lemon juice, knead the mixture well. This mastic will not be white; it always has a yellowish tint.

From marshmallows

Marshmallow mastic is very popular; to prepare it, it is better to buy plain marshmallow candies or separate them by color before cooking. You will need:

200 g marshmallow marshmallows,
500 g powdered sugar,
1 tsp. butter.

Step-by-step preparation:

Place the marshmallows and butter in a container and heat in the microwave for a few seconds until the marshmallows begin to melt.
Stir the mixture with a spoon until smooth, add powdered sugar in small portions.
The finished dough should feel like plasticine.

From gelatin

This type of mastic is called pastillage: it is indispensable when you need to make durable parts to decorate a cake, for example, handles for a basket, but it is practically inedible because it is very hard. If pastillage is dried, it retains its shape very well, so it is sometimes used to make templates for sculpting figures with fine details. Ingredients for cooking:

powdered sugar – 240 g;
starch – 120 g;
gelatin – 1 tbsp. lie with a slide;
cold water – 60 ml;
citric acid – 1 tsp;
honey, preferably artificial - 2 teaspoons.

Pour gelatin with water for 30 minutes, then melt in a water bath, add citric acid and honey.
Separately mix starch with powder and gradually add to the gelatin mixture until a homogeneous, smooth consistency is obtained.
Line a bowl with cling film, pour the mastic into it, wrap it in film and refrigerate until the mass stops spreading.
Before using the pastillage, you need to knead it well; if it is very cold and cannot be molded, you need to put it in the microwave for 5 seconds.

Floral

Knowing how to work with floral fondant is a testament to pastry craftsmanship because it is used to sculpt delicate, lifelike buds. This mixture is a leader in decorating wedding cakes. Ingredients for cooking:

powdered sugar – 550 g;
gelatin – 10 g;
water – 50 ml;
lemon juice – 20 ml;
corn syrup – 60 ml;
cooking fat (shortening) – 20 g;
carboxymethylcellulose – 10 g;
egg white – 2 pcs.;
bleach for icing - optional, to give a snow-white color.

Cooking technology:

Add water to the gelatin and leave to swell.
Place powdered sugar, cellulose, bleach (if available), and lemon juice in a mixing bowl.
Heat the soaked gelatin in a water bath, stirring, add confectionery fat, then corn syrup.
Remove from heat, turn food processor on medium speed, and add liquid in a thin stream to powdered sugar.
Then switch the food processor to high speed, add the egg whites and lemon juice.
As soon as the mass turns white and becomes homogeneous, stop mixing immediately.
Place the mastic on a greased work surface, form into a sausage and pack tightly in cling film.

The mass is left to rest at room temperature for about 20 hours before starting to use it in culinary creativity. This mastic can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 months, in the freezer for up to 6 months. Before making the cake, you need to defrost it without using a microwave.

How to properly make mastic colored or shiny

Before you make colored mastic for, you need to determine exactly what colors will be needed and what dyes will be used: special store-bought or natural dyes made from fruits and vegetables. If natural dyes are preferred, they are made several days in advance and can be stored in the refrigerator.

To obtain vegetable dye, the berries are crushed, the vegetables are grated on a fine grater, and the resulting juice is squeezed through cheesecloth. When adding vegetable dyes, you need to be aware that they give a less saturated color compared to store-bought food dyes. If you add more natural dye to enhance the color, the mastic may end up with a bright taste of the added juice and will be more liquid, so you will need to add powdered sugar to achieve the desired consistency.

Plant ingredients give these colors:

shades of red– juice of cranberries, strawberries, raspberries, red currants, various red syrups or red wine;
rich pink color- beet;
yellow– saffron infusion or lemon zest;
green color- spinach;
Orange color– carrot juice or orange zest;
blue and violet dye– juice of grapes, blueberries, red cabbage;
Brown color– cocoa powder, strong coffee or sugar burned in a frying pan (in a 5:1 ratio with water).

Purchased food colorings are divided into the following types:

dry– they have a powdery appearance; before adding to the mastic, they must be diluted in water (take the paint on the tip of a knife for 1 tablespoon of water);
liquid– it is better to add them to mastic instead of water;
gel– thicker and more concentrated dyes than liquid ones, and more economical.

By mixing dyes, mastic of various colors is obtained. For example, yellow, green, and red dyes mixed together create a black dye that is added to fondant to give the dough shades ranging from light gray to deep black. The choice depends on both the product and the occasion: wedding cakes abound in white, pink, and golden shades, and children’s cakes – in all the colors of the rainbow.

After molding figures to decorate cakes, they often remain traces of starch or powdered sugar, which were used to roll out the mass. To make the mastic mass shine, you need to dissolve 1 tbsp. lie honey in 1 tbsp. lie vodka, apply the resulting mixture at the last stage of preparing the cake with a soft brush. The vodka will evaporate, leaving no taste or smell, and the jewelry will have a glossy finish.

Video

Forming a variety of decorations for cakes is a confectionery art that even a novice housewife can learn. After watching our selection of videos, you will notice all the important nuances of preparing different types of mastic, see practical techniques on how to make a cake cover, patterns, glue pieces of mastic and beautifully process the seams.

Photos of beautiful cake decorations

On a birthday, a cake is the main decoration of the table; it in itself can be a gift for the birthday person and often reflects his interests and hobbies. For men, they often make cakes with decorations on the theme of fishing, sports, cakes in the form of a book, or a case with money. When the hero of the occasion is a woman, she will be pleasantly surprised by a cake with decorations in the form of a bouquet of her favorite flowers, a luxurious bow or weightless butterflies. If the occasion for the celebration is an anniversary, it is appropriate to decorate the cake with numbers according to the number of years of the hero of the day, using food coloring with gold or silver glitter.

There is room for your imagination to run wild when decorating a cake with fondant for a children's birthday. Desserts for the little ones are decorated with figurines of angels, and inscriptions are made indicating how old the baby is. Older children will be surprised by figurines of their favorite cartoon characters, cakes in the shape of toys or cars, covered with multi-colored fondant. Such decorations are sometimes combined with decorating the cake with marshmallows. Pastila can be bought or also prepared at home. Cakes with themed decorations are appropriate for significant events, for example, when a child goes to school.

Those housewives who have good practice in working with mastic can even bake a wedding cake at home. Multi-tiered wedding cakes are popular now. To harmonize with the wedding theme, they can be covered with colored fondant in a specific color and include matching decor. The primacy in decorating these cakes is occupied by floral mastic, which is used to sculpt elegant figures of doves or a variety of flowers that cannot be distinguished from real ones.

The fashion for decorating cakes with sugar dough, or, as we call it, mastic, came several years ago from America. And today this type of design is becoming increasingly popular! This cake always attracts admiring glances at any celebration. And this is not surprising, because with the help of mastic you can create almost any decoration for a “sweet masterpiece”.

Homemade cake is the most delicious dessert and many housewives already know how to prepare it. All stages of its preparation, provided that the recipe is followed and fresh and high-quality products are used, are not particularly difficult. In addition, modern household appliances significantly facilitate work and reduce the time spent at work. kitchen, which is a big advantage compared to those not-so-distant times when, to get a fluffy cream or sponge cake, you had to rotate the whisk by hand until exhaustion.

The cost of homemade desserts is an additional argument in favor of making them yourself.

First you need to know that mastic for homemade cakes comes in several types. Let's look at the most common and affordable options.

Knowing the features of preparation and use of each of them, you can easily make mastic to decorate your cake at home.

Milk mastic prepared on the basis of condensed milk, powdered sugar and milk powder.

To make milk mastic for the cake, take 1 glass of powdered milk, 1 glass of powdered sugar (and keep 1 glass of powder in stock), 150 g of condensed milk and 1 tsp. lemon juice. Sift the powder, discarding all unsifted lumps (when mixing the mastic, they will not dissolve, and the mastic will end up with grains). Mix a glass of powder with a glass of milk powder, pour condensed milk and lemon juice into the mixture and knead the mastic dough. Add powdered sugar if necessary. The mastic for covering the cake should be homogeneous and elastic, and should not stick to your hands. Let the finished mastic “rest” a little in the refrigerator and you can decorate the cake!

This type of mastic is perfect for covering cakes, because... mastic has a pleasant milky taste. However, it is important to know that this mastic will never turn out snow-white, but will have a creamy tint. If you want to make cake mastic in rich, bright colors, then use food coloring. Coloring mastic using natural juices (beets or spinach) will be problematic, because... they will greatly “liquefy” it.

To do marshmallow-based cake mastic(“marmyshkovaya”), you will need airy marshmallows “marshmallow” (“Bon Pari”, “Tuchki-Tyanuchki” or others), lemon juice and sifted powdered sugar. For 100 g of marshmallows – 200-250 g of powder, 2 tbsp. lemon juice.

Place the marshmallows in a large container, sprinkle with lemon juice and heat in the microwave until they increase in volume. It takes me less than one minute. During the heating process, you can stir the marshmallows once or twice. When the marshmallow “disperses”, it must be thoroughly kneaded and kneaded with a spatula (the mass will look like chewing gum). Gradually add powdered sugar and knead the mass like dough. Keep in mind that while the mixture is hot, it can absorb more powdered sugar than necessary. Do not rush to add more powder than the specified weight, let the mastic “rest” a little and cool (ideally an hour or two). If necessary, you can add powder to the already prepared cold mass, but you can’t remove it if you’ve kneaded too much.

The indisputable advantages of this type of mastic include the fact that this mastic is suitable for covering cakes and for sculpting figures: add a little butter (1 tbsp) and a little less powdered sugar during the kneading process - you will get a soft and pliable mass for coverings. Without oil and with a lot of powder - dense, tight mastic for modeling.

Another advantage of this mastic is that you can get a perfectly white color using white marshmallows or a colored mass using multi-colored marshmallows. An excellent option for those who do not have a set of food coloring in their kitchen arsenal. The mastic has a pleasant sweet taste and the aroma of airy marshmallows (vanilla, strawberry, lemon - depending on what flavor was added to the marshmallow).

In order to make chocolate fondant for the cake(“shokomastic”), take 100 g marshmallows, 100 g chocolate, 1 tbsp. butter, 2 tbsp. heavy cream, 200 g powdered sugar.

First, melt the chocolate (in a water bath or in the microwave), add marshmallows and stir. Heat until the marshmallows increase in volume and stir well. You should get a homogeneous viscous mass. Pour warm cream into this mixture and add butter. Stir well until completely homogeneous. Now gradually add the sifted powder and knead like dough. The finished mastic is soft and pliable, but no longer sticks to your hands. Wrap it in film and let it rest. This mastic can be used to cover cakes and sculpt figures from it. Remember that for modeling the mass should be denser than for covering (the density is adjusted by adding powdered sugar and/or a small amount of starch).

Chocolate mastic has a distinct chocolate flavor and aroma and can be brown or creamy in color, depending on what kind of chocolate you used. If desired, this mastic can also be tinted with food coloring, but only if you decide to make mastic based on white chocolate. It is best to add coloring at the “dough” mixing stage.

And the last type of mastic that is easy to prepare at home is gelatin mastic.
To prepare it you will need: 1 tsp. gelatin, 40-50 g cold water, 0.5 tsp. lemon juice, powdered sugar, coloring - optional.

To make this mastic, soak the gelatin in water until it swells (according to the instructions on the package, this can take from 10 minutes to 1 hour). When the gelatin swells, heat it until it dissolves, but under no circumstances boil it - this will cause the gelatin to lose its properties! Add lemon juice and, if desired, dye to the warm gelatin solution. Now stir in the sifted icing sugar. I can’t say exactly how much powder is needed (about 100 g). Look at the mass - it should be soft, plastic and not stick to your hands. Try to stretch the mastic - it should stretch well.
At this stage, you no longer need to add powder (if you overdo it, the mastic will quickly become “oaky”). Wrap the mastic in film and, according to tradition, put it away to “rest” for a couple of hours.

Gelatin mastic makes excellent figures because... it dries quite quickly. But for the same reason it will not be possible to cover the cake with it. Gelatin mastic has a neutral taste (just sweet), because, in fact, it contains nothing but sugar.

Well, now a few specific recipes for making mastic for cakes:

One of these methods is sugar mastic for the cake. At home, this decoration option is not at all difficult. To overcome the far-fetched fear - “I definitely can’t do that” - it’s enough to remember how in childhood each of us sculpted figures from plasticine. There was no fear then, right? So everything will work out.

You can buy ready-made sugar mastic for the cake in specialized stores. Preparing it at home is also not difficult.

Sugar mastic for cake at home - basic technological principles

First, let's look at the question of what mastic is and what result you need to get in order to easily create decorations of any complexity from sugar mastic for a cake at home.

Carbohydrates make up almost 100% of the mass of sugar. They, although they have binding properties, do not have the flexibility inherent in flour due to the lack of protein, unlike flour. Flour contains approximately 70% carbohydrates, but the remaining 30% contains moisture and fats, as well as proteins that can absorb and retain moisture. That is, this small amount of proteins is enough to create the necessary plasticity. But the fats contained in flour will significantly make the mastic heavier. Therefore, another component is needed, with a lighter structure. Starch does not contain fat, has both a loose structure and binding properties, so adding it to powdered sugar creates the desired consistency of sugar mastic for a cake at home.

Confectionery mastic in industrial conditions is created on the basis of collagen contained in gelatin. Thanks to the use of industrial technology, a higher quality paste is obtained. Gelatin does not contain fat, and the high content of animal protein allows it to bind crystalline sugar carbohydrates to obtain a plastic paste.

In a word, in order to quickly and easily learn how to work with mastic, you need to know its biochemical composition and physical properties.
This will help not only to successfully cope with confectionery mastic purchased in specialized stores, but also to prepare the desired paste yourself.

Adding acid to mastic not only adds flavor to the confectionery product. Lemon juice or acid crystals diluted in water slow down the drying of the mastic and provide additional time to create the decoration before the mastic dries.
Sugar flowers are flavored with different flavors using additives. For this purpose, it is possible to use fruit syrups, but then the amount of added water must be reduced, taking into account the moisture contained in the syrup.

Another important nuance: sugar mastic recipes often contain ingredients such as glycerol And glucose. Please note that these components are only sold in specialized stores. Although they have a similar name to the components used in the manufacture of confectionery products, their composition is somewhat different from glucose for injection and glycerin for external use, sold in pharmacies.

On food coloring quality, helping to create culinary masterpieces should also be paid attention to. When purchasing colorful powders, make sure they are edible. Otherwise, it is better to use available natural paints contained in ordinary products. Here are some examples:

Orange color can be obtained from carrot juice;

Yellow– when adding turmeric powder and Indian saffron to sugar mastic for a cake at home;

Raspberry, any shades of pink– from beet juice;

Red color– from the juice of cranberries, pomegranates, strawberries, raspberries, cherries; If you add a little lemon juice to cherry juice, you get a blue color;

Blue color can also be obtained from the juice of red cabbage, blueberries, red grapes;

For getting Green colour it is necessary to squeeze the juice from spinach leaves (it has a neutral taste, without aromatic oils);

Brown color for mastic can be obtained by mixing powdered sugar with cocoa powder or adding melted dark chocolate to the mastic.

Milk-based sugar mastic

Ingredients:
Fine powdered sugar 120 g
Dry cream of any fat content 160 g
Corn starch 80 g
Condensed milk 8.5% 110 g
Glycerin (special) 50 ml
Vanilla or fruit flavor, alcohol
Citric acid 5 g
Water for acidic solution 20 ml

Preparation:
When using dry milk concentrates, you can use products with any fat content, since the dry substance when mixing sugar mastic for a cake at home will not have time to transform the fats it contains and transfer it to the dough. Fats will begin to work as soon as the product is consumed, participating in the creation of taste and in the digestion process.

Dilute citric acid in water. You can use lemon juice instead. Combine all dry mastic ingredients.

If mastic of different colors is needed, then the dyes can be dissolved in an acidic solution, dividing it into the required number of colors. In this case, it would be appropriate to replace the water for the citric acid solution, for example, with beet juice, which will produce a mastic of a bright pink or raspberry color.

To achieve pale pink shades, combine beet juice with water to reduce the concentration of food coloring, but do not reduce the acid content, otherwise the mastic will dry out very quickly, which will prevent you from working with it to create decorations.

Be sure to sift the powder so that the mastic turns out very plastic and the sugar crystals do not break the structure. Add the dry mixture to the condensed milk, first stirring vigorously with a silicone spatula, then transfer the dough to a silicone surface and continue kneading with your hands.

When making jewelry, take the required amount of mastic and cover the rest with film so that it does not weather or dry out.

It is also better to roll out the mastic in a thin layer using silicone rolling pins of different thicknesses. If necessary, dust the working surface with powder. To add gloss, finished mastic products are brushed with a brush dipped in syrup with the addition of glycerin.

Sugar mastic on a gelatin basis

Ingredients:
Powder 600 g
Lemon juice 30 ml
Starch, corn 50 g
Gelatin 20 g
Glycerin 1 tbsp. l.
Water 200 ml (for jelly and to dissolve gelatin)
Vanilla 2-3 g
Glucose 10 ml

Preparation:
Brew starch in water. When it has cooled to room temperature, add glycerin and glucose to the resulting jelly. Separately, dissolve the gelatin in a water bath, without raising the heating temperature above 40ºϹ. Sift powdered sugar more than the required amount for preparing mastic, so that if necessary, use it for the desired consistency, sprinkle the surface of the work table on which you will knead the sugar dough. Knead the dough from the bulk of the powder by first pouring starch jelly into it, and then melted gelatin.

Add the liquid ingredients gradually, while working vigorously with a silicone spatula and mixing the entire mass. Continue kneading the mastic on a table or silicone mat until the mastic acquires the desired plasticity, homogeneity and at the same time no longer sticks too much to your hands. Cover the finished mass with film and leave for a while so that all the ingredients react with each other.

During the sculpting process, all colors of mastic should be covered with film to prevent a dry crust from forming: take only the amount that is necessary to make a flower or figure, and immediately hide the rest under the film. Think in advance about how to arrange the necessary flowers and shapes for drying, prepare the necessary forms for them in order to fix the dough in the desired position.

Bulk sugar mastic

Ingredients:
Milk 200 ml
Water 200 l
Powder 800 g
Fragrance
Lemon juice 50 ml
Gelatin 40 g

Preparation:
The consistency of the finished mastic should be similar to thick sour cream. This mastic is designed to smoothly cover the surface of the cake when complex relief patterns are not required.
Pour powdered sugar into boiling milk and, having dissolved it while stirring, remove the milk syrup from the heat and cool it to 30-40ºϹ.

Dissolve the gelatin in water and, after straining it, pour it into the milk mass, beating both parts with a mixer at low speed. Add vanilla or the desired fragrance, dye if you need to give the coating a certain color and lemon juice.

When the finished mastic has cooled and thickened a little, pour it onto the surface of the cake, starting from the center: the mass should flow off the cake randomly. Place the cake on a stand with a side so that the mastic does not spread across the work surface and stain the refrigerator shelves.

The surface of the torus must be perfectly smooth. To prevent the mastic from sliding across its surface, it is advisable to make a layer of marzipan, or dust the top of the cake with starch, cocoa powder or powdered sugar, depending on what ingredients suit the product.

Also, before filling the cake with mastic, it is advisable to cool it well so that the mastic hardens faster. Carefully collect the remaining liquid mastic that escaped onto the dish when pouring. You can add powdered sugar to them, knead stiff sugar dough and make curly decorations for the cake: border, bow, lace. You need to glue the parts of the sugar figures to each other using a brush dipped in water.

Sugar protein mastic

Ingredients:
Squirrels 5 pcs.
Cognac or liqueur
Vanilla
Lemon juice 50 ml
Powder 1.0 kg
Gelatin 30 g
Water 100 ml
Glycerin 40 ml

Preparation:
Beat the chilled egg whites until stiff foam, gradually add the sifted powder, without stopping beating. Add lemon juice to the protein mixture, add vanilla and cognac.
Having dissolved the gelatin, pour it hot into the whites, continuing to knead the dough. When the mass thickens, transfer it to a work surface sprinkled with powder and bring the mastic to the state of a stiff dough, cover with film and after a couple of hours the mastic is ready to work with it.

Sugar mastic honey-chocolate

Ingredients:
Dark chocolate 2 parts
Honey, flower 1 part

Preparation:
For chocolate cakes, or cakes covered with chocolate icing, this sugar mastic recipe is a real boon for stylishly decorating a chocolate dessert.
Making chocolate honey spread is quite easy. The only drawback: chocolate-honey mastic must be prepared in advance, because for plasticity it must be kept for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator, in plastic packaging.
Melt the chocolate over a steamer and pour in the honey, stirring constantly, until you get a thick mass that will stick off the dishes. After cooling slightly, wrap the mastic in film.

Sugar mastic with marshmallow

Ingredients:
Marshmallow part 1
Gelatin mastic 2 parts

Preparation:
Mix the sugar dough as directed in the second recipe above. Melt the marshmallows over steam, but do not overheat. Grind the candies first so that they dissolve as quickly as possible. Do not use a microwave; it will dry out the marshmallows, making the dough difficult to work with. By steaming them and thereby moistening the mass, you will make your work easier when kneading the dough.

You just need to prepare the marshmallow mastic in advance, letting it rest at room temperature in an airtight container. Make sure that the candies you use are fresh and choose a white color so that the mastic does not turn out ugly, with a gray or brown tint.

Sugar mastic from marmalade

The marmalade contains a fruit base and agar-agar. Only the marmalade for mastic needs to be sorted by color to get a specific color of mastic.

Ingredients:
Powdered sugar 700 g
Marmalade 250 g
Water 50 ml (or lemon juice)

Preparation:
Prepare a water bath for marmalade. Cut it into small pieces, place it in a smaller container, fill it with water and steam it, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula. Bring the fruit mass to a temperature of 60-70ºϹ so that it acquires a gelatinous consistency.

Sift the powder, pour it in a heap onto the silicone surface and make a depression into which pour the melted marmalade in small portions and quickly knead the mastic. This mastic requires heat. When working with it, keep the mass sealed in film, next to a heat source.

Marmalade mastic can be used to prepare flowers. To tighten the surface of the cakes, add more water to the mixture and use the pouring method.

Sugar mastic for cake - useful tips and tricks

-Sugar mastic is a troublesome type of decoration. To make sure that the decoration from it will be successful, prepare both the mastic itself and the decorations from it in advance, before you start baking the cake.

-Sugar mass in a sealed package can be stored in the cold for up to two months, except for protein mastic. Finished jewelry should dry indoors in low humidity.

-To work with mastic, on the one hand, it is convenient to lubricate your hands and the mat with food-grade glycerin, but on the other hand, the readiness of the sugar dough can be determined by how easily it comes off from your hands. Shortly before the consistency of the mastic becomes visually plastic, to check it, wash off the glycerin film from your hands and try the sugar mass with your hands without a protective coating to determine its readiness.

How to cover a sponge cake with this sugar-gelatin mastic:

First, the biscuit must be coated with cream, boiled condensed milk or jam to even out all the unevenness of the biscuit.
On the surface of the sponge cake prepared and primed with cream, boiled condensed milk or jam, the sugar mastic will lie evenly and smoothly, there will be no protrusions or irregularities.

After the surface of the biscuits is prepared, you need to measure the diameter of the workpiece to cover the cake.

The diameter should be no less than the diameter of the biscuit, plus double the height and another 5 centimeters for folds and irregularities. For example, if you have a cake with a diameter of 20 cm and a height of 5 cm, then to cover the sponge cake you need to roll out the mastic to a diameter of at least 35 cm = 20+2x5+5.

It is convenient to roll out confectionery sugar mastic on a table greased and sprinkled with powdered sugar, or even better between two sheets of plastic film; the mastic rolled out on plastic film is very easy to transfer to a sponge cake, this can be done directly together with the film, which then just needs to be separated from the mastic and Continue leveling the mastic on the surface of the biscuit.

The thickness of the rolled sugar mastic for covering the biscuit should be about 5 mm; after you apply it to the cake and level it, it will stretch to the required 2-3 mm.

If you roll out sugar mastic immediately to a thickness of 2-3 mm, it can easily tear when working with it.

If you don’t have professional tools, then buy plasticine in a box that comes with modeling tools. You also need, preferably, 2 irons for tightening the cake and a knife for cutting mastic, such as for cutting pizza, a food felt-tip pen, if you will make an inscription directly on the mastic.

On a note! Any mastic - marshmallow, sugar-gelatin or milk - will perfectly replace marzipan at home. You just need to take into account that it is not always advisable to cover the entire cake with mastic - although mastic coatings are very beautiful, they are quite hard.

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“Making mastic at home”

“Modeling a rose from mastic”

"Chocolate mastic"

“Sculpting a bear from mastic”

Mastic is a confectionery mass based on sugar and thickeners, used for decorating cakes. There are many recipes for making mastic at home, all of them are quite simple to execute and can be used for simple decoration or sculpting beautiful figures to decorate desserts.

Mastic is used to decorate confectionery products; it is a sweet mass based on sugar and other ingredients, which is quite easy to prepare yourself. Bright and beautiful mastic for cakes at home is made from natural thickeners with sugar.

There are two main types - gelatin and milk mastic, each of which has its own composition and method of use. Milk masses are very simple; powdered sugar, regular, condensed or powdered milk are used to make them. This mass is very plastic, easy to work with, mastic can be used for decorating and sculpting figures.

Gelatin mastic made at home requires more time to prepare; it is very important to take into account the hardening time so that the mastic turns out elastic and not hard.

Based on these confectionery mastics with the addition of other ingredients, marzipan, protein, chocolate and other types of decorations are produced. The recipe for all of them will be different; in addition, you can use natural dyes, which will give the dessert a brighter, more attractive appearance.

There are several recipes for cake at home. There are two main types - milk and marshmallow-based (white soufflé), easily painted in the desired shade.

You can add ingredients such as chocolate, honey or egg white to the mixture. In addition, mastic masses are separated for purposes such as:

sugar for covering the dessert, modeling, sculpting simple figures;
floral with good plasticity, it rolls out easily, dries quickly, which is used for sculpting flowers and decorations;
modeling, which dries very slowly, which is used to create complex figures (the mastic on the outside is dry, the inside remains soft for a long time).

During manufacturing, it is also taken into account what exactly the mass is used for. For covering, mastic with a large amount of thickener is used, this allows you to obtain thin and plastic layers. They will not tear, allowing you to create smooth and beautiful surfaces for desserts.

For modeling, a mass with a small amount of thickener is used, which allows the material to maintain plasticity and ductility for a long time. This makes it easy to create beautiful figures without worrying about the mastic drying out quickly or starting to crumble.

According to their composition they are distinguished 5 main types of mastic:

from marshmallows;
made of chocolate;
protein based;
milk mastic;
gelatin composition.

Stylish and beautiful decorations are made from marshmallow-based mastic. This will require the following components:

clean water - 60 milliliters;
marshmallows (preferably white) – 200 grams;
any pigment;
finely ground powdered sugar.

The candies must first be heated in a water bath, then mixed with the rest of the ingredients. The mass is thoroughly kneaded, when it stops sticking to your fingers, you can begin modeling the figures. When rolling, it is recommended to lightly sprinkle the table surface with powder.

To prepare the mixture need to take:

very finely ground powdered sugar - 125 grams;
dark chocolate - 100 grams bar;
cream (30% is suitable) – 50 milliliters;
butter - a tablespoon;
cognac – 10 milliliters.

Heat the chocolate over low heat, then add all the other ingredients and stir thoroughly. Before sculpting, the mastic is slightly cooled, for which it must be wrapped in cling film.

Used for protein mastic ingredients such as:

fresh protein;
powdered sugar – 500 grams;
glucose syrup – 2 tablespoons.

Additionally, you can use honey or chocolate, the amount of which is adjusted during cooking. Depending on the purpose, chocolate can be white or dark. You just need to immediately decide what shade the mass is needed before making flowers or decorations from mastic.

After kneading, the mass is wrapped in film and put in the refrigerator for two hours. Before sculpting, you need to knead it again, you can add a little powder if the mastic sticks to your fingers.

Used for milk mass ingredients such as:

milk powder – 160 grams;
dyes of the required shades;
cognac – teaspoon;
condensed milk – 200 grams;
powder – 160 grams;
lemon juice – 2 teaspoons.

All ingredients, except dyes and lemon juice, are mixed, the mass should be elastic. Then juice and dyes are gradually added.

Milk mastic always has a beige tint; it is impossible to obtain a white color. But with the help of pigments you can achieve other, bright or pastel, shades that match the idea and future design of the cake.

To obtain the gelatin mass you will need ingredients such as:

– 10 grams;
dyes;
lemon juice – 2 teaspoons;
powder – 200 grams;
water – 60 milliliters.

Gelatin is soaked. After it dissolves in water, you need to add the remaining components, except dyes, and stir the mass until elastic. Pigments are added to the finished mastic. If it turns out to be insufficiently elastic, the amount of lemon juice can be increased.

Features of coloring mastic on a cake

The made mastic can be painted in any colors, for which natural dry food and gel dyes are used. In order to give the mass the required shade, a small amount of dye is enough, after which the mass is intensively kneaded to give it a uniform, beautiful color.

When using dry compositions, you must first mix the pigment with water (a couple of drops is enough), then stir the resulting paint. It should be added to the mastic drop by drop in different places to ensure uniform coloring.

There is no natural black dye; usually, artificial pigments must be used to obtain the desired color.

Rules for working with mastic on a cake

Before you make mastic at home and use it to decorate a cake, you need to take into account the peculiarities of working with the mass. This will not only allow you to accurately realize all your ideas, but also make the confectionery product truly beautiful and maintain the beautiful appearance of the dessert for the required period of time.

The main rules for using mastic are the following principles.

When using powdered sugar, you need to make sure that it is ground very finely, otherwise the mass will begin to tear when rolling.
Mastic cannot be applied to wet surfaces, including cream, as it will dissolve and the dessert itself will lose its attractive appearance. It is recommended to do this only on marzipan layers or on butter cream, after keeping the dessert in the refrigerator until it hardens.
When sculpting figures, you often have to glue individual parts together. To do this, you need to slightly moisten the surface, and then fasten the mastic figures together.
The mastic dries in air, which is used in sculpting various figures and decorations. But voluminous flowers are best made and placed on the cake at the very end, so that they do not have time to absorb moisture from the surrounding air. If you do not follow this simple rule, then flowers and mastic petals may fall off and lose their attractive appearance.
Sometimes it happens that condensation appears on the surface of the mastic mass from the refrigerator. It is very easy to remove; you just need to use a regular napkin or dry the surface with a light stream from a fan.
Sometimes the mass loses its plasticity, which can be easily corrected. To do this, it must be heated in.
Store the finished mixture in the refrigerator, tightly wrapped in cling film. Storage time in the refrigerator is up to two weeks, in the freezer - up to two months.
Ready-made mastic figurines can be stored for quite a long time; to do this, they must be placed in a dry, tightly closed container. Storage time is several months.
Mastic can be colored using food coloring; this is most often used for marshmallow mass.

The mastic must be handled correctly and carefully; if the modeling or storage technology is violated, the mass will begin to crumble and lose its shape when decorating the dessert. You should not cover wet cakes with mastic, and when cooking you should use only finely ground powder.

Finally

Mastic is used to decorate desserts or sculpt figures on cakes. Various ingredients are used to make the mixture, but powdered sugar remains the main one. As additional ingredients, you can add chocolate, honey, proteins or milk, natural and synthetic dyes to obtain the desired shade.