Playing with my food again-episode 5, part 1

I am playing with my food again and you can see the previous installments,
Here
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2009/04/playing-with-my-food.html
Here
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/09/playing-with-my-food-again-episode-2.html
Here
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/09/playing-with-my-food-again-episode-3.html
Here
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/09/playing-with-my-food-again-episode-4.html

This one is going to be about using those fabulous clay tools called Texture plates for your food. Not just clay tools anymore.
This got me to thinking, when I first started working with polymer clay in 1978, I use my ceramic tools and kitchen tools.
I think I can say I have come full circle to using my clay tools for food now.
I have learned that I do not put labels on my tools now. If I find it at a hardware store and it works, it is a tool. If I find it in nature and it works, it is a tool. Now, tools are everywhere!!!

I do suggest though that if you are going to use the texture plates for food that you get a new set. These are inexpensive and will be used over and over again if you are having as much fun playing with your food as I am.
They can also be used as large stamps, crayon rubbings, texturing plaster, texturing paint, or even cement and probably a lot more things than I can think of right now!

So we will play with the texture plates and then from there we will move in to the project Jodi and I made from this.
Just in time for the upcoming Halloween Holiday!

Links will take you to the corresponding page in my Hubby's on line store, http://www.clayfactory.net/. Thank you for supporting my family and myself.


I rolled out my fondant to about 1/8 " with the green roller.

Place the texture sheet over the rolled out fondant. I used texture sheet set M38004, this has the scale and the wood grain in it.
We are going to use both of them for this blog.

Press down on the roller and slide across the texture plate. You could roll it also, but I found that just pressing and sliding worked very well.
If you are going to roll the fondant in to the texture sheet then the roller has something to grab on to. It is easier to roll then.

This is how the fondant looks after the texture sheet is removed. I did not use anything on the fondant to resist the texture sheet, but you could use shortening or powdered sugar as a releasing agent.

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Here is the wood grain texture sheet. I used the chocolate fondant from Pila's Pantry, (this one is my all time favorite fondant, it tastes like tootsie rolls) and followed the instructions above to make this sheet of wood grained texture.

I then used some matt brown pigment I also bought from Pila's to highlight the texture of the wood grain. Put some on your finger as if it was pearl-ex and spread on the sheet of fondant wood grain. Or you could use a soft brush to place it on the fondant. The soft brush will though cover the whole surface not just the high spots.

Here I have tried to get the variation in the color by using the powdered pigment.  You can click on the picture to see a larger version of this picture.

I also brushed on some of the Pearl pigment for food, this one is called gold dust.

Fun, fun, fun!

We then took a bamboo skewer and placed three large marshmallows on it. Wrapped the wood grain fondant around them and sealed the seam with a little water. I let the bottom crack instead of cutting it off and featured the cracks as roots. 




We put this aside and continued on to the next part.

With the scale texture plate, some black fondant and the instructions on how to roll out the fondant and tah-dah, some scale textured black fondant. We then high-lighted that whole sheet with silver powder to get this. Click on the picture for a bigger view.
This is one of my very favorite textures in clay or food.

I add the powder to the fondant like this. I take out a small amount with a knife or spatula and place it on a paper plate then close the lid on the jar.

I then spread the powder out with my finger so I have no clumps and brush on to the fondant. If I do not do this the clumps will fall off my finger and cover everything not just the high spots on the texture.

We then drew up a small simple stencil on paper for a house. Cutting it out with the rolling cutter which is part of the rolling pin set.

The top strip is going to be the sides of our house.

We saved all the trimmings too, just in case we might need them later. We did.

We laid the front of the house on a plate and then we cut pink marshmallows in half (it was what we had ;-D) to make it the right thickness and "glued" them to the back with the chocolate icing. The marshmallows cut very nicely with a pair of kitchen shears.











We "glued" on the sides and the back of the house with chocolate frosting, Added the roof which was just more of the scale textured fondant, added a chimney, painted the pink marshmallows that showed inside the windows with chocolate frosting and set the house aside.
I am so sorry there are no pictures for this, we both got so involved with what we were doing, we forgot to take them.

Stay tuned for part 2...