I found this photo of 5 lucious looking cakes - I am really interested in the square one on bottom and how it is decorated - it looks like the sides have been wrapped with a stiff netting lace edged with a solid sheet of gold leaf on top.  Also the cake that is to the top of the square one that has the fruit on top, how are the sides decorated, it looks like gold leaf that has been crumpled.  I have searched the net for days to try to find other cakes with decorations such as these, to no avail.
Does anyone have any ideas, or know where there are photos on the net of similar decorations? I really like that crumpled parchment paper look, sort of an organic feeling minus the usual buttercream shell design. I did find out that the “edible real gold leaf” used for food items is not as “edible” as one might have been told.  Scary.

I don’t think the photo came through - did you mean to post it (or a link to it)?

I’m so sorry - yes, the link is:

http://www.chimirrispastry.com/cakebakery.htm

I called this bakery and no one could really tell me about this photo.

Hmmm…. looks to me like they put a cardboard square on top of the cake and made a diagonally patterned drizzle all over the cake (in two directions), removed the sqaure, poured some kind of filling or glaze on top, then piped some decorative details where the two areas come together.  The picture isn’t the best quality, but that’s my best guess.

It’s easier to pipe the chocolate “drizzle” onto an acetate sheet and then appy it to the sides of the cake once the chocolate has set up.  Usually acetate is sold in sheets (rectangles) or rolls and the rolls come in different widths.  If you are careful, you can get the same kind of pattern (they were careful to make loops at the edges, whereas yours truly would be coloring outside the lines

Rose does something similar on the Strawberry Maria cake in The Cake Bible, but hers is more wavy.

The cake with fruit has glazed or sugared almonds on the sides.  I use sliced almonds, tossed with some granulated sugar and simple syrup and baked for about 20 or so minutes.  You need to break up the clumps every so often and remember to spray the pan very well with pan release spray (and even then, clean up is a chore!).  If you use blanched sliced almonds you will get a similiar look to the photo, but I can never find those so I just get the regular old sliced almonds (not julienned almonds).

Jeanne,

Thanks for the reply.  The square one looks like there is a sheet of gold leaf laid right onto the whole top of the cake, almost looks like it extends onto the sides.  To me it seems like the chocolate lacy looking edges are standing up higher than the cake - do you suppose it is some kind of netting solely for decoration?  ‘

The cake with the fruit - the sides almost look like it is covered with gold leaf that is wrinkled - or - maybe folded/wrinkled gold washed fondant. Somehow I just can’t make out the sugared almonds.  Are there any websites dedicated to photos of cakes decorated with other edibles other than frosting, with maybe the sugared almonds that you are talking about -  i need some ideas like these for decorating because I am just not good at all getting frosting to look nice.  Thanks again.

Edible gold is edible and very safe.  It has been used for centuries.  (Actually any gold is edible as long as it is 23 karats or higher.)  You just have to make sure it pure gold though and doesn’t contain other metals or alloys.  For more information you can visit http://www.easyleafproducts.com.  They have some pictures and recipes that might help you.

I didn’t get the gold sheet on the top; to me it looks like a frosting finish, or possibly a sprayed finished (sprayed colored chocolate or cocoa butter).  There are impression sheets that you can use to bake sponge cake in that will imprint an image (it’s really only for thin sponge sheets or layered mousse cakes) but I don’t recognize the pattern.  The top edges have piping detail on them, and then in the corner you can see the standing chocolate “fans”, which is what tells me the sides are decorated in a similar way.

The bumpiness on the fruit cake is the almonds, that’s what makes it look as if there is some sort of pattern to it.  It’s just the almonds carefully placed along the sides of the cake for the photo (usually when you mask the sides of a cake with anything - crumbs, chocolate curls, chopped nuts, etc).  If you have an upscale bakery in your area, they probably have examples of how to make the sides more presentable - using a decorating comb, for example to make straight or wavy lines on the sides.

Gold leaf comes in very small sheets (4x4 squares) and is difficult to apply (not impossible, just difficult) as well as expensive.

Thanks so much for your interpretation - monitors are so different.  Just trying to find a nice, easy to cut, way to embellish without using frosting.  I’m so glad I found your site.
Thanks ladies.

kajcomp, I agree with Patrincia and Jeanne, the square cake has sides that are a piped chocolate band which extends up past the top of the cake- no netting.  Rose gives directions on how to enrobe a cake like this in her strawberry maria.  The top, on my monitor, almost looks like a very shiny, maybe glazed, German chocolate cake topping. 

The cake with fruit on it is harder for me to make out, but it doesn’t really look like parchment to me, I think the almonds are a likely bet.