Emmy Shoe & Gift Bag Tutorial

This week I finished an Emmy Shoe and Luxury Gift Bag cake and thought I would share some of the steps I took making it.

First of all I should give mention to the very kind and helpful team at Emmy who were so incredibly generous with their time in sending me additional photos of the shoe – The Darcy. The real Darcy Shoe is absolutely stunning.

PART ONE…

One week before you make the cake…

1. Make the structure of the Shoe – I followed the fantastic video tutorial by Pink Cake Box which can be found here.  You will need to make the sole and heel of the shoe at least one week in advance.

Make sure you use Gumpaste or Mexican Modelling Paste as regular fondant will collapse.  Colour up enough Modelling Paste at this stage as you will need extra for the top of the shoe and fixing the heel to the sole. It will be almost impossible to match the colour at a later date.

Wrap your spare paste in cling film and then place in a good quality zip-lock bag so ensure it will not dry out. Put this somewhere safe until you need it.

The night before you decorate your cake

2. Cover your cake board – I covered a 10″ square cake board in white fondant and embossed this using a swirly texture mat.

3. Make the inner sole and upper section of your shoe – I used Rose Sen’s template for the shoe upper, adapting it slightly to fit the size of the shoe I had made. Her templates can be found here.

The inner sole for Emmy shoes are scalloped and have hearts cut out.  I used the tiny heart plunger cutter from PME, but feel this wasn’t quite small enough.  I hand cut around these with a craft knife.

Attach your heel to you sole using a pad of gumpaste in the same colour and a little edible glue. Attach the inner sole and the upper to your shoe structure using edible glue.

4. Bake your cake - I baked a 10″ square Red Velvet cake. Allow to cool to room temperature, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge overnight. Chilled cakes are easier to carve and layer. Lovely, warm cakes straight from the oven are more likely to crumble.

Please see PART TWO for cake carving and layering.