Shoe Box Cake Process

by Rose Sen

For info on how this shoe is made, please see my previous post on Gumpaste Shoe How-To: Tips and Template.

Gumpaste Shoe How-To: Tips and Template

Posted on October 6, 2010by Rose Sen

(Update July 17/2013: Sugar Delites now sells a high heel shoe kit, which includes a heel mold, cutter, drying form/ramp, etc. Click here and scroll down for an excellent gumpaste shoe tutorial by Iris Rezoagli on the Sugar Delites Newsletter, using this kit.

I also suggest the Pink Cake Box gumpaste shoe video tutorial. More gumpaste shoe tutorials are available at Cake Fu.

Below are tips to create a shoe without the kit.)

I recently got a great email question regarding how to make the Manolo Sedarby D’orsay gumpaste shoe:

• To make the template, I found a real shoe at home that had the same shape used it to make the template. I exaggerated the shape to look curvier. Here are photos of the actual shoe templates made (click for full size):

• I got reference photos from online of different angles of the shoe. And I love shoes, so it wasn’t hard to browse! In this case, I found photos on Ebay: http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1313&_nkw=sedaraby&_sacat=See-All-Categories. I used these photos to copy the small details of the shoe.

• To make the form that the shoe sits on, I hand-sculpted a form out of modeling clay and covered it in saran wrap. This way, I got a nice exaggerated curve.  I was particular about the curve of the form… if you look closely, you can see how it gradually curves out at the bottom. You can use anything for a form, but this is just what I had on hand.(Update Oct 17/2011: I’ve made a better shoe form out of foam core. See my new gumpaste shoe form here.)

• To make the stitching, the Wilton Gumpaste tool kit has a great stitching tool.
• To shape the top of the shoe, I used a ball of saran wrap lightly pressed into the shape that I needed. Similar to the shape of that wad of tissue you sometimes get in a pair of new shoes.
• For the the brooch, I used circle cutters to make a flat wheel shape out of grey coloured gumpaste. I bent the wheel shape a bit to make an oval, brushed on some clear piping gel and stuck small silver beads on. It was hard to get the beads to look even, and had to use tweezers in some spots.
• For the silver colour, I airbrushed it using edible silver food colouring. You can get the same effect by painting in thin layers using a mixture of edible silver lustre powder and alcohol.
• The heel is done using the method shown in the video. See the 4:45 mark for details.