Review: Tala Cake Marker
In this review we share how we used the Cake Marker by Tala as a guide in creating a macaron tower. The Cake Marker is designed to help you find the centre of a cake, create custom patterns and add decoration accurately. To test this versatile tool we put pen to paper and designed an elegant cake with a simple repetitive pattern. The swirls and swags mimic those seen on the marker itself and helped add those all important finishing touches to our multi-flavoured macaron tower.
The tower itself, from base to top, is a vanilla cake filled with blackberry jam, covered in lemon buttercream and fondant icing and adorned with lemon sherbet, pistachio and turkish delight macarons (some of which are painted with 24 carat edible gold leaf).
Placing the tower in a central position is essential for creating an aesthetically pleasing cake. The spacing from the edge of the cake to the base tier of the lemon macarons is relatively small but if it is even slightly off centre the entire cake could look uneven. We used Tala’s Cake Marker to ensure our tower was central by opening the marker fully and laying it flat upon the cake. The pivet is fitted with a hole so it can be held in place by a pin or used to pin point the centre. Once the centre is found a circle can be drawn using an edible ink pen with a fine tip, or a pin, by placing it through the appropriate hole for the required size. Using the circle as a guideline full control over the tower’s placement is achievable.
The cake marker’s usability really becomes evident when it is time to take the design drawn on paper and place it on an actual cake. The spacing between the swags, like the placement of the cone, is integral to the over all design. We found that Tala’s cake marker gave us the freedom to mark dots where each individual swag would begin and end. Simply place the marker horizontally onto the side of a cake and mark each dot with an edible ink pen accounting for the distance you need between both. Had we not used this method we may have encountered trouble matching up the last few swags.
A great point to make about Tala’s cake marker is that it will lend itself to creating extravagant and simple designs alike. We chose a design inspired by the cake marker itself by taking the ‘C’ shaped swirl and repeating it around the base of our cake. Not only was this a great way to add simple detail it was also incredibly easy to achieve. Using the ‘C’ we marked the shape with a pin and simply followed the pattern using a 2.5 writer tip; we even painted the same design on selected macarons with 24 carat edible gold leaf.
Tala’s cake marker maneuvers well when in use enabling the design to flow seamlessly. Also, it is light and flexible enough to be laid upon icing without causing any damage at all. The cake marker itself is made from plastic making it easy to clean and upkeep. At the same time it is durable enough not to break, chip or crack with pressure leaving your cakes free of dents and scratches.
With the above in mind we have scored the above Tala tools on design, quality and function…