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by Barbara May
After mixing a really nasty pink, I started in on the claws and lips. I was quite pleased with claws, which were done using a fairly fat round tip, kind of similar to the carrot technique. The lips looked kind of odd because of the shot glass. I think if I did it again, I'd try piping some of the pink inside the shot glass about a third of the way down. I think that would disguise it a little better, and plus the icing would melt beautifully when the alcohol is lit.
The final touch for the gift was a nice festive bow. I also used the last of the green to pipe thick fingers to give the claws something to attach to (they looked kind of weird just sitting on top of the scales). I used a pretty big round tip for this, let the icing build up under claws, and then pulled out and decreased pressure, kind of like the ghost technique.
At this point it was about half an hour before the party, and I very nervously went to check on my lacework. Much to my surprise, they were dry, and even more to my surprise, they pulled off the wax paper without much protest. I used just dab of royal icing to fix the veil pieces to the cake and to the tray, and they stayed just fine.
The final touch was to place some small white drop flowers along the edges of the veil. They were left over from a different project, which is another wonderful thing about royal icing -- the flowers will keep without refrigeration so you can do them ahead of time.
Then I celebrated, took a picture, cleaned up, and ran to take a shower before everyone arrived. Fortunately I don't have punctual friends.
I didn't fill the shot glass with 151 until right before we lit it on fire, since it would have just evaporated. I only filled it about a third of the way and it burned for several minutes. By the way, flaming cakes are the only use 151 sees in our house. Long ago a roommate of mine made jell-o shots with 151 and vodka, but that wasn't my idea and they were awful anyway.
To light the 151, drop a match in the shot glass and stand back. Unfortunately, the flame was almost invisible since I had forgotten to add a few pinches of salt to the 151, which gives the flame a really nice orange color. Once the sugar around the shot glass started melting, it picked up a little color (and looked really cool), but it works a lot better with the salt.
To put out the flame, cover the shot glass with the bottom of a drinking glass to smother the fire. Once it's cooled, you can just lift the shot glass out and let it soak for a little while, and the sugar comes right off (or at least, my shot glass suffered no ill effects).
And that's it!
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