Doll Size Yule Log

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

This week for our tutorial we are making a Yule log cake from polymer clay. I decided to make this on the channel after I made the same project on my dollhouse miniature channel last week. I really wanted to share this with all of you and I wanted to be able to do a bit more in the way of details which this scale lends itself too so well.

This is a fairly easy project and while I wouldn't recommend it for a very first clay project I think once you have followed a couple of my other clay food tutorials you will be able to do a very good job on this one. Another perk to this project that it uses a limited number of clay colors, just two for the cake and frosting and then an optional third color for the decorations.

We start out with our main two colors a dark brown (I'm using Chocolate Brown in Fimo Soft) and a white (in the video Original Sculpey). You can use any dark brown clay and any white clay you have on hand or can purchase easily. I do feel this project works a bit better if the white clay is softer than the brown but that is personal opinion. For this project I used half a of regular size block of the brown and just a bit more of the white clay for this step.

I started off by giving myself a head-start on the cake texture by working in just a bit of sand into the brown clay. I used white because that is what I have on hand but either white or brown will work equally well. You just need a small amount, and it needs to be worked in really well so it runs evenly through the clay. And don't use too much, you don't want to see the sand, it is just there to help loosen up the clay for texturing and you could leave it out entirely if you wish.

Once the brown clay is ready roll both colors of clay into flat sheets of clay. I don't usually measure this but I would guess less than ¼” thick with the white slightly thicker than the brown. Now layer the two clays together with one edge of the brown not covered by the white like I did in the video. Trim the opposite side of the clay to a straight edge and roll the clay up like the cake would be rolled in real life with white filling encased by the cake layer.

Now roll the clay to get a snake anywhere from 1” to 1 ½” in diameter and about 3” long. This is your basic cake now cut a thin slice off one end to check the interior swirl. Then cut 2 slices each around ¼” thick.

Now for the fun part, we are going to texture the cake to look like cake and not like clay. Use a “pointy” tool, I use my dental pick and make tiny swirls in just the cut side of the brown layer. These need to be very tiny and barely touching the surface. It is really easy once you get the hang of it. Do this to sliced end of the cake roll and to one side each slice. Be careful not to texture the white “filling” in this step.

Now we are going to take a small ball tool and make larger swirls in just the white layer of clay. This will make the filling look fluffy like the real filling would be.

Once you are happy with your texturing it is time to bake the clay. I baked mine at 250°F for 60 minutes for the cake, I did remove the slices after 30 minutes but they would be fine left in for the entire time. I wanted to check the oven thermometer at that point so I just removed the pieces that were already done then.

Once the pieces are cooled to room temperature so we can work with them again it is time mix our frosting color. I decided to make a “milk chocolate” color frosting for several reasons. First off, I was inspired by one of the pictures I was using for inspiration for the project, it was a lovely dark chocolate yule log with a creamy milk chocolate frosting. I loved how the two colors of chocolate complimented each other and you had a definite line between the two colors, after all if we are going to the work of doing the work to make the different textures let's make sure they are really noticeable. Secondly, I wanted to use up the clay I already had on my work tile and by combing the two colors used earlier I was able to make a nice light brown, milk chocolate color that complimented the rest of the cake. You will need to play around with the colors of clay a bit to get the perfect color, I did pull out just a bit more of my brown clay to adjust the color. Also note that I did have more than the clay that was left from the first step since I had also make a yule log cake for my other channel so I had extra of both white and brown clay on my tile.

Once you have the color mixed it is ready to use. Since I used a lot of Original Sculpey in my mix it was really soft so I didn't need to add any TLS to the frosting mixture this time. If your clay is not really soft you might want to add the TLS to get it to a soft sticky consistency.

Roll out the frosting color to fit the cake, coat the outside of the cooked clay log with some TLS then work the frosting around the sides and top of the log of clay. Don't cover the bottom of the log and skip the ends for now. Trim the frosting clay to fit then add some TLS to the end that is not textured (I forgot this step on the video) and cover that end of the cake log. Now using a tool and your fingers, both coated with some cornstarch to smooth the frosting especially the seam where the side and the end meet. Also cove the same edges on the slices of cake.

Once you are happy with the frosting add some texture with a ball tool coated in cornstarch.

Once you are happy with the way your frosting looks bake it at 250°F 10 minutes.

Allow to cool to room temperature.

If you want to add the same “sugared berries” that I did in the video roll some red clay into a very thin snake, cut into small pieces and make tiny balls. Bake these at 250°F for 5 minutes.

Once the “berries” are cooled coat them with mat Mod Podge and coat in white glitter. Separate them and allow to dry completely.

Meanwhile coat the frosting and filling areas only of the cake and slices with mat Mod Podge. Keep away from the textured cake areas.

Once dry add some more mat Mod Podge to the top where you want to place your decorations. I first added some of the same white glitter then added small blobs of Mod Podge and placed the “sugared berries”.

Allow to dry completely and add an additional coat of Mod Podge to the glitter and berries only.

There you go, that was really easy once you started and I bet you have a yule log to be proud of.

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.