So here is the cutter.. squeeee!!!!!
I contacted Bud Haffner a few weeks ago and told him that I believe there may be a market for Soap Cake cutters. Why? I know I can't be the only one who has issues cutting cakes. My previous cakes looked great before I cut them, and then inevitably I would cut and the cake would split and crumble on the sides and bottom of the slices. Sometimes they would crumble or split so bad I couldn't repair all of the slices well enough to sell. Loss of product makes me a sad soaper.
Anyway so he sent me this cutter to try out. I'm thrilled with the outcome of this cutter for several reasons. A) It does exactly what I wanted it to do. It cuts my cakes perfect with zero splitting or crumbling. Of course with the wrong number of slices, I had a more difficult time cutting it (because I'm an idiot pretty much) than I would have had had I made 12 slices instead of 10. Lesson learned and that's all I can ask really.
B) I'm quite positive it can/will do more than cut cakes. I plan on using this to cut my shorter soap loaves into a chunkier bar than my tank cutter cuts (I have the 1" version).
C) It's made by Bud Haffner, so of course the craftsmanship is superb. Can't ask for more than that!!
So here are the slices I came out with. Two of them (which I've cleverly, or not-so-cleverly, hidden in the back) are about 1 oz smaller than the rest. They all average about 7.5 oz. Big slices!! If I'd had 12 slices instead of 10 I would have had 12 slices at about 6 oz each (guesstimating).
Did you see some of the slices on the table to the right of the cutter. That's the product of fixing my wonky cuts from cutting the first half of the cake, when I hadn't yet grasped how to cut 5 slices from half of a cake. I would normally have 6 slices from half so you'd just quarter that half. I was so confused. lol
I think they turned out quite well. Better than any other cake I've had from previous tries, that's for sure!! Let's see if I can drag up some not-so-lovely pictures from previous cakes. I have made two that I can remember.
You can barely tell in this picture that there was significant splitting along the bottom of the cake. See the half that's still in tact? Along the left shows a split and the gap between the two slices at the bottom of the picture shows crumbling in that half of a cake at the bottom. I will say that even with that said, this cake was my most successful.
This cake was a nightmare from start to finish. It was my first cake so I cut myself a bit of slack. It smelled awesome!! It was a pineapple cake fragrance, so mouthwatering. My frosting all separated from the base of the cake and I had to "glue" it back on with M&P. The bottom crumbled and the sides split something awful. I think I had 8 usable slices from this batch. If you couldn't tell why the top separated, it was because I tried to do a mica line in between. Bad idea.
Now that I have this cake cutter I will be making many many more soap cakes. I couldn't be more happy!
If you don't already have a single wire soap cutter, I would suggest you get this one if you're into making soap cakes. The great thing about this cutter is that I can use it for soap loaves as well. I will make sure to demonstrate cutting a normal soap loaf as soon as I've made one that I want to cut thicker bars from than my tank cutter makes (also from Bud Haffner).
I hope you find this soap cake cutter as thrilling as I do. I just wanted to help out anyone who might make cakes and find them as difficult to cut as I do. I believe Bud is asking $100 plus shipping for this beauties which is a bargain if you ask me!!! Don't quote me on that though, we only briefly discussed this point when discussing the development of this cutter.
If you'd like one, make sure to send Bud a message or request a custom order on his Etsy shop located here:
Until next time!
Shannon @ Smellicious
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