For the birthday of a keen sailor I want to make a a yacht-shaped cake, ideally with a sail rigged (not least because with my rather limited cake-creating skills it will reduce the risk that it gets mistaken for a radio mast, unusual stick insect, etc…) An inedible sail seems too much like cheating (taken to the logical conclusion I could just put chocolate icing on a toy boat), a sheet of gelatin or rice paper would be technically edible but not very festive to eat, and my other idea of a thin layer of hard toffee seems poised between being soft enough to sag/collapse and hard enough to be dangerously fragile.
So the properties I think I need for the sail are:
- about 30cm high, 20cm wide (i.e. a triangle formed from folding an A4 sheet of paper)
- strong enough to support its own weight for a few days
- light enough to be supported by an edible mast (I hope to use one or more chocolate Mikado sticks for this: yet to perform the delicious process of determining their load limits)
Best Answer
You can press cotton candy into a thin sheet that resembles paper or cloth. Put the candy between two pieces of parchment, flatten it with your hands and cut into shape. Consider that the sail may be delicate or very delicate, depending on how thick you make it. To attach it to the mast use caramel, isomalt, couverture, marzipan ...
El Bulli used to serve 'Flower Paper' made with this technique. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLpTCN9pT2Q to see a Demonstration (Flower Paper starts around 6 min 30 sec).