Fake Bread

[dada]

Does anyone have some tips on how to make a convincing loaf of prop bread? I am after a ciabatta, or cob effect, with a floured crust - I'd like to avoid the old dry-it-in-the-oven-and-coat-it-with-varnish technique. :(

[V.A.]

You could maybe try salt dough... can't remember the recipe, but I'm sure you could look it up somewhere.

 

Why can't you just use real bread though?

[Jivemaster]

For the price of a ciabatta? You could probably buy a ciabatta every day for less than the cost of a fake, though which would look more realistic??? Wild Bean Café at BP service stn if you are on tour!

[Guest lightnix]

I used to make most food at college by taking a plaster mould from a Vaseline - covered original item (e.g. pork pie, pasty, etc.), pouring some latex into the mould to form an outer skin and filling the gap with expanding foam, once the latex had set and been taken out of the mould. Lay down a base coat of white emulsion, diluted french enamel varnish to colour and matt / satin varnish to seal.

[andy_s]

If doesn't need to be cut or eaten, varnish a real loaf.

[bruce]

Perhaps :) , but we recently were refurbing a place which had previously been a hotel. The kitchens had been unoccupied for several months. Meanwhile, the builders had been in, knocking down walls in the adjacent room etc.

 

We were looking for something in the (unused, but very dusty) kitchen, and came across a basket of bread rolls which had been lying there for months. They were dusty, but no mould. Apart from the dust, they looked almost as fresh the ones you'd buy in the shops. And they were as hard as bricks.

 

So perhaps there's no need to make artificial/model bread - why not use the real stuff?

 

Of course, it depends what you're going to do with it...

 

Bruce.

[JCoster]

Now here's an idea... Why not use a real loaf of bread?

[slim_mcslim]

...from the dust, they looked almost as fresh the ones you'd buy in the shops. And they were as hard as bricks.

 

And anybody who eats in hotels as often as a number of people on this forum can testify to that being the truth about all hotel bread rolls... whether the venue is open or closed!!!

[dada]

Wow, thanks everyone. Actually, the reason I can't use real bread is that it is a props making exersise for school. But surely there are occasions when a good, fake loaf of bread is neccesary??? In any case, the expanding foam idea sounds good.

[GMPSA]

Kingsmill - that's fake bread.

[andy_s]

Wow, thanks everyone. Actually, the reason I can't use real bread is that it is a props making exersise for school. But surely there are occasions when a good, fake loaf of bread is neccesary??? In any case, the expanding foam idea sounds good.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I think that although it may be a good exercise, there are only two circumstances when I'd consider making a fake loaf would be the best way to approach it - 1) if you need to hit someone with it (slapstick style) and 2) if it needs to be bigger than a real loaf ( for example on the giant's table in Jack and the beanstalk. for the former, something soft and squidgy is required, for the latter, the best thing is to use the sheets of insulating foam available from builders merchants or skips outside flat conversions ( but see other thread about legality of skip-diving) This foam is quite dense, and is quite easy to carve into smooth shapes. (easier than polystyrene foam). How realistic it looks depends on your painting skills ( or your powers of persuasion if painting isn't your thing) I think the sheets come in 2 inch thickness, bit it's easy to stick sheets together to get the right thickness.

 

the problem I've found with expanding foam is that you can get air bubbles in it which can be a problem, and it can be a bit unpredictable as it cures - and it sticks to everything.