What is a Mesh Stencil?

As they say, it is better to see once.
Therefore, I recommend using the all-powerful Youtube and typing "mesh stencil" into the search bar. Fortunately, our foreign colleagues have been using this tool for a long time and there are plenty of videos about it.
In short, a mesh stencil is a stencil that allows you to convey a drawing with all the details, and not just an outline (as a classic stencil does). Mesh stencil is a very thin synthetic mesh, the cells of which are through in certain places, and closed in others. Thus, when a colored substance (icing, piping gel, dye) is applied to such a stencil, it seeps through the necessary (open) cells and a pattern is created.

What can this tool give me?
The answer is very simple and clear to every pastry chef: stunning decor, with minimal investment in 5 minutes. It's so cool it seems impossible.

How to use a stencil?
I will share several tried and true methods:

Use a stencil with fondant

• Roll out the fondant painted in the color you need
• Take a clean and dry mesh stencil.
• Take a neutral gel(piping gel) or icing (available from any shop for a pastry chef) and paint it in the color you want. If you use icing, make sure that there are no grains in it, and that the mixture is homogeneous.
• Fix the stencil motionlessly on the fondant . You can even do this with scotch tape.
• Apply a thin layer of gel or icing to the fondant . You can first apply a print and then put the fondant on the cake. Or you can lay the fondant and apply the print directly to the cake. It does not play a role and everyone can do it as it is convenient. Then you will understand why.
• Remove excess material from the stencil by holding the scraper at an angle (as if pushing the material through the mesh). You don't need to make a lot of effort.
• Remove the stencil from the fondant
• Wait 10-15 minutes. Gel or icing will harden
• Now you can easily perfectly match the stencil with the already applied print fragment

Use a mesh stencil on concrete or dry ganache

• Take the airbrush
• Dilute kandurin or a dye of the color you need in an alcohol solution (alcohol or vodka - depending on what you use)
• Secure the stencil to the cake with hairpins. Punch holes in advance, and then fasten on the cake. The cake must be refrigerated so that the stencil does not leave unpleasant and unnecessary marks on the cake coating
• From a close distance (3-4 cm), airbrush the dye on the stencil
• Take off the stencil and enjoy the incredible print

In addition, a piping gel can be applied to ganache as well as to mastic.

As a bonus, I will give some general recommendations from Keep Form:

• Never use a new tool or technique right away on a customer's cake. Test, try on, try farther. You will save time, money and nerve cells.
• Experiment and strive for new things. The modern world, including the confectionery world, is too fast and changeable. He does not tolerate conservatism and apathy.