Read The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating Online
Authors: Ruth Clemens
The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating (12 page)
7 For the leaves, roll small balls of green sugarpaste and flatten with your finger. Pinch the ends of each flattened ball to create the points of the leaf. Mark a central vein down the leaf with the back of a knife. You will need 14 leaves in total, again in graduating sizes.
8 Place a sugarpaste leaf between each of the flowers on both sides, securing with a dab of water. If desired, dust the cake with sparkle lustre dust for bit of extra shimmer!
“Don't worry if you don't have a cake board â decorate the cake onto a pretty plate instead. You don't need special brushes either â a clean, dry make-up powder brush is the ideal tool for adding lustre dust.”
Inlaying a floral pattern
These cute cupcakes feature a sugarpaste covering that overhangs the edge of the cupcake case to create a pretty and novel effect.
Six cupcakes baked in silver foil liners
Sugarpaste: white, bright yellow and golden yellow
Cutters: medium and small blossom, 8cm (3in) fluted circle
Buttercream
Basic equipment (see
Equipment
)
1 Roll out the bright yellow and golden yellow sugarpaste to a 2mm (
1
â
16
in) thickness and cut out a variety of blossoms in each colour.
“Ensure that your base sheet of sugarpaste is thick enough to begin with. The rolling required to inlay the coloured blossoms means it will end up much thinner than you started with.”
2 Roll out the white sugarpaste to a 5mm (
3
â
16
in) thickness to form a large rectangle. Take the cut-out blossoms and randomly place onto the white sugarpaste to create a sheet of floral-patterned paste.
3 Roll gently over the sheet with your rolling pin to thin the paste to 3mm (
1
â
8
in) and to inlay and seal the yellow blossoms into the white sugarpaste.
4 Coat the tops of the cupcakes with a layer of buttercream.
5 Cut out six fluted circles from the patterned sugarpaste and place on top of each cupcake with the edge of the circle evenly overhanging the cupcake case.
Any variety of colour combinations and shapes can be used to form a sheet of sugarpaste to work with for lots of different projects â try stars, swirls and butterflies.
Modelling a miniature cake
A mini birthday cake sitting on a beautifully decorated mini-cake looks ever so cute ⦠who could resist this? Break down the individual modelled parts and it's a doddle too!
6.5cm (2
1
â
2
in) round mini-cake, prepared for covering
15cm (6in) round cake card
Sugarpaste: lime green, white, light brown and red
Buttercream
Coloured sugar sprinkles: stars and small balls
Basic equipment (see
Equipment
)
1 Roll out the white sugarpaste to a 3mm (
1
â
8
in) thickness and use to cover the cake card (see
Covering a board with sugarpaste
).
2 Roll out the lime green sugarpaste to a 5mm (
3
â
16
in) thickness and use to cover the mini-cake (see
Covering a mini-cake
).
3 Place the covered mini-cake in the centre of the covered cake card, securing with a dab of buttercream. Set aside to let the sugarpaste dry.
4 Roll two balls of light brown sugarpaste around 3cm (1
1
â
8
in) in diameter. Flatten each ball into a disc. Spend time shaping each so that they are roughly the same shape and thickness.
5 Flatten a ball of red sugarpaste into a thin disc to create the jam filling. Indent the edges of the âjam' circle slightly using the end of a paintbrush.
6 Repeat for the icing on top of the cake using white sugarpaste, making the disc slightly smaller than the top of the cake. Stack the pieces together to form the cake. Moisten the icing of the miniature cake with a tiny bit of water and sprinkle lightly with the ball sprinkles.
8 To create the candle, roll a tiny sausage of lime green sugarpaste and flatten each end slightly. Take a yellow star from the sprinkles, insert one point of the star into the end of the candle and position in place on top of the miniature cake, securing with a dab of water.
9 Decorate the sides of the cake using white star sprinkles, applying a dab of water to the back of each star before pressing lightly into place. Roll a long sausage of lime green sugarpaste and wrap around the base of the cake, trimming neatly at the back.
If you're struggling to get the candle to keep its shape, form it around a piece of dried spaghetti, but do make sure you warn whoever will be eating it!
Creating a deckle edge
A fluted cutter is used in this design to give a textured edge to the swirls. Stars are a great motif that can be used in a myriad of colours for any number of different occasions.
Six cupcakes baked in purple paper cases
Buttercream
Sugarpaste: white and mid-purple
Cutters: round (same size as cupcake tops), large and small stars, graduated fluted round cutters
Edible silver glitter
Basic equipment (see
Equipment
)
1 Trim the domes from the tops of your cupcakes if necessary and spread a thin layer of buttercream on the top.
2 Roll out the white sugarpaste to a 3mm (
1
â
8
in) thickness. Using a round cutter the same size as the top of your cakes, cut out six circles and attach in place on the tops of the cupcakes.
3 Roll out the purple sugarpaste to a 3mm (
1
â
8
in) thickness. Using a fluted cutter, cut out six circles slightly smaller than the size of the cupcake tops.
4 Take the next smallest fluted cutter from the set and cut out the centres of the purple circles. Discard the centres. Cut each circle and open out the thin fluted pieces.
5 Brush the back of each piece with a little water and place in the shape of a swirl on top of each cupcake.
6 Cut out six large white stars and 12 small purple stars and brush the backs with a little water. Position the large star towards the left-hand side of the cupcake. Place one small purple star on top of the larger white star and one in the centre of the swirl.
Let the large stars dry out slightly before adding them to the cupcakes so that you can position them overlapping the edge of each cupcake without them drooping.
7 Sprinkle with a little edible glitter â because they're worth it!
Creating starburst flowers
Using chocolate sugarpaste for this mini-cake takes out the laborious task of colouring sugarpaste a deep brown â all the work is done for you!
6.5cm (2
1
â
2
in) round mini-cake, prepared for covering
10cm (4in) round cake card
Sugarpaste: chocolate and turquoise
Buttercream
Round cutters: 2cm (
3
â
4
in), 3cm (1in), 4cm (1
1
â
2
in) and 10cm (4in)
Basic equipment (see Equipment)
1 Roll out the chocolate sugarpaste to a 3mm (
1
â
8
in) thickness. Cut out a 10cm (4in) circle and use to cover the cake card (see
Covering a board with sugarpaste
).
2 Roll out some more chocolate sugarpaste to a 5mm (
3
â
16
in) thickness. Cover the mini-cake, trimming the excess neatly and polishing with an icing smoother (see
Covering a mini-cake
).
3 Place the covered mini-cake in the centre of the covered cake card, securing with a dab of buttercream. Set aside to let the sugarpaste dry.
4 Gather the trimmings of the chocolate sugarpaste and roll out to a 3mm (
1
â
8
in) thickness. Cut out four 4cm (1
1
â
2
in) circles and four 2cm (
3
â
4
in) circles. Using the corresponding sized cutter, cut the edges from the circle, creating four petals from each. Repeat with the turquoise sugarpaste creating four 3cm (1in) circles and dividing each into four petals.
5 Begin to form the three starburst flowers on the cake using the largest chocolate petals first. Each flower has five petals. Secure each in place with a little water applied to the back of the petal. Build up the flower using the turquoise petals then the small chocolate petals.
6 Roll a small ball of turquoise sugarpaste for the centres of the flowers and secure in place with a dab of water.
7 Finish the cake by rolling a thin sausage of turquoise sugarpaste between an icing smoother and your work surface to get a good length and an even width. Place the sausage around the base of the cake and trim neatly at the back.
When working with dark-coloured sugarpaste such as chocolate, avoid getting icing (confectioners') sugar on the surface as it can mark the sugarpaste and be difficult to get off.
Creating a marbled effect
The gorgeous rippling colours in this classic cake design look hard to achieve but it couldna't be simpler â just mix them up and roll!
