Read The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating Online
Authors: Ruth Clemens
The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating (15 page)
6 Cover each cupcake with a layer of buttercream. Position four petals on the top of each cupcake. Apply a dab of water to the back of a button and position centrally onto the petals.
Making cookies on sticks
Conjure up childhood memories or delight today’s kids with these fantastic facsimile ice lollies, which won’t melt even on the hottest of days!
Cookie dough (see
Vanilla sugar cookies
), rolled out and chilled
Six wooden lollipop sticks
Sugarpaste: pink, white, brown, red, orange and yellow
Coloured sugar sprinkles
Pizza cutter
Basic equipment (see
Equipment
)
1 Cut a long strip of cookie dough approximately 7cm (2
3
⁄
4
in) wide using a pizza cutter. Cut into six individual rectangular cookies, each 4.5cm (1
3
⁄
4
in) wide. Using a sharp knife, round the corners of the top edge. Shape six further cookies into rectangles and then with a sharp knife cut off the sides to create the triangular lolly shapes.
If the cookies spread too much in the oven, take a sharp knife and re-trim while they are still warm.
2 Transfer the cookies onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof (wax) paper. Once the cookies have softened slightly, take the wooden lollipop sticks and cut each in half. Insert one half into the base of each cookie, taking care not to split the dough.
3 Place the baking tray in the fridge and chill for 15 minutes until firm. Bake as per the recipe instructions (see
Vanilla sugar cookies
) and allow to cool.
4 Roll out the pink, white and brown sugarpaste into long sausages and lay on the work surface in the correct colour order side by side. Squeeze together gently to join. Roll out lengthways to form a sheet of striped sugarpaste approximately 3mm (
1
⁄
8
in) thick.
5 For the ‘FAB’ lollies, cut out six rectangles of the striped sugarpaste to fit each of the rectangular cookies and secure using a little water. Trim the rounded corners.
6 Place the coloured sugar sprinkles into a small bowl, paint the brown sugarpaste section lightly with water and dip into the sprinkles to coat.
7 For the ‘Rocket’ lollies, repeat the sausage method for the red, orange and yellow sugarpaste and cut out shapes to cover the top of the triangular cookies, again securing in place with a little water.
8 Using a wooden lollipop stick, mark an indent on either side to create the fins of the rocket.
“If these cookies are a real hit with the kids, make up a double batch and freeze the dough ready rolled and cut into shape to save time next time you make them.”
Combining piping with cut outs
This project reminds me very much of scrapbooking – cut out plenty of the elements and then play around as if creating a collage.
25cm (10in) round cake, prepared for covering
32cm (13in) round cake board
Sugarpaste: white, dark pink and pale pink
Cutters: small butterfly, small and extra-small blossom
Empty egg box
Royal icing: pink and white
Piping (pastry) bags and no. 2 and no. 0 (or no. 1) nozzles (tips)
Pink and pearl sugar dragees, medium and tiny
Edible pink lustre dust
Ribbon: pale pink 70mm (2
3
⁄
4
in) wide, pale pink 12mm (
1
⁄
2
in) wide
Pearl-headed pins
Basic equipment (see see
Equipment
)
1 Roll out the white sugarpaste to a 3mm (
1
⁄
8
in) thickness and use to cover the cake board (see
Covering a board with sugarpaste
). Lightly spraying the board with a mist from a water spray will help the sugarpaste to stick.
2 Roll out more of the white sugarpaste to a 5mm (
3
⁄
16
in) thickness and cover the cake. Trim the excess neatly and polish with an icing smoother (see
Covering a cake with sugarpaste
). Set both the board and the cake to one side to allow the sugarpaste to begin to dry.
3 Roll out a little more white sugarpaste to a 3mm (
1
⁄
8
in) thickness and cut out six small butterflies. Place the butterflies into the recesses of an empty egg box to curl the wings slightly and allow to dry. Dusting the egg box with a little icing (confectioners’) sugar will prevent them from sticking.
4 Thinly roll out a little pale and dark pink sugarpaste. Stamp out a good amount of small and extra-small blossom shapes in both colours. If using a plunger cutter, stamp out the blossom and with it still in the cutter, position the back of the blossom on your fingertip dusted lightly with icing (confectioners’) sugar. Press down the plunger to shape the blossom against your finger then set down on your work surface.
Using the plunger to shape the blossom on your finger rather than doing it on the work surface creates a much nicer shape of blossom.
“Any excess blossoms not used for this project can be kept in a small jar once they have dried out and used on other projects at a later date.”
5 Using a piece of greaseproof (wax) paper, trace the template for the piped swirls outline (see
Templates
). Place the template gently onto the top of the covered cake and softly trace the outline with the end of a paintbrush to indent the pattern onto the icing. You can then use this as a guide when piping.
6 Fill a piping (pastry) bag fitted with a no. 2 nozzle (tip) with pink royal icing. Pipe a small section of the swirls at a time. If the piping has little peaks, dab them down using a damp paintbrush. When piping, work from one side of the cake to the other, taking care not to smudge it with your hand as you continue. Pipe pink dots to the end of the swirls as shown on the template.
Any wobbly sections or breaks in your piping can be covered using a blossom or a butterfly.
7 Take the white royal icing and fill a piping (pastry) bag fitted with a no. 0 or no. 1 nozzle (tip). Pipe five small dots of icing onto each of the four positions marked on the template and place two pink, one pearl and two tiny pearl dragees onto the dots as shown in the photo.
“Use disposable piping bags to save time, and to save on the washing up too!”
8 Apply a dot of icing at each of the three pink piped intersections and secure a small blossom in place. Pipe a dot to create the centre of each blossom.
9 Continue to decorate the cake with the blossoms, securing each and creating the centres with white royal icing. Position them in a variety of clusters using single blossoms, pairs and threes.
10 Dust the centres of the butterflies with a little pink lustre dust. Secure each butterfly onto the cake using a dab of white royal icing. Pipe a pink snail trail (see
Piping a snail trail
) down the centre of each butterfly to create the body.