Read The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating Online
Authors: Ruth Clemens
The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating (19 page)
11 To create the strip of ribbon around the base of the cake you will need two long strips measuring 40 x 3cm (15
3
⁄
4
x 1
1
⁄
8
in). Carefully lift them, supporting each strip with both hands to prevent it from ripping, and position in place. Each strip should go halfway around the cake. Trim the strips neatly at the back of the cake.
12 For the bow, make a strip approximately 14 x 3cm (5
1
⁄
2
x 1
1
⁄
8
in) and mark the edges as before. Flip the strip over so the right side is facing the work surface. Fold each end of the strip in to the centre to create the bow. Lay a small strip over the centre of the bow and secure the ends behind. Apply a dab of water to the back of the bow and secure in position over the join in the strips at the front of the cake.
13 Dowel the base cake (see
Stacking a tiered cake
) and then lift the blue-and-white polka-dot cake into position on top, securing with a little buttercream or royal icing.
14 Using the 5cm (2in) cutter, cut out seven deep pink circles and cut each in half. Apply a little water to the back of each semi-circle and position around the base of the smaller cake.
Make sure the flat edge of the semi-circles sits down onto the base cake to cover any gaps between the two tiers.
15 Roll 14 balls of white sugarpaste around 1cm (
3
⁄
8
in) in diameter and position between each of the semi-circles. A dab of water on the base will hold them in position.
16 Trim the edge of the cake board with the white ribbon, securing at the back with a pearl-headed pin.
Piping a delicate design
A beautiful cake you really won’t want to cut into. Slow the pace down and relax into creating this beautifully decorated cake.
30.5cm (12in) square cake, prepared for covering
35.5cm (14in) square cake board
30.5cm (12in) square cake card
Sugarpaste: white
Edible lustre dust: blue, pink and holographic sparkle
Royal icing
Piping (pastry) bags and no. 2 and no. 3 nozzles (tips)
12mm (
1
⁄
2
in) wide ribbon: pink and turquoise
Pearl-headed pins
Basic equipment (see
Equipment
)
1 Roll out the white sugarpaste to a 3mm (
1
⁄
8
in) thickness and cover the cake board (see
Covering a board with sugarpaste
). Set aside.
2 Place the cake on the cake card. Roll out some more white sugarpaste to a thickness of 5mm (
3
⁄
16
in) and use to cover the cake. Trim any excess neatly and polish with an icing smoother (see
Covering a cake with sugarpaste
). Allow the board and cake to dry out overnight before assembling and decorating.
Setting the cake on a cake card to cover it makes the job a lot easier, the cake can then be transferred to the covered board the following day when the sugarpaste has hardened.
3 Apply a smear of royal icing to the centre of the covered cake board. Lift and position the cake squarely in the centre of the board.
4 Trace the butterfly template onto a piece of greaseproof (wax) paper (see
Templates
). Transfer the butterfly design onto the top of the cake, tracing the outline gently using the end of a paintbrush. The butterflies are clustered around the bottom right-hand corner and become more spaced out the further up the cake they go.
5 Take a little of each colour lustre dust and place each into a small bowl, with a soft paintbrush for each colour. Begin by dusting with the blue lustre dust to almost fill in each of the wings starting from the centre. Build up the colour from the centre of the butterfly each time to create the graduation.
Tap the majority of the lustre dust off the paintbrush against the side of the bowl before putting it onto the cake, and build up the colour gradually.
6 Add in the pink highlights again from the centre of the butterfly but this time only one-third of the way into each wing.
7 Once you are happy with the colouring, dust over the entire wing of each butterfly with the holographic sparkle dust.
8 Fill a piping (pastry) bag fitted with a no. 2 nozzle (tip) with white royal icing. Play around with the consistency until you’re happy with it – it should be liquid enough to pipe easily but firm enough that a piped line doesn’t spread or break.
9 Slowly pipe around the outline of each butterfly wing in turn. Start in the top left-hand corner of the cake and work downwards and across so that you don’t have to reach over the piped butterflies and risk smudging them. Pipe antennae and bulbs of royal icing down the centre of each butterfly (see
Piping
).
“If you’re not confident with piping, instead of working directly on your cake cut butterflies out of white sugarpaste. Once they have dried, colour the butterflies as described and pipe around their outlines. Allow to dry fully before transferring to the cake then continue decorating as described.”
10 Using royal icing in a piping (pastry) bag with a no. 3 nozzle, pipe straight lines around the top of the cake to form a frame. Over the straight lines, pipe a wavy line (see
Piping
).
11 Empty the royal icing from the bag into a small bowl. Add a couple of drops of water to loosen the consistency. Dip the end of a paintbrush into the icing and dot onto the cake to create the white dots.
12 Add a little of the pink lustre dust to the loosened icing and repeat the dotting method applying pink dots to each of the butterfly wings as shown in the photo.
13 Trim around the base of the cake with pink ribbon and the edge of the board with turquoise ribbon, securing at the back with pearl-headed pins.
Creating a high-impact design
Let a round cutter do the design work for you! Combined with contrasting colours and a wired cake topper, this makes a stunning statement cake.