The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (25 page)

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• 7 small plastic cups, 200ml (7fl oz) or less

• Paper plate or thick cake board, about 15–20cm

(6–8in) diameter)

• Tissue paper

• Cocktail sticks (toothpicks)

• Matching ribbons

• Sticky tape

• Scissors

• Artificial foliage, as accents

• Florist’s card holder (optional)

Use 200–300g (7–101⁄2oz) of plain buttercream to

coat the cupcakes in a thin layer. Colour 100–150g

(31⁄ –51

2

⁄ oz) buttercream pink, 150–200g (51

2

⁄2–7oz)

green, 100–200g (31⁄2–7oz) light purple, and

200–250g (7–9oz) light green. Pipe hydrangeas

(see Camellia and Hydrangea) in pale pink, and

light green buttercream, roses (see Rose and Rose

Bud) in pale purple and leaves (see Sunflower and

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Leaves) in green. Assemble the bouquet following

the Cup Method tutorial. Decorate with tissue paper

and artificial foliage, then finish with a ribbon

around the base.

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Cuppie Cake

How does the idea of a number of cupcakes being

brought together to form one larger cake of your

desired shape and size sound to you? Fabulous and

original, isn’t it? We call it a ‘Cuppie Cake’! The

design possibilities for this kind of cake are

limitless, so have fun with it. A Cuppie Cake will

never fail to raise a smile.

1 Arrange your cupcakes according to your desired

shape. Make sure that they are really close together

on the cake board. When you are happy with the

layout, pipe a small blob of frosting on the bottom

of each cake to ‘glue’ it to the cake board (A).

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A

2 Pipe an even layer of buttercream on the surface

of the cake and cover as a whole. Some buttercream

might fall through the gaps. This is normal, and

there’s no need to try to fill the gaps with

buttercream (B).

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B

3 Level the buttercream using a palette knife and

remove the excess (C). After this, you may decorate

your Cuppie Cake with whatever design you wish

(D).

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C

D

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4 You can add some accents by inserting some

ribbons or artificial or piped leaves.

Tip

What is great about a Cuppie Cake is that you

don’t need to do any cutting of slices. With a

Cuppie Cake everyone can just take a piece of

cake, or shall we say cupcake, and there’s no

need to serve them on plates so there’s no

washing up either!

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To create this cake…

• Covered cake board

• 7 cupcakes

• 550–950g (1lb 4oz–2lb 2oz) buttercream

• Paste colours: pink (Sugarflair Pink), dark pink

(Sugarflair Claret), purple (Sugarflair Grape Violet), black (Sugarflair Black), yellow (Sugarflair Autumn

Leaf), light green (Sugarflair Gooseberry) and dark

green (Sugarflair Spruce Green)

• Palette knife

• Piping bags

• Scissors

• Non-toxic plants as accents (optional)

Arrange and then cover the cupcakes using

200–250g (7–9oz) of plain buttercream, following

the tutorial. Colour 50–100g (13⁄ –31

4

⁄2oz) of

buttercream in each of the following colours: pink,

dark pink, purple, black, yellow, light green and

dark green. Fill a piping bag with each colour and

snip off the end to create a small hole. Pipe the

floral design (see Scrolls, Lines and Zigzags in

Piping Textures and Patterns).

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Palette Knife

Techniques

Using a palette knife to produce a textured surface

is a stress-free technique that allows you to finish

covering a cake in no time, but that is by no means

the only thing you can do with a humble palette

knife. Try marbling, blending and painting – you

can use the knife as if you were creating an oil

painting, and the results can be stunning. Master a

few ‘brush’ strokes and away you go!

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Palette Knife Brush Strokes

With just your palette knife you can achieve very

different results by applying different strokes.

There’s no need to stress with sharp edges, just go

with the flow and channel your inner artist. Here

are the main strokes that you can use.

Vertical strokes

To achieve clean strokes, it is best to run the palette knife from the bottom of the cake upwards and not

back and forth from side to side.

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Horizontal/wavy strokes

Use the same basic principle as the vertical strokes, but this time, of course, move the knife

horizontally. You can slightly angle your palette

knife, with its tip touching the surface of the cake, then continuously turn your cake while it is on a

cake turntable.

Round nozzle with palette knife

Using a simple round nozzle on a piping bag, pipe a

row or column of blobs right next to each other then

using the rounded tip of your palette knife, gently

press down and pull towards the desired direction.

Do this one row or column at a time. You can

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