The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (40 page)

tier.

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Candies

Here’s another way to make cake decorating

incredibly easy – just don’t tell anyone how simple

it is! Gather together some colour-matching

sweeties that will complement the background

colour of your cake. Just position these to create a

pattern, and enhance it with simple piped flowers

or even swirls to further lift the look.

1 Remove any sweet (candy) wrappers. Pipe a blob

of colour-matching buttercream at the back of each

sweet (A). Arrange and stick them all around the

bottom of the cake.

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A

2 Pipe a border of small shells (see Shells and

Fleur-de-lis in Piping Textures and Patterns) using

a small star nozzle (Wilton 16) above the row of

sweets to make it look more artistic and to neaten

the effect (B).

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B

3 Cut the liquorice into small circles about 1cm

(1⁄2in) thick using scissors (C). Make sure they are

even in thickness.

C

4 Arrange and push the liquorice circles into the

buttercream surface of the cake with even spaces

(D). There is no need to pipe buttercream

underneath each piece of liquorice. Repeat the

process until the circles are distributed evenly over the whole cake.

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D

Tip

Choose matching colour sweets that will

complement the colour theme for your cake –

candies, marshmallows, chocolate drops or

anything else you fancy.

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To create this cake…

• 15 × 30cm (6 × 8in) round cake

• 1.9–2.4kg (4lb 3oz–5lb 6oz) buttercream

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• Paste colours: black (Sugarflair Liquorice), green

(Sugarflair Spruce Green), light green (Sugarflair

Gooseberry), pale violet (Sugarflair Grape Violet)

• Black liquorice sweets (candies)

• Black and white striped mints (humbugs)

• Scissors

• Piping bags

• Small star nozzle (Wilton 16)

• Small petal nozzle (Wilton 103)

• Small leaf nozzle (Wilton 352)

• Cake stand or covered cake board

Crumb coat (see Crumb Coating in Buttercream

Basics) then cover the cake with 800–900g (1lb

12oz–2lb) of plain buttercream. Give it a smooth

finish (see Smoothing in Buttercream Basics) and

place on a stand or covered board. Colour the

remaining buttercream in the following quantities:

200–300g (7–101⁄2oz) each of green, light green and

pale violet, and 500–600g (1lb 2oz–1lb 5oz) black.

Apply the sweets and piped shell border by

following the tutorial and using the photograph as a

guide. Pipe two-tone Hydrangeas in light green and

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pale violet (see Camellia and Hydrangea in Piping

Flowers) over the top and cascading down the sides

of the cake. Add some leaves in green (see

Sunflower and Leaves in Piping Flowers).

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Cereals

You will be surprised how a handful of humble

breakfast cereal loops can make a really cute

decorative pattern. Not to mention the almost

effortless job of popping them onto your cake. An

added benefit is the amazing contrast in textures

produced by the crunchiness of the cereal, the

lusciousness of the buttercream and the moist cake

sponge – every bite is exciting!

1 Using a small kitchen knife, carefully cut the

cereal loops in half (A).

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A

2 Starting from the edge at the top of the cake,

arrange and stick the cereal loops next to each

other, alternating the colours, all around the cake

(B). Make sure that there are no gaps in between.

B

3 Repeat the same process all over the sides of the

cake, until they are completely covered (C).

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C

4 To cover the top of the cake, use whole cereal

loops and press them lightly onto the surface of the

cake, making sure there are no gaps (D).

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D

Tip

The cake should be covered with a good

amount of buttercream, a little over 0.5cm

(1⁄4in), so that the loops can be securely

embedded into the cake surface.

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