The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (7 page)

it gently with your finger.

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Covering Boards

Since our method of cake decorating is is all about

buttercream, you might guess that we do not use

any other medium. However, it is tricky to cover

your board with buttercream so we have thought of

a more creative way of doing it.

In everything we do, we try to make the technique

easy, be adventurous and create brilliant results. So if we are using a cake board, we always choose the

most exciting materials we can source, like fancy

papers, fabrics, and colourful tissue papers. To

these you can add on accessories that will

complement the design of the cake. Make sure you

don’t over do it – avoid colours that clash with your cake design, and make sure nothing upstages your

cake, which should, after all, be the centre of

attention.

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You will need…

• Ribbons, buttons, ruffles, lace

• Wrapping paper, colourful tissue paper, crêpe

paper, fabrics

• Glue gun/stick (hot melt), double sided tape,

clear tape, adhesive spray, craft glue

• Scissors

• Pen or pencil

• Clear cellophane, contact paper/sheet

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SQUARE

Whatever the size of cake board you are covering,

cut your chosen paper or fabric about 5–7.5cm

(2–3in) and your cellophane or contact paper about

13–15cm (5–6in) larger all round than the board,

then cut across the corners as shown. Place your

paper on the board and fold all the sides under,

then secure on the back of the board with clear

tape. Make sure that the paper does not have any

lint, icing or any debris stuck to it, then repeat the same process with your cellophane or contact paper

to cover it. Put matching ribbons or buttons or

anything else you have chosen around the edge your

board.

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ROUND

Covering a circular board is basically the same as

covering a square. Follow the instructions above,

but instead of snipping the corners, you just have to make small cuts approximately 2cm (1in) apart and

up to the board all the way around your paper

before you secure each piece with clear tape. Repeat

with the cellophane or contact paper, then finish

with accessories around the board.

Tip

You may come across all sorts of different

shapes of board – hearts, ovals and hexagons.

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Follow the advice for covering a square board

for all the angular shapes, and the instructions

for a round board for the curvy ones.

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Dowelling

Anything that is complex and made up of different

parts will need some structure to hold everything

together in one piece. The same principle applies to

stacking layers of cake. You will need plastic or

wooden dowels, inserted properly into the lower

tiers of a cake, to bear the weight of the layers above and to make sure that each cake layer does not get

squashed and collapse.

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Tip

Instructions for making the cake above can be

found in the Lace tutorial in the Textiles Effects

chapter.

You will need…

• Dowel rods, plastic or wooden

• Wire cutter, big scissors or serrated knife

• Pen or pencil

• Thin cake board

• Ruler

• Cocktail stick (toothpick)

1 Measure the height of the bottom tier of your cake

with a ruler. This measurement will be the guide for

cutting your dowel rods. Use wire cutters, big

scissors or a serrated knife to carefully cut as many dowels as you need (see step three) to the same

length (A).

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A

2 On a piece of paper or a thin cardboard, mark out

the outline of the next tier up and cut the paper or

card to size. Centre this template on the bottom tier of the cake and use a cocktail stick (toothpick) to

clearly mark the outline (B).

B

3 Mark the position for the dowels and insert the

dowel rods into the bottom tier, evenly spaced

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about 4cm (11⁄2in) in from the edge of the marked

outline (C). Push the dowel rods straight down until

each touches the cake board (D). The number of

dowels to put into the cake depends on the size of

the cake. The bigger the cake, the more dowels

required.

C

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D

4 Repeat this procedure for every tier on the cake. If it is really a tall cake, you will need to insert a long dowel straight through all the tiers, through the

centre of the cake to stabilize it.

Tip

To measure the height of your cake tier you

can push a dowel right into it from the top until

it touches the cake board, then mark the place

on the dowel that the cake frosting reaches,

using a pencil or pen, then remove the dowel

and cut it off at the marked length.