Cake Decorating Tutorials

Mini Tutorial: White on White Baroque Cake

May 7, 2020 By Ashley 2 Comments

[This post is written in partnership with Iron Orchid Designs. All text and opinions are 100% mine. Please note that I would never endorse a product or company that I don’t actually enjoy using. Thank you for supporting brands that help me and my business grow!]

Hi guys! I’m super excited to share my white on white Baroque cake mini tutorial with you. Since monochrome cakes are one solid color, it can be hard to emphasize detail and textures, since those elements can get lost in the overall look of the cake. So, I’m going to share some ways to make a single color cake really pop. One of the best ways is to add textural elements using moulds, stamps, or other 2D elements.

The moulds I used for this cake are by Iron Orchid Designs. They’re large, durable, made with high quality food-safe silicone and are super easy to use. The fondant doesn’t stick to the moulds, and is easy to remove. The moulds also have a micro rim to help get a super clean edge. The two that I chose to use are baroque style moulds (the Classic Elements and Acanthus moulds) with lots of scrolls and embellishments with some pearl detail.

For the cake, I used a natural white fondant (slightly ivory tinted) and used an Iron Orchid decor stamp, called Craquelure. I love this stamp. It’s perfect for creating a fishnet texture, a lacy texture and great for animal skins, like snakes and reptiles. I imprinted all of my cake tiers with this stamp to add additional texture under the moulded pieces.

The best way to plan out the mould design for your cake is, as you are making pieces, lay them out on a non-stick mat to form the big components of your design before putting them on your cake. To use these moulds, press the fondant firmly into the mould. You can use a solid piece of fondant, or you can place the fondant into the mould in pieces. Note that the finished mould piece will be a bit segmented since the fondant was placed in pieces. I tend to like that look because it reminds me of old stone pieces, so a lot of my moulded pieces have some random segmented lines.

Once the fondant is in the mould, use a modeling tool to scrape off the excess paste. To remove the fondant, place the mould face down. Gently peel back the mould and ease the fondant out. It should come out easily and all in one piece.

I formed the larger pieces of my design to get a basic design and layout, then placed them onto the cake with sugar glue. Then I filled in the design with smaller accent pieces, followed by the pearl details. The pearl detail on the bottom tier is my absolute fave. It’s probably my favorite tier.

I also added a few white dragees to accent the design and fill in some blank spaces. I made some white heirloom roses with lots of petals and added those to the cake for more of a romantic touch. I left the petals all white and dusted the edges with just a little bit of cream colored petal dust.

Moulds and stamps are a great way to add textural elements and additional detail to help this white on white cake really stand out. If you recreate this cake, let me know. Tag me on Instagram so I can see it and share it!

For more mini tutorials, check these out:

Mediterranean Tile and Flowers Cake

Romantic Roses Cake

Woodland Tree Stump Cake Tutorial

April 2, 2020 By Ashley Leave a Comment

After a couple weeks of rainy weather, I’m welcoming warm, sunny Spring days with this woodland tree stump cake tutorial. Tree stump cakes have been pretty popular for quite a while now, and I think (I hope!) they’re here to stay. Tree stump cakes are incredibly versatile, can be simple or extravagant and fits lots of themes – woodland, garden, lumberjack, and more.

I’ve done various tutorials on fondant tree bark for tree stump cakes on a couple online cake decorating schools, but after many requests for a tree bark tutorial without fondant, I created tree bark for this cake using chocolate. There are plenty of different ways to make chocolate tree bark, with relatively similar techniques, out there on the web, but this is my preferred go-to method to create them. This tree stump cake is easy and fast to make, and most of the components can be made in advance.

My woodland cake features edible moss, edible meringue mushrooms, sugar flowers, leaves, insects on a ganache covered cake with chocolate tree bark. Before decorating my cake, I made some meringue mushrooms. I’ve included the recipe for these in the bottom of the post. The recipe will make more than you need for the cake. The recipe can be halved, but if you halve it, I recommend using a hand mixer because it’s hard for a stand mixer to properly whip such a small amount of egg white. I used a Wilton 1A round tip to pipe various size stems and mushroom tops from about 1/2″ to 1 1/2″ diameter. I sprinkled a little bit of cocoa powder on top before baking. When they cooled, I attached the mushroom tops to the stems with melted chocolate.

To make the chocolate shards, you don’t need an expensive chocolate, nor do you need to temper it. You can use any type of chocolate including candy melts. I used half and half dark chocolate and milk chocolate chips because I had both on hand. I also used this combination because I didn’t want a super dark bark, so I cut the dark chocolate with a lighter color milk chocolate. Alternatively, you could make shards in various shades of brown – they don’t all have to be the same. I used 8oz of dark chocolate and 8oz of milk chocolate.

I melted the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments until melted, stirring after every 30 seconds until melted. One thing that I do love about this cake is that it is very forgiving. You’ll notice in my chocolate photos that my chocolate shards have air pockets and have lots of imperfections. Luckily, we’re not looking for pretty chocolate for this cake. In fact, the uglier, the better. I poured the chocolate onto a large piece of parchment paper, and spread it out thinly, and fairly evenly with an offset spatula. Place another piece of parchment on top of the chocolate and roll like you would cinnamon roll dough. How tight you roll the parchment/chocolate will depend on how wide your chocolate shards will be. I like mine pretty wide so I rolled up the parchment a bit loose. I secured the parchment with small binder clips (paper clips work too) to keep the parchment/chocolate rolled. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so.

Carefully unroll the parchment. The chocolate will break a bit to create the shards as it is being unrolled and flattened out. If the chocolate is still a bit soft towards the center of the roll, pace the clips back on, and pop it back in the fridge for a bit longer. You want the shards to be completely set, cooled and able to crack.

I used ganache as the outer layer of my cake. I suggest using ganache or a chocolate buttercream as the ganache will peek through some of the shards a bit. I placed the large shards on my cake first, adhering them to the ganache with melted chocolate. Once the large shards were in place, I filled in any gaps with smaller pieces of chocolate shards. I melted the remaining chocolate shards, and using a coarse pastry brush, I paint the melted chocolate evenly over the cake in vertical strokes, filling in gaps and texturizing the shards. I wasn’t heavy handed with the melted chocolate, just placing it where it was needed to achieve the look and texture. Let the chocolate set completely.

At this point, I wanted to add some depth and color to the bark so, with a dry pastry brush, I dusted areas of the cake with cocoa powder. I mixed in a little bit of cornstarch to lighten the cocoa powder and dusted some additional areas. This gives it a little bit more of a realistic look.

I opted for a moss covered top for my cake rather than the traditional tree stump rings. I used a mixture of desiccated coconut and crushed graham cracker mixed with leaf green, golden yellow and brown gel food color. Let the mixture dry on a parchment lined cookie sheet before using. I sprinkled the top of my cake with the moss and placed some up the sides of my cake as well. I also placed some around the bottom of the cake to cover the cake board.

To finish my woodland tree stump cake, I placed a few meringue mushrooms on top of the cake and the base of the stump. I added a few leafy vines, some blossoms, a gum paste butterfly and some gum paste ladybugs. To see my tutorial on gum paste ladybugs, check out this post here.

Check out these posts for more cake decorating tutorials:

Mediterranean Tile and Flowers Cake

Mini Tutorial: Romantic Roses Cake

Print Recipe

Meringue Mushrooms

Meringue mushrooms, perfect for topping cakes and Buche de Noels.

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time1 hr 30 mins

Total Time1 hr 40 mins

Course: Dessert

Keyword: Meringue Mushrooms

Ingredients

2 large, fresh egg whites, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1-2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1/4 cup chocolate, melted

Instructions

Heat the oven to 225F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Place the egg whites and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer, and with the whisk attachment, mix on high speed until foamy.
Slowly add the sugar and whip until stiff, glossy peaks form.
Add the vanilla extract and beat to combine.
Transfer the meringue to a large pastry bag fitted with a 1/2" tip (Wilton 1A). Pipe mushroom tops, about 1/2" to 1 1/2" diameter, leaving about an inch apart between them.
Put a little bit of water into a small bowl. Using a clean finger, dip your finger in the water, wiping off the excess, and gently tap down the peaked tops of the mushroom tops.
Pipe the mushroom stems by holding the piping bag directly above the parchment, about 1/2" or so from the parchment. Apply pressure to pipe a thicker base with a tapered, thinner top in a variety of sizes. It's best to pipe these as straight up and down as possible to keep them from falling over when baking.
Using a fine sieve, sift the natural cocoa powder on top on the mushroom tops. Sift as little or as much cocoa powder as you would like.
Bake the meringue mushrooms for about 60-75 minutes until the meringue is dry to the touch, and can be easily removed from the parchment. I start checking the meringues every so often about 50 minutes into baking. Let the meringues cool completely.
Fill a small piping bag with melted chocolate. Cut off the tip of the piping bag. You are going to need just a small amount of chocolate per mushroom.
Using a small paring knife, make a small hole in center of flat side of each mushroom top. Pipe a little bit of chocolate into the hole and fit the smaller end of meringue stem into hole. Let the chocolate harden before decorating with the mushrooms.

Gum Paste Ladybug Tutorial

March 30, 2020 By Ashley Leave a Comment

These gum paste ladybugs are super easy and fast to make, and they are a super cute addition to any spring time garden or woodland style cake. I like to pair them with other insects, like butterflies or bees, and they look amazing in sugar flower arrangements. You can tape them in with flower petals so they sit in a flower, or you could tape them on to branches and vines, like I did for this cake.

Supplies:

white gum paste, 26 gauge floral wire, small jewelry pliers, sugar glue, cornstarch, vegetable shortening, ladybug body mold (Optional, but I got mine here), edible paints in red, black and white, foam for drying, paintbrushes, dresden tool, confectioner’s glaze

Step 1: Make a small circular hook at the end of a piece of 26-gauge wire with jewelry pliers. Bend the hook down so that it lays flat against the wire. Grip the top half of the circle hook and bend down so that the circle is perpendicular to the stem.

Step 2: Condition a small ball of white gum paste with just a little bit of vegetable shortening until the paste is no longer sticky. If you are using the ladybug mold, press the gum paste into the mold, firmly, to make sure that the paste completely fills the mold. Remove excess paste.

*Step 2: Alternative Method: If you are not using a mold, roll a piece of gum paste into a small ball, depending on the size you would like your ladybug. Flatten the ball slightly, and taper one end to create a blunted point. Use the thin side of a dresden tool to draw a line to separate the head from the body. Draw a line down the center of the body to create two segments.

Step 3: Brush the wire with sugar glue and insert the wire into the ladybug in the mold. Let dry for a minute or two. This will allow it to be a little bit more stable before removing the ladybug from the mold.

Step 4: Gently peel the mold away from the ladybug to remove it from the mold. Place the wired ladybug in a some foam to dry completely.

Step 5: Paint the body with edible red paint. Paint the underside of the body as well.

Step 6: Paint the head with edible black paint. Paint the underside of head as well.

Step 7: Paint small, evenly spaced black dots on the body of the ladybug. Let the paint dry completely.

Step 8: Paint two white dots on the front of the head and two white dots on the body near the head. These dots will be larger than the black ones. Let dry completely.

Step 9: Dip the ladybug in confectioners glaze to give the ladybug a shiny coating. Avoid brushing the glaze as this will smear the paint. You can skip this step if you want your ladybugs to be matte.

To see the cake that I used these ladybugs for, check out my Woodland cake tutorial here.

Mini Tutorial: Romantic Roses Cake

January 29, 2020 By Ashley Leave a Comment

[This post is written in partnership with Satin Ice. All text and opinions are 100% mine. Thank you for supporting brands that help me and my business grow!]

Valentine’s Day is the inspiration behind this “mini” tutorial for my Romantic Roses cake. This cake is sponsored by my sweet friends over at Satin Ice. Their new buttercream icing mix was perfect for palette knife buttercream painting. While this is actually a fondant covered cake, mixed media elements like buttercream and royal icing techniques – such as palette knife painting, detailed piping, buttercream flowers, etc. look amazing together and allows you to incorporate several different techniques.

I’m calling this a “mini” tutorial because I’m sharing how I made this cake, but it’s not a step by step detailed tutorial. The idea is to share how I created this cake, and to share a technique and some information for you to be able to replicate it on your cakes. A reader wrote to me recently asking for me to keep in mind beginner cake tutorials when creating tutorials. I will most definitely be creating tutorials for ALL skill levels and ALL sorts of cakes – birthday cakes, wedding cakes, themed cakes, holiday cakes, etc. Keep in mind that many of the techniques featured in my full or mini tutorials can be applied to any size or style of cake, and many are perfect for all skill levels. Trust me, I’m going to do my best to not let any of you leave a post empty handed.

After determining that palette knife buttercream painting was definitely on the table for this cake, and Valentine’s Day was an underlying theme, my mind went to color next. I wanted to incorporate dark reds, pinks, and blush tones. And what screams Valentine’s Day more than ROSES? To keep with rose theme, I created hybrid tea roses, heirloom roses, David Austin garden roses, and little climbing roses and rose buds. I also added in some rose leaves and some twisty vines.

I used Satin Ice fondant for this cake, which I colored with Crystal Colors petal dust in Champagne and Blush, mostly equal parts. I wanted a blush color for the cake but I wanted it more of a cool, muted, vintage-y tone and not so harshly pink. I’ve been experimenting with using dusts for coloring fondant simply to get more of a targeted color. I find that it’s a bit more difficult to achieve the desired color if I’m using gel colors. Food safe dusts come in such a large variety of colors which allows me to achieve the color I’m aiming for much easier. However, if you don’t have these colors, you can use Americolor electric pink and Wilton brown to achieve a similar color. Avoid Americolor brown – there’s a bit too much orange in it. Incorporate very little color gradually since gels are more concentrated.

I used the same petal dusts to color my buttercream to match the fondant, which was fairly simple to do since the buttercream mix is pure white. Satin Ice buttercream mix comes as a soft dough. To the dough, you add butter or shortening and water to create an American style buttercream. The buttercream mix is very customizable to most projects. It’s stiff enough for piping flowers and ruffles, but you can also make it soft enough to mimic the same consistency as a meringue based buttercream, which happens to be my favorite buttercream to use. To get that consistency, I added water 1/2 teaspoon at a time until it was soft and smooth, like peanut butter.

Because I wanted my palette knife painting to be focused around the sugar flowers, I placed the sugar flowers first. Once the flowers were placed, I created buttercream “petals” around the flowers, by pressing the buttercream coated palette knife up against the cake and gently pulling down and away, to create a slightly grooved petal. Take care not to place your petals too symmetrical. The petals can be different sizes and don’t have to be perfectly neat. Consider creating your petals based on the shape you want your petals to have and direction you want your painting to go. Once I finished the painting, I added some white sugar dragees that I painted gold with a mix of clear alcohol and gold dust.

And really, that’s it. A super simple technique just to get acquainted with palette knife buttercream painting. I’m totally in love with the technique and can’t wait to do some palette knife buttercream flowers. Let me know if you try this out!

Check out these posts for more sugar art tutorials:

Gum Paste Blackberries, Leaves and Blossoms tutorial

Essential Tools for Making Sugar Flowers

Mini Tutorial: Mediterranean Tile and Flowers Cake

April 5, 2019 By Ashley Leave a Comment

I think this Mediterranean tile and flowers cake may be one of my favorite cakes I’ve made to date. I don’t get to hand paint on cakes very often and was super excited for the chance to do so for this Mediterranean themed wedding. The color palette consists of dark blue, mustard-yellow, and turquoise with bright pinks, reds, oranges and yellows for the flowers. I wanted to incorporate both lemons and olive leaves for more of a Mediterranean vibe, which were both part of the wedding decor.

Inspiration for the tile is designed based off of elements I pulled from the invitations and also the decorative plates that were planned for use at the wedding. Then, keeping the hexagon panels size in mind, I sketched out a design on sketch paper. Once I was happy with the design, I traced over the sketch with tracing paper. Parchment paper will work as well, but tracing paper is lighter and a bit easier to work with.

For the flowers and foliage, I made pink peonies (check out my tutorial here), orange and yellow ranunculi, red dahlias, lemon blossoms, olive branches with olives (check out my tutorial here), lemons and lemon tree leaves. I made the lemons with modeling chocolate, using a foam center to keep them more lightweight so they wouldn’t rip through the cake.

Once the cakes were baked, covered in fondant and thoroughly chilled, I painted the cake tiers. I placed the tracing paper up against the cake and used a dresden tool to lightly trace around some of the main components of the tile design. Just so I could see the outline and spacing of the shapes. The rest of the design I did freehand, just referencing my sketch. I used a mixture of petal dust and grain alcohol to paint the design. The top three tiers were quick and easy to paint. The hexagon tier took hours. Hand painting that much detail takes a lot of time.

Before stacking the tiers, all the cakes were chilled completely. I always work with cold cakes as I find room temperature cakes too unstable, especially when using sugar flowers and travelling with multiple tiers. After I stacked the cakes, I refrigerated them over night. I placed the sugar flowers into the cake before delivery. I inserted the flowers into milk shake straws that I placed into the cake. Very rarely do I place sugar flowers on cakes onsite. I don’t have much breakage, if any when I travel with a cake with flowers.

I’m super happy with how this cake turned out and I absolutely loved making it. It’s definitely one of my favorites and a good beginning to wedding season.

For the peony sugar flower tutorial, click here.

For the olive branch tutorial, click here.

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