Cake Decorating Tutorials

Halloween Rice Paper Ghosts Tutorial

October 20, 2020 By Ashley Leave a Comment

Rice paper sails are super popular on cakes these days. Understandably so, as they really add a lot of movement and an ethereal feel to a cake design. If you haven’t used rice paper for cake decorating, you may have still heard of rice paper elsewhere – perhaps in the form spring rolls. That’s right, for this tutorial, the same rice paper used to make spring rolls will be used to make these translucent Halloween ghosts. Luckily, rice paper can be found in most grocery stores and is fairly inexpensive. These Halloween rice paper ghosts are really easy to make, are a super cute addition on Halloween cakes and cupcakes, and and require very few supplies.

Supplies

-rice paper

-a small spray bottle filled with cold water

-non-stick mats/silicone mats

-black edible marker

-styrofoam cake dummy

How to make rice paper ghosts

Usually, when making rice paper sails, the rice paper is submerged into water for a bit to thoroughly saturate it before shaping it. I find that method makes the paper too wet and more prone to ripping. With my method, the paper is moistened little by little until it’s pliable, and easy to shape. Lay a piece of rice paper onto the mat. Spray the paper with water, using your hand to rub the water into the paper to soften it and help the paper absorb the water. Flip the paper over and repeat. Keep flipping the paper and spraying with water until it is a bit elastic, softened and you can no longer see any texture.

Carefully lift the rice paper from the mat. Shape the paper into a ghost-like shape, tapering off the top and bottom but leaving the center billowy. You can also shape some so that just the bottom tapers, leaving the rest of the ghost billowy. Leave the ghosts to dry until it holds its shape but is still a bit pliable, about 4-6 hours.

I wanted some of the ghosts to have some movement and curve slightly, sort of like they’re flying, so while they’re still pliable, the ghosts can be shaped. Curve the ghost around a foam cake dummy in the desired shape. Stabilize the shape by securing the ghost with pins. Let the ghost dry completely, overnight.

Attaching the ghosts to the cake

When the ghosts have dried, they can be decorated. I kept my ghosts super simple by drawing on eyes and an open mouth with a black edible marker. You can definitely get as detailed as you like. For more depth and more realism, you can use a gray colored petal dust to dust in the crevices of the ghost.

To attach the ghosts to the cake, I used clear isomalt attached to lollipop sticks adhered to the back of the ghosts. This makes the ghosts more stable and secure and also allows them to have more of a 3D look, sort of popping off the cake a bit. After heating the isomalt according to packaged instructions, dip the end of a lollipop stick to coat. Adhere the isomalt stick to the back of the ghost, preferably where the paper bunches, to make the stick less visible from the front of the ghost. Hold the stick in place to dry a bit, then leave the isomalt to cool completely.

When the isomalt has cooled, attach the ghosts to the cake by inserting the lollipop sticks into the cake. I recommend inserting them into a cold cake because they will be much more secure, and less prone to falling out or sinking. I overlapped my ghosts and have them facing alternating directions, but the options are endless.

I hope you find loads of creative ways to use these super cute, super easy Halloween rice paper ghosts. If you make these ghosts, tag me on Instagram. I’d love to see them!

Ash xx

For more Halloween tutorials, check out these posts:

Halloween Mummy Cake Tutorial

Black Cocoa Sugar Cookies + Decorated Pumpkins Tutorial

Halloween Mummy Cake Tutorial

October 16, 2020 By Ashley Leave a Comment

I’ve really been loving working with wafer paper lately, wafer flowers in particular, and while I was working on some flowers and planning out some tutorials, the idea for this mummy cake popped in my head. I sketched it out and couldn’t wait to get started. And now, I’m super excited to share it with you. I’ve got a few Halloween tutorials lined up to share in the coming weeks and this Halloween mummy cake tutorial is definitely one of my favorites. Not only is it super cute, and perfect for any Halloween gathering, but it’s super easy to make, you only need a few supplies and it is not at all time consuming as it may look.

Supplies:

3 tier cake (I used 6×5, 8×5 and 10×5 tiers), stacked and covered in white/off-white fondant

Fondant: bright green, white and black (alternatively, modeling chocolate will work here too) – I used Satin Ice

Circle cutters: 1 1/2″ (38mm), 1″ (25mm), 5/8″ (16mm)

Piping tip #3 OR piping tip #4

Wafer paper

Piping gel

Plastic Wrap/clingfilm

Light brown petal dust ( I used Spanish Moss)

Dusting brush

Small brush for piping gel

Making mummy eyes

I opted to go with more of a cartoonish look for my mummy eyes. Super creepy eyes would also be fun here. To make the eyes, you need a few different size round cutters, as well as black, white and green fondant. Plastic wrap is also needed. This helps to make the eyes have more rounded edges and more of a puffed look.

1. Roll the white fondant out to 1/4″ thick. Lay the plastic wrap over the fondant. Cut out two rounds with the largest, 1 1/2″ cutter over the plastic wrap. Set aside.

2. Roll the green fondant out to 1/4″ thick. Lay the plastic wrap over the fondant. Cut out two rounds with the medium sized, 1″ cutter over the plastic wrap.

3. Brush the back of the green circles with a small amount of piping gel. Place the green circles onto the white rounds. I placed mine on randomly.

4. Roll the black fondant out to 1/4″ thick. Lay the plastic wrap over the fondant. Cut out two rounds with the smallest, 5/8″ cutter over the plastic wrap.

5. Brush the back of the black circles with a small amount of piping gel. Place circles onto the green rounds. Again, I placed mine sort of randomly.

6. Thinly roll out some white paste. Use a piping tip size 3 or 4 to cut out 2-3 small circles for each eye. One of the circles goes on the black round, or pupil, and the others are placed the randomly on the green part. Use just a tiny amount of piping gel to attach.

7. With a dusting brush, lightly dust brown petal dust over the white parts of the eye. Add very little at a time. You want just a little bit of color.

Now, the black background for the eyes needs to be placed on the cake before attaching the eyes. To do this, cut out a section of fondant in the center of the middle tier, that is just a little bit bigger than the size of the eyes. Roll out some black fondant the same thickness as the fondant on your cake, and place into the hole. Cut off any overhanging black fondant. The idea here is to make the black fondant flush with the cake, rather than adding an additional layer of fondant on top. Adding an additional layer makes it look a bit too bulky and the black will show more through the wafer paper more once they’re attached.

Brush the back of the eyes with piping gel and place them onto the black fondant.

Wafer Paper Strips

I’ll admit, I thought this part of the cake was going to take me a while. But once the strips are cut and dusted, it takes no time to put them on the cake. Cut the strips on the long side of the wafer paper with a pair of scissors, cutting them from 1/2″ to 1″. I didn’t measure my strips at all so no need to be exact, nor do they need to be perfectly straight. No worries if the wafer rips, or is damaged in any way – use it! I used 15-20 wafer sheets for my strips, but this amount will vary from person to person.

Assembling the mummy cake

With a dusting brush, on the rough side of the wafer paper, lightly dust random areas of the strips with the light brown petal dust. Make sure to keep a variety from strip to strip. You don’t want them to all look the same. I kept my dusting pretty light, but if you’re wanting more of an aged, deeper, darker and dirty mummy, use a darker shade of brown petal dust (or 2) to dust on the strips as well.

I tried to hide most of the ends of the wafer strips, so it has more of a wrapped look, and doesn’t look so segmented. Tuck the ends of the strips as you place them onto the cake. You can definitely keep some of the ends revealed as I did in some areas. Also note that you do not have to cover every inch of the fondant. A few areas peeking through is no big deal. It still blends in and looks cohesive.

Once all the strips are on the cake, go back with your dusting brush and add some more color to the strips if you would like. Also, dust over the exposed fondant so that it blends in more with the wafer paper.

Some notes on serving

Wafer paper is edible, but people don’t generally want to eat it. It’s also a bit of a pain to try to cut through. Before serving this cake, I recommend removing the wafer as you slice and serve it. Also, because wafer paper is easily effected by humidity and water, I would not refrigerate this cake once it’s done. Add the wafer just before delivering the cake if it is for a client or friend.

I hope you guys love this super cute mummy tutorial like I do! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below or on social. If you make this cake, tag me on Instagram – I would LOVE to see it!

Enjoy!

Ash xx

For more autumn themed tutorials, check out these posts:

Black Cocoa Sugar Cookies + Decorated Pumpkins Tutorial

Floral Piped Royal Icing Cake Tutorial

September 3, 2020 By Ashley 6 Comments

I’ll admit, piping techniques on cakes are not my strongest skill set. I can pipe all sorts of borders, sure, but any sort of piped design, lambeth techniques or flowers, count me out. I’m most definitely a work in progress with those techniques, but with this cake, I discovered a piping technique that I love. Not only is it easy, but it doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect. A little whimsy is preferred here. This easy floral piped royal icing cake is easier than you think and the options with this technique are endless.

Supplies

Fondant covered cakes (My cakes are 6×5, 8×5, 10×5 and 12×5)

Royal icing – stiff and piping consistencies, either white or light yellow

Edible gold dust

Clear high proof alcohol, or clear extract

Fine detail paint brush

#2 piping tips

Piping bags

Edible marker

Ascending bead mould

Variety of petal cutters – your preference (I used peony cutters)

Circle cutters (I used 1/2″ and 1″ cutters)

Plotting out the space for the piping and the beading designs

Before creating the flower design and piping, measure the out the space where the piping, and the bead design will go.

For the 6″, measure 3 1/2″ across the middle of the tier with a ruler, and used an edible black marker to make a small mark the middle, at 1 3/4″. Use the marker to then draw a little line at 0 and 3 1/2″. Now the top tier will be the guide on centering all of the other tiers. You can see an example of my lines in the upper right corner of the photo below.

For the 8″, place the ruler up to the center mark on the 6″, vertically, so that the ruler is straight up and down against the 8″ tier as well. Mark a small dot on the fondant to note the center of the 8″. Place the ruler horizontally onto the 8″ tier now, placing the ruler on the center dot at 2 1/4″. Place another small dot at 0 and 4 1/2″.

Repeat the same process for the 10″ tier, marking small spots with the marker at the center at 2 3/4, and on either side at 0 and 5 1/2.

Repeat the same process for the 12″ tier, marking small spots with the marker at the center of 3 1/4″, and on either side a 0 and 6 1/2″

The center mark keeps the design centered down each tier, and the marks to either side indicate the size space of the design, and also indicates where the bead design will go.

Impressing the cake with petal cutters

I decided to use (2) peony petal cutters to make the general floral pattern. I wanted to use the peony petals to match the large peony that I created for the floral topper arrangement. I also like the frilliness of the petals. You can use any cutters that you prefer. Note that the fondant on your cake to still be soft enough to be able to make an impression. In addition to using the peony cutters, I used (2) small circle cutters as well to indicate the flower centers.

Impress the flower centers first. Use a light hand, and only just make a faint outline. Place a full flower here and there if you wish, but make it look more organic by only impressing parts of flowers. Be sure to cover the center mark with the flowers, but do not impress beyond the two outer lines on the tier. Remember, this is where the beaded design will go.

Floral piped royal icing

Once you have made the faint petal impressions, prepare your piping bags for the floral piped royal icing technique. Make one icing bag with piping consistency royal icing, and another with stiff royal icing. Set the stiff bag aside, and fit the piping consistency bag with a #2 tip. Outline the flower petals with the piping royal icing. Add extra frills to the edges if you like, just remember it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you make a mistake, use a toothpick to scrape off the icing. Make some veining lines in the centers of each flower petal, coming from the center of the petal or from the outer edge. Be sure to not overlap the side lines. Stay within the designated area or you will be scraping off dry royal icing later.

After piping the flower petals, pipe the centers. Fit the stiff royal icing piping bag with a #2 piping tip. Pipe little dots in the centers. Go beyond the circle to create more imperfect circles. Overlap some of the dots to give the center a bit more of a pop and some depth. Let all the piping dry completely before painting.

How to make the beading effect

An ascending drop string of beads mould is needed to make the beading. You can find them at Michael’s Craft Store and Iron Orchid Designs (find a retailer near you, or a retailer online on their website – the Acanthus mould). I used the IOD mould for this cake. The string of beads on this mould are exactly 5″ so I used one full string on each tier, on either side of the piping, to create a straight line on both sides. Make (2) for each tier, and let dry for 10 minutes so they’re not too soft. Adhere the beads to the cake with water, in ascending order, with the largest bead at the bottom of the cake tier.

Design the rest of the beaded design on a silicone mat so that you have a guide, and can make them all identical. Since the moulds are going to be a bit different depending on what mould you have, it’s best to use the photos in this post as a guide to make them as similar as possible.

Painting the royal icing

Create a gold paint by adding alcohol to the gold dust until a thick paint forms. You don’t want this too thin, as it could drip and won’t have much coverage, but not too thick, that clumps of gold are left behind. You can also use Edible Arts gold paints as a substitute. Use a fine paintbrush to carefully paint the royal icing.

So, this is a do as I say, not do as I do sort of moment. I painted the gold BEFORE adding the beads. Oof. Spare yourself the mess of gold dust flake off, by painting the icing gold AFTER adding the beads.

Finishing touches

Leave the cake as it is, in its elegant simplicity, or with a sugar flower arrangement on top, as I did. To get remove any excess flour from the fondant or any random gold dust, lightly steam the cake with a steamer. You don’t want the fondant to appear wet or get warm, so just a little bit of steam will do the trick. The tutorial for my peony featured on this cake is listed below.

I hope you love this tutorial as much as I have loved creating it. Any questions, be sure to leave them below or DM me on Instagram. If you use any of these techniques in this floral piped royal icing cake, I’d LOVE to see your creations. Tag me on Instagram!

Ash xx

For more cake decorating tutorials, check out these posts:

Under the Sea Cake Tutorial

Vintage Gilded Buttercream Cake Tutorial

Woodland Tree Stump Cake Tutorial

Gum Paste Peony Tutorial

Under the Sea Cake Tutorial

August 21, 2020 By Ashley 1 Comment

I love the sort of cakes where I can make all the decorative components in advance. Then, when the time comes to decorate, I can just pop everything on the cake, make it look fab, and then it’s done. My Under the Sea cake is that sort of cake. All the decorative components can be made and stored in advance. The decorative components themselves are also relatively quick to make, and don’t take hours like sugar flowers or sculpted figures, but are still impressive and beautiful. I absolutely loved making this impressive cake, and it’s certainly a cake that is sure to wow your guests or clients.

Supplies:

6″square cake

8″ square cake

bench scraper

white chocolate ganache – pale peach, cream and pale blue (recipe below)

royal blue, ivory, and orange gel colors

white chocolate, melted

modeling chocolate or fondant, pale peach

edible sand

ball tool

dresden tool

white non-pareils

pearlized white dragées

white rock candy

The ganache

I’ve really been embracing the “messy” cake look lately. Appreciating flaws, and still making something gorgeous even if it isn’t perfect. After years of making cakes with perfect buttercream and flawless fondant (perfect, perfect, perfect all the things), I’m really loving these intentionally rough edged, textured cakes. For this cake, I used white chocolate ganache. Ganache is a total dream to work with. I find that when I want a specific texture or a flawless finish, ganache is my cake covering of choice. On this cake, I wanted texture.

My preferred ganache ratio for covering a cake is 3:1. Three parts chocolate to one part cream. This makes a ganache that is firmer and spreadable, like peanut butter. I colored the ganache three different colors – cream, pale peach, and a soft, pale blue. I wanted the colors to be soft, muted and able to blend together well, so very little color is needed. Just add a little color with just the tip of a toothpick.

Covering and Texturing the Cake

1. Cover the tops of the cake and the upper third of the cake with the cream color ganache. Smooth out the cream colored ganache with a bench scraper. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

2. Add the pale peach ganache to the middle of the cake. Smooth out the ganache with a bench scraper, blending the cream and the peach colors together as you scrape and even out the ganache.

3. Cover the lower third, or bottom of the cake with the blue ganache. Smooth out the ganache with a bench scraper, blending the peach and the blue as you scrape and even out the ganache. Even out and clean up the edges of the cakes with an offset spatula to define the square edges.

4. Let the ganache firm up for 5 – 10 minutes or so, just so that it’s not wet to the touch. Use a bench scraper to lightly scrape the cake. This will create a light stucco-like, sandy texture in the ganache.

The Coral

I made three different types of coral for the Under the Sea cake. I made piped coral pieces with white chocolate, mesh coral pieces with cake lace, and sculpted coral with modeling chocolate. I made the edible lace coral with white cake lace and a cake lace mat with a mesh design. You only need a small batch of cake lace for this cake (I used SugarVeil). The mat I used is the SugarVeil Mesh Mat. Any white edible lace will work, and any mesh/netting type mat will work as well. Follow the instructions on the package to make the lace. Let the lace dry on the mat overnight, so that it’s still pliable but also firm enough to hold its shape. You can also bake it, according to the package directions if you wish to speed up the process. Tear pieces from the large sheet of lace, in round-ish shapes, with jagged edges to create coral-like pieces. Use piping gel to attach these to the cake, shaping some them to give them a bit of movement, while leaving others flat.

For the chocolate coral, place a piece of parchment paper or waxed paper over a printed off coral template. I found one in a google search for “coral template”. Any template you like when you search will work. Alternatively, you can pipe some freehand chocolate coral shapes, without a template. Then, pipe onto the parchment, over the template, with melted white chocolate. Make several of these as they are fragile and break easily. I found that the pieces I liked and used the most were mostly just fragments rather than whole piped pieces. Let the chocolate set up completely before using. Carefully place the coral onto the cake with more melted chocolate, and lightly hold in place for a few seconds. Overlap and leave gaps when placing your coral.

I created the shells and the starfish using moulds. Any seashell moulds will work just be sure they’re not too large. I used cream/peach colored modeling chocolate for my shells, starfish and sculpted coral, but fondant will also work too.

How to make sculpted coral

1. Roll the modeling chocolate into different size teardrop shapes. You want them to be various lengths and sizes.

2. With a ball tool, press into the large, rounded side of the teardrop shape to create an indentation.

3. Place them in clusters on the lower left bottom tier, and the lower right top tier, attaching to the cake with melted chocolate or piping gel. Place them close together, even sort of squeezing them together, so that they look like a mass of coral. Make 5-7 per tier.

4. For the smaller coral attached to the cake, roll out small pea size balls with modeling chocolate. Use the ball tool to make indentations.

5. Use piping gel to attach these close together to the side of the cake, trailing upwards from the clusters sculpted coral on the lower left bottom tier and lower right top tier. Make as many or as few as you would like.

6. Use the thin side of a dresden tool to make small indentations all over to give the coral some texture.

Finishing Touches

Once all of the of coral is placed on the cake, place the starfish on with piping gel or melted chocolate. Place the shells onto the cake or cake board. I only ended up using two shells and placed them on the cake board with the edible sand. To make the edible sand, mix together 1/4 cup of finely ground butter crackers, or Ritz crackers, and 3 tablespoons of light brown sugar.

Place some white rock candy in the sand on the cake board, but also attach some along with the coral with melted chocolate to fill any gaps, cover any big breaks, or to fill out the design. Add some white pearlized dragées around the coral with piping gel. I think these look like little bubbles or pearls, and I like the pearlized look they contribute to the cake.

I also used some white nonpareils to add some bubble like detail as well. Brush a little bit of piping gel onto the cake to attach them. I had a happy decorating accident when placing the nonpareils. You can see that in some areas I pushed in the nonpareils but they didn’t stick, leaving little holes in the cake. I had hoped they’d just stick to the ganache but no luck. Well, I totally loved the little holes and thought they added great texture so I left them.

One of the great things about this cake design is that you can really make it your own by rearranging the different coral, creating different shaped corals, adding more or less of a type of coral or shell, using different color palettes or adding some cool features – like octopus tentacles, oysters, and fish.

Please feel free to leave any questions you have below, and if you make this cake, be sure to tag me on Instagram so I can see your amazing cake!

Ash xx

For more cake decorating tutorials, check out these posts:

Woodland Tree Stump Cake Tutorial

Vintage Gilded Buttercream Cake Tutorial

Mini Tutorial: Romantic Roses Cake

Print Recipe

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White Chocolate Ganache

Thick and creamy, white chocolate ganache that's perfect filling and coating cakes and cupcakes.

Ingredients

1 cup (227ml) heavy whipping cream
3 cups (680g) white chocolate, chopped or chips

Instructions

Place the heavy cream in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium low heat.
Meanwhile, place the chocolate in a medium size bowl.
When the cream begins to bubble around the edges, remove from the heat, and pour over the white chocolate. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.
Gently whisk the chocolate and cream from the center of the bowl to the outer edges of the bowl. Do not mix too fast as you want to avoid incorporating air.
If the chocolate isn't melted all the way, place in the microwave in 15 second increments, whisking after each session, until smooth. Do not overheat.
Let the chocolate ganache firm up until it's the consistency of peanut butter before using.

Vintage Gilded Buttercream Cake Tutorial

August 5, 2020 By Ashley 1 Comment

After working with mostly fondant over the years, I’ve been playing around with buttercream a lot lately, and I’m loving it. I love the messy nature of buttercream, where flaws and rustic application can make a design look stunning. Buttercream doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s delicious and adaptable, and wild like nature, imperfect, and more often than not, celebrated for its messiness. Perfectly iced buttercream cakes won’t be found in this post – in a different post another time, I’m sure. And so, I’ve created this buttercream beauty for a giveaway with Iron Orchid Designs over on my Instagram feed. I know you guys have heard me talk about these fab products before, but this time, I’m using them on buttercream. My vintage gilded buttercream cake incorporates easy and fast buttercream techniques that can be adapted to almost any buttercream cake design.

How to create rough edge buttercream

The color of this bottom tier is one of my favorites. I’m obsessed with this wine color buttercream. I have made this color plenty of times using gum paste, and I wanted to recreate the color to use as the bottom tier of my cake. To color this tier, I used both oil based candy color and gel color. I mixed equal parts of red and purple candy color, and added a touch of black gel color. Mix the purple and red first and let the buttercream develop for a few hours. Check out my post on How to Color Buttercream to see my techniques on how to achieve dark and vibrant colors. Then add a bit of black to just darken the buttercream a few shades. Keep in mind, the buttercream will darken a bit as it sits.

The top two tiers have a base color of dusty cream. To achieve this color, I mixed small, equal amounts of Americolor soft brown and ivory. My ivory gel color has a bit of an orange hue, so I mix the ivory with the soft brown to lessen the warm undertones.

The rough edge buttercream look has been super popular since Megan and Harry’s royal wedding cake. It’s also super easy to achieve. Rough edged buttercream is a total time saver – no need to use acrylics or the upside down method for a perfectly smooth top.

After filling and crumb coating the cake, chill the cake until it’s firm, for a couple hours or so. Smooth buttercream over the top of the cake, smoothing it out past the edges. Coat the sides of the cake with buttercream, layering it on, especially towards the top. How much buttercream you bulk up at the top edges of the cake will determine how tall and thick the rough edges are. Use a bench scraper to scrape off the excess and smooth the sides. Don’t worry about perfectly smooth buttercream, as I said before, imperfect is what we’re going for in this design. Chill the cakes, only chilling the top two tiers for about 5 minutes. You want the buttercream to set just slightly to keep it in place when adding additional colors on top. You do not want the buttercream to fully set up, as it can change color when scraping the cake. This is particularly true with buttercream based buttercream.

Creating the watercolor buttercream effect

On the top two tiers, under the gold stamped design, is a minimal buttercream watercolor effect. Both shades were created using very little amounts of claret gel color by ProGel. With a small offset spatula or a palette knife, place patches of buttercream around the cake, starting with the darker color. Use a bench scraper to even out the color around the cake. Add the lighter color, then repeat with the darker color until you’re satisfied with the color. I chose lighter colors for this cake so that the colors sort of blend together for a minimal, blended watercolor effect.

When choosing colors for the watercolor technique, you want to be sure that the colors look good together and will also blend well. You don’t want the colors to mix together and turn strange and unappetizing colors. I like to use buttercream colors that are made with the same combination of gel colors, or colors that are made by combining different buttercream colors together. Chill the watercolor cakes until the buttercream is firm. The buttercream needs to be thoroughly cold in order to stamp the pattern onto the cake, otherwise the buttercream will stick to the stamp, or squish out the sides.

Creating the vintage stamped effect

The stamp set that I used is the rose toile stamp from Iron Orchid Designs. I also used a craft brayer roller, mine is from Iron Orchid, but this one works well too. You will need parchment paper, or wax paper, and gold edible paint. I recommend this one, or you can create a gold paint with edible gold dust and a clear alcohol. If you choose to make your own, you will need more than half of a small pot of gold dust. Mix the alcohol with the dust until you it’s a thicker liquid. It needs to be thick enough to coat the stamp, but thin enough to be able to easy transfer to the cake.

Roll the craft roller through the edible paint. Roll off any excess, then roll over the stamp to coat. Do not saturate the stamp so that’s dripping, but ensure that the stamp is damp with color. Carefully lift the stamp and place against the cake. Carefully, and lightly press to the cake, taking care not to press IN to the cake, though it’s likely you will get some pressed in impressions. This is totally ok – it goes with the vintage design. Gently and lightly run your fingers over the stamp to stamp the pattern onto the cake.

You can also use the roller to roll over the stamp. I use this method when using the stamp on a flat surface, like a cookie, or paneled fondant or if I am trying to achieve full design coverage with the stamp. For this cake, I went with a more aged, almost peeling vintage-y look. I achieved this look by pressing over the stamp in select areas, leaving some spots light or bare. Then take a fine paintbrush and go over any areas you would like darkened, or more filled in.

Let the stamped impressions dry before stacking the cakes. After stacking the cakes, add any florals. For this cake, I used gum paste/sugar heirloom roses, anemones, roses, heritage roses, petunias, blossoms, and rose leaves. Use any flowers that compliment your color scheme, or even skip flowers – the cake is beautiful enough on its own!

For more cake tutorials, check out these posts:

Woodland Tree Stump Tutorial

Mini Tutorial: Romantic Roses Cake

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 12 Comments

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

5 from 3 votes

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 2 Comments

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.