If you watched my cake videos on British Airways inflight entertainment and want a reminder of the steps to make any of the cakes, you've come to the right place! Below you'll find links to the step by step tutorials for all of my videos of British Airways. Happy caking!
8 Ways to Decorate Cakes without Fancy Tools
11 Quick Fixes for Cake Mistakes
Let's Make a Gingerbread House Cake!
Mission: make a gingerbread house cake using only cake and buttercream! Traditional gingerbread houses can take forever to make and lining up gingerbread walls is tricky. Using cake and buttercream is less fiddly and spoiler alert: it’s delicious to eat at the end!
Although this gingerbread house cake looks complicated to make, you only need minimal tools. You’ll need a rectangular pan to make 3 sheet cakes of whatever size you choose. This is my Perfect Chocolate Cake and the cakes 9 x 13 inches.
Wrap the cakes in cling film or plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least an hour. When they're cold, they’re easier to work with. Meanwhile, choose two cardboard cake boards at least as big as your cakes. Mine are rectangular and measure 10 x 14 inches. On the first one, measure out your cake draw it onto the board. Divide it in half along the longest side to make two identical rectangles, each one half the size of your cake.
Cut these out and these will be the cake boards for the house and roof of your cake. I’ll explain why they’re really important in a minute.
Start by unwrapping two of your cakes. Use a serrated knife like a bread knife to cut them both in half along the longest side to make two identical rectangles. You'll four half cakes now, which will make up the body of the gingerbread house cake.
For the third cake, cut it in half. Then cut one of those halves in half again, and half of that into two pieces, one a bit bigger than the other. These four pieces will all be the roof.
Prepare your filling and your icing or frosting. I’m using my 4 Minute Buttercream, stirring in some melted chocolate chips. This makes a rich and creamy chocolate buttercream, which goes really well with my Perfect Chocolate Cake.
The easiest way to fill your cake is with a piping bag because it's much quicker and neater than spreading. Use a dot of buttercream in the middle of each of your cake boards to attach the first layer of cake. This will be one of the halves you cut out.
Let’s build the body of the house first. Pipe a border of filling around the cake and fill that with some zig zags. Spread it around to completely cover to top of the cake. Lower another half of cake down on top, adjusting it so it’s directly on top of the cake layer below. This will give your gingerbread house cake straight sides. Repeat, alternating cake and filing and finishing with a fourth half of cake.
Trim down each side to take off any pieces that are sticking out, leaving four flat sides on the cake.
If your cake layers are still cold you can ice or frost them straight away. Place the cake on a cake board that's ideally as large as your
Put this into the fridge while you finish building the roof.
Now you'll need the other cake board that has one half of cake on. Pipe filling along the middle of that first cake layer and put the next biggest piece of cake of that. Add more filling and then the smallest or narrowest piece. For the final piece, cut it in half but slice diagonally downwards, to make two triangles.
Pipe or spread some buttercream along each of the sides of the middle layer of cake and along the cake just below that. This buttercream will stick on the triangular wedges of cake to make a slanted roof.
You’ll need to trim the rest of the cake to make a smooth straight slope going down on each side of the roof. Also trim the other sides of the roof so that they go straight down, with no cake or filling sticking out.
Your carving doesn’t have to be perfect because next you’ll cover it with frosting to fill in any imperfections. This first layer of buttercream is called a crumb coat and it traps any crumbs that come off the cake. This means they won’t get into your next, final layer of frosting.
The crumb coat doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth and pretty but it needs to cover up all of the cake. You don't want any cake to be visible because that will allow crumbs to escape later. Put this roof of the gingerbread house cake into the fridge and take out the bottom part of the house.
It’s time to add some support to this house so that it can hold up the roof. I like to use boba straws, which are thicker and wider than normal straws. Wooden dowels work really well too.
Push a straw or dowel into the middle of the cake, pushing down until it hits the cake board at the bottom. Pinch it where it sticks out above the cake, pull it up and cut it where you pinched it.
Hold this straw or dowel against four more, cutting each one to be the same height. Then push the middle one back in. Push the other four into the cake in a square, spaced evenly around the cake. These supports will hold up the cake board that the roof is sitting on, so that that roof cake doesn’t sink down into this bottom cake. That’s the reason for building the roof on a cake board. Without it, the roof cake would sink down onto these supports and crush the cake below.
Spread some more buttercream on top of this cake to acts as glue. Then lift the roof cake on its cake board and lower it down onto the bottom cake.
Adjust the roof to center it and push down to attach it to the buttercream 'glue'. You can touch the buttercream without damaging it because it’s been in the fridge so it's cold and firm.
Before frosting the cake, position the windows on the cake. Spread more buttercream wherever you want them to go and scrape off the excess. This will look smoother and prettier through the windows than the crumbly layer of buttercream underneath.
Draw a window onto a piece of parchment or wax paper or baking paper. The window can be rectangular or square or arched like this. Fold the paper in half a few times and cut around the first window to make as many as you need. I’m using five for my cake. Very important: cut a slit in the middle of each one and I’ll show you why in a moment.
Press the paper windows onto the smooth buttercream patches on the cake. You can measure the height of the windows if you want to make sure they’re all positioned evenly. Although the buttercream will have set against the cold cake so it will be firm, not sticky, some condensation will have formed after taking the cake out of the cold fridge. If you press the paper gently against the buttercream, it will attach to those condensation droplets.
I’m making a pale pink gingerbread house, because… why not?! You can use orange food colouring with chocolate buttercream to make a gingerbread colour if you like. Spread or pipe the buttercream over each side of the cake, scraping over it with a cake comb. Spread more buttercream over any indents or air pockets and scrape again until it’s smooth.
Then use a toothpick to peel the paper windows off. Slide the toothpick into the slit in the window and pull outwards slowly. This is the reason you cut those slits in the middle of each paper window.
The edges of the windows will have some texture because the final layer of frosting is fairly thick. It doesn't matter because we’ll cover the edges up soon.
Square cakes are much trickier than round cakes because of all of the angles around the sides. To make those angles sharp, spread the buttercream all the way over each edge. When it sticks out, your cake scraper will slice through the extra buttercream around each corner, leaving a 90 degree angle instead of curved or rounded edge.
After smoothing all of the sides and peeling off all of the paper windows, spread the buttercream at the top edge of the cake onto the roof. Then put this cake into the fridge to chill before the next step.
While the cake is in the fridge, make some Christmas trees! For a soft green, use a drop of orange to tone it down so it’s not bright green. Put this into a piping bag fitted with a medium round tip. I'm using a #8 by Wilton. You can use a sandwich bag with one of the bottom corners cut off to pipe through instead.
I'm using two ice cream cones to make two trees. Use your green buttercream to cover them in little dots. The trees will be easier to move after the buttercream sets, which is why it’s good idea to make these now so that they set while you're decorating the rest of the house.
Now that the gingerbread house cake is cold and the buttercream is firm, add the rest of the details. Use your ruler to measure up the sides of the cake for some wood panelling. I'm marking every 2cm on mine. Mark on both the left and right of each side to make sure your lines go straight across!
Then push the edge of the ruler into the buttercream to score a line across it. You can use the edge of your cake comb instead if you like. Do this on all of the sides of the cake, except the sloping sides of the roof. You can use a paintbrush to brush off any buttercream crumbs that come off while you’re doing this.
Use one of the windows as a guide to make a door that's a bit taller and wider. Cut it out, leaving the surrounding paper intact. Use this as a stencil, positioning it against the cakes and pressing it to attach it to the condensation.
Then spread buttercream over it to fill in the door shape. Smooth the buttercream with a palette knife or
Press a cookie cutter or any round object above the door to make a wreath. Within this circle, press a smaller circle like the base of a piping tip.
Pipe green dots to fill in the wreath, just like you did for the Christmas tree cones. We’ll add baubles or ornaments to this later.
For the roof, fill a piping bag fitted with a large round piping tip like a 1A. Pipe dots of buttercream along the bottom edge of the roof so that they touch each other in a row. Then press the tip of a spatula into each dot and drag upwards to make scallops.
Pipe another row of dots above with each dot in between the two dots below it so that they’re offset.
The first and final scallop don't need to line up with the edge of the roof because we’ll fix that later. If in doubt, add an extra scallop so that it sticks out over the edge. Go all the way up to the top of the roof on both sides of the house.
Now let’s add details to the windows and door. Use a toothpick to make a cross in each window, as a guide to pipe along. Then you'll need white buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip. This is a #4. You can pipe straight lines if you like but they're very tricky so instead, piping dots is easier. As you squeeze the piping bag, the buttercream bulges out to make a dot. As you stop squeezing, pull the bag away to leave a little peak on each dot, which the next dot will overlap.
If the buttercream roof hasn’t set yet, put the cake back into the fridge for another 30 minutes. Then use a sharp knife to slice along the front edges of the roof scallops so that they're flat.
Use a round or star shaped piping tip like this # 18 to pipe along the edge. I'm using the same technique as for the windows, squeezing the piping bag to let the buttercream bulge out and then pulling away as you stop squeezing the bag. This leaves a peak or tail, which you pipe over with the next one.
Continue down from the edge of the roof, along the edge of the bottom of the house. Do this on both the front and the back of the house.
For the top of the roof you can use the same technique or pipe little spiral swirls. For these, pipe a ring spiraling outwards and then drag that across and pull away. Repeat but piping in the opposite direction, so clockwise for the first, and then anti-clockwise or counter-clockwise for the next.
I’m piping two lines of these to cover up the join of the scallops along the top edge of the roof. I’m also piping along the bottom edge of the scallops. This makes them match the other edges of the cake and also looks a bit like snow or icicles hanging down from the roof.
To decorate the wreath I’m piping dots wherever I want to place a bauble or ornament. Then press a sprinkle into each of those dots.
I need these piped dots because the buttercream wreath has already set, so sprinkles won’t stick to it anymore. If you decide earlier than I did that you want to add sprinkles, I suggest adding them straight after piping the wreath! They’ll stick to the wreath and you can skip the step of piping these extra dots.
The door has set too, so I’m piping a dot to attach another sprinkle as a doorknob. I'm piping the same border around the door and windows as I did for the edges of the cake.
You might choose to add extra rows of piping around the edges of the cake to make it look more wintery. Extra piping is also a good way to hide any imperfections in the frosting!
Before adding the finishing touches, move your cake onto the final cake board, which is the other rectangular cake board. Use two dots of buttercream to attach the house, which is still on that little rectangular piece of cake board you cut out at the beginning,. This board makes it easy to lift and move the cake without breaking. Use a cake lifter or spatula to center the cake on the board.
Pipe white buttercream around the bottom edge of the house and around the cake board. Spread it to cover the board and then press cling film or Saran Wrap down onto it.
This will smooth and flatten it. Then lift it up to leave snowy texture in the buttercream.
Pick up your Christmas trees and press them into the buttercream snow in front of the gingerbread house. Since the piping on the trees has set, you can touch it without damaging it.
If you want to decorate them with sprinkles, you need to either add the sprinkles straight after piping or pipe some dots now to act as glue.
Now it's time for the final details! Use a powder brush to dust the cake and snow with tinker dust or edible glitter. This will make it sparkly.
Wrap a fabric ribbon around the cake board to add some colour and cover up the corrugated cardboard edge of the board.
Isn't it beautiful? I was so excited to cut into this cake!
To serve a tall cake like this is surprisingly VERY simply. Start by cutting from the top down until you feel your knife hit the cake board in the middle. Serve those slices and then lift up the cake board underneath.
Pull out the supports, and then serve the bottom part of the cake! Yum! This gingerbread house cake is not only stunning, it’s also absolutely delicious, with moist chocolate cake layers and rich buttercream filling and frosting.
If you have any questions about how to make this gingerbread house cake, ask me in the comments below. Visit my online cake school to learn hundreds more cake decorating techniques and designs! You can also watch a video of this tutorial on How to Make a Gingerbread House Cake here:
Here are 10 number cake hacks for baking, filling, layering, frosting and decorating!
You don't need to buy special molds or baking pans to make a number cake. Instead, just cut a piece of paper so it's the same size as the cake you've baked. Draw your number onto that piece of paper and cut it out. Place it on your cake and cut around it with a serrated knife like a bread knife.
Depending on the size of the number cake that you want to make, you might choose to cut out one or two numbers from each cake. To cut out two, fold the piece of paper in half before you draw your number. This way, the number will be half the size of your cake. Trace the number onto the cake twice to get two layers out of each cake. This is my Perfect Chocolate Cake:
It's important to attach your number cake onto a cake board so it doesn't slide around. Pipe or spread at least two dots of buttercream frosting onto the cake board. Then lower your cake onto those dots. The buttercream acts like glue to attach the cake and hold it in place.
Now you can layer, decorate, and lift the cake on the board without it moving around. This is my Very Vanilla Cake:
Sometimes, cakes crack or break apart as you're lowering them onto the cake board. Use buttercream as glue to attach the pieces back together! Pipe or spread a dot wherever the piece broke off and then press the piece against the dot.
After filling and frosting the cake you'll never know it was broken!
For multicoloured filling, for example a rainbow, you'll want to space the colours evenly across your cake.
Mark out the sections onto your cake by scoring them with a knife before you start piping. I like to start by scoring halfway across the cake. Then divide those sections in half and in half again, as many times as necessary.
I'm using my 4 Minute Buttercream for this cake and for every other cake in this tutorial.
It's easiest to carve and assemble cakes when they're cold rather than at room temperature. When they're cold, they're firmer and less likely to crumble or break. To chill a cake, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for an hour or overnight. I like to chill sheet cakes before carving them into number cakes. Next, while they're still cold, move the number cakes onto a cake board and layer them with fillings.
Some numbers have holes in them, for example a number four or six or nine. The easiest way to decorate these number cakes is to leave that hole intact instead of cutting out the hole. When you frost the cake, pipe or spread a different colour over the "hole". This makes it clear it's not part of your number and the number will be recognizable. You'll save time carving and you won't have to frost any tricky areas of cake.
If you struggle to get smooth frosting on your cakes, I have bad news! It's even trickier to achieve smooth frosting on a number cake. I'll give you tips for this later in #9 but for now, here's a quick hack to avoid smooth frosting. Use chocolate to cover your cake instead!
Start by covering the cake in a crumb coat. This is a very thin layer of frosting that doesn't need to be perfectly neat. It makes it easier to attach the chocolate to the cake.
Then melt chocolate chips in the microwave at 60% power for 30 seconds at a time. Stir until smooth or heat for another 30 seconds if necessary. Cut strips of baking paper, wax paper or parchment paper so that they're as tall as the cake. Pour the melted chocolate on top, spreading it to cover the paper completely.
Then slide your hands underneath the paper, lift it up and press it against the sides of your cake. Pinch any corners to make sure there's a sharp angle there.
You can use a cake comb to press the paper against the cake to attach the chocolate. Then put the cake into the fridge for about 30 minutes before peeling the paper off.
You can top this cake with berries or candy or chocolate or flowers or whatever you like! If you like this design, read my tutorial on how to decorate any cake with a chocolate collar.
The easiest way to decorate a themed cake is to use figures or toys rather than making chocolate or fondant decorations. Bring a race track cake to life by adding toy cars, like on this number 8 cake. Hot Wheels type cars are the perfect size and after you've washed and dried them, they're perfectly safe to put on top of a cake.
Let's tackle smooth frosting. This is the trickiest way to decorate a number cake. For the best results it's really important to chill your cake before you start. Cold cake gets much firmer and less crumbly than room temperature cake. This means chunks won't break off when you spread on the frosting and you'll have fewer crumbs in your frosting. Like with all cakes, it's a good idea to start with a crumb coat. This is a very thin layer to trap any crumbs that do come off the cake.
Spread frosting over the top of the cake and around the sides and smooth it with an
You can frost a number cake using almost any technique you would use on a round cake. This one is going to be a watercolour design. After any holes, I like to do the top of the cake next to get that smooth. Then do the sides, making sure that the frosting sticks up a little bit above the top edge of the cake. This will give you nice sharp angles later.
You can use the side of your
The best time to add toppers to your cake is immediately after piping or spreading your frosting onto the cake. Toppers include chocolates, candies, flowers, sprinkles and figures. While the frosting is still soft and sticky, anything will attach to it. If you wait anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes, the frosting will set and pushing toppers onto the frosting will crack the frosting.
I hope this has been useful and now you have lots of tips to confidently make a number cake! Ask me any questions in the comments below and visit my cake school to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs.
Watch a video of this tutorial on 10 Number Cake Hacks:
Smash cakes are popular for first birthday celebrations and these little cakes are perfect for small gatherings, too! They're easier than you think to make. I'll show you how to make them with and without tools like a
First, bake your smash cake layers. These are typically four or six inches but you can use the techniques in this tutorial for any size cake. I'm using my Small Batch Chocolate Cake recipe to make 4" layers:
Prepare your smash cake layers by letting them cool completely, which takes about two hours. Then if the tops are domed you can level them with a serrated knife like a bread knife.
For the easiest assembly and neatest frosting, wrap these in cling film or plastic wrap. Then put them in the fridge for about an hour so that they chill.
If you don't have a cake board you can assemble a smash cake on a plate. I'll show you how to do it on a cake board next. Always start with a dot of buttercream in the middle of your plate or cake board. Push your first cake layer down onto it and it acts like glue to hold the cake in place. This way it won't slide around while you decorate it.
For the filling on this cake I'm using my 4 Minute Buttercream, adding melted chocolate chips to make it chocolate. You can use jam, caramel, Nutella, lemon curd… whatever you like. Using the back of a spoon, spread it so that it covers the cake up to the edges.
Flip your top layer upside down so that the part that was on the bottom of the cake pan faces upwards. This will give you the flattest top on your cake.
Making your cake on a cake board is the best option if you want smooth frosting. You'll also need a dot of buttercream to attach that first cake layer.
You can apply filling with a spoon or with an
After assembling your cake it's best to chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes. This will mean fewer crumbs and less wobbling when you frost it.
To prevent crumbs in your frosting, start with a thin layer called a crumb coat. This will trap any crumbs that come off the cake so that they don't get into your final layer. Use an
Then spread the frosting from side to side all the way from the top of the cake down to the bottom of the cake. The aim is to cover the whole cake so there is no cake (and no crumbs!) exposed. Hold your
Swipe sideways with your
After being in the fridge for about 30 minutes, the crumb coat will have set. This means it's firm instead of sticky. Now it's time for the final layer of frosting.
For the final layer of frosting I like to put frosting on the top of the cake first. Spread it all over the cake so that it sticks out over the sides, which will give you nice sharp angles later.
Spin the cake with your
Then do the sides of the cake. You're aiming for two things here. First, you want to completely cover up the crumb coat so you don't see any of it. Secondly, you want to spread the frosting so that it's all about the same thickness. After covering the whole cake, if any of the frosting looks shallower or thinner, spread more over those areas.
Next you would typically use a cake comb to smooth the frosting. If you don't have one you can use a ruler! Press the base of the ruler down on the cake board to line it up straight against the cake. Then with your left hand or your non-dominant hand, start spinning the
After scraping around the cake a few times you'll notice some indents or air pockets or gaps in the frosting. Use your
After each swipe, scrape the frosting back into your bowl and wipe your
Now I want to show you how to smooth the frosting using a cake comb. Just like for the previous cake, I'm spreading the frosting to cover my cake. Then, instead of using a ruler I'm using a cake comb. Press the base of the cake comb down on the cake board and start spinning the
After a few scrapes, touch up any imperfections by spreading more frosting onto those areas. Then scrape again and again until the frosting is smooth.
Side note: I used a tiny drop of gel colour to make this shade of pink. Gel colours are very concentrated so you only need a tiny amount to get really bright and bold colours.
Use your
If you don't have a cake comb, cake board or
Then scoop up more frosting and spread it around the sides of the cake. Don't worry about getting this neat at all at the moment. The only goal is to completely cover the cake with frosting.
The best way to get the frosting onto the cake is with little circular motions, which pushes the frosting onto the cake so it sticks without pulling off crumbs or chunks of cake with it when you swipe the spoon away.
When the cake is totally covered with frosting, use a paper towel or a towel wrapped around your finger to wipe around the edge of the cake. This takes any frosting smudges off the plate.
Now to tidy up this frosting dip your spoon into a cup of hot water, which will heat the metal. Create neat texture on the cake by moving your spoon in little arcs around the frosting. Because the metal of the spoon is hot it will smooth out the frosting as you do this, getting rid of any air pockets and leaving it silky and beautiful.
This frosting is definitely not smooth but the texture adds lots of detail and interest to the cake. If you want to make the frosting smooth without a
You can create gorgeous rustic texture with your
Whenever you notice frosting building up on your
To add height to your cake, pipe some swirls on top. All you need for this is a star-shaped tip like a 1M tip.
Drop the piping tip into a piping bag. If you haven't used this piping bag before you'll need to cut it. Push the tip back a little bit, cut about halfway up where the tip was, and then push the tip back down.
Spoon a little bit of frosting into the piping bag. You don't need much so whatever is left in your bowl after frosting the cake is probably perfect! Squeeze the piping bag to push the frosting all the way down to the bottom. Twist the piping bag to push the buttercream down against the piping tip. This will mean you need hardly any pressure to squeeze the frosting out of the piping bag.
Hold the piping tip above your cake, squeeze the bag and pipe in circular motions. At the top of each swirl I like to push down slightly before releasing my pressure and then lift the bag up, which leaves a neat peak on the top of each swirl.
Finally, the easiest way to decorate a cake is with some sprinkles. It's best to do this just after frosting your cake, while the frosting is still soft and sticky so that the sprinkles stick to it. If you wait until the frosting sets, the sprinkles will bounce straight off the cake.
Now it's time to serve your smash cake! You can slice these like any other cake for small portions, which is perfect for a small gathering.
Or dig into them with a fork, maybe for a couple's anniversary celebration. Or if you're following the smash cake trend, you give the cake to a baby on their first birthday and let them… smash it!
I hope this tutorial has been useful. Please ask me any questions you have in the comments and visit my cake school to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs.
You can watch a video of this tutorial on smash cakes here:
I'm going to show you seven ways to make buttercream patterns on cake with these step-by-step instructions. Spoiler alert: no fondant! I'll be using my 4 Minute Buttercream for all of these techniques.
Let's start by making stripes! Cover your cake with frosting and scrape around a few times with a cake comb to get it fairly smooth. Don't worry about getting it perfectly smooth yet! Then switch to a striped cake comb, which is one of these that looks like castle turrets on the side:
Scrape around the cake just as you would with a straight cake comb. You'll imprint the grooves of the stripes in the frosting. At first they'll look messy but as you continue scraping they'll get smoother. If there are any indents spread a bit more frosting over that part and then scrape again.
Make sure you spread enough frosting around the top edge of the cake so that that top stripe sticks up above the top edge of the cake. Put the whole cake in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill the frosting. Set a timer because you don't want to leave it for any longer. Choose your next colour and put it into a piping bag. You can skip the piping tip or use one the same width as your stripes. Take the cake out of the freezer and the frosting should be very firm. Pipe the frosting into the grooves to fill them in completely. The piping doesn't have to be neat but it needs to fill in the grooves so there aren't any air pockets.
Now scrape around the cake with a straight edged cake comb. You'll smear the second colour of frosting all over the cake but as you scrape again and again, you'll take off all of the excess to reveal neat stripes underneath.
The reason for putting the cake in the freezer is so that the first colour of stripes sets and holds its shape. Those stripes won't get warped as you scrape with your cake comb.
Tidy up the top edge with an
If you want your stripes to go up and down the cake vertically, here's a technique for that. Wrap a piece of acetate or parchment paper or baking paper around your cake. Pull it about an inch out from the cake so you have a bit extra.
Cut it and then tape it down onto a baking sheet or a tray. You need a flat surface that you can pick up and move later. Spread frosting all over it and use an
Then use your striped cake comb to pull from the top edge down to the bottom edge. You might have to do this a few times to take off all of the buttercream within the stripes. It's important to leave a very thin layer behind so that the stripes don't break apart from each other later.
Put this tray into the freezer for 15 minutes while you prepare your next colour of buttercream. When you take the tray out, spread the second colour into the gaps. Scrape off all of the excess so that the whole surface is smooth.
Then untape the acetate or paper, lift it up and press it onto the sides of a cake. The cake needs to have a crumb coat on already to make the sides straight.
Press the striped frosting on the acetate or paper against the cake to attach it. Then put the whole cake back into the fridge or freezer for 15 to 30 minutes to set this frosting. Peel the acetate or paper off, leaving vertical stripes behind.
The certical stripes aren't complete yet. Use a metal cake comb or a knife to slice off the frozen stripes where they stick up above the top edge of the cake. Then spread frosting to cover the top of the cake neatly.
Next, touch up the stripes. There will be air pockets where the buttercream didn't go all the way down to the acetate or paper.
Fill those in by spreading on that same colour and then scrape off the excess. A hot metal cake comb works really well for this. You can heat it either by dipping it into hot water or holding it underneath running hot water. The hot metal will leave perfectly neat, smooth vertical stripes behind!
Use cookie cutters as a guide to create patterns like for a vintage style cake. After you've frosted a cake, press cookie cutters in gently to imprint their shape.
Then use a variety of piping tips and colours to add details to the cake, following those lines as guides. Petal tips work really nicely for this to make ruffles.
Using a variety of colours with the same piping tip and technique adds extra detail without much extra effort!
For lines and dots, use round piping tips. Warning: piping smooth, neat lines is a lot trickier than piping texture!
Using cookie cutters like this allows you to create whatever pattern you like, equally spaced around the cake.
You can create endless patterns by using stencils on your cakes. There are two tricks to really neat stenciling. Firstly, chill your cake so that the frosting is really firm before you put your stencil onto the cake. Secondly, attach to stencil to the cake so it doesn't move. I like to use pins to secure the stencil on all four corners. If the stencil moves as you're spreading the buttercream on you'll smudge the design or the pattern.
Spread the frosting onto the stencil and scrape off as much as you can. Peel the stencil off straight away, before the stencilled buttercream sets.
Good news: if you're using a stencil to cover the cake completely with the pattern, by the time you finish there'll be so many details on the cake you really won't notice tiny imperfections in the stenciling. Also, if you're going to add any other details like piping or sprinkles or gold leaf you can be strategic with where you place it on the cake so that you cover up any imperfections.
This technique works for any pattern in a grid like polka dots or quilting patterns. To space the grid evenly on your cake, use parchment paper or baking paper. Wrap the paper around the cake to measure it so that it's the same circumference as the cake. Then fold it in half again and again in both directions until you've made a perfect grid.
Wrap the paper around the cake again. The frosting needs to have set before you do this, which takes about an hour in the fridge. Then use a toothpick or a pin to poke through every point where the creases meet. Poke every second crease for a diagonal or offset pattern like a quilting grid.
When you peel the paper off you'll be left with the grid on the cake. You can pipe over the markings, creating a perfectly spaced neat pattern.
Another way to use this grid technique is to do diagonal lines of patterns. Start by folding the paper to make your grid, wrap it around the cake, and poke your pin or toothpick through it. Now instead of just using one piping tip and colour to create dots, vary the piping tips and colours to make diagonal lines for a different pattern. I love all of the colour and textures in this one!
For this cake I'm using different colours of buttercream layered within the same piping bag. This saves a lot of time compared to using different piping bags for different colours.
Spread your colours in a row on cling film or plastic wrap and roll it into a log. Cut off one end and drop that end down into a piping bag.
Use a cookie cutter to imprint your pattern, which is going to be concentric circles for this cake. Then fill the sections with piping to create these shapes on your cake.
As a side note, you can make almost any buttercream patterns on cake flat! Use the Facelift Frosting technique, which I did for this cake and the previous cake:
To create patterned texture, use a textured cake comb. First, frost the cake as normal. Make sure the sides are straight and the top is level. Don't worry about any imperfections in your frosting at this point. It doesn't need to be perfectly smooth.
Now switch to a textured cake comb. Scrape around the cake again and again to imprint the texture from the comb. Then spread extra frosting onto any indents or imperfections in the texture.
Scrape again until the texture is imprinted and the textured frosting is smooth. The final result is gorgeous and really doesn't need any decorations other than this textured patterned frosting.
I hope you've seen some ideas you'd like to try. Join me on my online cake school for more cake decorating techniques and designs!
You can also watch a video of this tutorial on 7 Ways to Make Buttercream Patterns on Cake:
How does a cake influencer really earn money? And how much? How much time does it take and how much cake do you eat in the process? What's the best and hardest part? I’ll be sharing all of this and more!
The first cake decorating video I shared was back in 2012, before the term 'influencer' existed. Influencers are a relatively new term referring to people who influence people's actions or generate interest. For example, using a certain cake comb might make others consider choosing it. My first video was a time lapse video of making a car-shaped cake in my old cupcake shop in Costa Rica. I made it for fun, about five years long before starting the British Girl Bakes accounts on YouTube and Instagram. These accounts were specifically for sharing cake decorating tutorials. At the time, especially on Instagram, it was rare to see a video of the process of making a cake. The app was used mostly for photos. I was consistent with posting videos and the accounts got really popular so I guess I became an accidental influencer!
There are definitely fun parts to doing this: travel and interviews and decorating cakes, of course! But overall my life is definitely not glamorous! Off camera I'm usually in my pajamas with a cup of coffee in hand, washing massive piles of dirty bowls. There's usually a baby in the background or in a baby carrier with kids running in and out of the room.
Here's a funny example of this. I took a time lapse video of a cake melting to show what happens in the sun. Let's zoom out to see the setup.
I used my phone on a tripod to record the process but the sun was strong and didn't want the phone to overheat. I used one of my kids' umbrellas balanced on a stroller to try to keep the phone in the shade. Not as glamorous of a setup as you might expect!
Being a cake influencer is a full-time job for me. Although I can't work a typical 9-5 day because I have three little children, I fit my work into three chunks of time each day. The first is while my kids are in school and preschool, with a babysitter watching the baby for about three hours a day. Next, while the baby naps for another two hours each day. Finally, for about three hours after bedtime every night. You'll usually find a baby monitor on my cake decorating table beyond the camera shot!
If you add that up that's forty hours a week. I have another tutorial showing the filming, editing, and the rest of the process that goes on behind the scenes.
Even with over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube, it still doesn't provide much income. Here's a short with over a million views and I made 77 dollars:
Long form videos are much better. This one with over 3 million views has made $17,000:
Here's a typical day's earnings on YouTube: $65.55. You can see recent months' total income below. On its own this isn't enough to live on where I live.
So, why do I spend time making videos for YouTube? The aim is to find people who learn from these free tutorials and then visit my cake school and sign up for paid courses.
Despite popular belief I don't eat cake every day. I typically frost and re-frost and re-decorate cakes for videos, sometimes five or six times. By the time I finish, they're not edible anymore. If they are edible I give them away because honestly, they're not that tempting to me anymore. I had a cake shop in Costa Rica for four years where I did taste testing every single day so I've had enough cake to last me a lifetime! The exception to this is for recipe testing, when I'll bake and taste a lot of cake until it's just right.
I don't have a camera crew, an editor, a marketing team, a website team, a social media manager. It's just me. When I'm decorating cakes I set up various cameras around the room to get different angles. Then I edit all of my own videos using Final Cut Pro.
For my website I write out every tutorial with photos for people who prefer to read instead of watching the videos. For marketing I design, write and send out a newsletter every week. I also run all of the British Girl Bakes social media accounts: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook.
Actually I don't sell my cakes at all! I make about 100 cakes a year but I choose what I make based on what I think will be popular on my cake school or my website, YouTube, Instagram, not based on orders. Then I give the cakes away to friends or family, neighbors, teachers at school.
When it takes me more than a few days to decorate a cake so it's no longer edible, I'll frost and redecorate it again and again for different videos.
I think troubleshooting is helpful to share whereas cake fails are mostly for entertainment. I like to share troubleshooting for mistakes, explaining what you can do to prevent it or what you can can do to fix it. When I was filming the cake below I poked my fingers into the frosting when I tried to move the cake board!
Of course, cake fails happen to me too. Sometimes I'll try lots of different methods for something and none of them will work and so I give up and move on to something else. I don't end up sharing the fails unless I find a method that works.
I will say that I don't share all of my camera footage. What you see is about a 15th of what I actually film! It typically takes about an hour and a half to film a cake and then I'll cut it down to about five minutes for the YouTube tutorial. I cut out all of the boring parts and try to only show the key moments that you really need to see in order to replicate that technique at home.
My background might not be what you'd expect for a cake influencer. I studied Law at University, graduated, moved to Costa Rica to teach English and I ended up opening a cake shop.
Then I moved to Los Angeles and managed some bakeries there until I had a baby and was totally overwhelmed! I started making cake decorating videos on maternity leave to try to keep myself sane and here we are!
The hardest thing about being a cake influencer is trying to find a balance. I choose when I work and how much I work which is a privilege and a curse! When I'm working on a project I love it's easy to try to find more time to spend on it. I can add extra babysitting hours for my kids, cancel plans, or work late at night. I end up missing what's really important: spending time with my friends and family. So creating a work-life balance by defining which hours I'm going to work and then sticking to that is, for me, the hardest part.
Let's finish with the best thing! With flexibility to choose what to do, how much of it to do and when to do it, I can spend a lot of time with my family. With a lot of advance planning I can travel and work from anywhere. I just got back from a trip with my family for a month and I could schedule ahead so that I didn't have to work while I was away. I could really focus on spending time with my family and that's amazing to be able to do when my kids are so little and still think that I'm the best thing!
As always, if you have any questions please ask them in the comments below. I'd love it if you subscribed to my YouTube channel, where I share a new cake decorating tutorial every week. You can watch the video of these 10 confessions of a cake influencer below:
I'm going to show you how to make this fun and easy jungle themed cake, perfect for a Wild One cake or for a Two Wild birthday party.
Start with a cake board or a cake drum at least two inches wider than your cake. Attach your first layer with a dot of buttercream and then alternate cake and filling to build your first cake. Now cover it with a crumb coat. This is a very thin layer of frosting to trap any crumbs that come off the cake. It's going to be covered up so it doesn't need to be really neat. I'm using my Perfect Chocolate Cake and my 4 Minute Buttercream to fill, frost, and decorating this Wild One cake. Put the cake in the fridge to chill this for about 30 minutes.
You can use this design for a single Wild One cake or a tier cake. For a tier cake, assemble the smaller cake next, which will eventually go on top of the previous cake. For this cake you'll need a large cake board and also a cake board the same size as the cake.
Use a roll of masking tape or a non-slip mat to attach the two cake boards together on your
If you don't have a cake board as small as this cake (which I don't!) you can trim the cake board. It's best to trim the cake board after you've crumb coated the cake and after chilling it so that the frosting on the cake is firm and even if you touch it you won't damage it.
Now attach the cake on its little cake board to the big cake board. You can use your non-slip mat or if you find that the cake is wobbling around, use a dot of buttercream instead. The reason for the big cake board is to provide a smooth surface to rest your cake comb on and so that you don't get frosting on your
After crumb coating both of your cakes you'll need to give them a final coat of frosting. The crumb coat needs to set first, which takes about 30 minutes in the fridge. Once set, it traps the crumbs so that they don't get into this final coat of frosting.
You're going to cover this cake with Wild One cake decorations but the design will look best if the cake is neatly frosted, first. Get the frosting as smooth as possible with the sharpest edge around the top of the cake to create a neat shape.
Then put the frosted cakes in the fridge for at least an hour to chill and firm up.
Meanwhile, prepare your decorations. To make leaves you'll need wafer paper, which you can cut using scissors into whatever jungly type leaves you like. A quick note about wafer paper: you'll see that there are two different sides with different textures and it's fine to colour the leaves on either of those sides.
I'm going to show you different ways to colour these and tell you which way I think is best.
The cheapest option is to use gel food colouring that you would use to tint your buttercream. Mix it with a little bit of water or alcohol like vodka to thin it out. It's better to use alcohol than water because it evaporates more quickly so it won't soak the wafer paper. The gel doesn't dissolve very well so you'll have some clumps of colouring within the liquid. The downside to using this method is that the colours aren't as true and the wafer paper is the most likely to snap in the process. When it dries it's a little bit flexible but again is likely to snap if you try to shape it.
Glycerin really helps for effective colouring of wafer paper. You can buy it from cake shops in small bottles.
You'll see that when you add gel colour to it, it makes a much smoother liquid without any clumps. But if you spread it just like this onto your wafer paper it won't really absorb. It sits on the surface and you won't get even coverage on your wafer paper.
Instead of using it like this with just the glycerin and the food colour, add some clear alcohol or water. Then brush it onto your leaves and it will absorb much better. The combination of glycerin and colour and alcohol paints very evenly onto the leaves while also softening them at the same time. This makes them more flexible and less likely to break.
While the wafer paper leaves dry, stack your tier cake. Use an
Lift it up and put it on the larger cake. Draw around it using an
You can touch these cakes with your hands because they've been in the fridge so long that the frosting has become really firm and won't get damaged. Now you'll need some supports. I'm using boba straws which are thick, wide straws. You can use wooden dowels if you prefer. You'll need to push them in at least two inches within that line that you drew.
Push all the way until it hits the cake board, pinch it, and pull it out. Cut it at the point you pinched so it's the same height as the cake.
Then hold it up against your other straws to cut them all the same height.
I only need three straws to support my tiny four inch cake going on top. If your cakes are larger you can use four or five or six straws. When you push them back into the cake, make sure they're all at least two inches apart from each other as well as two inches within the line you scored.
Spread some buttercream on top to cover up the straws and act as glue. Then lift up and lower your small cake on top to stack your tier cake.
There will be a messy join where the top cake meets the bottom cake. That's very easy to cover up by piping buttercream all around the bottom of the top cake.
Use your
To decorate this cake you'll need several shades of green. The easiest way to do this is to mix one bowl of green frosting and then split it up into different holes of a cupcake pan. Now add different colours to each of the greens. Yellow makes green brighter whereas orange, brown or red will make it duller. Black makes it darker.
Now you'll have a jungly colour palette like this:
Choose one colour and spread blobs of it all around the cake. If you're making a tier cake, space the blobs randomly around the top and bottom tier.
Then use a cake comb or an
For textured patches, spread another color and then use your
Pulling your
You can experiment with lots of ways to add texture. Wiggling the tip of your
For little dots put your frosting in a piping bag with a tiny piece cut off the end. As you squeeze the bag to push the buttercream out, leave the tip of the piping bag within the dot that you're piping. This will help the buttercream spread out into a smooth round circle rather than leaving a big textured peak as you pull the bag away.
In just two or three minutes you can add lots of colour and texture to your cake with this technique.
By now your leaves will have dried. Leaves painted with just glycerin and colour will be very soft and sticky and difficult to handle. They will stick to your fingers instead of the cake. Leaves painted with glycerin, colour and alcohol are much easier to handle because they're flexible and not sticky . They will attach easily to the frosting on the cake if you push them gently.
You could absolutely do the frosting details on this cake without the leaves and it would still give it a very jungly theme. I'm adding some gold animal figures as finishing touches, after washing and drying them. To attach them to the cake, push them gently into the frosting.
This jungle themed cake is perfect as a Wild One cake or a Two Wild cake, or for a baby shower. It has lots of colour and texture and detail that was very quick and easy to create! For more step-by-step cake decorating videos like this check out my online cake school.
You can also watch a video of this tutorial on a Wild One cake:
A double barrel cake is an extra tall, elegant, impressive cake. It serves a crowd and there's lots of space on those very tall sides of the cake for you to use all sorts of cake decorating techniques.
In this tutorial I'll show you:
You'll need a lot of cake to make such a tall cake. I don't recommend baking your cake layers any taller than normal because with that much batter they won't bake evenly. The outer edges will be over-baked and dry and the centers will be under-baked. Instead, to make a cake twice as high as normal, bake twice as many layer. You can divide them in half with a serrated knife to make space for more filling and more flavour. I'm using my Very Vanilla Cake recipe for these layers:
To assemble a double barrel cake, layer the cakes and filling like you would for any other cake. You can spread the filling and frosting onto the cake but it's much quicker to use a piping bag. You don't need a piping tip for this! Just cut the end off a piping bag and pipe through that hole.
Use a dot or blob of your frosting to attach the first layer of cake down onto the cake board. Then pipe or spread on your first layer of filling. This is my 4 Minute Buttercream:
You'll need a cake board at least two inches wider than your cake layers. It needs to be a thick or strong material like acrylic or foam core. Cardboard isn't ideal because double barrel cakes are heavy and if your cake board isn't strong enough it will buckle when you lift it. Alternate cake and filling, finishing with cake on top before your cake reaches six inches tall.
At this point you're going to need supports before putting any more layers onto the cake and adding more height. You can either use boba straws, which are wider and thicker than regular straws or you can use dowels. Poke one in two inches from the edge of the cake and push it all the way down to the bottom of the cake. You'll feel it hit the cake board at the bottom.
Pinch the straw where it sticks out above the cake, which is the exact height of the cake.
Cut it at that point. Then hold it up against your other straws or dowels and cut them so that they're all the same height.
Push the first straw back into the hole you made at the beginning. Then place the other ones around the cake so that they're all at least two inches in from the edge of the cake. They also need to be at least two inches apart from each other. You'll need four straws for small cakes like this six inch cake or you'll be able to fit more in if your cake is bigger.
Spread some buttercream or ganache over the top of the cake to make it sticky and then press another cake board down on top. Notice this hole in the middle which is very useful for later. This cake board should be the same size as the cake but if it's bigger you can trim it. The reason you want it to be the same size is that after you've frosted this cake you want the cake board to be invisible, not sticking out through the frosting.
Continue layering your cake and filling on top of this cake board. Don't make this second part of the cake any taller than six inches either. Now use your
Use a central dowel so that the top cake doesn't slip or slide sideways. Push it down through the top tier and you'll feel it hit that circle on the cake board in the middle of the cake. Keep pushing until you feel the bottom cake board below the cake. Mark the dowel at the top where it sticks out above the cake and then pull the dowel out.
Use something like wire cutters to cut it where you made that pencil line. You can buy these dowels at craft stores or cake shops. Then push it back in and it will hold your cake straight and prevent any cake layers from sliding sideways.
I definitely recommend chilling this before frosting it because the cake will be a lot less wobbly when it's cold. Putting the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour is ideal. You'll need a crumb coat before you do your final coat of frosting to prevent crumbs in your final coat. Don't take too much time to get this frosting perfect! What's important is that the sides of the cake are straight and the top of the cake is level.
Put the cake in the fridge for another 30 minutes to set this crumb coat. When it's firm, spread on another layer of frosting. For this layer, take your time to get it as smooth as possible because this layer will be visible.
Frosting such a tall cake is tricky because it's a huge surface to get perfectly smooth. If this is your first time and if you haven't perfected your technique for smooth frosting I recommend a cake design that uses either lots of piped texture to decorate the cake, which will help you cover up any imperfections, or added details like figures or wafer paper or or strategically placed sprinkles.
It's easiest to use a cake comb at least as tall as the cake. After a few scrapes around the cake, spread some more frosting over any indents or areas you need to touch up. Then scrape around the cake again until the frosting is really smooth. With a tall cake comb, each scrape around the cake smooths the entire side surface of the cake. This will give you the straightest and smoothest sides.
To level out the uneven frosting around the top edge, push sideways with your
Now it's time to decorate the cake. I refrigerate mine to set this final layer of frosting first. Then I spread bands of coloured frosting over the top and scraped them to leave a thin layer left behind.
Because the frosting is very cold and firm, as I spread and scrape off each layer of colour, that colour sets before I spread and scrape the next layer. This means they don't blend together and that's how I get this layered colour effect.
Since double barrel cakes are so tall and impressive, I like to use minimal decorations. On this cake I used an artificial flower and some macarons and golf leaf.
And that is how to assemble and frost and decorate a double barrelled cake! You might be wondering how on earth to serve this and it's much more straightforward than you'd imagine. Slice the cake and you'll feel when your knife hits that cake board in the middle of the cake. Cut all of the slices of the top half as normal.
I like to cut around the central dowel but if you like, you can pull it out before you start. Then lift the middle cake board up and cut the bottom half of the cake.
I hope I've answered all of your questions about double barrelled cakes! If there's anything I've missed please put your question in the comment section below. Visit my cake school to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs. I hope to see you there!
You can also watch a video of this tutorial on double barrel cakes:
Learn how to turn ugly cakes into stunning beauties! Use these ugly cakes to boost your confidence if you're struggling to frost or decorate a cake because even cakes that look like train wrecks in their early stages can transform!
Let’s start with a buttercream transfer. Trace an image onto parchment paper or wax paper, something non-stick that you can see through. Then pipe over it. Start with the smallest details and put this into the freezer for 5 minutes between each addition. That way when you pipe on the next detail, you won’t blend the colours or damage what you’ve already made.
It will look messy and ugly or in this particular case, demonic! But this side is going to be hidden eventually. It’s the bottom side that’s pressed down against the parchment that you’ll see. Finish with the largest area, the background colour, outlining it and then zigzagging to fill it in. Spread it all over to flatten it and to make the rest of the design, the frozen parts, sticky.
Then flip this over onto a cake and put it in the freezer for 10 minutes. If you don't have space in your freezer you can put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. This will set the buttercream. Peel the parchment off and voila!
Still ugly? If there are gaps or indents in the design, spread some more buttercream over them and scrape off the excess. This will leave your design flawless underneath!
You'll find more techniques for character cakes in my tutorial on 3 ways to make character cakes with no fondant.
This next one looks really questionable until it’s finished! Cut out hearts or any other simple shape out of parchment paper or wax paper. Then cut a slit in the middle of each one.
Press your hearts onto a frosted cake after chilling the cake to set the frosting. Then pipe coloured buttercream to attach the hearts to the cake. Do this for all of your hearts and if you think the random piping looks ugly now, wait for it to get a LOT worse!
Spread the buttercream to cover the whole cake, trying to avoid the middle of each heart. You want to be able to see those slits you cut earlier. My kids were watching me do this and they were NOT impressed at this point. Scrape around the cake with your cake comb a few times until you have a smooth watercolour effect.
Poke a toothpick into the slit in the middle of a heart and peel the heart off. Now it all makes sense! Peel off all of the hearts to reveal the shapes within the watercolor.
Tidy up the top edge of the frosting on the cake and add a border on top if you like. And voila!
A half and half cake sounds like a genius idea to include two different flavours for a shared birthday celebration or any occasion worthy of cake. If you decide to make one you'll find the journey bumpy until you get to the finish line! You start by cutting your cake layers in half and attaching half of each flavour together with a line of buttercream.
Then pipe along the middle and around the edge to make walls or dams to hold in two separate fillings. I'm using caramel and Nutella for this cake.
Add another two halves of cake with some buttercream glue to attach them together. So far so good. Chill and then wrap half of the cake in parchment paper, attaching it to the cake with a dab of buttercream. Spread frosting over the exposed half of the cake. This is a crumb coat so it’s going to be… crumbly.
Peel the parchment off and chill the cake to set the first half. Then wrap that half in parchment while you frost the other half. Don't forget the top of the cake!
Peel the parchment off, chill the cake, and repeat for the final layer of frosting, which you’ll make more of an effort with since it’s going to be visible.
Chill again and frost the other half. When you peel this last piece of parchment off you’ll expect it to look great but it’s still… ugly. I think it’s reassuring to know that the beautiful cakes you see on social media often start out looking like this!
The join between the two halves isn’t ideal so add some piping to cover it up. This is two tone to incorporate both flavors of the cake, the chocolate frosting and the caramel frosting.
When it’s finished the cake looks stunning! Even more important, there are two flavours to choose between so everyone will be happy. For more details you can read or watch the full tutorial for half and half cakes.
I’m sure you’ve seen the trending cartoon style cakes. If you haven’t made one yourself you might be surprised at how ugly they are until they’re finished. A lot of the cake is going to be covered with buttercream details like piped filling and frosting drips so the first colour of frosting might have shadowing and other imperfections that will eventually be covered up.
Since this cake is meant to look like a cartoon, everything is supposed to look flat. This is really tricky to achieve with buttercream! To create straight edges on buttercream you chill the cake to set the buttercream and then cut neat lines. The excess buttercream will break off neatly because it is cold and firm.
For smooth frosting that’s shaped as filling or waves drips, use a hot metal cake comb to gently scrape off the outer layer of buttercream.
Next you add black lines around each section to outline it. At first the black looks awful against the pretty colours of the cake and the first broken line will look like a mistake.
But the design comes together as you pipe more and more lines, add some unfinished circles and pipe a swirl of frosting on top, which you also outline.
And the finished result looks pretty awesome, like an optical illusion or superimposed image rather than actual, edible, cake!
You’ve probably had moments when you’re decorating a cake and you panic because in the early stages, everything looks messy and it’s difficult to imagine it turning out the way you’d envisioned. This is definitely one of those! First you pipe onto a cake using at least two colours. When you choose your design just keep in mind that all of the texture is going to disappear and the final design will be completely flat.
After piping, put the cake in the freezer for 20 minutes. Boil some water and dip a metal cake comb into it. Dry it off, take your cake out of the freezer and scrape around the cake, destroying your piping… for now.
It will get messy and ugly and you’ll panic but hang in there! It’s all part of the process. When the frosting is fairly smooth but still has lots of gaps inside the texture, use the frosting you scraped off to fill in those gaps. Then scrape again to take off the excess.
Keep your cake comb hot by dipping it into the hot water every few scrapes. You’ll give your frosting a facelift, as if you’ve sliced right through the middle of it to reveal a cross-section. It's a really unique effect IF you’re brave and patient enough to keep going until the end. For more details, check out my tutorial on how to achieve flat patterns using Facelift Frosting.
I hope these example have given you the confidence to try new techniques and to push past the ugly cakes stages! Visit my cake school to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs with my online courses and membership options!
You can also watch a video of this tutorial on ugly cakes that become beautiful:
You don’t need lots of fancy tools to be able to create stunning cakes. I’m going to show you how to decorate a cake without tools in 8 different ways, using things you already have at home like spoons and baking paper. The techniques are simple but the results will look professional!
You can make homemade versions of most tools, like cake stencils, which I’ll make and use on this first cake.
To make your own stencil for cake borders first measure the circumference of the cake. The easiest way to do this is to wrap a piece of string or ribbon around the cake. Cut it so that it's the length of the diameter of the cake.
Now you’ll need baking paper or parchment paper or wax paper. Use the string to measure a piece just long enough to wrap around the cake. Cut it so that it’s about the same height as the cake, too. I’m going to make a zig zag pattern for a border around the bottom of the cake but you can use this technique for any pattern. To space the zig zags evenly fold the strip of paper in half and then in half again and again and again until it’s the size that you want the zig zags to be.
Cut diagonally up from one of the bottom corners, unfold the paper and voila! A zig zag stencil! Wrap it around your cake, lifting it up as high as you want the border to go. Press it gently against the cake to attach it. You need to put the cake in the fridge for at least an hour before doing this so that it gets cold and firm. That way you won’t damage the buttercream icing or frosting when you press the stencil against it. Tiny condensation droplets will form on the frosting when you take the cake out of the fridge, which make the stencil stick to it.
I'm using my 4 Minute Buttercream for this cake and all of the others in this tutorial. Spread another colour of buttercream below the stencil to cover up the exposed part of the cake. It’s fine if you get the buttercream all over the stencil and that’s why it’s a good idea to cut the paper so it’s about the same height as the cake. The stencil protects the higher parts of the sides of the cake from any unwanted streaks and smudges.
When you’ve worked your way around the whole cake, use the edge of your spatula or palette knife to smooth the buttercream you’ve just spread on. Spin your
Scrape your spatula around the cake board to wipe off any buttercream smudges. This pretty border adds colour and detail to your cake. It's a simple method of how to decorate a cake without tools like expensive stencils that you only use once!
I share more ideas for cake decorating using parchment paper in this tutorial.
Now let’s use chocolate to make a sparkly cake topper. You can use any kind of chocolate chips or a chopped up chocolate bar for this. I'm using white chocolate chips. Melt the chocolate in the microwave at 70% power for 30 seconds at a time. By using low power and short intervals you won't burn the chocolate. Stir it until it’s smooth and then spoon the chocolate into a sandwich bag. Cut a tiny piece off one of the bottom corners of the bag to make your own piping bag. Then squeeze the chocolate through the hole to write onto a piece of baking paper, parchment paper or wax paper.
Make the lines as thick as you can, while still being legible, so that they’re strong and less likely to snap than if they’re thin. The lines don’t need to be neat or smooth because you'll cover them up soon. Push a toothpick into the bottom of each section and pipe more chocolate on top.
Next, pour sprinkles or coloured sugar over the chocolate, pressing down gently to attach them. It’s a good idea to do this on a cake board or a small tray so that you can lift it up.
Put the chocolate into the freezer to set, which takes about five minutes. The chocolate will be strongest when it’s cold so when you take the toppers out of the freezer, use them straight away. Pick up the toothpicks to lift up the chocolate and push them into the cake. The toothpicks will secure the letters so that they stands up straight.
If you're looking for how to decorate a cake without tools and materials like custom cake toppers, this is a fun option. It's an easy way to make colourful and delicious decorations that add height and detail to your cakes.
With just a simple spoon you can create lots of interesting textures and I’ll show you how to decorate a cake without tools other than a spoon on this next cake.
If you struggle to get your buttercream smooth, texturing it is a great option! Use a cake comb or icing scraper to get the sides of the cake straight and the top level. Don’t worry about indents or any imperfections on the surface of the buttercream beaus those will be smoothed out next. Hold a spoon sideways and press the back of the spoon gently into the side as you spin the cake on the
Do this as soon as you finish frosting the cake so that the frosting is still soft. Drag the spoon slowly up the sides of the cake as you finish each lap so that the texture continues all the way up. If buttercream builds up on the spoon just swipe away, clean the spoon, and then start again.
You’ll get the neatest results if you dip your spoon into a cup of hot water and then dry it before pressing it against the cake. The hot metal will glide easily across the buttercream and leave a smooth surface behind. You can leave the top edge unfinished or push sideways with a spatula to flatten and smooth it.
This is a fun technique to do because it’s not precise and the result is pretty and rustic.
Here's a similar technique but in a different direction. Press the back of the spoon into the cake and drag upwards. Push gently against the buttercream to leave a trail going up the sides of the cake. Keep pulling all the way up above the top of the cake to leave a peak at the top.
Start each one right beside the previous one, overlapping slightly so that there aren’t any gaps in between the texture. This also works best with a spoon that’s been dipped into hot water and dried. If you skip that step you might get little air pockets in the buttercream where the spoon pulls and tears it.
You can leave the peaks at the top as they are or tidy them up with your spatula like I did with the last texture. This is another simple design that’s a great base for other decorations like cake toppers.
For this third texture using a spoon, use your spoon in every direction to make little arc shapes in the buttercream. Curve up and down and side to side to completely cover the cake with random “swooshes” of texture. Just like the other two textures, you’ll get the neatest results with a hot spoon because the hot metal will melt the very outer layer of buttercream and leave it smooth with no air pockets or unwanted texture.
I often say less is more, but that’s not the case here! I think this texture looks best all over the cake rather than having a few scattered arcs around the cake. At the top of the cake, as you curve your spoon around you’ll push the buttercream up above the top edge. You can leave it like that or level it with your spatula to make a straight top edge.
For any of these textures created with spoon, cake toppers will turn a simple cake into something much more eye-catching.
A very quick way to add detail to any cake is with fresh or artificial flowers. Wash them and let them dry and then wrap the stems in cling film or plastic wrap. This way they won’t come into contact with the cake. Wrap large flowers on their own or group little bunches of flowers together.
Fresh flowers are beautiful but if you want to decorate the cake a day or two in advance, artificial flowers are great because they won’t wilt or discolour. Push the wrapped stems into the cake and tadaa! Now you know how to decorate a cake without tools in seconds for a beautiful result!
For this next cake I’ll use a cupcake pan to mix my buttercream colours. It’s more convenient than using lots of little bowls because it’s quicker to wash up afterwards compared to using a different bowl for each colour. Put a small amount of buttercream in each hole because you don't need much for this technique. To make a buttercream palette add some colour to each hole and stir to mix it in.
For this technique you’ll need the buttercream on your cake to set so it’s firm. The best way to do this is to chill the cake in the fridge for about an hour. Then scoop up a colour and spread it onto the cake. Since the icing or frosting has set, the colours won’t blend into it. Instead, they’ll sit on top.
The coloured buttercream will chill quite quickly after you’ve spread it on so the different colours won't blend together.
Continue to add colours all over the cake, scraping off the excess to leave a thin layer of each colour on the cake. By adding the colours one by one to a cold cake you’ll end up with a bold, oil painted effect rather than a blended, watercolour effect.
You might choose to leave the top of the frosting uneven, sticking up above the edge of the cake, to match the uneven effect of the colours. If you want to smooth and flatten the top you can do that with an
Now let’s add a stencil design to the top of the cake. Just like the stencil border for the first cake, this method for how to decorate a cake without tools will save you a lot of money on pre-made stencils! Draw a shape like this heart onto baking paper or parchment paper or wax paper and cut it out. Position it on your cake after the cake has been in the fridge for at least an hour so that the frosting is firm. Now spread buttercream onto the stencil to cover up the shape you’ve cut out.
You can use one colour or several colours. If you're using several colours, keep in mind that they will blend together and create new colours!
Scrape and smooth the coloured buttercream with a spatula or cake comb to leave just a thin layer behind.
Then peel off the stencil. It’s important to take the stencil off as soon as you’ve finished spreading the colours onto it because while that frosting is still soft and sticky you’ll get the neatest edge to your design.
Use a toothpick to touch up any smudges, which happen if the stencil moves while you’re spreading the colours on.
This is such a quick and cheap and easy way to add an interesting detail to your cake.
And there they are! 8 different techniques for how to decorate a cake without tools. If you try any of these at home please tag @britishgirlbakes so I can see what you come up with! If you’re looking for more tutorials, visit my online cake school.
Tell me in the comments below which technique is your favourite!
