There are so many ways to make wafer paper cake decorations if you know a few tricks! In this tutorial I'll show you how to shape wafer paper, how to colour it and how to attach it to cakes.
You can shape wafer paper by folding it, cutting it, or molding it. To fold it, use elaborate origami techniques or try something simple. For a fan, fold it back and forth in an accordion style.
To attach the base of the fan, brush it with water to make the wafer paper sticky. Then pinch it together or clip it with a clothes peg and leave it to dry for about an hour.
Alternatively, cut wafer paper into whatever shape you like. I'm cutting out some simple leaves here or you can make flowers by cutting out each petal individually.
For really fun, artistic results you can mold or drape wafer paper into sails. Dip the paper into a tray of water, letting it sit there for about 30 seconds to get very supple. Then lift it up and put it onto a non-stick surface like parchment paper or a silicon mat.
You can manipulate it by twisting it with your fingers to shape it. Leave it to dry overnight to set the shape.
There are lots of different ways to colour wafer paper using gel colours. These are the ones that you would use to tint your buttercream. For sails, add gel colour to the water before you dip the wafer paper into it. The colour will look different in the tray of water compared to the final colour on your wafer paper. The benefit of colouring your wafer paper this way is that you'll get perfectly even coverage all over.
You can also paint colour onto your wafer paper. The most affordable way of doing this is by mixing a gel with either water or alcohol. However, this is not ideal because the gel tends to clump within the water so it's doesn't provide even coverage. The wafer paper will be brittle so it's likely to snap while you paint or move it.
To prevent snapping and to make a more even colour, mix the gel with glycerin. This will make a much thicker paint which you can brush onto your shapes but it won't absorb very well. The colour will sit on top of the wafer paper rather than sinking in.
For the best results use both glycerin and either water or alcohol. This will make the wafer paper very supple so it doesn't snap and you'll get a beautiful coverage of colour. The benefit of alcohol over water is that it evaporates more quickly so your shape will dry more quickly.
Instead of painting onto your shape after cutting it out, you can paint the wafer paper before shaping it. This is navy gel colour with glycerin and vodka:
Brushing back and forth over the wafer paper gives fairly consistent coverage. Brush both sides of the wafer paper if both sides will be visible on your decoration. If you notice it gets quite sticky you can use cornstarch to take that away. A powder brush is best for this to spread the cornstarch evenly without leaving big clumps on the paper. To make wafer paper to be shimmery or glittery, use luster dust or disco dust or edible glitter. Brush it onto the sheet also using a wide powder brush for even coverage.
For metallics, mix a luster dust like gold or silver with alcohol. Instead of alcohol you can use a clear extract like lemon extract or clear vanilla extract. If you use too much liquid the paint won't be bold so aim for a thin paste consistency. Dip a thin paintbrush into it and then paint onto your wafer paper. For metallic accents paint along creases or around the edges.
How do you attach wafer paper to cakes? If the frosting on your cake has set, push the wafer paper decorations firmly into the frosting. This works for flexible decorations like ones that have been painted with glycerin.
It also works for very firm decorations that have been soaked in water and dried to become hard. The wafer paper steam for this latte attaches to the firm frosting with gentle pressure.
If the decorations don't stick because the frosting has set, spread some fresh frosting as glue to attach them.
You can also attach wafer paper decorations so that they stick out from a cake for a gravity defying effect! Poke a toothpick into the decoration while the wafer paper is sticky. For sails, place the toothpick after dipping the wafer paper, while shaping it.
For folded wafer paper decorations, use water to make the wafer paper sticky and push a toothpick into that crease.
When the wafer paper dries, the toothpick will be held in place. Then poke the toothpick into your cake to attach your decoration.
I hope this tutorial has been useful! Visit my cake school to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs!
You can also watch a video of this tutorial on wafer paper cake decorating:
No
It's best to use cold cake layers because they're less crumbly and wobbly. I wrapped my Perfect Chocolate Cake layers in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge for an hour. Use a serrated knife like a bread knife to trim off any domed tops. This makes the cake level, which will help you make a straight cake that doesn't lean to one side.
Now you'll need a plate. To attach the first cake, spoon some buttercream onto the middle of the plate. This will act as glue to secure the cake and hold it still. You can use any filling and frosting for this. This is my 4 Minute Buttercream and I've used gel colours to tint it to make a soft green.
Then add your filling with a spoon or a palette knife or
Then put your next cake layer on top. If you have more cake layers, repeat with more filling and more cake. Make sure each cake is centered on top of the cake layer below so that the sides of the cake are straight.
Now use a spoon or knife to put more buttercream on the cake and to spread it around. The best way to do this is to use little arc motions, swiping in circles around the cake. This will spread the buttercream without pulling crumbs off the cake. Using cold cake really minimizes how many crumbs come off the cake as well, compared to trying to frost a cake at room temperature. Your goal here is to completely cover the cake with frosting so you can't see any of the cake sticking out. It doesn't matter how neat this is now because smoothing comes next.
Here's a really useful hack: use the wheel from your microwave as a
Pull the ruler away, wipe the buttercream off it into your bowl and then do this again and again. THe frosting will get smoother and smoother.
When you choose your plate, choose one with enough room to fit your ruler next to the cake before the plate starts to slant upwards.
If there are any big gaps or indents in the frosting, spread some more buttercream over them. Then scrape over that part of the cake with your ruler.
For the top edge, swipe sideways with your ruler to push that buttercream that's sticking up over the top edge and lift it away on your ruler. Scrape it into your bowl, wipe the ruler clean and repeat all around the top edge of the cake.
Pushing sideways only, not down will give you sharp edges without creating a bulge in the side of the frosting.
Wrap your finger in a towel or paper towel and wipe the plate around the edges of the cake to take off any buttercream smudges.
Here are some quick decorating ideas that don't require any fancy tools.
Pour sprinkles onto the plate and push them into the bottom of the frosting. Before the frosting sets it's still sticky so the sprinkles will attach easily. You'll make a pretty border around the bottom of the cake. Then pour the extra sprinkles off the plate and into a bowl or the jar or bottle or wherever.
To make a custom cake topper, measure a paper straw a centimeter or half an inch taller than the cake. Cut it there. Draw a design or a letter or a number and place a piece of parchment or wax paper on top of the drawing. Trace over it with melted chocolate, which is easiest to melt in a microwave at 60% power for 30 seconds at a time so that you don't overheat it. Spoon the melted chocolate into a sandwich bag and push it down to one of the bottom borders. Cut a little piece off that corner and then follow the outline of the shape through the parchment paper.
Fill it in with zig zags to cover the shape and then smooth the chocolate with a toothpick. Press your paper straw into the bottom and cover that with chocolate, too. Then pour sprinkles over the top. Press them gently into the chocolate to attach them.
Leave the chocolate to set or put it into the freezer for five minutes. Lift the chocolate up and now you have a homemade cake topper! You can brush this with edible glitter or luster dust if you like. Push a plain straw into your cake to make a hole and then pull it out. Now when you push your cake topper in you'll need minimal pressure so you won't snap the chocolate as you push.
Tadaa! A simple cake that's pretty enough for any occasion and only takes a few minutes to make!
I hope this tutorial has been useful. Visit my cake school to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs! You can also watch a video of this tutorial on how to frost a cake without tools:
Stop buying expensive cake tools, reduce your waste, save time cake decorating and have more fun doing it with these game-changing DIY cake hacks!
No couplers? No problem! Colourful patterns don't require lots of piping tips or couplers with this DIY cake hack. Colour your frosting and put each colour in a piping bag with no piping tip. Put a piping tip into another piping bag and then drop different colour bags inside that one.
After using each colour, pull the coloured bag out of the bag with the tip. Drop another colour in and squeeze the frosting into a bowl. Stop when you get the last of the old colour out and only the new colour comes through.
Pipe, pull the bag out, put the next bag in, squeeze and repeat! With this method you can make colourful patterns quickly without having to wash piping tips and piping bags in between.
Instead of buying expensive stencils that you might never use again, make your own! Cut a piece of parchment or baking paper or wax paper that wraps snugly around your cake.
Then cut it into the shape you want. For zigzags fold in half again and again and again and then cut diagonally up from one of the corners.
Unfold and voila! A symmetrical stencil that took just a few seconds to DIY. Wrap this tightly around your cake after the frosting has set, which takes about an hour in the fridge.
Spread frosting over the cake that's exposed below the stencil, scraping over it with an
Peel the stencil off to reveal your pretty cake design! This is one of the cakes in my tutorial on 8 ways to decorate cakes without fancy tools.
You can buy sprinkle pens to attach sprinkles to a cake but using water is quicker and just as easy. Dip your finger into a bowl of water and press it into the sprinkles and they'll stick to your finger.
Then press your finger against a frosted cake and the sprinkles will stick to the cake instead. You can do this immediately after frosting a cake while it's still sticky and easy for the sprinkles to attach. Alternatively, chill the cake first. You'll need a bit more pressure to transfer the sprinkles but it's safer this way because the frosting is firm so you won't damage it.
You can buy icing or frosting that's pre-made but to make your own only takes four minutes with my 4 Minute Buttercream recipe. Make a double batch and you'll have leftovers, which you can freeze in a tupperware or Ziploc bag in the freezer for up to two months. This makes it just as quick and easy to use your own buttercream as buying it!
Take the buttercream out of the freezer the night before you need it. It will thaw overnight and be soft and creamy the next day. If it's in a Ziploc bag you can cut a corner off and squeeze it into a bowl easily. Then re-colour for another cake!
For a DIY cheat hack for smooth frosting that's quicker and easier than using a Profroster or acrylic discs or fondant, use a hot metal cake comb. Hold the edge of your cake comb under hot running water or dip it into a tray of hot water. If you have one, you can heat the edge with a blowtorch. Then scrape around the cake and the hot metal will melt the outer layer of frosting, leaving it perfectly smooth. It will take away any air bubbles or imperfections, too! Look at the difference on the part that the hot metal has touched:
Instead of fondant stripes with cutting wheels and other tools, you can achieve this with your regular striped cake comb. First press the comb into the cake a few times around the sides. This will show you where the stripes will sit.
Then pipe coloured buttercream in between the lines you marked onto the cake. Scrape around the cake with your striped cake comb. Scrape two or three times and then fill in any indents or shallow areas within those stripes and scrape again.
Now put the cake in the freezer for 15 minutes to set these stripes. Then pipe different colours into the gaps in between.
Switch to a straight edged cake comb and scrape around the cake again and again to smooth these new stripes. You'll take off all of the excess frosting to reveal perfectly neat stripes underneath.
For step by step instructions for this cake design check out my tutorial for this rainbow striped cake.
Instead of buying printed icing sheets, which are expensive and can be tricky to attach to a cake, use the facelift frosting technique. First, pipe whatever details you like onto a crumb coated cake. Then put it into the freezer for 20 to 30 minutes.
Now spread frosting all over the cake to cover up those piped details.
Freeze for another 20 minutes to set this layer of frosting. Then use a hot metal cake comb to scrape off the outer layers of frosting. You'll reveal a cross section of your piping underneath!
These flat buttercream patterns are so unusual and eye-catching!
If you've found these cake hacks useful you'll love my cake school where you'll learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs and my tips and tricks for creating stunning cakes that don't take all day to make.
You can also watch a video of this tutorial on 7 DIY cake hacks:
Why would you want to know how to freeze a cake? Well, there are several steps to making a cake: baking, assembling, frosting, and decorating. Sometimes it’s not possible to fit all of that into the day before an occasion or event. In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to make a cake in advance and how to freeze a cakefor months without sacrificing the flavour or the appearance.
After finishing your cake, put the whole thing into the freezer. Make sure there’s a big enough flat space so that the cake is level. Also check that there's nothing touching it around the sides. Leave it in the freezer for one hour like this.
Meanwhile, lay out four pieces of plastic wrap like saran wrap or cling film. Make an asterisk shape, crossing the pieces over opposite each other so that they all overlap in the middle. The pieces need to be about three times longer than the width of your cake. If your cake is 8 inches like mine, you’ll need each piece of plastic wrap to be about 24 inches or 6cm long.
After an hour, take your cake out of the freezer and place it in the middle of this plastic wrap. If you touch the frosting it should be very firm, not sticky, and this coldness will protect the frosted cake. I use my 4 Minute Buttercream for all of my cakes and it freezes wonderfully!
Fold each piece of the plastic wrap over the cake. The reason for using so many pieces is because the cake needs to be completely sealed. This way none of the moisture of the freezer can get to it.
If the cake isn’t sealed properly, condensation droplets will form on the outside of the frosting which will make the colours of the frosting and decorations run. It can also change the flavour of your frosting.
The hour that you left the cake unwrapped in the freezer isn’t long enough for any moisture in the freezer to cling to the cake or affect it. However, it is long enough to make the frosting very firm. Now it won't get damaged by the pressure of the plastic wrap being wrapped around it. The wrapped cake can go back into the freezer for up to two months!
24 hours before serving the cake, take it out of the freezer. This next step is very important: move it to the fridge. Then 2-4 hours before serving it, take it out and put it on the counter or table.
Putting the cake in the fridge is ESSENTIAL. If you move a cake straight from the freezer to room temperature, the drastic change in temperature will cause condensation all over the frosting. Any colour you’ve used in the decorations will run down the cake and stain it. That's what happened after moving this cake from the freezer to room temperature without the fridge step in the middle to let the cake thaw gradually:
Leave the plastic wrap on the cake for 30 minutes to an hour after talking it out of the fridge. This will prevent condensation as the cake warms up to room temperature. After 30 minutes to an hour the frosting will still be firm. That means that when you unwrap the cake, you won’t damage it as you peel the plastic wrap off.
At this point you can add any final details, like anything metallic which would lose its shine in the freezer. You can also do any touchups, like this piped line up here which I must have knocked in the freezer. Now the cake is ready to transport or serve!
I hope this tutorial has been useful! For more tips and tricks and HUNDREDS of cake decorating techniques and designs, visit my cake school on www.BGB.com.
You can also watch a video of this tutorial on how to freeze a cake:
Let's make a buttercream pirate ship cake with no special tools!
You can make this pirate ship design on a single cake or on a two-tier cake. I'm alternating layers of my Very Vanilla and Perfect Chocolate Cake for a two tier cake. The bottom tier is an 8 inch cake and then on top is a six inch cake.
For a tier cake, the top cake needs to be on a cake board the same size as that cake. The purpose of this is to support the cake so it doesn't sink into the bottom cake. The reason for it being the same size is so that it's invisible after you frost the cake.
The taller this cake is the more room you'll have so the bigger you can make your pirate ship. Start by covering both cakes with a crumb coat. This is a thin layer of frosting to trap any crumbs that come off the cake so that they don't get into your final layer of frosting. I'm using my 4 Minute Buttercream to fill and frost these cakes.
I'm turning the bottom cake into an ocean with a very easy and very quick technique. Frost the top of the cake with a light shade of teal or turquoise. To tint buttercream I use gels, which are very concentrated so you only need a drop to make bold colours.
Put this same colour into a piping bag with a petal piping tip. Pipe a ruffle around the top of the cake so that it sticks up above the tope edge. If you don't have a petal piping tip you can just spread this colour straight onto the cake. You'll get all of the beautiful ocean colours, just without the texture.
Petal tips look like teardrops and when you pipe through them. The narrow part makes ruffles but the wider part doesn't. For this cake you'll want the wide part of the petal tip or teardrop to point downwards, angled slightly towards the cake. This way, the wider piping will stick to the cake. Point the narrow part upwards and slightly away from the cake, which makes ruffles that look like waves.
I'm adding another drop of gel to my bowl of buttercream and putting that darker colour into the piping bag. Now the waves get darker as the ocean gets deeper, lower down on the cake. The slower you pull the bag and the more you wiggle your wrist, the wavier the piping will be.
This technique is very forgiving! If you need to pause to push the buttercream lower down into the piping bag, when you start piping again the join of the ruffles will disappear into the texture on the cake. It's not a precise technique so have fun with it to create this whimsical effect. You can smooth any messy parts of the piping with an
To hold up the next cake tier you'll need some supports. Use a cake board the same size as the next cake to draw around. This circle will show you where the next cake will sit eventually. Then poke boba straws or dowels into the bottom cake, cutting them to be the same height as that cake. I'm using four straws for this eight inch cake, spaced equally around the cake. Make sure they're at least an inch within the circle you drew so that they're underneath the top cake.
Put this cake in the fridge while you frost the top cake, the one that will have the pirate ship on it.
To create a sky effect use white and blue buttercream. Ideally, you'll have three shades. Spread dollops of those colours onto the cake to almost cover the sides.
The crumb coat needs to have set so that these colours don't mix into it. I set my crumb coats by putting the cake into the fridge for 30 minutes. Keep in mind that if the cake is cold from the fridge, you'll need to frost it quite quickly. Otherwise, these blobs of buttercream will chill and set and be difficult to spread. Scrape around the cake with a cake comb or frosting smoother or icing scraper. The colours will blend together and look like a cloudy sky.
After a few scrapes, spread more buttercream to fill in any indents, where the frosting isn't as thick as on the rest of the cake. Then scrape again until the frosting is smooth. You can leave the top edge uneven or level it with your
Draw or trace or print out a pirate ship on a piece of paper. Keep it to a simple outline for the best results. Then put a piece of parchment or wax paper on top and trace the brown details only. This will be the hull (the curved part at the bottom!) and the masts. Pencil works best for drawing onto parchment paper because of the non-stick surface.
Then on another piece trace the white details, which are the sails. Onto another piece, trace the black details, which are the pirate flag and the porthole. Finally, trace the skull and crossbones onto another piece.
Now cut out the shapes from each of your pieces of parchment paper. Cut along the outline to leave the outer part intact, which you'll use as a stencil next. Take your time to cut a neat outline because if you cut a jagged line or a wonky shape, that's what you'll end up with on your pirate ship cake.
Each piece of parchment should have an inch or two of paper all around the cut out part of the design. This border will protect the rest of the cake from unwanted smudges of buttercream. The exception is the pirate ship because the boat will sit right at the bottom of the cake so you don't need any paper below it.
Take your cake out of the fridge or freezer and press the biggest boat stencil against it. After about a minute some tiny drops of condensation will form on the cake because it's warmer out of the fridge or freezer. Those droplets will help the stencil to stick to the cake. Spread brown buttercream all over the boat shape that you cut out. Spread inwards towards the middle of the cutout shape rather than outwards because that might spread buttercream underneath the parchment paper, causing smudges around the outside of the outline of the shape.
Smooth the brown frosting with an
Peel the stencil off to leave your shape behind. Use a toothpick to gently scrape off any smudges, which works because the blue frosting on the cake has chilled and set so you won't damage it.
Use the edge of your cake comb to score some lines in the buttercream to mark out different sections of the boat and planks of wood. A toothpick is a great tool to mark the shorter ends of the planks and to draw little nails that you see in shiplap. Now put the cake into the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes to set this brown frosting.
Press another stencil onto the cake and spread buttercream over that, scraping off the excess to leave a thin layer behind. For portholes, a thin layer looks best because you don't want the windows to look like they're sticking out from the wooden boat. For some shapes like the sails, a thicker layer of buttercream is better because the blue frosting underneath would show through a thin layer of such a light colour of frosting.
Keep your toothpick handy for touch-ups after each stencil.
Put the cake back into the fridge or freezer after each stencil to set that colour before pressing on the next stencil.
Any time after stenciling on the big brown boat you can stack your cakes if you're making a tier cake. Both cakes need to be cold so that the frosting is firm. Spread some fresh frosting onto the bottom cake within the circle you drew. Then slide an
The cakes need to be cold so that you can touch the frosting without damaging it. Now it's time to cover up the join between the two tiers. Use some of that lightest shade of turquoise from the ocean part of the cake with your petal tip. Hold the wider part of the tip against the bottom of the cake to pipe a wave. You can pipe a few more if there's space on top of the bottom cake.
Just like with the other ruffles, the more you wiggle your wrist, the wavier your piping will be. I like to start piping at the side of the cake because that's typically the most subtle place to hide the start and finish of each row of piping. Everyone looks at the front of the cake and if you're singing happy birthday and letting someone blow out a candle on the cake, everyone gathered around will be looking at the back of the cake but no one really stares at the side side of a cake!
You only need a tiny bit of buttercream for the pirate flag and a few drops of black gel. Making a dark gray is fine because the gel will develop and the colour will darken a few shades. Let that set in the fridge before using your final stencil, the skull and crossbones.
Just like with the white sails, it's a good idea to spread this thickly so it doesn't end up looking gray over the black buttercream underneath. With a thicker layer of frosting the stencil edges do tend to be messier so smooth them with a toothpick.
I forgot to mark the masts on the ship but it's fine to do this either immediately after stenciling, while the buttercream is still soft or after chilling the cake, when the buttercream has set.
And there it is! A pirate cake made with no fancy cake tools, just some paper stencils that you can make yourself very easily quickly and affordably.
I hope this tutorial has been useful. Visit my cake school to learn hundreds more cake decorating techniques and designs.
You can also watch a video of this pirate ship cake tutorial:
Square cakes are notoriously tricky to frost so in this tutorial I'm going to show you how to frost a square cake with smooth sides and sharp edges using no special tools!
First, choose a cake board big enough for your cake. You'll need at least two inches around the edges of the cake for frosting and decorations and to grip onto. Use a dot of buttercream to attach your first layer of cake onto the cake board. I'm using my Very Vanilla Cake. Then add your filling.
This is my 4 Minute Buttercream. You can spread it straight on or pipe it on first, which is quicker and neater. Spread the filling up to the edges of the cake to cover the top completely.
Place your next cake layer on top and repeat to assemble your cake.
I really recommend chilling your cake layers before you assemble your cake. Cold cake layers are much easier to work with than when they're at room temperature. I'm using the extra cake scraps from the end of the sheet cake to add an extra layer to my cake. To do this, pipe or spread buttercream between the pieces to attach them together.
After assembling your cake, spread around the cake with an
If your cake layers are cold you can frost this cake straight away. If not, put the cake into the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 30 minutes.
If you're wondering how to frost a square cake without crumbs, the answer is a crumb coat. This is a very thin layer of frosting that traps any crumbs that come off the cake so that they don't get through into your final layer of frosting.
This crumb coat does not need to be neat because it's going to be completely covered up in a moment. However, it does need to cover all of the cake so that there's none exposed.
You don't want any of this frosting to stick out around the edges of the cake or above the top edge of the cake. If there are bulges, when you chill this before adding your final layer of frosting they'll get cold and hard and be difficult to frost over. Use your
Put the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes to set this crumb coat.
Have you seen the acrylic discs you can buy for round and square cakes? They're effective but expensive! Make your own by using any piece of cardboard and a ruler.
Measure and draw a square the same size as your cake plus two centimeters. This will allow for one centimeter of frosting on each side of the cake. If you prefer to work in inches, add one inch. Cut the square out and put it on a piece of parchment paper a few inches bigger than the square.
Wrap the parchment paper tightly around the cardboard as if you're wrapping a present. This makes it non-stick and also food safe, which is important because it's going to touch your cake. Be really generous with tape to attach the parchment paper! Parchment paper is non-stick so tape isn't as effective as it would be on normal paper.
When the crumb coat has set, spoon a big dollop of frosting onto the top of the cake. Spread it so that it completely covers the top of the cake and sticks out over the edges. This is very important to get those nice sharp angles from the sides onto the top of the cake later.
Lower your cardboard square onto this frosting on top of the cake. Adjust it to center it so that there is the same amount sticking out on every side of the cake. Then push down to attach it.
Now spread frosting around the sides of the cake, completely covering it up. You're aiming for an even thickness of frosting all over the cake. Spread the frosting all the way up so it sticks up above the top edge and all the way down to the cake board. Make sure the frosting sticks out over the edges of the sides of the cake for sharp angles later.
Now switch to a cake comb and scrape from one edge to the other. You'll immediately see air pockets where the frosting isn't as thick as it is over the rest of the cake.
Spread more buttercream over those areas or air pockets and then scrape again. The extra buttercream will fill in the gaps and your cake comb will scrape off the excess.
You'll find what works best for you here. I like to do most of my scrapes towards myself but also switch to scrape away from yourself. This feels very awkward but it will give you the sharpest angles on the sides of your cake.
This is quite a tedious process. It takes a long time to get very smooth sides and sharp edges all around the cake. It's much slower than frosting a round cake! If you run out of time and need to take a break or if you get frustrated because you can't get your sides any smoother or your edges any sharper, pause. Try this quick hack!
After getting the frosting as smooth as you can, here's a quick way to get it even smoother. Put the whole cake into the fridge for at least an hour. Cover your frosting bowl with cling film or Saran Wrap so it stays soft. When you take the cake out of the fridge, the frosting will be firm which is useful for this. Now with just another very thin layer of frosting you can get very smooth sides and very sharp edges.
This works because this final very thin layer of frosting sits on top of the cold frosting so it will chill very quickly. As it chills, it sets, and as you scrape the excess it will fill in any gaps in the cold frosting underneath it, leaving a smooth surface on top.
Frosting sets very quickly on a cold cake and when it does, you'll tear the buttercream as you scrape. If this happens, dip your cake comb into hot water or if it's a metal cake comb you can run a blowtorch up and down the edge. Scrape again and the hot comb will glide over the buttercream. You might find that scraping upwards from the cake board to the top of the cake will help smooth out any final texture in your frosting.
Final step: use a very sharp knife to slice just underneath the cardboard template. You'll separate the parchment-wrapped cardboard from the frosted cake. It will be easy to lift the square off and you'll leave sharp edges around the top of the cake.
You might need to fill in any indents or air pockets on the top of the cake, where the cardboard didn't press all the way down onto the frosting you initially spread there. Since the top edges of the cake are so firm, they'll hold their shape even as you spread and smooth this extra frosting.
So without any special tools you can bake, assemble and frost a square cake with smooth frosting and sharp edges! I hope this tutorial has been useful. If you enjoyed it, visit my cake school to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs.
You can watch a video of this tutorial on how to frost a square cake here:
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:
