I love the pastel colours of Easter and there are SO many cute cake designs for this season! I’m going to share four cake decorating ideas that are easy but pretty and eye-catching.

#1 Pastel frosting

For gorgeous pastel shades of frosting add just a drop of gel colours to buttercream. I know it sounds crazy but I like adding a teeny tiny bit of black to make the colours more muted and romantic instead of super bright. Be conservative with how much gel you add because you can always add more if you want to make it darker.

Gel colours develop and darken with time so make the colour a little bit lighter than what you want. Even a plain cake looks like an Easter cake when the frosting is a pastel colour like this!

#2 Sprinkle border

A sprinkle border is a quick way to add colour and texture and detail to a cake. If you use a crusting buttercream like my 4 Minute Buttercream you can wrap your cake in parchment, leaving only the bottom inch or so exposed and that will give you a neat, straight band of sprinkles around the cake. Place your cake on a tray or baking sheet to catch any falling sprinkles and make clean-up quick and easy!

There are lots of Easter coloured mixes out there like this one by Sweet Stamp (use my discount code BGB10)! Just pour the sprinkles out, scoop them up with an offset spatula or your hands, and push them into the frosting on the cake! If you've wrapped your cake in parchment paper, peel it off to reveal a perfectly neat, level sprinkle border!

#3 Bunny design

To make a cute bunny stencil, draw an outline onto a piece of parchment paper and cut it out. I like to cut the parchment long enough that I can completely wrap it around the cake and you'll see why in a second.

Line the stencil up so that the bunny is wherever you want it to go and then spread buttercream over it to cover up the cake that’s exposed within the stencil. If the parchment wraps all the way around the cake it will hold itself in place, or you can use tape or pins to secure it, but if you cut the parchment shorter you’ll have to press it against the frosting to hold it still and that your fingers will warm up the frosting on the cake and leave imprints on it. Check out this tutorial for more ideas of how to decorate cakes using parchment paper.

Scrape off the excess frosting with your offset spatula or a cake comb. You're aiming for a thin, smooth layers of buttercream that completely covers the cut-out design on the stencil. If the buttercream isn’t flat, spread more frosting over any uneven areas and then scrape again with your cake comb.

Peel the parchment off and voila!

To jazz this bunny up a bit you can pipe on some flowers to make a headband. Did you know that some standard piping tips can be used to pipe multiple petals at the same time? They make piping quick and easy. My favorites are this 2D star tip and #109, which is a tiny "drop flower" tip:

Put each piping tip in a piping bag with just a few spoonfuls of buttercream. These tips both work by squeezing out the buttercream and then twisting the tip to pipe all of the petals at once. It’s slightly awkward twisting along the side of a cake but I love the way these flowers look! Simple and quick, but so pretty!

#4 Easter egg nest

Now let’s make a chocolate Easter egg nest. Press a round cookie cutter or the rim of a glass into the top of the cake as a guide of where your nest will be.

Use any star tip but choose one that fits the size of your cake. For example, a 1M tip is too big for my little 4” cake so I chose to a #199 open star tip instead. I’m using my Best Chocolate Buttercream but you could use vanilla tinted with brown gel instead. Pipe a rope border by spiralling the buttercream in a circle, overlapping each circle or loop of buttercream with another one. The prongs of the star tip will create ridges or grooved texture in the piping that makes this look like a nest.

Add some Easter eggs and you’ve got a pretty, colourful Easter cake that only took seconds to decorate!

I hope you’re seen some ideas you like! Tell me in the comments which is your favourite. Happy Easter!

You can also watch a video of these 4 easy Easter cake decorating ideas!

Would you ever guess that the cake in the photo below was made with broken cake layers? It’s so frustrating when cake layers crack or crumble but here’s an easy hack to make them usable. I'll also show you why cake layers break and how to prevent it happening.

To watch a video version of this tutorial instead, scroll to the bottom of the page.

WHY do cake layers break?

Straight out of the oven, cakes are very delicate because they firm up as they cool. If you turn the pans over straight away, the cakes can fall apart or crack or crumble as they fall out of the pans. If you wait until the cakes cool and only then turn the pans over, the cakes can stick to the pans and you’ll find chunks of cake stuck to the bottom of the pans and big holes in your cakes!

How can you prevent cakes from cracking and crumbling in the first place?

There are three ways. 

First, check your pans before you use them to make sure they aren’t scratched or dented. Scratches in the non-stick surface of the pans will open up areas where the cake can stick, and dents mean that a pan is no longer perfectly round, so the cake can’t slide straight out of the pan. 

Second, always grease your pans before pouring batter into them, using butter or oil or a non-stick spray, and you can dust the pans with flour too if you like. Or to be extra safe you can line them with parchment paper, tracing around the pans onto the paper and then cutting those circles out and putting them in the bottom of the pan for the easiest, neatest turning out of cakes.

Finally, after the cakes come out of the oven, wait about 10 minutes before you turn them out. Keep poking the pans to check the temperature and as soon as you can lift the pans up with your bare hands without burning yourself, the cakes are cool enough!

How can you fix broken cake layers so you can use them for your cake?

Now for the part you’ve been waiting for! After taking cakes out of the oven, let the layers cool completely and then wrap them up tightly in cling film or Saran Wrap and put them in the freezer for 2 hours or overnight. The pieces will freeze together, which makes them much easier to handle.

Assemble your cake with buttercream as the filling because buttercream acts as glue when it sets. Be generous with the filling because it will sink into any cracks or gaps and fill those in to make the cake level and stable. Alternate your cake layers and filling, and since the layers were frozen they’ll chill and set the buttercream filling within a few minutes, and that buttercream once it’s set will hold everything together like glue.

Flatten the sides of the filling if it’s bulged out, by spreading it against the sides of the cake and that will fill in any gaps there to make nice straight sides. A crumb coat is essential if your cake layers are broken because this first layer of frosting, called a crumb coat, will catch any crumbs that come off the cake and then chill the cake for 30 minutes in the fridge or 15 minutes in the freezer.

Spread on your final layer of frosting, and since the crumb coat has been chilled, this final coat will sit on top of it and none of the crumbs from the crumb coat will get through into this layer of frosting so you’ll have beautiful, crumb-free frosting and a straight, level cake and even when you cut into it, no one will ever know how ugly the cake layers were originally!

Sign up for my free course and newsletter for more cake hacks, recipes, tips and tutorials and visit my cake school for online cake decorating courses and Live Workshops!

You can also watch a video version of this tutorial on How to Fix Broken Cake Layers:

Stencils are a quick way to decorate cakes for any occasion but with this 5 minute cake decorating technique you don’t need to buy fancy stencils for every cake - you can make them yourself with what you already have and create eyecatching, unique designs.

Step 1: Prepare your colours

Let’s start by making a colour palette for the stencil design. This is my 4 Minute Buttercream but you can use any kind of frosting. These are gel colours, which I love because they’re so concentrated so you only need a drop to make a really bright colour. If you choose to make several colours, using a cupcake pan is a great trick to save yourself a lot of time when you clean up because it’s much quicker to wash one of these than to wash lots of little bowls.

You really don’t need a lot of buttercream for a stencil, just a few spoonfuls. If you’re not going to use this buttercream straight away, cover it with cling film or Saran Wrap so the buttercream doesn’t dry out and crust.

Step 2: Make a stencil

It’s useful to do this after assembling and frosting your cake so you can choose the right size of your stencil. Cut a piece or parchment or wax paper or baking paper long enough to wrap all the way around your cake and trim it so that it’s only as tall as your cake, and then mark the edges of where you want your design to be. Now put the cake back in fridge to keep the frosting chilled.

Draw a shape in the middle or you can trace an image that you’ve printed or a design you like from a notebook cover or wherever, but simple shapes are the most successful for this technique. We’re going to add more detail in a minute. Cut the shape out, keeping the area around the shape intact.

This next part is optional but if you want to add more detail to your design, choose any stencil you have and place it over the parchment stencil you just made, taping it to secure it if you like or you can do this in a moment. 

This is a great way to re-use the stencils you buy, creating new designs by making parchment stencils to use with them to give them different shapes, and now none of your stencilled cakes will look the same!

Step 3: Attach the stencil to your cake

Take your cake out of the fridge and wrap the parchment around it. This paper is intended to be non-stick, so tape doesn’t work very well on it. Luckily, tape does stick to itself, so cut a long piece and wrap it all the way around the parchment so that it overlaps and sticks to itself.

Do this around the top and bottom of the parchment so that the parchment and the stencil are wrapped tightly around the cake.

Step 4: Create a stencil design on the cake

Scoop up your first colour with an offset spatula and spread it over the bottom of the stencil. I love to work my way up so I can see what I’m doing.

Spread from the outer edge of the stencil towards the middle of the shape, in both directions, so you’re pushing the buttercream into the shape and that way you won’t accidentally push it underneath the stencil, under the outline of the shape. Switch between colours until you've covered up the whole stencil.

The reason you can wrap the stencil around the cake without damaging the frosting is that buttercream crusts, which means if you chill it in the fridge for at least an hour or ideally overnight, the frosting gets really firm, so you can touch it without leaving an indent or any texture on the cake.

The rainbow buttercream on the stencil looks quite messy and to flatten it you can use your offset spatula or a cake comb to scrape from one side of the stencil to the other, taking off the excess frosting and leaving a flat, smooth layer of coloured buttercream behind. When you can see most of the plastic parts of the stencil, you’ll know you’ve scraped off most of the excess frosting and it’s ready.

Cut the tape to release the parchment and peel the stencil off straight away because if you wait for the coloured buttercream to set you’ll get jagged, uneven texture along the outline of your shape but by peeling it off now, the results will be much neater. If the stencil smudges anywhere along the outline you can tidy it up with a toothpick.

If you’re enjoying this step by step tutorial you’ll love my MiniCourses, where I teach fun and unique cake designs in easy-to-follow steps with close up video instruction and detailed but concise explanations! Join the Club for access to all of my MiniCourses or join the ClubPLUS for all of my MiniCourses and MasterCourses and Live Workshops!

Step 5: Add a rainbow border

If you have leftover coloured buttercream you can use it for a border on the cake. My favourite way to use lots of colours is to lay out a piece of cling film or Saran Wrap and then spread each colour onto it in a line. This works best with rainbow colours or colours that blend nicely into each other.

Roll the plastic wrap into a log and cut off one end. Drop the cut end down into a piping bag with a star shaped piping tip and you can pipe swirls onto the top of the cake.

If you don’t have a lot of buttercream, this is a great option: pipe these waves or shells around the cake by squeezing the bag and letting the buttercream bulge out forwards and ten slowly pull the bag away to leave a tail on the wave.

Pipe the next one so that it overlaps and and you pipe these one after the other, the colours at the end of the bag will push through the other colours closer to the piping tip and you’ll create a gradient of colours to match the colours on your stencil design!

So colourful and it’s a totally unique design since the stencil is homemade! What shape will you use on your homemade stencil? Tell me in the comments!

If you prefer, you can watch a video of this 5 minute cake decorating tutorial:

This 3D rainbow cake is rainbow coloured inside and out, with gorgeous textured details and, best of all, it’s easy to make! After baking your cake and preparing your buttercream, decorating this cake will take about an hour.

Prepare the cake layers

All you need is one round cake layer. Level it if it’s domed by trimming the top off with a serrated knife like a bread knife and then cut the cake layer in half horizontally, using little sawing motions as you spin the cake around and that will help you cut straight through the middle. I find it easiest to do this after chilling the cake in the fridge for about an hour or in the freezer for 30 minutes so it’s less delicate and crumbly. This is an 8 inch layer of my Vanilla Cake. Now you have two round cake layers. Cut both of these in half to make four semi-circles and these will create the rainbow shape of your cake.

Choose a cake board that’s at least 4 inches wider than your cake to leave space for the frosting, but we’re going to assemble the cake before moving it to this board.

Prepare the rainbow filling and rainbow frosting

For rainbow frosting I’m using one batch of my 4 Minute Buttercream. Set aside one cup of frosting for later and divide the rest into six bowls. Add a few drops of colours to each bowl and I recommend gel colours because they’re the most concentrated so they’ll give you the brightest and boldest colours.

You’ll need the smallest amount of purple frosting, then blue, green, yellow, orange, and for the red frosting you’ll need about three times as much as the orange. Red frosting can be tricky but the secret is simple - use a LOT of gel! If you have time, after mixing the red frosting you can cover it and leave it to develop for an hour and it will get darker. 

Now put each colour of frosting into a piping bag with the end of the piping bag cut off, but you don’t need any piping tips for this part. You won’t fit all of the red frosting into the bag but that’s fine - you can refill it later. I like to use glasses to hold the piping bags open, folding the top of the bag over the rim of the glass and that keeps the top of the bag clean so your hands don’t get covered in frosting when you pipe.

Assemble the rainbow cake

Ok, let’s make a rainbow! Pipe lines of colored buttercream, filling the curve of the semi-circle to make a rainbow. If you start on the outer edge, with red first, it will be easier to keep the curve symmetrical than if you start at the bottom, with purple.

This piping will create a rainbow of filling within each slice when you cut into the cake.

After piping a rainbow of filling onto each semicircle of cake, place the next cake layer on top. Take your time to line it up so that each layer sits directly on top of the layer below, and this will create a straight, level cake.

Now grab your big cake board and spread some frosting along the middle to act as glue, and then flip the cake over so the flat side is facing down and press it into the line of frosting and it will secure the cake in place so it doesn’t slide around as you frost it. Adjust it to center it on the cake board and you should have at least two inches of space all the way around the cake for rainbow piping.

Crumb coat the rainbow cake

Cover the cake with plain white frosting, which is called a crumb coat because it will trap any crumbs that come off the cake so that they don’t get into the rainbow frosting next.

When you’re piping frosting onto a cake it’s really important to have another layer of frosting underneath because this layer seals the moisture into the cake, completely covering it up so even if there are any little gaps in between your piping, this crumb coat will make sure the cake doesn’t dry out.

Use an offset spatula to spread the frosting all over the cake, right down to the cake board, making sure there is no cake exposed.

Then switch to a cake comb (also called a frosting smoother or icing scraper) to smooth the curve of the rainbow and the two flat sides. It doesn’t have to be very neat because you’re going to cover it with rainbow piping next but get it as smooth as you can because that will give the cake a neat shape to build onto.

I like to put cakes in the fridge to set the crumb coat while I’m preparing my frosting.

Prepare piping bags for rainbow frosting

Choose your piping tips for the rainbow piped frosting. Piping will be easiest if you use smaller tips for the colours at the bottom of the rainbow and larger tips for the colours at the top of the rainbow. I’m using 1M star tip for red and also for yellow, a 4B open star tip for orange, medium round tip #12 for green, small petal tip #102 for blue and open star #32 for purple.

Use an offset spatula or a toothpick or really anything sharp to outline the arcs of your rainbow. It’s easiest to space them evenly if you start with a line in the middle, and then score two lines above and two lines below it.

I’m going to pipe a rainbow on both sides of my cake so I’m scoring the same lines on the other side, too.

Frost the cake with rainbow piping

To pipe the colours, it’s usually easiest to start with the colour at the bottom and work your way up but if you’re piping ruffles like this with a petal tip, it’s easiest to do those colours first, wherever they are on your rainbow, to give you the most space to maneuver the piping bag.

A petal tip looks like a teardrop and when you’re piping with one, the narrow end of the teardrop should always be pointing outwards from the cake, with the wide end pressed against the cake. That way your piping will be more securely attached to the cake and the piping you see sticking out from the cake will be thinner and wavier because it comes through the narrow part of the piping tip.

For the purple you could pipe an arc shape and leave the bottom section plain white but I’m piping all the way down to the bottom to add the most colour to my cake.

You might be thinking about how many piping bags I’m going to have to wash and that’s definitely the downside to rainbow cakes! If you want to minimize piping bags you could put the colored frosting straight into piping bags with these piping tips and use those to pipe on the filling between the cake layers, 

To pipe neat dots with a round tip, squeeze the piping bag and let the frosting bulge out from the bag and then and stop squeezing as you pull the bag away and that will leave a neat point on each dot.

Piping will be the neatest and also the easiest on your wrist if your frosting is the right consistency, and I teach all about that in my Basics of Cake MasterCourse on my online cake school.

The quickest piping is to use a large star tip so you can just pipe one row to fill the entire band of colour. A 1M tip is great for this and it’s a piping tip that almost everyone has!

Open star tips like this 4B tip are also great for quickly covering large areas of cake with piping. Just like with the round dots, if you stop squeezing the piping bag at the same time as you pull the bag away from the cake, you’ll leave a neat peak on your piped rosettes.

For the red I’m going to pipe waves of frosting. I’ve used this piping bag a few too many times because buttercream is oozing out through tiny holes in it. Quick tip to fix this: wipe the frosting off the outside of the bag and then use tape to cover up the holes and rejuvenate your piping bag for a few more uses!

Having your cake on a turntable makes piping much quicker than if the cake is on the table or countertop, because you can keep spinning and adjusting it so that you’re always piping at the angle that’s most comfortable for you, or in my case, the angle that’s best for the camera!!

As well at the top arc of the rainbow, I’m using the red frosting to cover the top of the cake, piping the same wave texture all along the top curve.

Another benefit of using a turntable is that you can spin it to see the cake from different angles and then you’ll notice any gaps between the piping, which you can fill in with more piping now, while you still have the colored frosting in your piping bags.

Serve the rainbow cake

You can store this rainbow cake int he fridge for two days but the red frosting will darken significantly in the fridge so if you plan on refrigerating it, use less gel when colouring the red frosting. This cake tastes best at room temperature so if you do refrigerate it, take it out of the fridge at least two hours before serving so that it comes to room temperature before you eat it.

When you cut the cake, you can cut straight through it but if you cut diagonally, towards the middle of the purple frosting each time, you’ll get a nice cross section of all of the colours of filling so there will be a double rainbow on each slice: along the edge, and also through the middle.

For more visual instructions, watch my video of how to make a rainbow cake!

Chocolate and peanut butter are a perfect pair. If you love peanut butter cups, you'll love this cake! Rich chocolate buttercream is sandwiched between three layers of moist, not-too-sweet chocolate cake. It's covered with creamy peanut butter frosting and topped with chocolate peanut butter swirls and homemade chocolate peanut butter cups.

This recipe has several parts but if you follow this order, you won't spend all day in the kitchen!

• Bake the cake
• Make the peanut butter cups
• Prepare the buttercream filling and frosting
• Assemble, frost and decorate the cake!

First, bake the chocolate cake

This cake uses my Perfect Chocolate Cake batter, which is my absolute favourite chocolate cake! It's moist, not too sweet, and easy to make. For the best results, take the butter and eggs out of the fridge four hours before baking so that they come to room temperature. After adding the flour to the batter, only mix until the flour is just incorporated and you can no longer see any loose flour in the batter.

Divide the cake batter between three 6" cake pans or convert the recipe to a different size using the printable recipe below. Bake until the cakes don't wobble when you shake the pans. If you stick a toothpick down into the middle of the cake, it should come out clean with no streaks of cake batter.

Leave the cake layers in the pans for 10 minutes to cool and firm up slightly. Then turn the cakes out onto a wire cooling rack. Let them cool completely before assembling your cake, which will take about three hours.

Make the peanut butter cups

While the cake layers are cooling, make your peanut butter cups. The only ingredients for these are chocolate chips, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. You'll need a mini cupcake pan and mini cupcake wrappers, too.

To sweeten the peanut butter stir in one tablespoon of powdered sugar. You can skip this if you want your peanut butter cups to be less sweet but if you're using semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, the slightly sweet peanut butter filling works really well.

To melt the chocolate chips use short intervals of 30 seconds at a time in the microwave. Choose 70% power to prevent overheating the chocolate. Stir the chocolate and if it's still lumpy, put it back in the microwave at 70% power for another 30 seconds. Stir the chocolate until it's smooth.

Line a mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake wrappers, which will make the peanut butter cups easiest to remove from the pan after they set. You'll probably want between 8 and 12 wrappers, depending on how many swirls you plan on piping around the cake. I like to make a few extra to snack on while I'm decorating! Use two spoons to fill the cupcake wrappers about a quarter full with melted chocolate. You want a thin layer of chocolate that covers the base of the wrappers. If the chocolate is very thick it will be difficult to bite into.

Now spoon the peanut butter mixture into each cup. Using two spoons will make this easier because peanut butter is sticky!

Cover the peanut butter with chocolate, filing each mini cupcake wrapper to approximately the same level.

Refrigerate the pan of peanut butter cups for about 30 minutes, until the chocolate sets. Pinch the wrappers or push down on one side to pop them out of the pan. Then peel apart the wrappers to release the peanut butter cups. Set them aside until later.

Prepare the chocolate peanut butter filling and frosting

The filling and frosting for this cake starts with my 4 Minute Buttercream. To make silky smooth buttercream, make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature by taking the butter and milk out of the fridge 4 hours before starting. Put the butter in your mixing bowl and add the sugar in four parts, mixing at the lowest speed for a minute after each addition. Scrape down to the bottom of the mixing bowl with your spatula to loosen any ingredients stuck to the bottom. Add the vanilla, salt and milk and mix to combine. The buttercream should be easy to stir and when you drag a spatula through it, it should leave a smooth trail behind. If the buttercream breaks apart from itself and the spatula leaves air bubbles behind, add another tablespoon of milk to make the consistency thinner.

In a small bowl, melt 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips in the microwave at 70% power for 30 seconds. Stir the chocolate until it's smooth. Leave it to cool to room temperature, which takes about 10 minutes. Then scoop up one cup of buttercream from the mixing bowl and stir it into the melted chocolate in the small bowl.

Add 3/4 cup peanut butter to the buttercream in the mixing bowl. Stir it or use your mixer to mix it until you don't see any streaks of peanut butter in the buttercream.

Put it all together: assemble, frost and decorate the cake

To assemble your cake, alternate cake layers and the chocolate buttercream. Use about a third of a cup of chocolate buttercream as the filling between each cake layer. Save the remaining third of a cup for later.

Using peanut butter buttercream, cover the cake with a crumb coat to trap any crumbs that come off the cake.

Let the crumb coat set, which takes about an hour at room temperature. Speed this up by putting the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes. Then apply a final layer of peanut butter frosting, smoothing it with a cake comb.

Fit a piping bag with a star shaped piping tip like a 1M tip. Spoon the remaining chocolate buttercream down one side of the piping bag. Fill the other side with peanut butter buttercream. I find it easiest to do this by dropping the piping bag (with the tip already inside) into a glass and folding the top of the bag over the rim of the glass to hold it open. After filling it, unfold the piping bag and lift it up.

Twist the end of the piping bag and pipe swirls of frosting around the top of the cake. You'll notice that one side of each swirl will be peanut butter buttercream and the other side will be chocolate.

Press a peanut butter cup into each swirl. The weight of the peanut butter cups will push the swirls down but you'll still be able to see the two-tone frosting.

You can serve this cake immediately or refrigerate it for up to 2 days. This cake tastes best when it's at room temperature so if you do refrigerate it, take it out of the fridge at least 2 hours before serving it so that it isn't cold when you eat it.

How to make this Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake in advance

Every element of this cake can be made ahead of time, which is useful if you don't have much time to put it all together for an event or occasion.

You can make the peanut butter cups a week in advance and store them in an airtight container in the fridge.

The cake layers can be baked up to a month in advance and after cooling, wrap the layers in plastic wrap (like cling film or saran wrap) and freeze them. Move them to the fridge the night before assembling the cake to give them time to thaw.

The buttercream can also be made a month in advance and frozen in a sealed container or a large ziplock bag. Take it out of the freezer the night before you use it and leave it on the counter to come to room temperature. Stir it for a minute to knock out any air bubbles.

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Here's a video of this chocolate peanut butter cake recipe and did you know that most of my other recipes and tutorials are also on my YouTube channel? Subscribe so you don't miss a recipe or tutorial!

I’m going to show you why a cake leans, how to avoid it, and, in case you DO end up with a leaning cake, how to fix it! To watch a video of this tutorial instead, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Why does a cake lean?

As you place each layer onto your cake, it’s tempting to rush and get to the fun part of frosting and decorating the cake but if each layer isn’t directly on top of the layer beneath it, the sides of the cake will slope up or down. This makes the cake look like it’s leaning or tilting. 

The other reason why a cake leans is the technique you use when you smooth the frosting on the cake. If you accidentally hold your cake comb at an angle, you’ll scrape more frosting off either the top or the bottom of the sides of the cake, which makes the cake look like it’s leaning.

How can I prevent my cakes from leaning?

To avoid a leaning cake take your time as you’re placing each cake layer, lowering it and then getting down to eye level and spinning the cake on a turntable to check it from all sides.

To adjust a layer that's sticking out over the edge, nudge it back so it’s centered. It's important to do this straight away, before the filling sets and secures the layer in place. Do this for every single cake layer and they’ll all be lined up straight. To check, spin the cake and choose one side to look at and stare at it as the cake spins to make sure it always looks straight, from top to bottom, for the entire spin.

Now chill the cake for 15 minutes in the freezer or 30 minutes in the fridge to set the filling and so that the cake layers get a bit firmer and then when you frost the cake, the layers will stay in place and even as you apply pressure to the sides as you spread the frosting on and then smooth it, that pressure won’t push the cake layers around so the cake will stay straight.

What’s very important as you’re smoothing the frosting is that you press the bottom edge of the cake comb down on the cake board, and this lines up the side edge of the cake comb, the part that’s scraping over the frosting on the cake, so that it’s straight against the cake and that will make the frosting straight! If you don’t press it down, it’s easy to push the comb against the cake at an angle, pushing it further into the frosting at the top of bottom of the cake and that will create a sloping or tilting or leaning cake. When you’re almost finishing smoothing the sides of the cake with your cake comb it’s a good idea to get down to eye level and spin the cake to check the sides are straight.

How to fix a leaning cake

Now, what happens if you DO end up with a leaning cake? Don’t throw it away! After you smooth the crumb coat, if you spin the cake on the turntable you’ll notice if it’s leaning because it will look like it’s wobbling as it spins.

Put the cake in the freezer for 15 minutes or the fridge for 30 minutes to set the crumb coat and then look at the side of the cake that’s leaning and spread more frosting onto the parts that AREN’T sticking out, so that the frosting is as thick as the leaning part of the cake.

You’ll need to do this at the bottom of one leaning side, and on the opposite side of the lean you’ll need to do it at the top. This doesn’t need to be neat, the only purpose of this is to make the sides of the cake straight.

Scrape around the cake with your cake comb to flatten the frosting you spread on and then get down to eye level and spin the cake to check that the sides are straight. If the cake is still leaning, spread on a bit more frosting over those two areas and scrape around the cake again and then check again.

The shape of the cake doesn’t have look perfect yet because you’re going to cover it with another layer of frosting but by straightening the cake now with extra layers of the crumb coat, you’ll have a nice foundation to cover with your final coat of frosting.

As long as you rest the bottom of the cake comb firmly down on the cake board as you scrape around the cake, this layer of frosting will give the cake perfectly straight sides and you’ll never know it used to be leaning!

I hope this has been useful! I break down hundreds of cake decorating techniques on my cake school, so that they’re clear and step-by-step  with close up videos and explanations of why things go wrong and how to fix them. You can take individual courses or join my ClubPLUS for access to them all!

Watch a video version of this tutorial on how to fix leaning cakes:

These parchment paper hacks will save you time and money on your cakes! Parchment paper or wax paper or baking paper can be used for loads of cake decorating techniques, to create stunning and unique designs.

#1 Buttercream Transfers

Let’s start with one of my favourite parchment paper hacks: a buttercream transfer. This technique will let you replicate any design, even super complicated ones, onto a cake. Choose an image you like, online or on a notebook cover or wherever, and draw it (or trace it) onto parchment.

Tint buttercream the colours you want to use and buttercream is the best kind of frosting for this particular method because it gets so firm when it sets, which you’ll see in action in a minute. Put each colour into a piping bag with a small round piping tip or you can just put your buttercream in a ziploc bag and cut the corner off for a homemade piping bag! Outline and fill each coloured section of the design except the biggest section.

Freeze the design on the parchment for 5 minutes to set it and then pipe on the final colour and spread it over the whole design so that it’s flat and also to create a sticky surface on top of the parts of the design that have set.

Lift it up straight away and press it against a cake, and the frosting on the cake should have set so that THAT frosting is firm, too, and then you won’t damage it.

Put the whole cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes and then peel the parchment off and voila! 

#2 Piped Details

Another great use for parchment paper (or wax paper or baking paper) is for piping details that you can’t pipe directly onto a cake, and then transferring them onto a cake. I'll show you how to do this will and without a flower nail. If you have a flower nail, cut parchment into little squares the same width as the flat circle of the flower nail. You'll need one parchment square for each flower you pipe.

To attach the parchment to the flower, pipe a dot of buttercream onto the middle of the flat circular part of the nail and press the parchment into that. The buttercream dot will act as glue. Pipe your detail onto the parchment, spinning the nail between your thumb and finger as you pipe each petal. I'm using a #104 petal tip for this flower, stopping squeezing the bag at the end of each petal and then repeating all the way around the nail to finish each flower. I’ll pipe the middle later.

Slide the parchment off the nail and onto a plate and put it in the freezer for 5 minutes to set.

If you don’t have a flower nail you can pipe directly onto parchment paper on a plate, like this, turning the plate around as you pipe to find the easiest angle for each part of the flower or pumpkin or whatever you’re piping. Put the piped detail on the parchment paper into the freezer for 5 minutes to set the buttercream.

When the buttercream has frozen, peel the buttercream off the parchment and there are two ways to attach it to your cake. The first is to pipe some buttercream onto the bottom of the frozen flower and this fresh buttercream will act as glue. Work quickly because the frozen flower will thaw after a few seconds and start to stick to your warm hands.

Now push the flower into the frosting of the cake and the frozen flower will chill the dot of buttercream so that it sets and holds the flower in place.

It’s useful to pipe the centers of flowers now, at the end, so that you can push against the middle of the flower to attach it to the cake without damaging anything.

The second way to attach piped details to a cake also requires freezing the details on parchment paper first. Then pipe a dot of buttercream onto the cake, wherever you want to put the flower or any other piped detail. Now press the flower into that dot to attach it to the cake.

#3 Neat sprinkle borders

With this parchment paper hack you'll be able to create neat sprinkle borders on cakes. Use parchment to cover up the cake where you don’t want the sprinkles to go, leaving however much frosting you like exposed underneath. When you press sprinkles against the cake, they will only attach to the frosting below the parchment paper.

The frosting on the cake needs to have set before doing this so chill your cake for at least an hour in the fridge first. Pour sprinkles onto the cake board all the way around the cake and use an offset spatula or your hands to scoop the sprinkles up and push them into the exposed cake below the parchment paper.

A tray or baking sheet with a rim is useful for catching falling sprinkles so that they don’t go everywhere!

#4 Homemade buttercream stencils

Parchment is a cheap way to make absolutely any stencil design you like, by cutting a shape or design out of the parchment. If your parchment came on a roll it will curve and that’s ideal because when you wrap it around the cake it will do most of the work for you! Draw a shape and cut it out, leaving the surrounding parchment paper intact to use as your homemade stencil. Alternatively, cut little shapes out within the outline for a mosaic-style design.

Pull the parchment tight and wrap it around the cake and press the ends of the parchment against the cake to keep the stencil flat. Spread buttercream over the stencil, being gentle so you don’t push the buttercream underneath the parchment, which will smudge the outline of the design you cut.

The frosting on the cake needs to have set before you wrap the stencil around it so chill the cake in the fridge for an hour first. Scrape off the excess buttercream with your offset spatula or a cake comb, which will flatten the design. Keep scraping until you can see the stencil through the buttercream so that the buttercream is very thin, which will give you the neatest results.

Pinch a corner of the parchment and peel it off, away from the cake, and tadaa! Parchment paper hacks like this one will save you a lot of money on expensive cake decorating tools.

#5 Homemade sprinkle stencils

For a bit more bling, follow the same steps with a fun addition at the end. Cut your shape out of parchment, wrap it around the cake, spread buttercream over it, scrape off the excess and then peel the stencil off.

Now press sprinkles into the buttercream on the stencil. The sprinkles will attach easily since the frosting within the stencil is soft and sticky, but they won't stick to the frosting on the cake because that has already set.

You can press the sprinkles in before peeling off the stencil but I find that the edges of the design are neater this way. You can brush off any unwanted sprinkles with a paintbrush to tidy things up. With these last two parchment paper hacks your homemade stencils will add quick and easy detail to you cake!

#6 Sponge painting

With parchment you can create patterns on a cake using a sponge painting technique with frosting! Just cut the parchment into strips or circles or whatever shapes you want to be the colour of the frosting on the cake.

If you chill the cake first, when you take it out of the fridge some tiny drops fo condensation will form which will attach the parchment to it, or you can use pin to secure the parchment if you prefer.

Tint buttercream or any other frosting to make “paint” and you’ll need to add milk or cream to buttercream to thin it out a bit to be able to use it for this.

Dip a sponge into your paint and then dab it over the exposed parts of the cake and when you peel the parchment off you’ll have a colourful, slightly textured pattern!

I hope these parchment paper hacks were useful and you’ve seen some ideas you’d like to try! Tell me in the comments which is your favourite and check out my cake school for hundreds of cake designs and techniques. Join my ClubPLUS for access to every MiniCourse, MasterCourse, and Live Workshop on my cake school!

You can also watch a video version of this tutorial on 6 Parchment Paper Cake Hacks:

I’m going to show you step by step how to decorate this fun ice cream cake! It’s a much easier design than you might think and it gets a great reaction! To watch the video version of this tutorial, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Start by assembling your cake by alternating cake and filling and then cover it with a crumb coat, which is a really thin layer of frosting that traps any crumbs that come off the cake so that they don’t get into the final layer of frosting. Let the crumb coat set by putting the cake in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

To frost my cake I'm using gel colour to tint my 4 Minute Buttercream blue. Gels are much more concentrated than liquid colours so you’ll get really bright colours with just a few drops. This case for gel colours is intended for nail polish but it’s perfect for these little bottles!

Once the crumb coat has set, spread on your final layer of frosting and smooth it with a cake comb to make nice straight sides and a level top and sharp angles from the top of the cake down to the sides. Put the cake in the fridge for another hour to set the frosting and meanwhile, prepare the ice cream cone!

To make ice cream cone coloured buttercream I'm using a tiny drop of brown and a tiny drop of orange. You really don’t need much buttercream or much gel for the cone, just a few spoonfuls of buttercream and the tiniest drops of gel you can squeeze out of the bottle, or you can dip a toothpick into the bottle for more control over how little gel you’re adding. Add yellow to brighten the colour and brown to make it darker, until you’re happy with the colour.

The neatest way I’ve found to make the cone is to make your own stencil, which is really quick and easy and cheap. All you need is a piece of parchment paper. Cut a triangle with the top of the cone touching one edge of the parchment so it will go like this onto the cake. 

Once the frosting on the cake has set, wrap the stencil around the cake and hold it in place with your fingers. The higher you move it up, the narrower the top of the cone, and you can hold an ice cream scoop at the top to check the done is wide enough. Spread the brown frosting onto the exposed cake in the middle of the triangle, spreading up and down rather than side to side so that you don’t push the buttercream underneath the stencil by mistake, because that would smudge the edges of the cone.

Scrape gently over the brown frosting with a cake comb to flatten and smooth the frosting and then peel the stencil off straight away, pulling it away from the cake to leave a neat triangle behind on the cake. This won't look like an ice cream cone yet, but it will in a minute! 

To make a waffle cone pattern, use the straight side of a cake comb to indent the brown frosting. Hold the comb it at a diagonal, working your way across the cone and making your lines are parallel and as evenly spaced as you can. Flip the cake comb around to indent lines that cross over these lines, at a diagonal as well. 

For the scoop of ice cream on top of the cone I’m using buttercream and adding pink gel but not mixing it in completely to make a sort of raspberry ripple effect. Buttercream has the same texture as ice cream but it doesn’t melt so it’s much more stable on a cake than actual ice cream. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop up a ball of buttercream just like you would if you were scooping ice cream.

Release the scoop of buttercream "ice cream" onto the top of the cake above the ice cream cone. It probably won’t look like ice cream straight away! 

Add some texture at the bottom of the scoop by spreading on a few blobs of buttercream with an offset spatula, gently pressing them and then pulling away, and that will pull little peaks of buttercream outwards.

Then put a but of leftover pink buttercream into a ziplock bag (or you can use a piping bag) and cut a tiny piece off the tip to make a hole to squeeze the buttercream through. Pipe some little teardrop shapes onto the cone to look like melting drops of ice cream. You can use an offset spatula or even a toothpick to manipulate the buttercream to adjust the shape of the drops. 

To write a message in the cake I’m using Sweet Stamp letters and you can use my code BGB10 for a discount! These letters come in lots of different fonts and the easiest way to lift the letters out of the box if to wrap a piece of tape around your finger and press that into whatever letters you want.

For the best results on buttercream frosting, chill the cake in the fridge to completely set the frosting, for a few hours or ideally overnight, and then leave the cake at room temperature for an hour so that the buttercream is still firm but it’s no longer cold, and that way you’ll imprint the letters when you press them into the frosting but you won’t pull off chunks of buttercream when you lift the letters off, which is what can happen if your frosting is too cold.

The letters don’t need to be legible at this point because you’re going to paint over them, but you want a clear outline to guide you as you paint over them. I’m using edible gold paint that comes ready-mixed in a bottle, also from Sweet Stamp, but you can make your own by mixing gold luster dust with vodka or any other clear alcohol of flavor extract.

The thinner your paintbrush, the better - I started with what I thought was a small brush but quickly changed to the tiniest one I have! Sweet Stamp makes these amazing brushes too and this isn’t a sponsored tutorial - I just love their products! You’ll probably need at least two coats of gold paint to get a really bold, metallic colour, but leave the first coat to dry for 5 or 10 minutes before painting on the next coat.

For a burst of colour add a sprinkle border! Place the cake on a tray to catch any bouncing sprinkles and make the cleanup easy. Pour sprinkles onto the cake board all around the cake and then press them into the bottom inch or so of the cake, using an offset spatula or your hand and pressing quite firmly because the frosting has set so the sprinkles won’t stick to it unless you use a bit of pressure.

Paint over the letters again if you need to and you can see that the colour is much more eye-catching and shimmery now. Quick warning about the ice cream scoop: it’s heavy and can make the frosting droop or crack so keep the cake in the fridge until 4 hours before you serve it. 

There are lots of ways to create messages on cakes - check out this tutorial on 4 ways to write on cakes. If you’ve enjoyed these step by step instructions you’ll LOVE the MiniCourses on my cake school! I teach hundreds of cake designs and techniques and if you join my ClubPLUS you’ll get access to them all!

In this video I’m going to show you 4 ways to write on cakes, to personalize them with messages and I’m going to use some fun Valentines Day puns for these examples!

To watch the video version of this tutorial, scroll to the bottom of the page.

For the first two techniques I’ll use my 4 Minute Buttercream and a piping bag. You can use any kind of frosting for this like whipped cream or ganache or meringue buttercream. I use gel colours because they’re very concentrated so they’re great for bright and bold colours. 

#1 Piping: Handwriting

Any small round piping tip will work for this first technique - this is a #8. You can free-hand your letters onto your cake but I like to find a font I like, to mimic, which you can do on google images and save it to your phone to refer to, or search for a font generator and type in your word or sentence and then choose a font. You can save it on your phone or print it - whichever is easiest for you.

Before I write on a cake I write my word on paper so I can see what the size and spacing looks like on the cake. This is perfect and now I know that if I pipe the letters this size, they’ll fit onto the cake because they did when I wrote them that size on a piece of paper.

Having your cake on a turntable is really helpful for writing because you can quickly and easily spin the cake so that you’re piping each line of each letter at the angle that’s most comfortable for you, and that way your lines will be straighter and neater. If you don’t like a line you can scrape it off with an offset spatula. This is easiest if the frosting on the cake has set, so it’s firm and won’t get damaged but the pressure of your offset spatula.

You can use a toothpick to adjust the shape of a line if you want it to be longer or shorter or straighter, like this.

For the rest of the words I’m referring to the sentence I typed out in a cursive font earlier, simplifying it because my cursive is terrible! You don’t have to have neat handwriting on paper to be able to write neatly on cakes - they’re totally different skills and practicing on cakes will make your writing neat even if your normal handwriting is sloppy. (Although I should mention that writing like this on the top of a cake is MUCH easier than writing on the side of a cake!)

My writing is aligned to the right of the cake because I’m going to add a decoration on the left, and voila! A neat, legible message that’s quick to write AND delicious to eat!

#2 Piping: Pointillist

If you’re not confident about writing letters, try this next technique instead. Start by outlining your letters, and capital letters will be the most legible for this. You don’t have to outline the entire letter, just the first line of each letter will help guide you as I pipe, and these lines will help you keep each letter the same height and also make sure the words are straight on the cake.

Now use a piping bag with a small round tip like this #3 to squeeze out dots all along the lines of the letters, free handing the lines that you didn’t outline with the toothpick. The closer together you pipe the dots, the neater the letters will be.

Try to hold your piping bag at the same angle as you pipe so that the tips of the dots all point in the same direction. If you have a long message like this, you’ll need to squeeze and release the piping bag hundreds of times as you pipe the dots and it will get tiring so here are three tips to make it easier: First, make sure your buttercream isn’t too stiff because you’ll have to squeeze the bag much harder than if the buttercream is a bit runnier, by adding a bit more milk to it. Second, twist the top of the piping bag to push the buttercream down into the bottom of the bag and that way, you won’t need to push as hard to pipe it through the tip.

Third, take breaks when you get tired! It’s fine for some of the dots to set before you pipe the rest - it doesn’t all have to be done at once.

This is a great technique if you have quite a lot of space for your message, so you can pipe large capital letters, which are the easiest to read.

#3 Imprinted & Painted Lettering

For this next technique you’ll need a letter set. This is made by Sweet Stamp and you can use my code BGB10 for a discount! Wrap your finger in tape with the sticky side facing outwards and press it into the letters you want to pick up.

Press each letter into your cake. The best time to do this with buttercream is after chilling the cake for a few hours in the fridge so the frosting is very firm, but then leave the cake at room temperature for an hour so that the frosting is still firm but not cold. This will give you the neatest outline of the letters.

Use edible paint to colour the letters or you can mix luster dust with vodka or any other clear alcohol or flavour extract, to make your own edible paint. Use the thinnest paintbrush you have for the neatest painting, and if you accidentally paint outside the lines of a letter you can use a clean paintbrush dipped in water or vodka to brush over that smudge.

You’ll probably need to paint on two layers to get a really bold, metallic colour. This is the easiest way to get perfect fonts on the top or the sides of a cake.

#4 Chocolate Letter Mold

For a cheaper option than buying letter sets, melt chocolate chips or colourful candy melts and drizzle the melted chocolate into a letter molds, making sure you fill in all the letters you need for your message. Nudge the chocolate into the letters with a spoon to make sure the chocolate goes all the way down to the bottom of the letters, to prevent air pockets.

Scrape off the extra chocolate with an offset spatula so that there isn’t any extra chocolate stuck to the outline of the letters.

Put the mold in the freezer for 10 minutes or the fridge for 30 minutes and then push the letters out, pulling the mold away from each side of a letter and pushing up with your fingers from underneath the mold. Your hands will get covered in chocolate so if you want to keep them clean, wear gloves for this! I suggest placing them on a piece of parchment paper so that they don’t stick to table or wherever you put them. 

Straight afdter frosting your cake, while the frosting is still soft and sticky, pick up the chocolate letters and push them into the frosting and they’ll attach easily. If you miss a letter just re-melt the chocolate, spoon it into the mold, chill it and pop that letter out! 

This is a cheap and delicious way to write in whatever font you choose!

So, which way is your favourite? Tell me in the comments! This is one of the things I teach in my online course on 50 Easy Cake Decorating Techniques, which you'll find on my cake school, or join my ClubPLUS for access to every MiniCourse and MasterCourse and Live Workshop!

Smooth frosting is easy when you know what mistakes to avoid. In this tutorial I’ll show you each mistake, explaining how to avoid or fix it!

If you prefer to watch a video of this tutorial, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Mistake #1

The first mistake is to put your cake board straight on a turntable. When you apply any pressure at all to the cake as you frost it, it’s going to slip and slide all over the turntable, making it impossible to frost.  I think this is the most frustrating mistake for frosting, combined with this next mistake: 

Mistake #2

Not using buttercream as glue. If you place your cake straight onto your cake board, there’s nothing attaching it to the cake board so where you spread on your filling and frosting, the cake is going to wobble around and tall cakes can even topple over with the pressure from your offset spatula.

Solution: Spread or pipe a generous dot of buttercream onto the middle of the cake board and press your first layer of cake down onto the dot, which will act as glue and attach the cake to the cake board so it doesn’t move around.

To stop the cake board from sliding around, use a non-slip mat or a ring of masking tape to stick the cake board to the turntable, so the cake board stays in place while you frost the cake. Now your cake will be much quicker and easier to assemble and frost.

Mistake #3

If you choose to frost your cake when the layers are at room temperature, the cake will wobble around, even though it’s attached with a dot of buttercream on the cake board and there’s a non-slip mat on the cake board.

Solution: Compare this to a cake that’s been chilled in the freezer for just 15 minutes before frosting - the cake layers firm up so the cake doesn’t wobble around, AND since the layers are firmer, they’re less crumbly which makes frosting easier and neater. The cake layers will still be moist and delicious when they warm up to room temperature.

Mistake #4

The consistency of your frosting is key and if you’re using buttercream that’s too stiff, it will be almost impossible to spread onto your cake because it’s so thick, and even if you can spread it on, it will be very difficult to smooth with a cake comb later.

Solution: If you find out when you start frosting your cake that the buttercream is too stiff, scrape off any that you just can’t spread and add a few tablespoons of milk or cream to the rest of the bowl of buttercream so it’s a thinner consistency and that will be MUCH easier to spread.

Mistake #5

This thin layer of frosting is called a crumb coat, and a common mistake is to skip it and only apply one single layer of frosting, like this. The reason it’s a mistake is because the purpose of the crumb coat is to catch all of the crumbs that come off the cake while you’re spreading the frosting on, so that those crumbs get stuck in the crumb coat and then when you add the final layer of frosting, the crumbs don’t get into that so you have beautifully smooth, crumb free frosting. But here, where the first layer of frosting is also the final layer of frosting, you can see all the crumbs that come off the cake and are getting into this frosting, which will be visible specks on the outside of the frosting on the finished cake, AND because there’s only one layer of frosting you can see the dark shadowing of the cake layers underneath the cake, even though this is a vanilla cake so the colour of the cake is light compared to say, dark brown chocolate cake. 

Solution: There’s a simple solution for this mistake: apply a crumb coat and let it set for 30 minutes in the fridge before applying a final coat of frosting, and the frosting will have no crumbs in it AND it’ll cover up the colour of the cake underneath.

Mistake #6

If you apply the final coat of frosting too thinly, like this, after using your cake comb a few times to smooth the frosting you’ll scrape off all of the frosting and expose the cake layers underneath.

Solution: The solution for this is to spread the frosting on more thickly, which feels excessive but you’re going to scrape a lot off as you smooth it, so it won’t end up being nearly as thick.

Mistake #7

The mistake I see most often is when the frosting doesn’t go up high enough.

If the frosting stops before the top edge of the cake, you’re going to get indents or gaps around the top edge of the cake when you smooth it, because the frosting on the sides of the cake doesn’t meet the frosting on the top of the cake to form a neat join all the way around the cake. Look at this gap here.

Solution: If you spread the frosting higher, so that it sticks up ABOVE the top edge of the cake, when you tidy up the top edge you’ll create sharp corners with no gaps or indents along the edge.

Mistake #8

If you use you cake comb once or twice to scrape around the cake, the frosting will be smoother than when you first spread it on but it won’t be perfect yet because it takes quite a few scrapes to get a flawless surface. If you stop now, your frosting will look like this.

Solution: Instead, do some touch-ups by spreading more frosting over any indents, where the frosting isn’t as thick as it is on the frost of the cake. Then scrape around the cake again with your cake comb to flatten that touch-up frosting and pull off any excess, leaving a beautiful smooth surface behind!

Mistake #9

If your cake comb has been dinged or dented, the surface on the straight side of the comb isn’t going to be perfectly straight and smooth and the ding will leave a trail behind in the frosting as you pull the comb around the cake. 

Solution: This can happen with plastic or acrylic combs, and once you realize it’s happened, you can try sanding down the edge or buy a new cake comb.

Mistake #10

When you pull your cake comb off the cake at the end of a scrape, you’ll have frosting on the comb. You can see the build-up along the straight edge of the comb here. If you use the cake comb again straight away, you’ll drag that frosting back onto the cake and leave a line of texture going up and down the cake. 

Solution: Instead, scrape that frosting into a bowl and wipe the cake comb clean on a towel or paper towel after every scrape. You'll avoid seams like the one you can see in the frosting here. This way, the only seam or texture you’ll have on your cake is from when you pull the cake comb away from the cake on the final scrape, and you can make that the back of the cake.

Mistake #11

The kind of turntable you use really matters. This is a plastic turntable and plastic spins jerkily so you’ll notice little vertical lines from the top to the bottom of your cake, which are caused by the cake comb pressing into the frosting with each shudder of the turntable.

Solution: For much smoother frosting, a metal turntable provides the smoothest spin and you’ll notice the difference on your cakes.

Mistake #12

Your technique for tidying up the top edge of the frosting is important. Look below the right side of my offset spatula and you can see what happens when I push downwards to take off that excess frosting: it creates a bulge in frosting on the side of the cake.

Solution: If that happens, scrape around the cake again with your cake comb to flatten the bulge and then tidy up the top edge by pushing sideways with your offset spatula, not down, and that will push the excess frosting across and lift it off the cake and leave a neat top edge with no bulges.

Mistake #13

After you push and lift this frosting that’s sticking up above the top edge of the cake, you’ll have that frosting on your offset spatula. If you continue working your way around the cake, you’ll drag that frosting back onto the cake and you’ll leave extra texture around the top edge of the cake - you can see a little line here, which is that frosting sitting on top of the neat top edge of the cake. 

Solution: To prevent this, scape your offset spatula on the rim of your frosting bowl after every time you use it, and then wipe it completely clean on a towel or paper towel. Then it will create a smooth, neat angle from the side to the top of the cake.

Mistake #14

Patience really is necessary for smooth frosting. If you stop after just a few touchups with your offset spatula and a few scrapes with your cake comb, your frosting will be just okay. 

Solution: Whether you're using a plastic, acrylic, or metal cake comb and a plastic or metal turntable, the solution is the same. Keep touching up and scraping, touching up and scraping, and then spin the cake and get down to eye level to see if there are any parts you’ve missed and touch those up, too. The extra minute or two you put into this now, will make a big difference in the finished result of the cake because almost every decorative technique looks best on smooth frosting.

Mistake #15

When you’re happy with your frosting, you’re not finished yet! If you walk away and leave your cake at room temperature, look what happens. This cake was in a cool room overnight and the cake and filling and frosting sank, making the cake lean and bulge and in a few more hours the frosting will crack and the cake might even fall over sideways.

Solution: Put your frosted cakes in the fridge until you’re ready to transport them, or until 2 hours before you’re going to serve the cake. The fridge will keep the frosting firm and pretty and taking it out two hour before serving will bring the cake to room temperature, when it tastes its best.

If you’re looking for step by step videos on hundreds of cake designs and techniques, visit my online cake school to browse my MiniCourses and MasterCourses - choose just one or join my ClubPLUS for access to them all!

Here's the video version of this tutorial: