In this tutorial I’m going to share how to turn cupcakes into cake! This is a great hack if you don’t have a mini cake pan or if you have extra cupcakes and want to do something special with them. If you prefer to watch a video of this tutorial, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Bake your cupcakes as normal and let them cool completely. You can use any flavour for this but I’ll be using my vanilla and chocolate cake recipes for this tutorial.

If you like, you can put them in a ziplock bag and freeze them for up to a month, to save time on the day you assemble and decorate your cake.

If you freeze the cupcakes, take them out of the freezer and leave them at room temperature for about an hour to thaw before you start.

You’ll need 1 or 2 cupcakes per cake and some buttercream in a piping bag if you want to pipe the filling and/or frosting, or in a bowl if you want to spread it on.

If you baked your cupcakes in wrappers, peel those off now. This means you can bake a batch of cupcakes and later decide to turn some into cakes, or you can use wrappers so that the cupcakes don’t stick to the pan when you bake them.

Use a serrated knife like a bread knife to cut your cupcakes horizontally into two halves or into thirds. I’m going to use 1 and a half cupcakes for each of my mini cakes, so I’m cutting my cupcakes into halves and I’ll use 3 cupcakes to make 2 cakes.

You can drizzle the cupcakes with simple syrup if you like, which keeps them moist if you’re not going to eat the cake on the same day, and you make simple syrup by simmering equal amounts of water and sugar together until the sugar dissolves.

You’ll notice that the top halves of cupcakes are wider than the bottom halves, so your cake layers will be different widths. This doesn’t matter after you frost the cake.

If you want the layers to be perfectly straight when you cut into the cake you can trim the top halves with a knife or a round cookie cutter.

To assemble your cake you’ll need a cake board on a non slip mat on a turntable. Pipe or spread a dollop of buttercream onto the middle of the cake board to act as glue to attach the cake.

Push a cupcake layer into the buttercream, lining it up so it’s in the center of the board.

Pipe or spread a layer of filling on top. I’m using my 4 Minute Buttercream for this filling and I’ll also use it for the frosting, but you can use whatever you like.

Place the next cupcake layer on top, pushing down to attach it to the filling below.

Check the cake from a few angles, or by spinning the turntable, to make sure the layers of cake are lined up directly on top of each other, so that the cake is straight.

Add another layer of filling. It doesn’t mater if you pipe or spread it – piping it is a bit quicker but if you spread it on instead, you’ll avoid having to wash a piping bag.

Continue alternating cake and filling and after your final layer, spin the cake around again to check that it’s straight and push down on one side if you need to adjust it a bit. Now chill the cake for about an hour in the fridge or 30 minutes in the freezer to set the filling and that dollop of buttercream on the cake board so that the cake doesn’t slide around you frost it.

Now that the cake is cold, pipe or spread buttercream onto it for the crumb coat. It’s easiest to pipe it on, since the cake is so small that spreading it straight on is a bit tricky, but you can do whatever you prefer.

Chilling the cake before you do this is really really important for such a small cake. Although a larger cake will usually stay in place as your frost it, a little bit of pressure from your frosting smoother can push this little cake right off the cake board if it isn’t secured. That buttercream you piped onto the board before assembling your cake will hold the cake firmly in place if it’s properly chilled and set.

Cover the cake completely with buttercream, spreading it to cover the top of the cake and making sure it goes all the way down to the cake board at the bottom of the cake so there isn’t any cake exposed.

Use a frosting smoother to scrape off the excess buttercream to create a cake with straight sides. Tidy up the top edge by scraping the frosting that’s sticking up, over onto the top of the cake.

Fill in any air pockets with more buttercream using your offset spatula and then scrape again. This crumb coat doesn’t need to be perfect because its purpose is just to trap in any crumbs that come off the cake. Put the cake back in the fridge or freezer for 30 minutes to an hour to set the crumb coat.

Spread or pipe on the final coat of frosting. You can frost and decorate these little cakes made with cupcakes however you like and I’ll show you two ideas now.

For this first cake I’m using chocolate cupcakes and chocolate buttercream. After smoothing the frosting, use a textured cake comb to imprint texture.

Spread more buttercream over any gaps or air pockets in the frosting and then use the textured comb over that area again. I cover this in much more detail in my tutorial on 5 Tips For Perfectly Textured Cakes.

When you’re happy with the frosting, put the cake on a baking tray and then pour chocolate shavings around the cake board. I grated a bar of chocolate against the fine side of a cheese grater to make these shavings but sprinkles would work well too.

Use the back of a spoon or an offset spatula or your hands to push the shavings into the sticky frosting on the cake. The purpose of the baking tray is to catch any shavings that fall off the cake board so that they don’t go all over the counter.

To decorate this cake with a chocolate sail, melt chocolate chips in the microwave at 50% power and spoon the melted chocolate onto parchment or wax paper.

Spread the melted chocolate onto the paper with your offset spatula. Aiming for an even thickness and try to get it as smooth as possible.

Drape the paper over the top of a bottle to make an upside down bowl shape and arrange the paper to give the sail the shape you want. If you’re looking for more design ideas, I have a detailed tutorial on Chocolate Sails 5 Ways.

When the chocolate sets and hardens after about an hour in the fridge or about two hours at room temperature, carefully peel the chocolate away from the paper to release the sail.

Now place the sail on top of your cake! If the frosting has set, the sail won’t stick to it so you can spread some fresh buttercream onto the cake where you’re going to place the sail, to act as a glue.

Looking at this elegant little cake, you would never guess it started out as something as simple as a cupcake!

For this next cake I’m using vanilla cupcakes and covering the crumb coat with a final coat of pink buttercream.

You need smooth frosting rather than textured frosting for this design. After smoothing the frosting and tidying up the top edge, chill the cake for 30 minutes in the fridge to set the frosting.

Meanwhile, prepare a piping bag with buttercream. I have a bowl of a few different shades of pink and purple buttercream stirred together just a little bit together, to leave the colour marbled.

Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a petal tip (this is a Wilton #104). You can see that this tip has a narrow end and a wider end, which is important for the next step.

Holding the bag facing down with the wider end pressed against the side of the chilled cake. As you apply pressure to the bag, pull the bag slowly upwards, moving your hand from side to side to make the ribbons of buttercream wave back and forth up the side of the cake.

I don’t like this ribbon so I’m scraping it off with my frosting smoother and this works because the frosting on the cake has set because it’s cold, so the frosting isn’t damaged by the pressure of my frosting smoother as I scrape.

If you use whipped cream frosting or a meringue based frosting that doesn’t set, you can still pipe these ruffles but be very careful not to scrape the frosting with the piping tip because you’ll drag indents into it.

After piping ribbons all the way around the cake, use an offset spatula to swipe the tops of the ribbons, which are sticking up over the top edge of the cake, from the outside towards the middle of the cake and up off the cake, so that the ruffles are level with the top of the cake.

And here it is! Another pretty little cake that looks nothing like a cupcake! For more decorating ideas, check out my tutorial on 8 Ways To Use A Petal Tip.

Here’s the video version of this tutorial:

Fondant is easy to make and if you don’t mind getting your hands a bit sticky, it’s worth the time to save money on pre-made fondant!

Ingredients

3/4 cups water
3 tablespoons (3/4oz or 21g) gelatin
19 1/2 cups (2500g or 5lb 8oz) powdered sugar
3 tablespoons glycerin
1 1/2 cups liquid glucose
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon clear (aritificial) vanilla essence

Method

1. Whisk water and gelatin together in a saucepan and leave to rest for 15 minutes.

2. Warm the water and gelatin mixture over low heat, stirring occasionally with a spatula, until the gelatin has dissolved.

3. Add glycerin to the saucepan and stir until dissolved.

4. Add glucose to the saucepan and stir until dissolved.

5. Add shortening to the saucepan and stir until dissolved.

6. Add vanilla or other flavouring to the saucepan. If you want to tint the whole batch the same colour, you can add gel food colour now as well. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.

7. Measure out the powdered sugar and pile it in a heap on a table or wide counter, making a well in the center.

8. Pour the mixture from the saucepan into the well in the powdered sugar. Optionally, rub vegetable shortening on your hands so that the mixture doesn’t stick to you as much. Use your hands to fold the powdered sugar into the mixture, working quickly so that the mixture doesn’t spill over the edge of the table or countertop. Continue folding until you have made a ball of fondant. It will be sticky until it has set overnight.

9. Wrap the ball tightly in 2 layers of cling film or saran wrap and then place inside a large ziplock bag. Store at room temperature for several weeks.

Watch my video tutorial at the top of the page for visual, step by step instructions!

In this tutorial I’m going to show you 8 ways to use a petal tip, like this number 125 tip. By angling the tip differently, you can create different effects for all sorts of textured designs! If you prefer to watch a video of this tutorial, scroll down to the bottom of the page.

1. Shapes filled with lines

By holding the wide end of the petal tip against the cake with the narrow end pointing outwards, you can pipe thin strips of buttercream to fill in any shape on the side of a cake.

Here, I’m piping a rainbow heart onto textured frosting and I’ve outlined the heart with a toothpick to show me where to pipe.

If you pipe too far or the piping droops, you can take off excess buttercream or move the line higher or lower because the buttercream is still soft and pliable. If you wait more than a few minutes, the buttercream will set and then you won’t be able to do this.

I used my 4 Minute Buttercream for this cake but you could use ganache or whipped cream instead. The advantage of my buttercream is that when it sets it holds its shape so you can rest the piping tip against the side fo the cake as you pipe and you won’t scratch and damage the frosting. I set my buttercream by putting the cake in the fridge for about an hour.

2. Vertical ribbons

Instead of piping horizontally you can pipe vertically up the sides of a cake. This works best on smooth frosting rather than textured frosting.

Hold the petal tip the same way, with the wide end pressed against the cake and the narrow end pointing outwards. Move the bag away from you slightly and then pull it back towards you to create these pretty vertical ribbons winding up the sides of the cake.

If you let the frosting on the cake set before you do this then if you pipe a ribbon you don’t like you can use your frosting smoother or an offset spatula to scrape it off, and since the frosting on the cake has set, you won’t damage it by scraping off the ribbon.

When you’ve finishing scraping you can pipe another ribbon over the top.

On this cake I’m trying to space the ribbons evenly around the cake, to make sort of a pattern around the cake.

For this cake I’m wiggling the ribbons randomly up the sides of the cake, trying to cover the whole surface of the side of the cake with buttercream that folds back and forth over itself. I’m using my one bag piping technique for this cake to create the ombre pink and purple ribbons.

3. Diagonal ruffles

By holding the petal tip with the wide end pressed against the cake and the narrow end pulled slightly away from the cake, the buttercream fans out and makes ruffles.

If you move the piping bag slowly while applying pressure, the buttercream will wiggle a bit and fold over itself as it comes out of the tip and that gives the ruffles some movement.

Here I’m overlapping each ruffle by about half to make sure I completely cover up the frosting underneath, so that this entire section of the cake is covered with rows of buttercream ruffles.

This is going to be a mermaid cake with decorations made out of melted candy and you can watch that tutorial here.

For this cake, I’m holding the petal tip the same way, with the narrow end lifted slightly off the cake, to pipe buttercream ruffles going diagonally up the cake.

This cake is covered in a sugar icing sheet, so I can press the wide end of the tip against the cake without damaging it. I share my experience for icing sheets in my Ultimate Guide To Icing Sheets.

After piping these ruffles I’m putting the cake in the fridge to set the ruffles and then making an edible gold paint with luster dust and vodka to paint the edges of the ruffles.

Because the buttercream has been chilled, it’s hard and the ruffles hold their shape as I paint them.

4. Drawing shapes

Holding the petal tip the same way, with the wider end pressed against the cake and the narrow end lifted slightly off the side of the cake, you can pipe shapes.

Here I’m piping a rainbow by curving the buttercream in an arc, starting with red and then going through the colours of the rainbow.

I’m overlapping each ruffle over the previous one to make sure I’m completely covering up the frosting on the cake with each arc of colour. For more rainbow cake ideas, check out my tutorial on 10 EPIC Rainbow Cakes.

5. Layered ruffles

To cover a cake complete with layered ruffles, first frost the top of the cake and smooth the frosting around the edges and on top.

Then hold your petal tip with the narrow end pointing upwards, so that the tip is just above the top edge of the cake, and pipe a ruffle of buttercream all around the top of the sides of the cake, so that it’s sticking up slightly above the top of the cake.

Release your pressure on the piping bag when you’ve gone all the way around the cake to finish the first ruffle. Move your piping bag down and start the next ruffle so that it’s layered over the bottom of the previous ruffle.

Continue all the way down the cake like this to layer the ruffles, changing colours along the way if you want to create an ombre gradient of colours or a rainbow.

If you’re using several colours, it’s helpful to have a coupler for your piping bags so that you can change the tip from one bag of buttercream to another without having to first empty the bag to get the piping tip out so that you can use it with the next colour.

As you move around the cake, the faster you pull the bag, the less the ruffles will wiggle but the slower you move the bag as you squeeze out the buttercream, the more they’ll wiggle to create these pretty wavy edges.

I like to start and end each ruffle at the same point, so that the joins line up above each other, and that will be the back of the cake.

6. Zig zag ruffles

For zig zag ruffles, hold the piping bag horizontally with the narrow end of the petal tip pointing away from the cake.

As you apply pressure to the bag to squeeze out the buttercream, move the bag up and down as you spin the cake on the turntable. It’s helpful to score a line in the crumb coat before you do this, to guide you on how far to pipe up the side of the cake so that your rows of zig zag ruffles are even.

You can pipe rows of these ruffles on top of each other or you can pipe them in stripes, and I have a class on my online cake school with all of the details for this design with ruffled stripes and homemade metallic chocolates on top.

7. Squiggly shapes

Similar to the heart shape filled with strips of buttercream on the first cake in this tutorial, you can outline a shape onto a cake and then fill it with squiggles using a petal tip.

The narrow end of the tip should be facing outwards from the cake and as you squeeze the buttercream out of the bag, move the bag back and forth in random directions to fold the buttercream over itself and create random squiggles to fill the shape.

It’s easiest to start at the bottom of the cake so that you can reach the rest of the shape, because if you start at the top and work your way down it’s difficult to angle your wrist to get into the bottom section of the shape.

8. Flowers

Not surprisingly, petal tips are great for piping the petals of buttercream flowers!

For a rose, pipe a blob of buttercream onto the middle of a cupcake – I’ll also show you how to pipe flowers to transfer onto a cake.

Hold the piping tip with the wider end pointing downwards and have to top of the tip slightly higher than the top of your blob, and apply pressure to the bag to squeeze out the buttercream as you twist the cupcake between your fingers to spin it so that the buttercream wraps around the blob.

Release your pressure and pull away after doing a full loop to form your first petal! Only the top of this will be visible so don’t worry about the sides.

Now pipe a ring of petals, keeping the narrow end of the tip pointing upwards, piping little arcs that rise up in the middle and overlapping the previous petal by a third or a half so that they wrap over each other.

Keep the tops of the petals as close as possible to the bud in the middle. Now pipe another ring of petals, starting each arc to the left or right as the arc in the inner ring so that they don’t line up but instead they’re all offset. Just like in the previous ring of petals, each petal should overlap the previous petal.

Continue with these rings of petals and for your final ring of petals, pay attention to where you start each arc to make sure you cover up the bottom of the previous ring of petals, since this will be the outer edge of the rose and it will be visible at the end.

If you want to put the rose on a cake, you’ll need a flower nail and a square of parchment paper or wax paper which you can buy pre-cut or cut yourself out of a roll of paper. Pipe a dot of buttercream onto the flower nail and then press a square of paper into it to secure it in place and then pipe your flower on top.

After piping your flower, pull the paper off the nail and put it on a board or plate in the freezer for about 30 minutes to chill it. Watch this video to learn how to pipe 8 easy buttercream flowers.

Then you can peel the flower off the paper or slide an offset spatula underneath the flower to lift it off the paper.

Place the flower on the frosting on a cupcake or attach it to a cake with a dot of fresh buttercream.

Here’s the video version of this tutorial:

Have you ever wondered how to get frosting so perfect that it looks like fondant? I’m going to show you how to get smooth frosting using just 3 tools: a turntable, an offset spatula and a frosting scraper. If you prefer to watch a video of this tutorial, scroll to the bottom of the page.

I frost all of my cakes with my 4 Minute Buttercream but this technique will work for whipped cream, ganache, and meringue buttercreams as well. Whatever you use for your frosting, the consistency is very important. If it sticks to the cake in clumps and pulls off the cake when you try to spread it, it’s too thick.

To test the frosting before spreading it onto your cake, scoop some up with a spatula. It needs to be thick enough that it holds its shape when you lift a spatula out of the bowl, but the peaks should be smooth, not rugged. If you’re using my 4 Minute Buttercream you can thin it out with a bit of cream or milk until you get a nice spreadable consistency.

After you’ve built your cake, start by spooning some frosting onto the top. Use an offset spatula to spread it all over the top of the cake, going right up and over the edges of the cake so there’s no cake exposed on top. It’s easiest to do this with a cold cake. I put my cake layers in the freezer for about 30 minutes before I frost them. This makes them firmer, so crumbs are less likely to come off.

Never lift the spatula straight up off the cake, because it will pull the frosting and maybe some cake up with it. Angle the spatula slightly and pull it off the cake in a sweeping motion and that way it will come off neatly.

Once the top is covered, put the top of the spatula in the middle of the cake and angle the spatula at about 45 degree and then spin the cake, scraping off the top of the frosting and leaving a smooth top. You can do this a few times until you’re happy with the top.

Then use your offset spatula to apply the frosting to the sides of the cake, spreading it around a bit at a time, swiping the spatula off the cake in a continuous motion when you’re finished with a section instead of lifting it straight off the cake because that would pull off the frosting and maybe some of the cake crumbs.

I like to go from top to bottom with the frosting, and then I go around the top again to make sure the frosting goes up over the top of the cake. If it doesn’t, you’ll have gaps in between the sides and top of the frosting.

This first coat of frosting is a crumb coat, to lock in any crumbs that come off the cake, and we’re going to do a second coat of frosting later so this one doesn’t have to be perfect. You’ll probably be able to see the cake through the frosting in some places and that’s fine. We’ll cover it up later,

Next you need a frosting scraper or frosting smoother. Anything with a flat side – it can be plastic, metal or acrylic. Hold it against the side of the cake and spin the turntable towards you with the other hand, scraping the frosting smoother around the cake. When you can’t spin the turntable any further, swipe the frosting smoother off the cake.

After going around the cake a few times with your frosting smoother, you’ll notice some areas where there are indents in the frosting, where it’s not as thick as it is over the rest of the cake. Use your offset spatula to fill these areas in, spreading a bit of frosting over them and then scrape with your frosting smoother again.

When you’ve filled in all of the gaps, scrape with your frosting smoother again. Remember that this coat of frosting doesn’t have to be perfect – it’s just the first layer.

When you’ve finished your crumb coat, it needs to set before you apply the next coat. I chill my cake layers before frosting so my crumb coat sets within a few minutes in a fridge but if your cake is at room temperature, you can leave it for about an hour to set or put it in the fridge for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Now we’re going to repeat the process, starting with the top of the cake, using an offset spatula to spread frosting all over the top of the cake and then spinning the cake to smooth out the top. Your offset spatula should reach from the middle of the cake all the way to the edges. You’re going to smooth the top again later so this isn’t the final surface, but it’s easier later if it’s already neat.

Now apply the frosting to the sides, going from the top all the way down to the bottom, spreading it from side to side to cover the whole cake. You might need to spread more buttercream around the top of the sides to make sure the frosting goes all the way up over the top of the sides of the cake, to make sure there are no gaps, aiming for the same thickness all the way around the sides of the cake.

Scrape around the cake with your frosting smoother and after each scrape, wipe any frosting off from the frosting smoother into a bowl with your offset spatula.

After a few scrapes, use your offset spatula and some more frosting to touch up any indents in the frosting, where it isn’t as thick as on the rest of the cake. Scrape around with your frosting smoother until you’re happy with the smoothness of the sides. It’s important to wipe off your bench scraper after every time you smooth the cake, so you’re not wiping bits of frosting back onto the cake where it’s already smooth.

If you start spinning the turntable just before you press the bench scraper against the frosting, you won’t indent the frosting when the bench scraper touches it. You’ll leave a little textured line when you lift the bench scraper off the frosting so when you do your next scrape, start with the bench scraper on the other side of that line so you cover it up with the next scrape.

Smooth frosting is the foundation for so many cake designs. Once you’ve mastered this, you can decorate all kinds of styles of cakes. I have a free online course on 10 Frosting Techniques and you can sign up here.

When you’re happy with the sides, tidy up the top edge of the frosting on the cake. Swipe your frosting smoother or offset spatula from outside the cake into the middle, pulling any overhanging frosting with it. The pressure of your frosting smoother will cause the frosting on the sides below to bulge a bit but don’t worry about that yet – this is just the first round.

Scrape around the sides of the cake again to flatten the bulge of frosting around the top of the sides and then tidy up the top again, swiping from the outside to the middle.

You can do this as many times as you like, until you like the shape of the cake. By alternating between scraping the sides and the top of the cake, the edge around the top of the cake will get neater and sharper as you go.

This technique takes a few tries to perfect but I love how simple it is – you only need a turntable, offset spatula and frosting smoother. To give you an idea of my process, in real time this cake took me 18 minutes to frost.

You can watch the video of this tutorial below or for my online ‘Frost Along’ class, where I frost a cake from start to finish while you follow each step as you frost your cake, click here.

Here’s the video version of this tutorial:

Meringue pops make fun, colourful cake toppers or they’re a whimsical dessert on their own!

This recipe makes about 24 meringue pops, depending on their size.

Ingredients
4 egg whites (about 160g or 5 1/2 oz)
1 cup (225g or 8oz) of sugar
pinch of salt
about 24 cookie pops, wooden skewers or toothpicks

Method

1. Separate 4 eggs by cracking them and then passing the yolk back and forth between the two halves of the eggshell, letting the egg whites fall into the bowl of your mixer. Save the yolks for another use. Add sugar and salt to the mixing bowl.

2. In a small saucepan, bring about an inch of water to a boil. Turn off the heat and place the bowl of your mixer on top of the saucepan so it’s not touching the water.

3. Whisk the mixture with a whisk for 2 minutes. Pinch a bit of the mixture and rub your fingers together. If you can feel any grains of sugar, whisk for another minute. If the mixture is smooth, it’s ready for the next step!

4. Transfer the bowl to your mixer and use the whisk attachment to whisk until stiff peaks form, about 7 minutes.

5. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit (95 degrees Celsius). Optionally, divide mixture into bowls and add a few drops of gel food colour to each one, folding it gently to mix.

7. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star tip (I used a 1M) and pipe swirls onto the parchment paper, leaving an inch between each one in case they expand during baking.

For two tone meringue pops, place two colours of the meringue mixture side by side in the piping bag.

8. To jazz up the meringue pops, sprinkle them now (before baking) with sugar pearls, sprinkles or sanding sugar.

9. Optionally, insert a cookie stick, wooden skewer or toothpick into each meringue, pushing in gently into the middle of the meringue swirl. If you prefer, you can place the stick on the baking tray before piping the meringues, piping a tiny dot of the meringue mixture onto the tray to attach the stick so that it doesn’t move around while you’re piping the meringue swirl.

10. Bake for 90 minutes. Touch a meringue and if it’s still stick, bake for another 30 minutes. When the meringues are hard, turn off the oven but leave the meringues inside for 2-3 hours to cool gradually so they don’t crack.

11. Now push the pops into your cake or store them in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge.

Watch my video tutorial below for more visual, step by step instructions!

In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to decorate a cake with these gorgeous wavy buttercream ruffles and very easy mermaid tail and seaweed made with sugar! If you prefer to watch a video of this tutorial, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Start by preparing the sugar decorations. You can use any hard candy or boiled sweets for these – I’m using green and blue Jolly Ranchers.

Put them in bowls and microwave them for 30 seconds at a time until they become a liquid that moves around like maple syrup would when you tilt the bowls. These aren’t cooked enough yet – they’re not completely solid but they’re moving very slowly, more like a thick honey than maple syrup, so when I push the green sugar into my mold with a spatula, it sticks to my spatula instead of pouring easily into the mold.

After microwaving them for another 30 seconds the consistency is perfect!

The melted sugar pours easily into the mold, spreading to fill it. This is a silicone mold so its fine to use a liquid this hot, and sugar gets VERY hot when you melt it so be careful not to touch it.

Leave it to set and harden for about 30 minutes and then carefully push it out of the mold. Because the middle of the tail is so thin and narrow, it’s easy to snap it as you push it out and if that happens you can just put the whole thing – the mold with the sugar inside – back into the microwave to melt the sugar again and then leave it to set and try again to take it out.

If you do this too soon, before the sugar has set, the sugar will stick to the mold so you’ll know if needs more time. 15 minutes later and the tail has set so some out of the mold easily. If there are any pieces of sugar around the tail shape you can snap them off now.

Now repeat the process, heating up the rest of the coloured sugar in the microwave and pouring it into the mold, and I like to use two colours for this but you don’t have to. You can try to tidy up the edges now with a knife but sugar I really sticky so it’s a bit tricky, so it’s easier to snap these extra bits off later, when the sugar has set.

Now immediately push the other tail gently onto the top of this one, so that it sticks to the melted sugar and they’ll merge together as the melted half sets.

Leave it for about 30 minutes and then push it out of the mold, pulling back the silicon and using your fingers to push from behind to gently push out the tail.

Now for some seaweed! Use some more candy, melting it the same way and then pouring it in strips onto a piece of parchment paper, or you could use a silicon baking mat. I’m using green and blue again, and after reheating the blue a few times it becomes this dark emerald green colour which is perfect for seaweed.

Leave them to set for a few minutes and as soon as they’re cool enough to touch and hard enough to be able to lift up from the paper, peel them off and gently twist the two ends between your hands.

This light green one is the perfect temperature for this, just set but still flexible enough to be able to twist easily, but the darker ones have sat here for a bit too long so I can’t twist them much.

Now you’ll need your cake, which should be covered in smooth frosting. Use a piping bag fitted with a petal tip and hold it with the narrow end of the tip to point outwards, with the wide end pressed against the cake. Squeeze the buttercream out and lift the bag slowly, keeping the wide end of the tip pressed gently against the side of the cake and wiggling your hand to create wavy ruffles going up the cake.

I’m overlapping each ruffle by about half so that you can’t see any of the frosted cake in between them. The more slowly you move your piping bag up the side of the cake as you squeeze the buttercream out, the more your ruffles will wiggle and become wavy, and you can exaggerate this to give the ruffles even more movement by wiggling your hand slightly as well.

You can do this immediately after frosting your cake, you just have to be very careful that you don’t knock the frosting with the piping tip because you’ll damage it. I like to let the frosting set before piping ruffles because then I can’t damage it and also because it get firmer so it holds its shape, so the weight of the ruffles won’t drag the frosting down which can make your edges around the top of the cake less sharp.

You can use any petal shaped tip for this and with the Wilton petal tips, the higher the number, the longer the petal so the wider your ruffles will be. This is a 104 which I love for this little 4” cake but for an 8 or 10” cake I would use a #125 so that the ruffles would be wider and I think in better proportion to the size of the cake, and I wouldn’t need to pipe as many to cover the surface of the cake.

Now make a little splash for the mermaid tail to stick out of, using the same piping tip with the narrow end facing outwards as you spin the cake on the turntable to pipe a little circle. I’m piping another one of top, and you want the hole in the middle of the circles to be smaller than the wide base of the tail so that it’s buried inside these ruffles and it looks like the rest of the mermaid is inside the cake.

Straight away, before the buttercream sets, push the tail into the middle, pushing down until you feel the resistance of the cake so you know the tail is wedged firmly into the frosting.

To add the seaweed, just choose where you want it to go and press it into the side of the cake. If your frosting has set you’ll have to use a bit more pressure to attach the seaweed, than if you’ve just frosted your cake, but if you have only just frosted the cake and the frosting is still soft and sticky, you’re more likely to create a bulge in the frosting when you push the seaweed in, so I like to let the frosting set before doing this.

Now refrigerate the cake to chill the ruffles so that they set and hold their shape before adding some sparkle. I’m using disco dust on a paintbrush for this.

Gently dab the edges of the ruffles and because they’ve been chilled you can brush along them without damaging them. If they start to soften as the buttercream warms up you can put the cake back in the fridge for 15 minutes to chill it again.

I recommend refrigerating the cake until 2-4 hours before serving it, so that the ruffles hold their shape perfectly without dropping and after a few hours at room temperature the cake and frosting will have warmed up and will soft and delicious!

Here’s the video version of this tutorial:

This one bag piping technique is not only very easy, requiring minimal tools and with minimal cleanup, but it also creates really striking colorful results! If you prefer to watch a video of this tutorial, scroll to the bottom of the page.

All you need is a piping bag with any piping tip, and I’ll show you a few different examples in this tutorial.

Tint your buttercream the colours you want and the first way to do this is to line them up down the middle of a piece of cling film or saran wrap.

I like this method because you can see what you’re doing and it’s easier to clean the piping bag at the end but I’ll show you two other methods in a moment.

If you use the cling film method, fold the cling film over the buttercream and roll it into a log that will fit into a piping bag later.

Twist the ends to hold the buttercream in place and cut off one end where the buttercream begins.

Then drop the buttercream log into your piping bag with the cut side facing downwards, towards the piping tip.

Now pipe onto your cake and as you pipe, the colours higher up in the bag will gradually push through the middle of the bag and then out through the tip at the end, so the colours will change gradually and blend slowly into each other.

I’m using a 199 piping tip for these rosettes, which are quite dramatic, gothic-like spikes. This one-bag piping technique looks really striking on this cake, as you can see different colours from the bag showing up in different parts of the same piped rosette.

If you run out of buttercream, just add more buttercream to the top of the bag and then continue piping. If you’re using a cling film log within your piping bag, make sure you pull that out before adding more buttercream, otherwise the cling film will get caught in the piping tip as your pipe the buttercream out.

I love how dramatic this cake looks, and no one would ever guess how easy it is to achieve the gradient of colours!

Now for some variations and some notes about what can go wrong and how to avoid or fix those mistakes. You can use this technique for any kind of cake, not just a round one. Here I’m going to use it for a sheet cake and it works well on cupcakes too!

I’m cutting my sheet cake in half to make an extra long cake and arranging the halves on a board to display it.

Instead of the cling film method you can spoon your buttercream into a piping bag. It’s easiest and less messy to fold your piping bag over a glass to hold it open while you do this. Make sure you push each colour of buttercream all the way down into the bottom of the bag so that there’s no air trapped in the bag, which will cause the buttercream to spit out later as you’re piping.

And here are my pretty pastel rainbow colours, ready for one-bag piping! By following the colours of the rainbow in order, not jumping around too much, the colours belnd into each other nicely but I’ll show you on the next cake what happens if you don’t order the colours this way.

I’m starting at one end of the cake, piping with the first colour of buttercream in the bag, which is this pale green colour.

If you have too much of one colour in the bag and you want to move on to the next colour, like I want to do here, pipe some of the buttercream out into a bowl until you see the next colour coming through and then go back to your cake.

As soon as I see the blue coming through the green frosting in the bowl, I’m going back to the cake, and now the rosettes and swirls are green with some blue.

As you continue piping you’ll see the colours blend into each other, moving onto the colours higher up in the bag but still incorporating the previous colours in parts of the piping. With this technique the colours don’t pipe out individually, like they would if you used different piping bags for each color. Instead, each colour pipes through the previous colours, so they blend together gradually.

I’ve run out of buttercream some I’m folding the bag over a glass again and you can either add more of the last colour, which for me would be that pale orange, or a new colour, and I’m choosing to do a pale coral for my last colour.

Squeeze the buttercream all the way down and because the rest of the colours are still lining the bag, when you squeeze the bag to pipe out this new colour of buttercream it’s pushing out past all of those other colours so they’ll also be incorporated in the piping of this new colour, continuing this pretty blending effect throughout the cake.

Here’s an example of when colours don’t blend as prettily together. When you line up colours in the bag that are contrasting, like blue and orange, as the orange pushes through the blue buttercream in the piping bag the colours will blend to make a sludgy shade of brown.

You can use this technique for other buttercream details, not just frosting a cake, like piped flowers. I’m layering my colours in the bag and since I’m not using a glass to open the bag and I’m not pushing each colour down to the bottom of the bag, the colours will blend together randomly.

As I pipe, the first flowers are pink and the more orange and yellow comes through in the later flowers, so I could arrange these on a cake to make a cascade of ombré coloured flowers going down the side of the cake.

I love this technique because it’s so versatile so as well as being easy to do and easy to clean up, there are endless possibilities for cake designs with it! I’d love to see what you create so if you share any pictures on Instagram please tag me, @britishgirlbakes.

Here’s the video version of this tutorial:

In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to create camouflage buttercream and how to make camouflage cake toppers with chocolate!

To tint buttercream for camouflage, you’ll need more than just green food colouring because that will make only bright shades of green. To create duller shades of green, add a tiny bit or orange or red or brown with a toothpick.

You can see how this changes the color from grass or leaf green to more of an olive or khaki colour.

Frost your cake with any of the colours you’re going to use for the camouflage design, but I recommend choosing one of the lighter colours because if you use a darker colour, you’ll need very thick frosting for the lighter colours to cover up that dark base colour of frosting. I have a detailed tutorial on how to get perfectly smooth buttercream with sharp edges.

You’re going to cover all of this base frosting with patches of different shades of green and brown, so it’s okay if you have a few irregularities in it, but this coat of frosting gives the cake its final shape so you want the sides to be straight and the top edge to be sharp. When you’re happy with the frosting, put the cake in the fridge to chill the frosting so that it hardens for the next step.

Meanwhile, prepare the rest of your colours. To make brown I’m using melted chocolate, which I’ve let cool for a few minutes before mixing it into my buttercream so that it doesn’t melt the buttercream.

The more chocolate you add, the darker the colour, and if you find that the chocolate makes the buttercream too stiff, just add a bit of milk or cream to thin out the consistency. You could of course use brown colouring instead for this.

For my greens, I’m setting aside some of the frosting that I used for my base frosting on the cake, and adding more leaf green and orange gel colours to the rest to make another two shades of darker green.

Put your buttercream colours into piping bags with the ends snipped off so there’s a small hole for the buttercream to come out of. If you only have one piping bag you can do this one colour at a time, emptying and washing and drying the bag between colours.

Once your cake is cold and the frosting is firm, create the first patch of colour on your cake. You’ll need an offset spatula and a frosting smoother for this. If you’re using a piping bag, it’s easiest to pipe the outline first and then fill in the middle. If you don’t have a piping bag or don’t want to use one, you can spread the coloured buttercream straight onto the cake. You’ll have a bit less control over the shape of your patches of colour and they’ll be more rugged and uneven around the edges, which might be what you’re looking for anyway.

After covering the area you want with buttercream, use your offset spatula to scrape off any excess so that it’s not too thick.

Then use your frosting smoother to scrape over it a few times to smooth it out and also make the frosting thinner so that it doesn’t stick out so much from the frosting on the cake.

If you alternate the direction you scrape, pulling the frosting smoother towards you once and then pushing it away from you the next time, you’ll keep the patch of buttercream closer to the original shape you piped or spread. If you pull the frosting smoother towards you every time, you’ll drag the buttercream closer to you and make the patch wider.

You can pipe or spread several patches at a time and then switch to your frosting smoother to scrape them all, but keep in mind that the longer you leave the piped or spread buttercream sitting on top of the frosting, the colder it will get as it starts to stick to the cold frosting on the cake, and then it won’t spread as easily when you use your frosting smoother.

This means that if you pipe several patches at once, your patches will end up very similar to the original shape you piped or spread.

For example, look at how intentional the patch of colour above is, which I scraped after piping several patches at once, compared to this patch, which I piped and then scraped immediately.

If you scrape too much buttercream off, revealing the frosting underneath, just spread or pipe a bit more on and scrape over it again with your frosting smoother.

You don’t have to stick to the sides of your cake, you can do the top as well. Wipe your frosting smoother off after each time you use it so that you don’t drag buttercream back onto the cake, which will mess up any smoothing you’ve already done.

To make a patch go over the top of the cake and down onto the sides, follow exactly the same technique, starting by spreading or piping on the buttercream.

Scrape off any excess with your offset spatula and then smooth it with your frosting smoother on both the sides and top of the cake, and by alternating smoothing the side and the top you’ll get a nice sharp edge at the top.

Chill the cake when you finish the first colour and when the frosting has set you can do the next colour. Repeat the process: pipe, spread, and scrape to smooth.

I’m doing my lightest colour next, which is the buttercream leftover from frosting my cake. You could just leave some areas without frosting to leave the base coat exposed, but I want the frosting to be smooth so I’m covering up the base coat with a bit of that colour of frosting so that it’s sitting level with the rest of the patches of frosting on the cake.

Finally, my darkest colour of buttercream. You can imagine that if I’d chosen this colour for the base frosting on the cake, since it’s such a dark colour, when I spread the lightest colour of buttercream over it to make light green patches I’d have to spread it really thickly to cover up this dark colour. That’s why it’s best to use the lightest colour or even which for the base frosting.

You don’t have to do this one colour at a time – you can switch back and forth between colours if you like – but you should space the patches out around the cake so that they don’t touch each other until you’ve chilled the cake to set the patches, because if you make two patches of different colours right next to each other, the buttercream will blend together where it meets as you scrape to smooth one colour, instead of being distinct coloured patches.

When you’ve covered the whole cake with buttercream patches, put it back in the fridge to set the frosting and meanwhile, make some camouflage decorations!

Melt chocolate or candy melts in the microwave at 50% power for a minute at a time so that they don’t burn and seize.

This is parchment paper or you can use wax paper, and I’m spooning the melted chocolate onto the paper and then using the back of the spoon to swipe it upwards to make some chocolate foliage for the cake.

Put them in the fridge to set when you finish, which will take about 30 minutes, or you can leave them at room temperature for about an hour. Since the cake has been chilled in between colours of patches to set the buttercream, these won’t stick onto the frosting on the cake but I’ll show you how to attach them in a minute.

You can use melted chocolate to decorate anything you want to use on top of the cake, like these macarons. I’m shaking my spoonful of melted chocolate back and forth over them to drizzle them with two shades of green.

Candy melts are easy to use because they’re already coloured and they melt easily but if you prefer you can use white chocolate and after melting it, add a drop of gel color.

Use your leftover buttercream to attach your camouflage decorations to the cake. I’m using a piping bag fitted with a 1M star tip and I’ve filled it with all of my leftover buttercream colours to make blended coloured buttercream.

Once your chocolate foliage has set, pipe swirls of buttercream onto the top of the cake.

Immediately after piping, while the buttercream is still soft and sticky, lift the pieces of chocolate foliage up from the paper and push them into the buttercream swirls.

If you chill the cake again when you’ve finished, that will set the buttercream swirls and hold the foliage securely in place.

For the sides of the cake, pipe or spread little dots of buttercream wherever you want the chocolate foliage to go.

Then push the foliage into them to attach them to the side of the cake.

If you want to overlap them, pipe buttercream onto the chocolate and then press another piece firmly against it.

I’m piping some more swirls on top to attach the macarons but you could use lollipops or candy in different shades of green and brown for this, or macarons in those colours instead of drizzling them with green and brown chocolate.

I added some more foliage to the side of the cake to finish it and here’s the finished result!

Here’s the video version of this tutorial:

Number cakes are very popular for birthdays but instead of the original version made with sugar cookies I’m going to show you how to use cake! If you prefer to watch this tutorial, scroll down to the bottom of the page.

I started with a batch of my Perfect Chocolate cake batter. For two layers of a quarter sheet cake, which makes two numbers of three layers each, I used enough batter for a six inch cake.

Line your baking pans with parchment paper and leave them on the parchment to give your numbers more support later in the process. After the cakes cool, chill them for thirty minutes in the freezer (still on the parchment) to make them easier to carve into numbers later.

While the cakes are chilling, prepare your buttercream. For two numbers for three layers each you’ll need about half a batch of my 4 Minute Buttercream. I used peanut butter buttercream by mixing a quarter of a cup of peanut butter into my buttercream. Add milk or cream until your frosting is smooth and easy to stir but still holds its shape.

Fill a piping bag with frosting. I’m using a round tip but you can play around with different star or open star tips for a different look.

Now sketch out your numbers. Use a piece of paper the size of your cake pan and fold it into three parts or however many numbers you’re going to cut out of your sheet cake. Then when you sketch your numbers within the folds of the paper, you know they’ll fit onto your cake.

Cut out your numbers and place them on a chilled cake, cutting around them with a serrated knife. Cold cakes are much less crumbly than room temperature cakes so they’re easier to cut neatly.

Don’t worry about how the top surface of your cake looks because it’s going to be covered with frosting soon.

For my cake, I baked 2 sheets cakes and I cut three numbers out of each sheet cake, so I had 6 numbers in total – three 2s and three 1s.

Arrange your first layer of each number on a cake board using a few dollops of frosting to secure them to the board.

Now use your piping bag to pipe little dollops of frosting on each number. It looks best if you align your dollops and rows but of course if your numbers curve like the top of my 2, you’ll need more dollops on the outer edge of the curve.

If your dollops aren’t forming nice clean peaks because the frosting is breaking off before the tip of the dollop, you’ll need to add more liquid to your frosting.

After piping your first layer of dollops, place the second layer of each number on top. I like to do this straight away, while the frosting is still fresh and sticky, but you have to be careful as you lower the cakes because if you have to adjust the position after lowering it, you’ll damage the dollops underneath.

Now pipe on another layer of dollops. Try to keep them all the same size. These dollops are going to be covered by cake so it won’t be very noticeable if they aren’t perfectly neat and even but it’s good practice for the final layer of dollops, which will be visible on top of the cake.

Place your final layers of cake on top. At this point you can tidy up your cake board by brushing away any crumbs using a pastry brush or wiping them off with a towel or paper towel.

Pipe on your final layer of dollops and then comes the fun part: decorating!

Straight after piping the final dollops, I sprinkled on some gold glitter and pressed every type of peanut butter chocolate I could find into the dollops, adding a few fresh flowers to make the cake more celebratory. It’s important to decorate immediately after piping the dollops, while the frosting is still sticky so the decorations are easy to place and they stick to the frosting.

Store your cake in an airtight container like a cake caddy. If you’re transporting it I recommend putting it in the freezer for about an hour first so it’s firm for the drive.

This cake is obviously perfect for a 21st birthday but also as a whimsical idea for someone older who would love to be 21 again! If you follow this tutorial to make a number cake or letter cake please tag @britishgirlbakes on social media so I can see your creation!

To watch the video version of this tutorial, click the play button below:

Ganache can be used to fill, frost and decorate a cake and in this tutorial I’ll show you how to make it, how to use it to frost a cake, and how to adjust the ingredient ratios for different results, like using it for a drip or to make truffles or a glaze for donuts.

Making ganache is incredibly simple. There are only 2 ingredients: heavy whipping cream, called double cream in the UK, and semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate. Weigh the ingredients, and I’ll give you the quantities in a moment, and then heat the cream in the microwave or in a pan on the stove.

I like to heat the cream on the stove so I can see what’s happening, because you don’t want to overheat the cream. Remove the pan from the heat as soon as bubbles start forming around the edges of the pan.

Immediately add the chocolate to the pan. You can use chocolate chips or a bar of chocolate but you should chop up a bar of chocolate into approximately equal sized pieces, so that it all melts at the same speed. Use a spatula to push all of the chocolate underneath the cream and then leave it for 5 minutes, still sitting on the counter, not over heat.

Stir the ganache until it’s smooth. If you still have lumps of chocolate even after stirring for a minute or so, you can put the pan back on the stove over a low heat and stir until the lumps melt.

To make ganache to fill and frost a cake, use equal amounts of chocolate and cream, so the ratio is 1:1. So if you use 200g of chocolate, use 200g of cream, too. After making the ganache, leave it to set, which will take about 3 hours at room temperature. You can put it in the fridge to speed up the process but stir it every 15 minutes to keep it smooth. Then use a whisk or a whisk attachment of a mixer to whisk the ganache for a few minutes, until it lightens in colour and has a consistency similar to whipped cream.

Then fill and frost your cake as normal. You’ll probably need a crumb coat, which is a very thin layer of frosting to trap any crumbs that come off the cake, and then you should let that set for about an hour at room temperature or 30 minutes in the fridge before applying your final coat of frosting. You can make smooth frosting with a frosting smoother or textured frosting with a textured cake comb, which is what I’m doing here.

Don’t be intimidated by ganache – frosting a cake with ganache is almost exactly the same as using my 4 Minute Buttercream frosting, so if you’ve used one you’ll be able to use the other. To get rid of any smudges of ganache on the cake board, let the ganache set first and then you can try scraping the smudges with an offset spatula or it’s more effective to wipe them off with a paper towel wrapped around your finger.

To make a drip, use 3 parts of chocolate and 2 parts of cream, so for example if you use 150g of chocolate, use 100g of cream. Let the ganache come to room temperature before you use it and it will thicken as it cools. Your cake should be chilled in the fridge before you apply the drip. Always do a test drip on the back of the cake to see how the ganache will behave, and then you can adjust the consistency of your drip if you need to.

If the drip is too runny, even if it’s at room temperature, you can add more chocolate, heat over a low heat on the stove, stirring until it’s smooth, and then let it cool to room temperature again. If it’s too thick, you can add more cream to loosen it.

Use a spoon or a condiment bottle to drizzle the ganache around the top edge of the cake, pausing wherever you want there to be a drip. Having a cold cake helps to stop the drip on its way down the cake, instead of running all the way down the cake and pooling at the bottom, on the cake board. You can go back and add more drips if you want to, but you should do that immediately after doin got first drips, so that those don’t set first because then there would be a seam where the new drips join the old drips.

If you’re going to cover the top of the cake you should do that now too, immediately after doing the drips around the edge of the cake. Spoon the ganache on or drizzle it with a bottle and then use an offset spatula to smooth it over the top of the cake.

If you like you can spin the cake while slowly dragging the tip of your offset spatula towards the center of the cake to create a spiral pattern on top of the cake.

To make truffles with ganache, make the ganache with 2 parts of chocolate and 1 part of cream. Put the ganache in the fridge until it firms up, about 2 hours, and then scoop it up with a spoon and roll it between your palms into a ball.

You can drop the truffles into a bowl of cocoa powder or powdered sugar or sprinkles and then move them around to coat them completely. I’m putting these around the top of the cake before the ganache drip sets, so that they stick to the ganache, but if the drip has set you could use a tiny dot of leftover ganache frosting or drip to make them stick.

To use ganache to glaze donuts, which is also a 2:1 ratio of chocolate to cream, as soon as you’ve made the ganache and stirred It until it’s smooth, lower a donut into it and twist the donut to coat it in ganache. Lift it up, flip it over, and place it on a wire rack. If there’s ganache in the hole of the doughnut, tap the rack on the counter a few times so that the ganache settles. I cover this in a lot more detail in my tutorial on how to make doughnuts with cake batter.

You can add sprinkles or crushed nuts or candies or whatever you like to garnish or decorate the doughnuts.

If you prefer to watch a video of this tutorial, click the play button below: