This pumpkin spice cake has buttery vanilla cake layers, not-too-sweet cream cheese buttercream filling and lightly spiced pumpkin buttercream frosting. YUM! And I can’t wait to show you how to make these buttercream pumpkins!

Buttery cake layers

You'll only need two quick recipes to make this easy pumpkin spice cake. Start with the cake recipe and while the cakes are cooling you'll make buttercream for the filling and frosting.

The vanilla cake starts with butter and sugar, creamed together for a few minutes. The mixture should look light and creamy like this:

All of your ingredients should be at room temperature so that they mix together easily. Add eggs, vanilla for richness, and then buttermilk and oil to make it really moist. Finish with the dry ingredients: flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt. You'll find the full recipe below and you can toggle between measuring cups and grams for the ingredients!

Divide the batter between three 8 inch pans and bake at 325F or 160C for 35 minutes. The cake should bounce back up when you poke it. If you divide the batter between two pans instead, the cakes will take about 10 minutes longer to bake. Let the cakes cool in their pans for 10 minutes and then turn them out onto a wire rack.

Buttercream filling and frosting for the pumpkin spice cake

For the filling and frosting, start with my 4 Minute Buttercream. The ingredients are just butter, icing sugar or powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Normally you’d add milk to thin this out but don’t do that for this cake. Mix for 4 minutes and it will be quite thick or stiff, which is perfect!

Scoop out one cup and add 2 tablespoons of cream cheese at room temperature. Stir it together and it will get looser or runnier. This is why you skip the milk for this recipe - you don’t want it to be too runny. Spread some onto the middle of a cake board or plate and press your first cake layer down onto it. The buttercream will hold the cake still while you frost it.

Spoon half of the cream cheese buttercream onto the top of the cake. Spread it with an offset spatula or a spoon right up to the edges. Then position the next cake layer on top. Another layer of cream cheese buttercream and then the final cake layer. 

It's important that the filling sets before you frost the cake, otherwise the layers will slide around. Put the cake into the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes to chill and set. Meanwhile, make the pumpkin frosting with the rest of the buttercream. Add pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice and mix together. You can make your own pumpkin pie spice with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. If you don't have those, just use cinnamon instead. I love the colour of this pumpkin buttercream!

How to frost this pumpkin spice cake

Take your cake out of the fridge or freezer and spoon about half of the buttercream on top. Spread it to cover the top of the cake, pushing it over the edges. Hold your offset spatula or palette knife at a 45 degree angle and spin the cake to smooth the frosting.

For the sides, spread the frosting by moving your offset spatula or palette knife from side to side. Completely cover the cake so there’s no naked cake showing through. This is a crumb coat - the first layer of frosting to trap any crumbs that come off the cake. This is much easier with a cold cake because room temperature cake is very crumbly.

Use the side of your offset spatula or palette knife or a cake comb to smooth this frosting. It doesn’t need to be perfect because it's going to be covered up soon. Next, put the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes to set this frosting. For more details on how to frost a cake, check out this tutorial on how to frost a cake.

Cover the pumpkin spice buttercream while you’re not using it so it doesn’t dry out and crust. When the crumb coat has set, cover the cake with the rest of the pumpkin buttercream. Smooth it the same way and then add some details to jazz it up. Read on for three rustic frosting ideas and how to pipe buttercream pumpkins!

Use a spoon to create three different rustic textures

With a spoon you can create all sorts of rustic textured frosting. Hold the spoon sideways and press the back against the frosting and spin the cake to make grooves going around the cake. Drag the spoon slowly upwards to cover the whole cake with texture.

For another rustic texture, hold the spoon vertically and start at the bottom, dragging the spoon gently upwards.

Or curve the spoon around in little arc motions. These rustic textures are great because nothing needs to be precise or neat! For any of them, leave the top uneven or level it by swiping sideways with your offset spatula or palette knife. Check out this tutorial for more cake decorating ideas using kitchen utensils!

How to pipe pumpkins with buttercream

Make pretty piped pumpkins with a piping bag and any star shaped piping tip. I used a #32 and a #18. Add a drop of orange food colouring to the leftover pumpkin buttercream or make a few different shades. Put the tinted buttercream into a piping bag and pipe two curves for the outer edges of a pumpkin.

Work your way in towards the middle with smaller curves. By piping the lines in this order you’ll make the pumpkin appear more rounded.

Try different sizes of pumpkins and you can experiment with different piping tips too. To make pumpkins on top of the cake, squeeze out a blob and then pipe curved lines around it.

For the stems or stalks you'll need brown buttercream. Squeeze out any buttercream left in the piping bag and add brown colouring or melted chocolate. Switch to a piping bag with a small round or star piping tip like a #4 or #16. Pipe little lines going up from each pumpkin, pausing at the top while still squeezing. This makes a wide top of the stem or stalk, instead of leaving a point or peak.

How to store and serve this pumpkin spice cake

You can keep this pumpkin spice cake in the fridge for two or three days. Make sure you take it out 2 hours before you serve it so the cake and buttercream come to room temperature. That’s when they taste the best!

If you have any leftovers, cover the cut sides of the cake with cling film or Saran Wrap. Push the plastic firmly against the cake so it doesn't dry out.

Tell me in the comments if you’re going to make this cake! And remember to save this recipe to Pinterest!

You can also watch a video of how to make this pumpkin spice cake recipe:

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Let's make this cute buttercream Bulbasaur cake without fondant. The only special tools you'll need are parchment or wax paper and some straws.

Bake the Bulbasaur cake layers

Of course, the first step is to bake your cakes. You'll need a 4 inch cake and two 8 inch cakes to make this Bulbasaur cake. I baked both vanilla and chocolate to offer different flavours for the top and bottom half of the cake. The recipes are at the end of this tutorial.

If you're not going to serve the cake on the same day I really recommend using simple syrup. To make simple syrup, pour half a cup of water and half a cup of white sugar into a pan. Bring to a simmer so that the sugar dissolves. After the syrup cools, drizzle it with a squeezy bottle or use a pastry brush.

Wrap the layers in cling film or Saran Wrap and chill them before assembling your cake. You can put them in the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 30 minutes. If you choose to bake your cake layers in advance and freeze them, check out this tutorial on how to freeze cakes.

For the filling and frosting I'm using my 4 Minute Buttercream. The recipes for all of these are at the bottom of this tutorial.

Make a template for your Bulbasaur cake

Before assembling and carving the Bulbasaur cake you'll need a template. I like to do this by setting up a fake cake using the pans I baked my cake layers in. I've used a bowl to prop up a pan the pile is the same height as the cake will be.

This Bulbasaur cake will be about 8 inches wide and 11 inches high. This is almost the same as a piece of printer paper, plus the green plant bulb on the back. To sketch Bulbasaur I'm using pictures from a Google search as references. Choose images of different angles to show you what each side of Bulbasaur looks like. When you sketch Bulbasaur, the body should fit within the piece paper. The green plant bulb doesn't need to because that will be made from the little 4 inch cake.

Draw the outline from three angles: the front, the side, and the top of the head. Measure the head by tracing the width and depth on your front and side view drawings.

These sketches don't have to be super accurate because they're just guidelines to use when you're carving. Once you have your sketches it's time to stack the cakes.

Assemble the bottom cake

To support the weight of the Bulbasaur cake you'll need a cake drum, which is a thick cake board. Choose one at least 14 inches wide. If you don't have one you can glue together four cardboard cake boards to make a thicker board. Take your cake layers out of the fridge or freezer and stack the 8 inch cakes on the board. Slide them off-center to make space for the 4 inch cake behind. Now pipe or spread a dot of buttercream in the middle of where the 8 inch layers will go. Press your first 8 inch cake layer down onto it.

Then pipe or spread buttercream to cover the first layer and repeat with the rest of the 8 inch vanilla cake layers. You're stacking the bottom half of the Bulbasaur cake, which will be the body.

Instead of buttercream filling you can use any other filling. You should still pipe the outer ring of buttercream, which will act as a wall to hold in runny fillings like jam or caramel.

Next add the 4 inch layers, which are the beginning of the plant bulb on Bulbasaur's back. Attach the first 4 inch layer with a dot of buttercream on the cakeboard. Add another dot against the 8 inch layer to stick the body and the bulb to each other. Repeat with the rest of your 4 inch layers. The rest of the bulb will be made with the cake carved off the body and head later.

Carve Bulbasaur’s body

To carve the cake so far, hold up the sketch of the front view. It's easiest to cut along the outline first, to take away the rest of the paper.

Cut diagonally down from the top of each side to trim off two chunks of cake. This will create the approximate shape of Bulbasaur's body. Save these cut-offs for later! Do the same for the side view, carving to make a slope down the top of the back.

Then cut out smaller pieces to create the details. I cut two triangles for the gaps between the outsides of the arms. A third triangle created the gap in between the arms.

When you've made the general shape of the body, trim around any angular parts to make them curved or rounded. Now the body will start to come into being.

For the legs you'll use the first two chunks you cut off at the beginning. Pipe or spread buttercream where they're going to go and then press the chunks of cakes into that buttercream, which will act as glue to attach them.

For the feet, pipe a bit more buttercream onto the front of each leg. Then choose a triangular-shaped piece for each foot. If you don't have a piece the right size you can attach two pieces, stuck together with more buttercream.

When you cover the body with buttercream, the frosting will give the body a more precise, accurate shape.

Before creating the bulb at the back you'll need to carve the head so that you can use those carvings to build up the bulb.

Add supports to the Bulbasaur cake

You'll need a 6 or 7 inch cardboard cake board and some boba straws for this next part. Cut the board to be the size and shape of the top of the body. The head will sit on this board. Boba straws will act as supports to hold the board up. Boba straws are wider and stronger than regular straws.

Position a straw about an inch from the edge of the top of the cake. Push all the way down into the cake until you feel it hit the cake drum at the bottom. Then pinch it where it sticks out of the cake and pull it up and cut it there. Now it's exactly the same height as the cake.

Hold this straw against the other three straws and use it to measure and cut them the same height. These straws will prop up the cake board with the head on top so it doesn't sink down into the body.

Push the first straw back into the cake where it was before and then push the other three in. As you push, check the straw from different angles to make sure it's straight and not at an angle. A straight support is much stronger than a leaning one. Make a square formation of straws with each one about an inch from the edge of the cake. Pipe or spread a dot of buttercream over each straw.

Optionally, cut a hole about half an inch wide in the middle of the board by poking a scissor blade through it. This is a good idea if the cake is going to be driven anywhere. I'll show you what to do with this hole later. Then press down the cake board that you cut. Pick the Bulbasaur cake up and put it into the fridge to chill before you add the head. When the cake is cold it will be firmer and sturdier.

Assemble Bulbasaur’s head

Bulbasaur's head will be made out of chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream. To make chocolate buttercream, add melted chocolate to two cups of the buttercream. Also add cocoa powder mixed with just enough water to make a thin paste. This will make the buttercream super chocolatey.

While the bottom half of the cake is still in the fridge, stack the chocolate layers. This cake will become the head. Alternate cake layers with the chocolate buttercream as filling or use whatever other filling you like.

Carve Bulbasaur's head

Use the sketch of the top view of Bulbasaur's head to carve this cake. Push the sketch to one side of the cake instead of placing it in the middle. Cut around it to give you the shape of the head at its widest part. You'll trim it to shape it later.

Take Bulbasaur's body out of the fridge when you're ready to stack the head on top. If you're going to transport the cake, push a wooden dowel through the hole you cut in the cake board. Measure the height of the cake and cut it just a tiny bit shorter. This will stop the top of the cake sliding around in the car. You can buy the dowels from cake decorating or craft stores. If the cake isn't going anywhere skip the dowel.

Spread some chocolate buttercream on top of the cakeboard to act as glue to attach the head. Then lower the chocolate cake down onto the dowel to center it on top of the board.

Now it's time to carve the head, which is much simpler than the body. Cut a diagonal chunk off the top of each side of the first layer, carving down and inwards. Then cut diagonally upwards from the bottom of the middle layer up to the top layer.

Then use little sawing motions to make the head curve around at the top and the bottom.

Shape the bulb and ears

Next you'll need the rest of the chocolate cake that you cut off when you trimmed around the sketch of the top of the head. Let's call it the chocolate cake leftovers, so that you know what I'm talking about later. Make two cuts to divide it into three pieces, which you'll use to make the bulb shape. Start with the two outer pieces, attaching those onto each side of the 4 inch cake. Use buttercream as glue to attach them.

Then cut the middle section of the chocolate cake leftovers in half. Attach each of those pieces (using buttercream) next to the body to fill out the bulb shape.

For the tip of the bulb and the pointed ears, crumble up the rest of the cake carvings. Mix them with just enough buttercream to hold the crumbs together. The mixture should feel like Play-Doh. Push the mixture onto the top of the bulb to make it rounded with its tip pointing up at the back. Then use little sawing motions to carve the cake layers of the bulb so it's not so angular.

For the ears, pipe or spread a dot of buttercream where you want each one to go. Roll two balls of the cake and frosting mixture a little bigger than a golf ball. Press them into the head and mold them with your fingers to make the ears. When the buttercream sets it will hold the ears in place so that they're sturdy enough to frost.

Put the Bulbasaur cake back into the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to set the buttercream. When the cake gets cold, it will firm up before you frost it.

Crumb coat the Bulbasaur cake

You'll need about 5 cups of buttercream or 1.2 kg for the crumb coat. The crumb coat is much easier with a thin consistency of buttercream rather than when it's stiff. Add some milk until you can stir the buttercream easily and it looks smooth. Use a small offset spatula or palette knife to spread the buttercream all over the cake.

You need to completely cover the cake so there's no naked cake exposed. This layer of frosting is going to trap any crumbs that come off the cake. After this layer sets, those crumbs won't be able to get into the next layer of frosting.

The crumb coat doesn't need to be perfectly smooth because it's going to be covered up soon. But you don't want any big bumps or bulges of buttercream because those could poke through the final layer of frosting. Try to get the crumb coat fairly smooth, which you can do a few different ways. You can use a small offset spatula or cut a small piece of acetate.

Prepare your materials

Put the Bulbasaur cake back into the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to set the crumb coat. Meanwhile, set aside one cup of buttercream and tint the rest turquoise for the body. You'll use the leftovers to tint darker for the teal markings on the body and also for the green bulb.

For turquoise you can use turquoise gel or sky blue with a tiny bit of green. I like to add a small amount of avocado green or brown to make it less bright.

With the cup of white buttercream you set aside, get two little bowls and put about 2 tablespoons into each. To one of the bowls add a tiny drop of red to make pink for Bulbasaur's mouth. Add a few drops of red to the other bowl to make red for the eyes.

Draw a triangle onto parchment or wax paper for Bulbasaur's eye. Cut out two of these and also the pink part of Bulbasaur's mouth. Then take your cake out of the fridge.

Add some details to Bulbasaur

Spread pink frosting where you want the mouth to go and white frosting where you want the eyes to go. You might be able to see dark coloured cake crumbs through the white frosting and if you can, spread on another layer until it covers up the cake underneath.

Then press the parchment eyes and mouth onto the patches of frosting. My 5-year-old made sure he told me me that I made Bulbasaur's eyes too close together! Chill the cake for about 30 minutes to set this frosting and then peel the parchment eyes off.

Use another two pieces of parchment cut in a curve shape as stencils to cover up the outer halves of the eyes. These will stay white and the rest will be red. Also cut two little ellipses or pointed ovals to be the reflections within the red eyes. Now spread the red buttercream over the eyes and peel the curved parchment off.

Then cover the entire eye with the parchment triangle you cut out earlier. You'll peel the ellipses or pointed ovals off later. Scrape away any white or red or pink buttercream that's sticking out around the parchment eyes and mouth.

Frost the Bulbasaur cake

Frost the body and head of the Bulbasaur cake with your turquoise buttercream. The buttercream eyes and mouth will be firm because they're on top of cold buttercream and cake. You can spread over them without damaging those details.

The next part is definitely the most time consuming stage! Smooth this turquoise buttercream. You can use your offset spatula, which will smooth the frosting that the blade scrapes over. But it will leave a trail of texture along both edges of the blade. The other option is to use a small piece of acetate. This works really well for sculpted or carved cakes because it curves around the cake. The acetate will create smooth, rounded shapes. Since it's so thin it doesn't leave the trails of texture that an offset spatula does.

Acetate will pick up buttercream as you smooth, which you'll have to scrape off into your bowl of frosting. Wipe the acetate clean before using it again. This process is slower with acetate than with an offset spatula. I think the quickest smoothing technique with the neatest results is to use an offset spatula first and then acetate.

Get the frosting as smooth as you can with the spatula and then use the acetate to get it even smoother. Since the frosting is already quite smooth, the acetate won't pull off as much buttercream so you won't need to clean it as often compared to skipping the offset spatula stage and going straight in with the acetate.

Just to set your expectations, spreading and smoothing this turquoise buttercream took me 49 minutes. Make sure you give yourself enough time for this part!

Frost Bulbasaur's bulb

Chill the Bulbasaur cake again in the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes to set this turquoise frosting. Then to get the parchment off the eyes, use a toothpick to scrape gently from the middle of the eye outwards. You'll feel the smooth, firm surface of the parchment underneath your toothpick. When that surface changes, you've come to the edge of the parchment. Use your toothpick to pry up the edge of the parchment. Then pinch it and peel it away from the cake. Do the same for the mouth and also for the white reflections within the eyes.

Set aside about a 1/4 of a cup of turquoise buttercream for the teal skin markings. Tint the rest to be a bright green, which you'll use to frost the bulb. But first, use strips of parchment to cover up the turquoise body along the join of the body and the bulb. This will keep the green frosting off the body so that it only covers the plant bulb. Smooth this using you offset spatula or acetate or both.

To create the curves of the bulb, use an offset spatula dipped in warm water to mark out the different sections. Or to make deeper grooves, spread the buttercream more thickly and then use acetate to carve it out between each section.

Pinch the edge of each parchment strip and peel it away from the cake.

To get the frosting even smoother, put the Bulbasaur cake back into the fridge for 30 minutes to set the frosting. Then press a piece of parchment paper over any texture and rub against it with your fingers. You'll flatten the buttercream underneath to leave it smooth.

Add more details to the Bulbasaur cake

For the final details, add more blue and green gel to the little bowl of turquoise frosting you set aside. You're aiming for a teal that's darker than the body. Use a few small pieces of parchment paper to cut out the markings on Bulbasaur's face and body. One by one, press them against the cake and spread the teal buttercream over them. Scrape a few times with your offset spatula to take off the excess frosting, leaving a thin, smooth layer behind.

For the line details on the face, tint about 2 tablespoons of the leftover green buttercream using black gel. Put it into a piping bag with a small round piping tip like a #3. Pipe the eyebrows and the nostrils and also outline the mouth to make a smile or other expression. If you're new to piping, check out my tutorial on 15 piping hacks!

Finally, use the leftover white buttercream in a piping bag with a medium round tip like a #8. Pipe the nails or claws on the feet and hands and also the teeth.

How to store and transport this Bulbasaur cake

Keep this Bulbasaur cake in the fridge to keep the cake and buttercream firm and stable. Take it out just before you transport it, if you're taking it somewhere else to serve. For transportation it's really important to keep this Bulbasaur cake on a flat surface. The flat surface combined with the central dowel and the buttercream you spread on the cake board will prevent the cake from sliding around.

This is a Cake Safe, which comes with a central dowel that I didn't use because I'd already added one.

Place the cake somewhere flat in the car, ideally in the boot or trunk. Another option is the footwell in front of the passenger seat. If you're not taking the cake anywhere, take it out of the fridge about 2 hours before you serve it. This gives the cake and buttercream time to come to room temperature, when it tastes the best.

How to serve a sculpted cake

Serving this cake is really straightforward. Start at the top, cutting down into the head and you'll feel the knife hit the cakeboard under the head. Slide your cake slicer or server in there just above the cakeboard to lift the slice out. Serve the whole top half of the cake like this.

When you've sliced all of that, lift up the cake board that was in the middle of the cake. Now serve the bottom half of the cake.

You can serve about 60 people with this cake. We cut up the leftovers and kept them in a tupperware in the fridge to enjoy for the next week. You could freeze them for up to two months.

So, that's it! Everything you need to know to make a buttercream Bulbasaur cake with no fondant. Ask me any questions in the comments or tell me which character you'd like to see next! And visit my cake school to learn hundreds more cake decorating techniques!

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You can also watch a video of this tutorial on how to make a buttercream Bulbasaur cake without fondant:

I started my cake career making fondant cakes and a few years later switched to exclusively buttercream cake decorating. Yes, you can make sculpted, realistic designs using fondant. But here are 10 buttercream cake decorating techniques that I think are better than fondant!

#1 Piping

With buttercream you can create all kinds of texture with just a piping bag and a piping tip. Vintage or Lambeth cakes are really trendy at the moment:

Or try Russian tips to pipe every petals of each flower with a single squeeze of the piping bag. Piping buttercream is not only a quick technique, it's also a beautiful one. It takes both simple or intricate elaborate cakes to the next level.

#2 Carved buttercream cake decorating

Did you know that you can carve buttercream? When buttercream chills in the fridge it gets firm so you can layer different colours on top of each other. Then use a piping tip or carving tool dipped into warm water to slice through the outer layer of buttercream. You'll reveal the layers below, creating colourful and dimensional patterns and shapes.

#3 Painting on buttercream

Another surprising technique that works on buttercream is painting. Use gel colours and a paintbrush on buttercream that's been in the fridge for at least an hour to set. When it's cold and firm, it doesn't blend with the gel paints.

Or try your hand at the buttercream version of oil painting. Use a palette knife or a tapered offset spatula to layer buttercream colours. You'll create a textured painting like on this floral cake:

#4 Character cakes using homemade stencils

With fondant you can model figures to make 3D characters like Paw Patrol or the Ninja Turtles or Minions. But my favourite characters are cheaper and quicker and more recognizable! With just a few pieces of parchment or wax paper you can make your own stencils. Trace an image one colour at a time to make an identical version of the character. You'll layer these to make characters.

The trick here is to make sure each layer of buttercream sets. Chill the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes before applying the next stencil. With this technique you can make accurate and delicious buttercream representations of characters.

#5 Buttercream flowers

You can make fondant flowers with a stamp but make them even faster with buttercream and a piping tip. This is a 2D, which is a closed flower tip.

With just a squeeze and a twist of your wrist you'll make these gorgeous flowers. By layering different colours in your piping bag you can create all sorts of colourful effects!

Put the flowers in the freezer for 5 minutes to chill them and then press them onto your cake.

#6 Buttercream borders on cakes

To make beaded borders with fondant you need to roll tens or hundreds or thousands of identically sized balls. And then attach each one individually to the cake. The buttercream equivalent is... you guessed it! Faster and easier. Put buttercream in a piping bag and squeeze the bag to push the buttercream out. After it bulges to form a ball, swipe the piping bag away, leaving a tail on the dot. Cover up the tail with the next dot.

With buttercream you can pipe bottom borders but also borders on top of the cake like this trendy rope border. Borders on top of the cake add height and colour and texture. They're such a pretty way to finish off a cake!

#7 Buttercream cake decorating without tools

Buttercream cake decorating is unique because you can do it without tools. Fondant, on the other hand, requires specialist tools like silicon rolling pins and fondant smoothers and cutting tools. Decorate buttercream with household utensils like a spoon, a fork, a ruler, a spatula, a Ziploc bag and even bubble wrap for stunning results!

#8 Texture using cake combs

With a cake comb you can create perfectly smooth buttercream frosting. Or imprint any texture you like using a textured cake comb. This technique is not possible on fondant. It's the same technique as smoothing frosting, which means there are no new skills to learn. It adds detail to a cake in just one to two minutes!

#9 Wrapped buttercream cakes

Buttercream cakes can be wrapped with very detailed buttercream designs. Start by piping onto acetate or parchment paper, tracing a drawing or printed image if you like.

Then transfer it onto a cake covered with a thin layer of buttercream frosting. The design will sit flat against that frosting. Check out my details tutorial on how to use this technique to make a mosaic cake like this:

You can also do this with melted chocolate, which will attach to buttercream frosting on a cake. Both buttercream and chocolate wraps add delicious detail that will make everyone wonder how you achieved the attention-grabbing effect.

#10 Sprinkles for buttercream cake decorating

Sprinkles are great on buttercream because they're easy to attach. Just press them gently against soft buttercream or more firmly against buttercream that's set. You can use sprinkles to add colour, to match a colour scheme, to outline shapes or even to cover a cake completely. And they make for an insanely quick and easy but eye-catching border.

So, which buttercream technique is your favourite or is there a fondant technique you'd love to find a buttercream replacement for? Tell me in the comments and to learn hundreds more buttercream cake decorating techniques visit my cake school. Try out my All You Can Cake membership for access to everything on my cake school with a 7-Day free trial! See you there!

You can also watch a video of this tutorial on 5 buttercream cake decorating techniques that are better than fondant:

These 10 cake hacks to save time will make it less stressful and less time-consuming to make a cake, frost it, and decorate it!

1. Cake hacks to save time with multiple cakes

Save time when you’re making several cakes by doing the same stage for every cake. Then move onto the next stage for all of the cakes.

The first step would be to bake all of your cake layers and make all of your fillings and frostings. I make almost every filling and frosting out of my 4 Minute Buttercream! It can be flavoured with all sorts of ingredients like cream cheese, melted marshmallow, or chocolate.

Then assemble every cake and then crumb coat every cake. This way you’ll work much faster because you take out and put away the tools for each stage only once. Also, when you're in the swing of frosting a cake you’ll frost the second cake much faster. And the third cake even faster!

While some cakes are in the fridge to set the crumb coat, frost another cake so there’s no waiting time. Finally, final coat every cake one after the other, before you do the decorations for every cake. You’ll save so much time this way!

2. Use and reuse buttercream

To make different colours of frosting, start by spooning some buttercream into a separate bowl. Tint it the lightest colour you’ll need. Frost your cake and then add more gel to the leftovers to make the next colour.

In the photos below, I started with pale pink buttercream for a striped cake. Then I added more pink to frost the next cake. Finally, I divided the leftover dark pink buttercream between two bowls. I added purple to one and black to the other, to make ombre frosting.

By getting darker each time, you save time by not needing to wash bowls or spatulas.

3. Save leftover buttercream

Here's another tip for buttercream. Don't try to guess exactly how much you’ll need of each colour because leftovers are ok! So if in doubt, make a little bit more that you think you'll need. It’s difficult and time consuming to try to tint more buttercream to match a colour you’ve already used. On the other hand, having leftovers is actually a time saver!

Leftovers will save you time when you make your next cake in the future. Freeze leftover buttercream in a sealed bag like a ziplock bag for up to 2 months! To thaw it, take it out the night before and by the morning it will have come to room temperature. Cut a corner off the bag and squeeze the buttercream into a bowl. Add more colour if you want to re-tint it. Then stir it quite aggressively to knock out any air bubbles, which tend to appear when the buttercream changes temperature. Now this leftover buttercream is ready to use for your next cake!

4. Take your time to save time!

Don’t rush any part of making a cake. You’ll have to scrape and start again! Save time by taking your time to do it carefully and neatly the first time.

For example, I didn’t chill this cake for long enough before adding the neon green stripes. The purple stripes didn’t set properly and they blended into the green stripes to make a mess. I had to scrape the cake and start again. I would have saved time by not rushing.

If you notice your buttercream is the wrong consistency, don’t try to frost the cake. You’ll spend a lot more time trying to get it neat! Instead, fix it now. If it’s too stiff, scoop up a third of the buttercream and microwave it for 10 seconds. The butter will start to melt, like this:

Stir this back into your main bowl of buttercream and after mixing, it will be smooth with no air bubbles. It will spread onto the cake like a dream!

5. Choose the right tools

Use the right tool for each step of making a cake. For example, a tiny offset spatula is great for mini cakes and stencils. But to frost a 6 inch cake, the same spatula will take forever!

Switch to a bigger offset spatula and finish in half of the time.

Using the right tool will also make your cakes neater. For example, this little offset spatula will flatten the top edge of a cake but it's not the best choice. With a bigger spatula I can not only flatten the top edge faster, but also make it neater, by doing larger sections at a time which makes the top edge more level.

6. Set a timer

When you’re working on a cake, set a timer and challenge yourself to finish a step within that time. You’ll find yourself focusing all of your attention on the cake while that timer is running. Without the timer you might check your phone messages, email, water the plant, start the laundry, and so on.

I find a timer most effective when there are several stages to a decoration. For example, to frost a cake, re-tint the leftover buttercream, make stencils, and add edible glitter. With multiple steps like these, the timer pushes you on to the next step without pausing for a distraction. I don’t recommend timing a single step, like piping. The timer will make you rush and the decorations won’t be as neat.

7. Use a 'throw-away' and 'dirty' tub

These cake hacks to save time are useful if you make cakes far away from the sink and rubbish bin or garbage. Use a “dirty” and “throw away” tub or bowl to tidy up as you go. This will avoid a huge mess to clean up at the end of the cake decorating process. Throw piping tips, spatulas, bowls, and anything else dirty into one tub to later carry to the sink. Into the other tub, toss anything that you'll throw away later. With a clean workspace you'll make cakes faster and also reduce clean-up time.

8. Plan your cake strategically

For baking, my mum taught me to take out all of the ingredients before you start. This way you know that you have everything you need. But I don’t do this for cake decorating because there are so many “waiting periods”. While the buttercream is mixing, while the frosting is setting in the fridge or freezer, while an ingredient like melted chocolate or a drip is cooling before you can use it… These are perfect windows to find whatever you need for the next stage of your decorating process. Here's an example of what this might look like:

I think the most efficient way is to plan your strategy ahead of time. Make a list of the steps for your cake and include any pauses or waiting periods. Also include what to do in those pauses. This way you'll be as productive as possible and decorate your cake as efficiently and as possible.

9. Save time on character cakes

There are several options for character cakes and some take longer than others. You can sculpt a cake, which is the most time consuming option. Or you can use layered stencils to make a flat image of the character. This also takes a long time because you have to chill to cake in between each colour. Check out this tutorial on how to make character cakes with layered stencils, like on the cake below:

Another time consuming option is to make fondant figures. The process is fun but tedious and will almost always take longer than you expect!

To save time, use toy figures as cake toppers. Spread buttercream or melted chocolate as glue to attach figures to buttercream frosting. This is the quickest option and honestly, the toy topper will probably have the best resemblance to the character!

10. Use the freezer

Save time in the days before a cake is due by preparing part or of the cake in advance!

You can bake cake layers up to two months in advance. After they cool, wrap them in two layers of plastic wrap like cling film or Saran Wrap. Then freeze them for up to two months. Move them to the fridge the night before you’re ready to assemble and frost and decorate your cake.

Or make and frost and even decorate your cake and then freeze it. Put it unwrapped into the freezer for an hour to chill and set the frosting and decorations. Then wrap it in two layers of plastic wrap and then put it back into the freezer. Move it to the fridge to thaw gradually the night before you serve it. Then two hours before you serve it, take it out and unwrap it straight away. It's important to unwrap it while the frosting is still cold and firm so you don’t damage it.

When a previously frozen cake comes to room temperature it will taste just as good as if you’d baked it that day. Let’s do a blind taste test! One of these forks has a piece of cake that I baked and frosted this morning. The other has a piece from a cake that’s been in the freezer for a few weeks. I put it into the fridge last night and it's been sitting on the counter for about two hours. Both cakes are now at room temperature. Which tastes better?

My sons volunteered to help me with the taste test. They fed me (blindfolded) each piece of cake. I honestly couldn't taste the difference between the two pieces!

I hope these 10 cake hacks to save time will help speed up your cake decorating. For more tips and tricks, visit my cake school where you’ll learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs.

You can watch a video of this tutorial on 10 cake hacks to save time below:

Here are 10 easy ideas for Halloween cake decorations. You don’t need any cake decorating experience for these and you can even do some of them with kids!

Haunted house cake

All you need is parchment paper or wax paper for these first Halloween cake decorations. Start by making an eery purple sky with your frosting. Tinting buttercream purple and then put half into another bowl and add a few drops of black to make grey. Spread the grey buttercream onto the top of the cake and smooth it. Then spread it around the top of the sides of the cake, too. Spread purple around the bottom of the cake, leaving the middle empty for now. Then mix the leftover purple and grey buttercream together and spread that over the middle.

Press your spatula lightly into the frosting and drag it up and down as you spin the cake. You'll leave zig zag textured imprinted into the frosting. These blend the colours together so that you don’t end up with stripes of colour around the cake. Smooth the frosting with a cake comb to make ombre frosting.

You can leave the top edge uneven, which is trendy at the moment, or flatten it. To flatten it, swipe sideways with your spatula to lift off the excess frosting. Now put the cake in the fridge for about an hour to chill and set the frosting. Meanwhile, I'll show you how to make stencils using parchment paper or wax paper.

Make stencils for a haunted house Halloween cake

Draw a bat silhouette onto a strip of paper and fold the paper a few times before you cut it out. Now you'll have a few identical bats. You don’t need the surrounding paper for this.

For the next stencils you’ll do the opposite. Draw the outline of a haunted house, cutting along the bottom edge so that the house sits at the base of the cake. Then cut the house out and throw that away but keep the surrounding paper. This will be your stencil.

I drew a few windows and cut those out of another piece of paper. This is an extra step that you can skip if you’re in a rush. The house will still look haunted without them! Trace around something round like a bottle to make a circle for a moon stencil, too.

Use homemade stencils to make Halloween cake decorations

Now you’re going to apply these in 3 stages. Start with the bats, pressing them onto the cake on the darkest grey frosting, towards the top, and they’ll stick because the warmth of your fingers will soften the cold buttercream to make it lightly sticky as you push against the bats.

They press the moon stencil on, so that it overlaps one of the bats. Pipe or spread white buttercream over the stencil, scraping over it a few times to flatten and smooth the frosting, and then peel the moon stencil off.

Next, use edible glitter and a wide powder brush to gently dab the frosting over the bats so that there’s quite a lot all around them.

Then slide your spatula or a toothpick under each bat to peel it off and it will look like the bats are flying in the moonlight!

Now wrap the haunted house stencil around the cake, and you want this to wrap really tightly since the bottom edge is cut so use pins to attach both sides to the cake. Add a drop of black to your leftover grey buttercream and spread this colour over the haunted house stencil and then scrape over it once or twice so that the black buttercream is smooth.

Pull the pins out of the cake and peel the stencil off and voila! If you’re adding windows, put the cake into the fridge for 15 minutes to set the ouse and then press the final stencil onto the house, lining it up so that the windows are in the right places, and then peel then spread white buttercream over the windows. Scrape off the excess.

Peel the stencil off, and scrape off any smudges using a toothpick and since the black frosting of the haunted house has chills dead set, you won’t damage that when you scrape off any white smudges. This cake design is so simple to make but with the glitter it looks so fancy!

Spreadable ghosts

For this next cake I’m using non-traditional Halloween colours, with pale pink and orange, which I LOVE but for this design you can use any colour or colours - plain orange, orange and black stripes, whatever!

How to make buttercream ghosts

The two important things are to use buttercream that isn’t very stiff, so add a splash of milk to thin it out until you can stir it easily like this, and spoon it into a piping bag. The second important thing is to chill the cake in the fridge for at least an hour before you pipe onto it.

Squeeze a blob of white buttercream onto the cake and then use a spatula to gently spread it in any direction. You’re making floating ghosts on the cake. They don’t all need to be identical so pipe different sized blobs before you spread them, and go in different direction so the ghosts are flying to the left, right, up, down…

Make ghosts faces with chocolate

When you finish making the bodies, melt some chocolate chips and put them into a sandwich bag like a ziplock bag and cut a tiny piece off one corner. Squeeze the bag to pipe two eyes and a mouth onto each ghost. If the chocolate pulls away with the bag, use a toothpick to nudge it flat against the cake.

You could add black oil based gel to the chocolate to make it black instead of brown, but with semi sweet or dark chocolate like this, against the lighter colours - pink and orange and white - the dark brown looks almost black.

The trick to melting chocolate without it seizing and becoming grainy or getting that white.. haze when it sets, is to heat it slowly and gently, so if you use the microwave choose 50% power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring before repeating, until the chocolate is smooth.

If you're looking for more ideas for ghost Halloween cake decorations, move on to the next cake!

Piped ghosts

For more detailed ghosts or any other figures, use the pointillist technique. You'll outline a shape on your cake using a cookie cutter, or draw it with a toothpick.

Then fill it in with tiny dots by using a small round piping tip like a #3. Your dots will look the neatest if you pipe in rows.

This dotted effect is so unique and easy to make look neat even if it’s your first time doing it! This technique is a bit time consuming but I love the result!

The consistency of your buttercream is really important for this. If it’s too stiff you’ll have to squeeze the bag really hard to pipe the dots and your wrist will start aching almost immediately.

Switch colours to add more details, for a simple design like this or a more elaborate one like this:

This is one of the cakes from my Layer Up program, which has 14 hours of video module teaching hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs! Start a FREE 7 day trial of my cake school to try it out risk free!

So, which ghosts do you prefer - swooshed or pointillist? Tell me in the comment!

'Boo' Halloween cake topper

Make easy Halloween cake toppers with melted chocolate in a sandwich bag with the corner cut off. Write whatever word you like, keeping in mind that the thicker the letters, the better. Press a toothpick into each letter so that it sticks out at the bottom.

Then pour sprinkles on top. The sprinkles will stick to the melted chocolate but when they set, after about 30 minutes in the fridge, you can lift the letters up and poke the toothpicks into a cake to make a delicious cake topper!

Halloween messages on cakes

To write a longer Halloween message, use buttercream that’s thinned out with a bit of milk so that you can pipe it with a small round tip and the lines won’t break apart.

If you struggle to pipe letters with lines, which does take a bit of practice, use the pointillist technique. This is the same techniques I used for the second style of ghosts. You'll pipe dots to form your letters, which gives you more time to form the letters.

It's best to chill your cake before you start piping your message. This way, if you pipe anything you don’t like you can scrape it off with your offset spatula and start again!

Monster Halloween cake decorations

To make cute little monsters, layer a cake or I’ll show you how to do this with cupcakes in a second. Pop it into the freezer for 10 minutes or the fridge for 30 minutes and then use a serrated knife like a bread knife to trim around the top to make a dome.

Spread a thin layer of frosting to cover the cake, to stop it from drying out. You can use plain white buttercream or a flavour like chocolate or the same colour as the monster’s fur is going to be. By chilling the cake before this it will stay firm instead of leaning or toppling over as you trim it and frost it, and it will also be a lot less crumbly.

Now put buttercream for the fur into a piping bag with any star shaped tip, like this 4B or a 1M, or a grass tip like this:

Start at the bottom of the cake, squeezing to push out the fur. Then release your pressure on the piping bag as you pull away so that the buttercream pulls away neatly.

Work your way up to the top of the cake. Piping from the bottom to the top is a good idea for two reasons. Firstly, so that you can see what you’re doing, because if you start at the top, by the time you get to the bottom you’ll have to crouch down to see where you’re piping. And secondly, for fur piped with a grass tip, each row of fur will overlap the row below, so by starting at the very bottom you’ll create this shaggy effect.

Straight after piping the fur, while the frosting is still soft and sticky, cut mini marshmallows in half and press a toothpick through the middle of each half.

Push a mini chocolate chip into that hole and you have an eyeball! Press the eyeballs into the monster’s fur to complete the monster.

Monster cupcakes

You can do this with cupcakes instead, which is a fun activity with kids. To make it easier, use an elastic band or a strong clip to pinch the piping bag at the top. This makes it easier to squeeze the buttercream out through the piping tip.

With a few drops of colour and some mini marshmallows and mini chocolate chips, you can make these fun Halloween cupcakes in just a few minutes!

Mini bundt cake monsters

Another easy monster option is to use a donut or mini bundt cake mold. Use a cupcake recipe and spoon or pipe cake batter into it. Bake for the same time as cupcakes.

After they cool, make a drip by measuring 1 cup of white chocolate chips. Heat 1/3 of a cup of heavy cream or double cream until it starts to bubble and pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Push all of the chocolate underneath the cream and let it sit for the minute and then stir it until it’s smooth. Then add oil-based colour. I used yellow and blue to make green.

Don’t use water based colours that you’d use for buttercream because it can make the chocolate seize.

When it cools to room temperature, do a test drip on the side of the bowl and you’re looking for a thick, slow drip. Spoon this over the cakes.

It’s best to chill the cakes first for a few minutes int he fridge or freezer. Cold cake will help the drip stop dripping. Push in some candy eyes balls and it’s done! Another fun one to make with kids.

Pumpkin patch cake

Now let’s make some pumpkins! Use a star shaped piping tip like this #32 tip or a medium round tip like a #8. Start on the edges and work your way in, to make the pumpkins look more rounded and realistic.

Now for the fun part that will grab everyone’s attention. Pipe a few pumpkins onto parchment paper or wax paper and freeze for 10 minutes to chill and harden. Then brush them with edible gold paint, getting into all of the grooves to cover them completely or just painting some accents.

Lift them up and press them onto your cake to make gold buttercream pumpkins!

Pipe stems using brown buttercream or chocolate buttercream and a small star shaped tip or round tip. This makes such a cozy fall or autumn themed cake!

Jack-o-lantern Halloween cake decorations

To make a pumpkin that’s a jack-o-lantern, frost your cake and put it into the fridge for at least an hour. Draw a face onto parchment or wax paper and cut out the features, leaving the rest of the paper intact. Press it down onto the cold cake.

Spread black frosting over the top, scraping a few times to leave a thin, flat layer.

Then peel off the stencil and you have a jack-o-lantern cake that took you two minutes to decorate!

Which cake would you choose to eat? Which one would you make? Tell me in the comments and visit my cake school to learn hundreds of other cake designs and cake decorating techniques!

You can also watch a video of this tutorial on 10 easy ideas for Halloween cake decorations:

From the moment I got engaged I started thinking about how to make a wedding cake for my own wedding. It turns out there’s a lot more to making wedding cakes than you might expect! So here are 10 tips to help you successfully make a wedding cake.

1. Do a wedding cake tasting

Of course wedding cakes need to be beautiful but they also need to taste delicious! So before the big day it’s important that the couple taste different options of cakes, fillings and flavors.

When I had a cake shop I offered cupcake versions of my cake menu for customers to try. For wedding cakes I made mini cakes of each flavour. They're more time consuming to make than cupcakes but I Leo them because they're more formal. They’re also a more accurate representation of the cake to filling to frosting ratio.

If you make lots of wedding cakes and do lots of tastings, you might choose to offer slices instead. To do this, bake a full cake of each flavour and slice those. You can give couples a slice of each flavour and then freeze the rest for the next tasting. To do this, wrap each slice in two layers of cling film or plastic wrap to protect them in the freezer. Move slices to the fridge 24 hours before serving and to room temperature an hour before.

2. Create a timeline for how to make a wedding cake

Once you know the date of the wedding and the details of the cake, you’ll need to establish a timeline. Wedding cakes can take days to make depending on the flavours, size, and decorations!

You’ll need to shop for all of your ingredients to make your cakes, fillings and frostings. Then a few days before the wedding you might make your fillings and frostings. My 4 Minute Buttercream can be refrigerated for 2 weeks so you can make it earlier if you prefer.

Baking a tier cake can take several hours so you might set aside a full day for that. Assembling, frosting and stacking a tier cake might take a full day, too!

Include any cake decorating steps in your timeline as well. Some decorations can be added in advance, like stencil details or piping. Others are best added the day of the wedding, for example fresh flowers. More on decorations and fresh flowers later!

3. Make tiers of equal heights

For tier cakes you’ll typically want every tier to be the same height. This is easiest to get right before you assemble the cakes. Stack the layers for each tier side by side to check they’re all the same height.

Of any of the tiers are taller than the others, trim those layers using a serrated knife. Then line them up again to check that they're all the same height.

4. Use simple syrup!

Wedding cakes are usually made several days before an event, since they take so long to make. For cakes served more than a day after baking I really recommend using simple syrup. This keeps cakes moist - it doesn’t make them soggy, and it also won’t make a dry cake moist! It just prolongs the fresh texture of a cake.

To make simple syrup you'll need equal parts of water and sugar. For a tier cake one or two cups of each should be enough. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat to dissolve the sugar and then let it cool. That’s it! You can drizzle the syrup over your cake layers with a squeeze bottle or use a pastry brush. Pay special attention to the edges of the cakes because those will dry out the quickest.

5. How to make a wedding cake white

Wedding cakes are traditionally white, which can be problematic for buttercream made with butter, which is yellow! You have a few options to make buttercream white. Firstly, you can add violet gel, which will cancel out the yellow tint with just a tiny amount. Dipping a toothpick into the bottle is the safest choice and then drag the toothpick through your buttercream. I don't recommend trying to squeeze a small drop from a bottle of gel or liquid colour. If the drop is too big it can turn your whole batch of buttercream purple!

If the cake is going to be on a white tablecloth you'll need your buttercream to be even whiter. Even slightly off-white buttercream will look yellow compared to a bright white background:

For even whiter buttercream, use vegetable shortening like Crisco or Trex. You can substitute the butter with exactly the same amount of shortening.

As a bonus, using shortening in your buttercream will make it more stable than butter. This is helpful if the wedding is outside in warm weather and you don’t want your cake to melt.

A third option is to use half butter for its flavour and half shortening for its whiteness.

6. Practice the decorations

It’s definitely a good idea to practice any decorations before making the actual wedding cake. This doesn't mean you have to make an exact replica as a trial run. That would be a massive waste of time and ingredients. Instead, you can practice each element on different cakes, assuming you have months to prepare for the wedding cake!

Practice stacking another tier cake or ideally several until you feel really confident. Practice using cake stencils or any other techniques you'll use on your wedding cake. Piped details should be practiced too. You’ll learn the amount of pressure you need to use when you squeeze the piping bag, the wrist motion, the position that’s most comfortable for you, and so on. You don't want to try figuring these things out on the day you decorate your wedding cake!

My very first wedding cake was for one of my best friends and I had never made a tier cake before. I practiced stacking on a tea party cake for another friend and this snowman cake:

7. Use cake dummies for extra tiers

Here's a solution for cakes that are too big. Sometimes people want a multiple tier cake for their very small wedding. In these situations cake dummies are really useful to prevent huge amounts of uneaten cake, and also to save money! Use these fake cakes for extra tiers, decorating them as if they were really cake. No one will ever know what’s really inside!

8. How to make a wedding cake with fresh flowers

For fresh flowers, wait until the day of the wedding if possible so that the flowers don’t wilt. Trim the stems so they're one to two inches long for each flower. Group flowers together in little bunches and wrap the straws in plastic wrap or cling film. This will prevent floral juices leaking out into your cake.

Poke them into straws like wide boba straws and then push them into the cake. Using scissors at the end will help you push them all the way into the cake. You can buy these flower cake spikes instead, for a shortcut!

9. Chill and transport a wedding cake

Refrigerate cakes until you transport them to the wedding venue. This keeps the frosting firm and the tiers stable enough for the journey. When you transport the cake, choose a flat surface like the boot or trunk of the car. The footwell in front of the passenger seat is also a good option. Don't place the cake on any of the seats in the car because those are sloped at an incline. For tier cakes it’s especially important to be on a flat surface to avoid leaning or toppling over!

10. How to price a wedding cake

As you can see, making a wedding cake is a lot of work. If this isn’t a gift, make sure you price your wedding cakes to make a profit instead of losing money! I have a very detailed FREE tutorial on how to price your cakes with all of the information you’ll need. I also have a free cost calculator to help you set your prices to make a profit.

I’ve helped over 20,000 people improve their cake decorating skills on my cake school and lots of them have made wedding cakes for themselves, their friends and family members, or for customers. If you would like to improve your cake decorating skills, join my All You Can Cake membership to access all of my online courses and to ask me any questions you have, directly.

If you’re interested in seeing how I made this video, watch the behind the scenes footage in the video version of this tutorial, below. And if you want to create content yourself, join the waitlist for my content creator course!

Use these smart cake decorating hacks for smooth frosting and neat decorations. Colour theory for white buttercream, pi for wrapped designs, multiplications to convert recipes and more!

1. Convert a cake recipe

Conversions are useful if you want to bake a cake that's bigger or smaller than your recipe. Did you know that you can halve an 8 inch cake recipe to make a 6 inch cake? And if you divide a 6 inch recipe by three to make a third of the batter you can make a mini cake with 4 inch pans.

2. Cake decorating hacks for white buttercream

Now for some colour theory. The colours opposite each other on a colour wheel are complimentary colours and they cancel each other out. This means that yellow buttercream can be made whiter by adding violet!

Only add a a tiny amount, which is easiest to do by dipping a toothpick into violet gel and then dragging the toothpick through your buttercream.

Look at the difference in this buttercream before and after adding violet:

3. Cake decorating hacks for piping

Another use for toothpicks is to make yourself a guide for piping. Trace around your cake pan onto a piece of paper and cut out that circle.

Fold it in half and in half again and again and then unfold it. Place it on top of a frosted cake after chilling the cake so that the frosting is cold and firm. Poke a toothpick into the frosting below each crease.

Use this to guide you as you pipe so that the decorations are evenly spaced around the cake.

4. How to make cake wraps that fit

Decorations that wrap around a cake sometimes need to fit perfectly. These could be stencil patterns, chocolate collars or cages, or buttercream wraps. To measure these, save time by using pi to find the length that will wrap around the cake. Measure the width of the cake (the diameter) and multiply by pi, which is 3.14.

Cut a piece of parchment or wax paper so it's that length, which will wrap snugly around the cake.

This is perfect for stencils, so that a pattern lines up neatly.

If you're going to pipe or spread buttercream onto the paper and then wrap it around the cake, add about an inch to make room for that layer of buttercream.

5. Cake decorating hacks for smooth frosting

Keep your pencil case out because a ruler can also be used to frost a cake. Start by spreading buttercream or any other frosting onto your cake to cover the top and sides.

Then press the base of a clean ruler down on the cake board to line it up straight. Push the edge very gently into the frosting as you spin the turntable. The edge of the ruler will smooth the frosting as the cake turns around.

You'll need to do this two or three times to smooth any air pockets and imperfections. You'd never know it was a ruler (not a cake comb) that made this frosting so smooth!

6. Cake decorating hacks for level cakes

Here's another tool you can use for cake decorating. You probably didn't expect to need your toolbox to make a cake! But a spirit level is an excellent tool to make sure your cakes are level on top. This is especially important for tier cakes.

If the little bubble isn't in the center, push down on one side of the cake before you frost it. That side of the cake layers will push down into the filling to straighten and level the cake. Then chill to set the cake before you frost it.

Check the top again with a spirit level and now it's ready to decorate to make a neat, straight cake.

7. How to make cake layers even

As well as straight cake layers, you'll also want them to be the same height as each other. This will give you the most beautiful slices. To make the most even cake layers, weigh the batter.

First, weigh your mixing bowl alone before you prepare your cake batter. Then weigh it again with the batter inside. Subtract the weight of the bowl and divide by the number of pans.

Now put a pan on your scale and zero the scale. Scoop the batter in until you get to that number you just calculated. Repeat for the rest of your pans.

This way you'll have exactly the same amount of batter in each pan. Cake slices look extra pretty with even layers, don't they?

8. What's the fastest way to make a cake?

I did a geeky experiment on the fastest way to make a cake, testing which methods will save you the most time when you assemble and frost a cake. Spoiler alert! Piping the filling and frosting is much faster than spreading it straight onto the cake. Also, using cold cake layers will make the process much quicker, too. I like to put layers in the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 before assembling and frosting.

9. Cake decorating hacks for condensation

Are there smart cake decorating hacks to tackle condensation? Absolutely! Avoid these moisture droplets and running colours on your cakes by paying attention to temperatures.

Condensation happens when a cake goes through a big difference in temperature, fast. For example, from a freezer of 0° Fahrenheit moving to room temperature of about 72°. The difference between the warm room outside of the cake to the cold inside of the cake is a big difference. This will cause condensation or cake sweat.

Instead, if your cake is frozen move it to the fridge for 24 hours to thaw. Then move it room temperature. By changing the temperature gradually you'll minimize condensation. Even if you don't use a freezer, if the room is hot your cake might sweat while you're decorating it. If you can't lower the temperature of the room, dab the cake with a paper towel. It will absorb the moisture droplets, which will disappear once the cake warms up to the temperature of the room.

10. How to take great cake photos

For great cake photos I think the best trick is to make the background blurry or out of focus. This will really draw attention to your cake. You can do this on a camera or a phone by adjusting the F stop or F number. For the best results move your cake as far away from the background as possible.

I like to use F2 or F3, which makes the background really blurry or out of focus. On an iPhone choose Portrait mode and tap the F at the top of the screen, which will display a sliding bar to choose the F number.

Look at the difference between these two photos. The first is taken with F11 for an in-focus background. The lines on the wall look obnoxious. The second photo is taken with F2.8 and the blurry lines in the background look more interesting than distracting.

So even though cake decorating seems creative, using your brain and these smart cake decorating hacks can help you make more practical and beautiful cakes. To learn more cake decorating techniques visit my cake school.

You can also watch a video of this tutorial on 10 Smart Cake Decorating Hacks:

Which cake comb is best? From a secret tool to get your frosting super smooth, to cake combs that make gorgeous texture and patterns on cakes, you’ll definitely want to try these 4 trending cake combs!

#1 The best cake comb for smooth frosting

This first cake comb has become trendy as people find out about the hack that will completely transform their frosting. Go from air bubbly, uneven frosting to smooth perfection with a warm metal cake comb.

Hold the edge under hot water or run a blowtorch flame along it a few times to warm it up. If your tap water takes forever to warm up and how don't have a blowtorch, use a hair dryer!

Once the metal is warm, use the comb or scraper as normal on any kind of buttercream or ganache frosting. I'm using my 4 Minute Buttercream. The warm metal will glide over the frosting, filling in any air bubbles and shallow imperfections along the way. It will leave the surface of the frosting impossibly smooth. This is my favourite metal cake comb and you can use the code BGB10 for 10% off! Look at the difference in the frosting after being scraped with warm metal:

#2 Textured cake combs

Once you can use a cake comb to smooth frosting, you can use any comb with a patterned edge because the process is exactly the same.

Before starting, smooth the frosting on the top of the cake. The sides need to be straight but not smooth, so scrape around them a few times.

Then press the bottom of a textured cake comb down on the cakeboard to line it up straight. Scrape around the cake with it but don't panic! It will leave the textured pattern in the frosting but it won't be neat… yet. Scrape the frosting off your comb to clean it before using it again.

Then scrape again two or three times with your textured car cob. Spread the frosting you've scraped off to cover any gaps or indents and then use the comb again. You'll see the textured pattern get neater and neater until it's perfect. Then just tidy up the top edge and voila!

This cake is from my free course on 10 Frosting Techniques. To dive deeper, my Layer Up program takes your cake decorating skills from beginner to professional with 14 and a half hours of easy to follow video modules!

#3 Make waves with this cake comb

Use the short end of any cake comb to make this gorgeous wavy frosting. After covering the cake with frosting, smooth it just once or twice. Then, instead of holding the cake comb normally, flip it sideways. The short end should be facing the sides of the cake.

Push the bottom corner slightly closer to the frosting as you spin the turntable and wiggle the comb up and down. Slowly drag it up the sides, leaving elegant waves behind.

By pointing the bottom corner closer, you'll keep the sides straight instead of digging deeper and deeper into the frosting as you work your way upwards. Add mermaid or ocean decorations and you have a simple but stunning design.

#4 Make neat stripes with this cake comb

If you've seen perfectly neat striped buttercream and wondered how it's done, here's the trendy tool. It's this strangely shaped cake comb:

But before using this, use a straight edged cake comb to get the sides of your cake really straight. Then use the striped comb to imprint grooves like this:

Press the base of the comb down on the cakeboard so the stripes are in the same position every scrape. Repeat again and again, scraping the comb clean after each time you use it. As the grooves get neater, use a towel or paper towel to wipe off any buttercream left on the comb. You want the texture to be really clean when you press it against the cake again.

Tidy up the top edge and then put the cake into the freezer for exactly 15 minutes. You need to set these stripe grooves so that they firm up and hold their shape. Then pipe another colour into the gaps and smooth again straight away using your straight edged cake comb.

You'll smear the second colour of buttercream all over the cake! But keep scraping and the stripes will appear.

The stripes will get neater and neater as you take off all of the excess buttercream. For more in-depth instructions, check out this striped cake tutorial.

What's your favourite cake comb? Tell me in the comments and to learn more cake decorating techniques visit my cake school!

You can also watch a video of this tutorial on 4 trending cake combs to try:

How to price cakes is a tricky topic. It's difficult to choose a number that we feel represents our time and effort. But it’s important to take the time to price cakes accurately to make sure you’re not losing money! In this tutorial I’ll walk you through 4 steps to calculate your cake prices.

1. Calculate your direct costs

The first step when you think about how to price cakes is to calculate your direct costs. 

These are the costs of whatever you’re selling. The ingredients of your cake, filling, frosting, and any garnishes, and also any packaging materials. 

Calculate the cost of your ingredients

For the ingredients, refer to your recipes and take out each ingredient. You’ll also need receipts showing the cost of each ingredient. If your supermarket or grocery store has their prices online, you can use their websites instead. This is a bit time consuming for your first recipe but gets much quicker after that! 

There are three ways to work out the cost of each ingredient. I’ll show you how to do it for ingredients measured in grams, and also in cups or teaspoons, and in units, for example 2 eggs.

First, in units or items, for example eggs. Find the cost of the carton of eggs that you buy. Then divide that cost by the number of eggs in that carton. That’s the cost of one egg. If your recipe says 2 eggs, just multiply the cost of 1 egg, by two! Write down that cost on a piece of paper.

I’ll show you how to use my free recipe cost calculator spreadsheet in a minute, which makes this process really fast for all of your other recipes!

For any ingredients in your recipe that are measured in grams, check the packaging. Find out how many grams are in the package and write that down. Then look at your recipe and see how many grams you need and write that down.

Divide the total weight by the weight that you need and write down that number too and circle it. Now write the cost of the whole package and divide that by the number you circled. This is the cost of the amount of ingredient you need for your recipe:

For any ingredient measured in cups or tablespoons or teaspoons, look at the nutritional label. Look at what the serving size is, and how many servings are in the package.

If the serving size is 1/4 of a cup and there are 75 servings in the bag, that means the bag has 75  1/4 cups in it. Multiply by 4 to get the full cups and you'll see there are 18 3/4 cups of flour in this bag. If the bag of flour costs $5, each cup of flour is going to cost 5/18.75 = 0.26 (26 cents). If your recipe uses 2 cups of flour, that will cost you 26 x 2 which is 52 cents. 

Use these methods to calculate the cost of all of the ingredients in your recipe. 

You might be shocked to see how much your ingredients cost per cake. Perhaps they add up to more than the price of a huge sheet cake at a grocery store or supermarket! We’ll talk about why that’s important in a minute.

If you use my free recipe cost calculator spreadsheet instead of just writing these numbers down, you can calculate the cost of all of your recipes in minutes.

Calculate your other direct costs

The other direct costs to include are the costs or packaging. This includes the cake board, the cake box, and any ribbons or stickers. I’ll share more details for custom cakes and deliveries in a moment.

You might be thinking there are a lot more costs to making a cake, and you’re right! Those are coming up next, starting with your indirect costs.

2. Calculate your indirect costs

Indirect costs are the things that aren’t going to be boxed up and given to your customer but still play a part in making it possible to make your cake. For example:

• gas or electricity for your oven and cake fridge
• rent if you lease a space for baking or selling your cakes
• gas to petrol to drive to buy your baking supplies
• buying a bigger mixer to make your cakes

We’ll come back to the mixer and any other investments you make to be able to make cakes.

Make a list of all of the other indirect costs that are necessary to make your cakes. Include how much each one costs per month or per year. Then work out how many cakes you sell each month. This could be an average of how many cakes you sold in the last six months.

Now it’s time to spread out your indirect costs between your cakes so that you include them in your prices. For example, maybe you need to drive to Costco once a month to buy your baking supplies. If you estimate that the fuel for your car is going to cost $5 and you make 5 cakes a month, that’s a $1 cost added to each cake you make. 

Maybe your gas or electricity or water costs are $20 higher on the months you make cakes. Again, let’s say you make 5 cakes a month so that’s $20/5 = a $4 cost added to each cake. This sounds trivial because the numbers are small but everything adds up! 

Include investments and depreciation in how to price cakes

For investments like a bigger mixer, first think about how long you’re planning on using it for. If it’s 5 years, divide the cost of the mixer by 5 years. Then divide that number by 12 to calculate the cost of one month. Divide that by however many cakes you sell in a month. Now you’ve spread out the cost of that mixer between every cake you sell for the next 5 years. Approximately at least!

3. Calculate your time

The next thing to include when you price you cakes is the cost of your time. You might think you don’t have to charge for your time because you enjoy making cakes. Or because you’re at home anyway. But if you weren’t making a cake for someone else you could be doing anything else that day! When you dedicate time to make a cake you need to include that as a cost of that cake.

You might start by charging the minimum wage in your area, say $10 an hour. If you spend 4 hours baking and frosting and decorating you’ll add $40 to the price of your cake. But as your skills improve you might increase your hourly rate and increase the price of your cakes.

Calculating costs for custom cakes

Before moving onto the final part of the price (profit!) let’s talk about how to price custom cakes.

For custom cakes you have to consider the additional cost and time of any custom details of that cake. If someone wants a particular cake topper, the topper and shipping are a direct cost. These should be included in your price. If someone wants a time-consuming design like layered stencil character, estimate how much time that custom design will take. Then multiply that by your hourly rate.

When I had a cake shop I had set prices for simple, more elaborate and very elaborate decorations. The prices were based on how much time I thought the decorations would take me to make. This saved me a lot of time pricing out the decorations individually for each cake order. I would add on the cost of any special materials like an icing sheet, for example. It was a quick and simple way of pricing custom cakes.

I’ve also worked at bakeries where they have set prices for every single detail. For example they charged for each colour and for the percentage of the cake that would be covered with decorations. Charging for each detail added to a cake will give you the most consistent and accurate pricing. But it’s also very time consuming to prepare a cake quote with that method. Especially if the customer wants quotes for a few different designs!

Now, back to my comment earlier about cakes from supermarkets or grocery stores. A custom cake is obviously very different because the ingredients are better quality and the style of decorations is very different. So don’t panic when you see that your costs are going way beyond the price of one of those cakes. You’re making and selling something completely different and the price will reflect that. People know (or should know!) that prices will be higher for cakes that are homemade or from a small business or high-end bakery.

How to charge for cake deliveries

For deliveries you’ll also need to incorporate your costs. These are your gas or petrol and the wear and tear on your car. If you’re in the US there’s an IRS standard mileage cost for employees to cover both of these. Then you’ll need to include your time. This is your hourly rate multiplied by your estimate of how long the delivery will take, including setup if necessary.

4. How to price cakes to make a profit

The final thing to add to your price is profit! Your price so far covers the costs of making a cake: the direct costs, indirect costs, and labor. But adding on a percentage of profit is essential to be able to grow your cake business. Then you can invest in new tools, cake decorating courses, marketing like social media posts or hiring help. You might also want to save up to rent a commercial kitchen or a storefront.

It sounds like a great idea, but how do you know how much profit you should make on each cake? This might be somewhere between 20% and 40%, depending on your experience and your location. And this is where your competition comes in to play. Look around and see what your competitors are charging for similar cakes in your area. Obviously, a supermarket or grocery store cake isn’t going to be the same price as a custom cake. And a buttercream cake probably isn’t going to be the same price as a fondant cake. And a cake in New York City is going to be more expensive than the same cake in a small town because costs in those cities are so much higher. So look around to find local cakes that really are similar to yours and compare your prices to those. Then see what percentage you can add to your prices to be similar to those.

How to calculate your profit margin

You can find your current profit margin is by using the costs you’ve calculated and the prices you’ve set. Your profit is the price you sell your cake for minus your cakes to make it, divided by the price. Multiply this number by 100 to make it a percentage. If your cake price is $50 and it costs you $40 to make, your profit is 50-40 = 10 divided by your price ($50) = 0.2. Multiply this by 100 to make a percentage: 20% profit.

How to choose your profit margin

You can do this the other way around by choosing your profit margin first. If you know your costs are $40 and you want to make a 20% profit, flip the formula around:

Start with your desired profit and divide by 100: 20% / 100 = 0.2. Take that away from 1, which here is 0.8. Then take your costs, $40 for this example, and divide by 0.8. This gives you the price you should charge ($50) to get a 20% profit.

Key points on how to price cakes

I really hope this is helpful! I think the key points to remember when you’re pricing your cakes are:

• Know your value! You’re not making 1000 generic cakes in bulk each day using cheap ingredients. You’re making good quality, personalized or custom cakes, and you can charge a lot more for that!
• Calculate your direct and indirect costs and your time before you set your cake prices. If you don't include all of these in your prices, you’ll lose money when you sell your cakes.
• Include a profit margin in your prices so that you can save money to invest to grow your business. It will also allow you to cover unexpected costs along the way.

Please use the comments section to ask me any questions you have about this! Or tell me about your cake business - a success, a struggle, or what stage you’re at!

And if you want to improve your cake decorating skills, visit my cake school to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs!

You can also watch a video of this tutorial on How to Price Cakes:

Make this adorable and easy jungle theme cake with just buttercream and parchment paper!

Prepare your cake

I’m using my Very Vanilla cake to make four 6 inch layers for this jungle theme cake. I prefer a tall cake for this design so there’s lots of room on the sides for decorations. You could do the decorations on the top instead if you make a larger, shorter cake. 

Make one batch of my 4 Minute Buttercream for a four-layer 6 inch cake or a two-layer 8 inch cake. Scoop out about 2 cups to use for the jungle animals later, covering that bowl so it doesn't crust. To the rest of the buttercream add green gel to tint the filling and frosting. You can use any buttercream recipe as long as it crusts when it sets, which is necessary for the jungle theme cake design.

Layer your cake and filling to assemble your cake. Then chill it before giving it a crumb coat and then a final coat of frosting. If you need step by step instructions for this part, read my tutorial on 10 Steps to Make a Cake. Put the cake in the fridge for at least an hour before you decorate it to set the frosting.

Make stencils for a jungle theme cake

For the jungle decorations, make your own cake stencils with just parchment paper or wax paper, a pencil, and scissors.

Draw jungle leaves and jungle animals or print ones you like or use my free template. Choose line drawings rather than more detailed designs.

Cut out several pieces of of parchment paper or wax paper. If the paper comes from a roll it will curve, which makes it easer to use for stencils. You’ll need a separate piece for each leaf and animal with at least an inch of paper around the outline. Trace the outline of each leaf and animal onto its own piece of paper. Use a pencil, which works better than a pen on the surface of parchment or wax paper.

You'll need multiple stencils for each leaf you've drawn or printed so that you can cover your cake with leaves. For the animals, you’ll need a separate stencil for each colour of every animal. For example, for this rhino I’m making one stencil for the grey head and then another for the white tusk. You’ll see why in a minute!

Cut out the leaves and animals, leaving the paper around them intact, to make your own stencils.

Stencil leaves onto the cake

To make buttercream leaves on your jungle theme cake, start by tinting some green buttercream. Since I used light green for the frosting of the cake, I started with that. Add different amounts of green to make some darker than others and play around with other colours, too. Adding yellow will make the green brighter whereas adding pink or orange or brown will make the green duller.

You only need a small amount of buttercream for each of your shades of green. This is plenty for my tall, 6 inch cake. I’d say 1/4 of a cup of each colour would be fine.

To use your stencils, let the curve of the parchment or wax paper stencil wrap around the cake. Then spread buttercream over the leaf shape. You’ll need to press the stencil against the cake on both sides to hold it in place as you spread. Try not to pull your spatula straight away from the cake because that will pull up the buttercream and stencil. Instead, swipe it away diagonally and that way you won’t move the stencil.

Scrape over the buttercream a few times to take off the excess to leave a thin, smooth layer behind. The thinner the buttercream, the neater the edges of the leaf will be. Peel the stencil off carefully, from one side to the other. If the stencil has moved during the process it will smudge the outline of your shape. That’s easy to fix by scraping off the smudge with a toothpick or other small, sharp edged object. It works because the stencil buttercream is still soft so easily removed. In contrast, the frosting on the cake is cold and hard so you won’t damage that.

Switch between colours for your leaves as you work your way around the cake. Be careful that each stencil doesn't touch any the leaves already on the cake because the paper will damage the buttercream of those leaves.

When you run out of space for leaves, put the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 5 minutes. This will set the leaves and meanwhile, you can scrape the buttercream off your stencils to re-use those stencils.

When the first round of leaves have set in the fridge or freezer, add more leaves in the spaces between them. Now that the first leaves have set, it’s fine to layer the stencils on top of them because the paper won’t damage the cold, firm buttercream of the first leaves. 

Then put the cake back in the fridge or freezer while you prepare to make your jungle theme cake animals!

Add jungle animals to the cake

Tint the colours you’ll need for your animals. For small amounts of colours I like to use a cupcake pan to mix them so that I only have one pan to wash at the end instead of lots of little bowls!

When the leaves on the cake have chilled and set, use the animal stencils on the cake. Start with the largest stencil for each animal. For my cake, that's the mane for the lion, the neck and head for the giraffe, and so on.

Just like with the leaves, make sure each stencil doesn’t touch any animal already on the cake. Since all of the animals are still soft, the paper of a stencil will damage them. Keep your toothpick handy to scrape off any smudges straight away. It's best to do these touch-ups as soon as you peeled off a stencil, while the buttercream of the animal is still soft and easy to scrape off.

Put the cake back into the freezer for 5 minutes or the fridge for 20 minutes. The first part of each animal needs to chill and set, so it's firm and not sticky. Then add the next detail to each animal. These are the stencils you made for the different colours of each animal: the top part of the face for the lion, the tusk for the rhino, the teeth for the crocodile etc.

Tips for using homemade stencils

Start with the largest section of each animal and then add the details one colour at a time. Chill the cake after each round of details, so after adding one detail to each animal. By doing this in stages, your stencils won’t damage any of the details that are already on the cake. 

I mentioned that a thin layer of buttercream is best for stencils so that the edges will be neat when you pull the stencil off. But if there’s a dark colour underneath your stencil, like the dark brown mane of this lion underneath the light brown muzzle, you’ll need a thicker layer to cover up the dark colour underneath.

Add piped details to the jungle theme cake

For the eyes, I’m using my dark brown buttercream in a piping bag. I've chosen a #3 piping tip, which has a small round shape. I'm piping little lines or dots for each eye.

Then I’m using a toothpick to draw facial expressions like the crocodile's smile. 

To add some texture to the cake, use a leaf tip like a # 352. Mix together your remaining green buttercream from the leaves and spoon it into the piping bag. To make the buttercream ruffle, wiggle your wrist up and down slightly as you squeeze the piping bag to push the buttercream out.

A grass tip is the quickest way to fill in the gaps around the bottom edge, instead of piping each blade of grass individually with a small round tip. Rest the tip on the cake board and squeeze the bag to push the buttercream out. Then pull upwards as you keep squeezing, to pipe long blades of grass.

Isn’t this cute? And so easy and affordable to make by using homemade stencils.

How to store and serve this cake

You can keep this in the fridge for three days after you make it. Take it out two hours before you serve it, to let the cake and buttercream warm up to room temperature. That’s when it will taste the best!

You can watch a video of my tutorial on this jungle theme cake below. Ask me any questions in the comments section below and visit my cake school to learn hundreds more cake decorating techniques and designs!