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Hi! I'm Emily and I'm going to show you how to decorate a cake with colour and texture
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using just an offset spatula in less than five minutes. The first thing to do is to prepare your
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colour palette. We're going to use buttercream to make paint. Check the consistency of your
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buttercream before you start mixing and it should be easy to stir and also to spread
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This is my 4 Minute Buttercream and the recipe link is in the video description
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I like to use a cupcake pan as a palette because it keeps all of the colours separate and it's easy
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to mix the colours in one of these. You don't have to use all 12 cups, I'm just going to use
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9 for this cake. Choose your colours and I recommend using gels because they're really
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concentrated so you get very bright and bold colours. You only need a very small amount of
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buttercream for each colour you're going to make, maybe a tablespoon or two of each, and you only
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need a tiny drop of colour for each of those blobs of buttercream. You can google colour palettes or
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colour themes to choose combinations of colours that work well together. I tend to gravitate
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towards the same colours for my cakes, turquoise, pink and purple, all of my favourite colours
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so choosing a colour palette online forces me out of my comfort zone to try new colour
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combinations which I almost always end up loving. Now that the colours are ready it's time to paint
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a cake. The frosting on your cake needs to have set so that you can apply pressure to it without
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damaging it. I put this cake in the fridge for an hour to chill and set the frosting. You'll need
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an offset spatula, which is one of these, also called an angled palette knife and using a small
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one like this will allow you to create more detail than using a big one like this one
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Lower the tip of your offset spatula down into one of your colours and drag away sideways and
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you should have a small amount of that colour on the blade. Press the tip of the offset spatula
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against the very bottom of the side of the cake and pull it up the side of the cake until you feel
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that there isn't any paint left in between your offset spatula and the cake. You can swipe a few
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times until you're happy with the texture and the coverage and bear in mind that if you're using
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colours that are lighter than the frosting on your cake you might need to do a few layers before you
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can cover up that darker frosting colour. Swipe your offset spatula away and then dip it into the
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next colour or the same colour again and repeat the spreading motion upwards. Before changing colour
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wipe your offset spatula clean on a paper towel so that you don't drag your first colour into the
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next colour and that will keep the colours more distinct. What's nice about painting onto a cake
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when the frosting has set is that if you paint anywhere you don't want to paint you can scrape
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that off with your offset spatula without damaging the frosting underneath. Paint onto the cake again
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and again, always starting with the tip of your offset spatula resting down on the cake board and
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that will make sure that you're covering up the very bottom of the cake. You can vary the height
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that you paint upwards each time. You don't always have to try and make it identical because the
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irregularities of this design are what makes it so beautiful. If your buttercream isn't spreading
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nicely because it's too thick or too stiff, add a few drops of milk to thin it out and make it easier
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to paint with. If you haven't taken my free course yet make sure you do and click here to check out
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my online cake school for lots of classes teaching step-by-step how to create gorgeous cake designs
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with hundreds of techniques. When you've painted all the way around the cake you can paint another
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layer above the first row, adding more colour and height and texture to your cake design and this
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adds some more detail and makes the design more interesting. To add even more texture and colour
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to your cake you can press sprinkles into the paint and it's easiest to do this straight after
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you've painted the cake so that the buttercream paint is still soft and sticky and then the
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sprinkles will attach easily. The quickest way to add sprinkles is to dip your finger into water
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shake off the excess or dab it on a paper towel so your finger is just damp, not wet, and then press
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your finger into the sprinkles and they'll stick to the moisture on your finger. Press your finger
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into the paint and the sprinkles will stick to that instead of your finger. For my next five
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minute cake decorating video I'm going to choose a tool chosen by you so comment below with your
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tool suggestions and I'll pick one to get creative with. Isn't it gorgeous? It's such a quick and easy
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technique but you would never know by looking at this that it took less than five minutes to decorate
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Thank you for watching
