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THE SECRET to Vertical Stripes
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Sep 6, 2024
In this cake decorating tutorial I share the secret to vertical stripes on buttercream cakes! I use my 4 Minute Buttercream for these cakes and you can watch the tutorial and get the recipe here: https://youtu.be/MFKfXbnU1Lw I bought my extra-tall roll of acetate here: https://amzn.to/2LH0cV7 SUBSCRIBE to my channel for new cake decorating tutorials every week! If you buy any of the products I've linked out to, the price you pay won't change but I will make a small commission on anything you buy. Thank you for helping to keep the British Girl Bakes tutorials FREE!
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hi, I'm Emily and I'm so excited to share this fun technique with you
0:04
I've developed the technique by testing it on several cakes and I'm going to show you the ways that work best
0:09
but also do some troubleshooting, showing you alternative things I tried that don't work as well
0:14
so that you know to avoid them, and showing you some ways to fix anything that goes wrong during the decorating process
0:20
Start by crumcoating your cake. Get it as straight and even as possible
0:25
paying attention to the sides to make sure they're vertical because of the cake is wider at the top or
0:29
or the bottom, the stripes will lean to one side. You'll need a piece of acetate that's a bit longer
0:35
than the circumference of your cake, so after crumb coating and chilling your cake, wrap the acetate
0:40
around it and add an inch or two to make room for the frosting you're going to apply. The acetate
0:46
should be at least one inch taller than the cake, and a roll is useful because it curves around the
0:51
cake naturally. I've put a link for this extra tall roll of acetate in the video description below
0:56
I should mention that you can use whatever color you like for the crumb coat, because it's going to be completely covered up by the design you create
1:05
Tape the acetate down onto an upside-down baking tray or any other large flat surface that can be moved around later
1:12
Tape it along one of the long sides, which is going to be the top of the cake
1:16
Now spread the base color of your frosting onto the acetate. The buttercream needs to be quite a runny consistency, a bit less stiff than you'd usually use to frost a cake
1:25
go all the way up to the edges on the short sides and the long side that doesn't have the tape on it
1:31
The side with the tape is the part that we'll be sticking up over the top of the cake
1:35
so you don't need frosting there but if you do get some there accidentally it's fine, we'll remove it later
1:41
I'm using my four-minute buttercream for this and I've put the link for the tutorial in the video description below
1:47
It needs to be thick enough to imprint the shapes in a minute, but not too thick
1:51
because that will make the acetate too heavy to apply neatly to the cake later
1:55
The buttercream needs to be the same thickness all over, approximately, so smooth it out with your offset spatchelor until its level
2:03
Now straightaway use your frosting comb to imprint the grooves. Stand opposite the masking tape side and reach over to line your comb up at the masking tape edge
2:12
pushing firmly down against the acetate and dragging the comb towards you very slowly in a straight line
2:18
You can see that this baking sheet isn't the ideal surface to use because it's not completely flat
2:23
so some areas of the stripe grooves are still covered with buttercream, where my comb grooves couldn't get all the way down into the dips and dents in the baking sheet
2:32
Don't panic if your comb wobbles or slides or slants and your stripes aren't straight
2:36
Just spread some more buttercream over the top and then use the comb again. If you're enjoying this tutorial, please click the thumbs up button and subscribe to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week
2:48
You can go over a section again to take off more buttercream to expose the acetate and underneath
2:53
You'll need to apply quite a bit of pressure and if you have a metal striped comb, it's easier if it's hot, so dip it in a bowl of hot water first, and then dry it off and then imprint the stripe grooves
3:05
The acetate should be visible within each stripe, but don't worry if there are smudges, we can fix those later
3:11
I tried this on a cutting board which worked really well because it was a more solid surface than a baking sheet but it rare to find a cutting board big enough for the acetate and the handle hole caused problems
3:24
so I had to move the acetate around to imprint the grooves over that section
3:31
I didn't use masking tape for this sheet of acetate, and you can see that it's moving all over the place
3:36
If you don't want to use masking tape because you need the full height of the sheet of acetate
3:41
you can try double-sided tape underneath the acetate instead. and that will hold it in place. You can see that these thin stripes are much more difficult than
3:49
thick stripes to imprint, so if you do them, make sure your buttercream is an even
3:53
looser consistency than this, and you can go over sections again with more buttercream until
3:58
you have neat, even stripes. When you have straight grooves and you've scraped off as much
4:03
buttercream as possible, lift the tray or board and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes
4:08
or in the freezer for 10 minutes. Save both frosting colors to use later in the process
4:14
When the stripes are chilled and firm, if you have any smudges of buttercream in the grooves
4:18
you can scrape them off with one side of your offset spatula or a frosting smoother
4:23
or you can wipe them off with a paper towel. Because the buttercream has set, you won't damage the stripes
4:28
and the smudges will brush off quite easily instead of smearing the acetate
4:34
Next, add the filling for the stripes. If you're only using two colours, you can spread the second colour on
4:40
going right up to the edges of the acetate, except for the side with the masking tape
4:44
and pushing it around with your offset spatula to fill in all of the grooves
4:48
and then spreading the whole surface to make it an even thickness. The first colour, the grey here
4:53
will hold its shape because it's cold, so you won't mess up those stripes by spreading on this second
4:58
colour. That's why a crusting buttercream works so well for this technique, as opposed to whipped cream
5:03
which never sets like this does. I know it looks like a disaster at the moment
5:08
but this is going to be the inside of the stripes, and the part facing down against the acetate will be the visible side
5:14
and that will be much neater. If you want to use more than two colours for your stripes
5:20
you can pipe on the filling colours, using a piping bag with any tip or with no tip at all
5:25
just using the whole cut in the end of the piping bag to squeeze the buttercream out and
5:29
into the grooves you've indented. Don't pipe on too much buttercream, just enough to fill
5:35
the grooves, and then spread it with your offset spatula to push it right down to the bottom
5:39
of the grooves. Make sure you save some of each colour for touch-ups later on, and again
5:44
don't worry about it looking messy as you spread. The goal at this point is to get an even
5:48
thickness of frosting all over the acetate rather than making it look pretty, since this side
5:53
is going to be pressed against the cake, so it won't be visible. Now immediately apply the acetate
5:59
to your cake. A turntable is very useful here and a non-slip mat or ring of masking tape is
6:04
essential to hold your cake in place. Lift the acetate up and press the bottom edge down
6:10
onto the base of the cakeboard to line it up and then slowly lift the other side
6:14
to press the middle section against the side of the cake. If your acetate comes from a roll
6:20
it will naturally wrap itself around the cake, and you just have to guide it to make sure the bottom of the acetate is pressed down
6:25
against the cakeboard all the way around, so that there isn't a gap at the bottom of the cake
6:30
And after applying the first part of the acetate, press it gently against the side of the cake with your hands to make sure that it flat against the cake all up the sides If your cake is frosted evenly it provides a vertical surface for the acetate to stick to
6:44
so if the bottom of the acetate is resting on the cake board, it will line up straight around the cake
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and your stripes will be straight. After wrapping the cake completely, use your hands or a fondant smoother to go around the acetate again
6:57
to make sure it's pressed against the cake all over. But don't press too hard
7:01
or you'll squeeze the buttercream and warp the stripes. It's okay if the acetate overlaps a bit where the two ends meet, just press the join so that the two ends of the buttercream meet each other underneath the acetate, and we'll tidy up the join later
7:15
The frosting on the acetate will stick up above your cake, and that's fine for the moment too
7:20
Put your cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill and set the frosting stripes
7:27
Then peel the acetate off, but don't expect perfect stripes yet. There are a few steps left
7:32
Where you see smudges of grey, this is where I didn't scrape all of the grey frosting off the acetate when I was using my striped comb
7:40
And these little holes are normal. When you spread the buttercream onto the acetate, there will be some air pockets trapped between the acetate and the buttercream
7:47
And don't worry yet about the seam where the acetate ends meet. Okay, first we're going to tackle the air pockets
7:53
Take the frosting you saved from earlier and spread it onto the air pockets in the stripes of one of the colours
7:58
And I'm starting with the seafoam stripes, filling in the little holes and
8:02
and also the dent and gap in the seam where the two ends of the acetate met
8:07
Now switch to the next colour and fill in the air pockets in those stripes. Don't worry if you spread the second colour over a stripe of the first colour
8:15
or the opposite way round, because you're going to scrape all of this off in a minute
8:19
The purpose of this extra buttercream is just to fill in the air pockets, not to change where the edges of the stripes lie
8:26
Scrape around your cake with a frosting smoother, and it will smudge the colours with this first scrape as it takes off the excess butter
8:32
butter cream you've just spread on, but scrape again and you'll reveal the stripes underneath
8:37
If you have a metal frosting smoother, that works best for this because you can dip it in hot water
8:42
and dry it off and then do this, and it takes the excess frosting off neatly and with very little
8:46
pressure needed. You can spread on more buttercream and scrape it off as many times as you need to
8:52
until the frosting starts warming up, because then you'll damage the stripes. If you still need to tidy them up, put the cake back in the fridge for a few minutes and then go back to it
9:02
For any splotches of colour like this grey dot on the sea foam stripe
9:06
you can try scraping it off or carefully scoop it out with your offset spatula and then fill in the hole with more buttercream and scrape over it to smooth it
9:18
To fix the height of the frosting, use the side of your offset spatula or a sharp knife to trim the excess off
9:23
holding the blade just above the top of the cake and spinning the turntable to slice through the frosting
9:29
Then spread whichever colour of buttercream you want on top, spreading it all the way over the edges of the cake to make sure you've covered it all and won't have any air pockets
9:38
And then scrape around the sides of the cake again to take off any excess. Go around more than once if you need to, so that there aren't any smudges of this buttercream, left on the stripes on the side of the cake
9:50
Tidy up the top edge by smoothing from the outside to the inside with your offset spatula or the edge of your frosting smoother And now one last trick to use on a smudge stripe like this one here is to use the smooth edge of your frosting smoother to press into the edge of the stripe and push the edge slightly from side to side to widen the dent
10:08
and then fill in the dent with buttercream, and scrape it to smooth it and sharpen the edge
10:13
of your stripe. This was my first attempt at vertical stripes, and the stripes on this cake are
10:20
far from perfect. I had lots of learning to do. I'll highlight my mistakes here, so you can try
10:26
to avoid them and also show you how you can fix them if they do happen. First, my buttercream was too
10:32
stiff, so when I used the striped cake comb, some of the buttercream pulled away from the acetate
10:37
with the comb, so there are a few gaps within my stripes. I didn't apply the acetate neatly to the
10:43
cake. I pressed it onto the cake on the side facing away from me, so I couldn't really see what I was doing
10:48
instead of on the side nearest me. I didn't pay enough attention to resting the acetate on the cake board
10:55
and I was too aggressive with my fondant smoother, so the acetate rode up around the bottom
11:00
and there are gaps in the bottom of the frosting. And this also means that my stripes are warped and lean to one side
11:06
This is especially noticeable at the join of the two ends of the acetate, where the stripes are leaning in opposite directions
11:13
I was so impatient to see how the stripes would look that I didn't chill my cake for long enough
11:17
so when I trimmed the top of the striped frosting off, some of it broke apart in chunks instead of slicing off in a nice neat line
11:25
You can see that there are lots of splotches of the darker colour where I didn't get all of the buttercream off the acetate
11:30
where I scraped the stripe grooves. So lots of mistakes which you can now focus on avoiding
11:35
but there's still hope if these things do happen to you. I'm dipping a metal frosting smoother in hot water
11:41
and scraping to get the smudges of buttercream off, which are the remains of the first colour I spread onto the acetate
11:46
because I didn't completely scrape them off when I imprinted the grooves with my striped cake comb
11:52
Remember to wipe the frosting smoother clean after every scrape, so you don't drag excess buttercream back onto the cake
11:59
I'm spreading buttercream over the air pockets, and scraping over them again with a frosting smoother
12:04
and get creative with your scraper, going vertically as well as horizontally if you need to
12:10
To tidy up an uneven top edge, put the cake back in the fridge to chill it properly
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and then slice through the butter cream with a sharp. knife. The buttercream you spread on top will cover the edge, so how it looks from the top
12:21
doesn't matter, but you want the top ends of the lines to finish at the same point when
12:26
you look at the cake from the side. You'd be surprised at how much a few decorations can
12:31
distract from smudged stripes. I'm sticking on some sprinkles along one of the stripes
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and suddenly the rest of the stripes seem neater. A buttercream border can cover up any
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imperfections on the top of the cake, and remember that most of the time a cake can have a back
12:45
and a front, so you can choose the neatest stripes to be the front of the cake, and the messier
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ones at the back. I do recommend using a wider striped cake comb for your first vertical striped
12:56
cake, like the one I used for this one, because they're much easier to get neat than the thinner
13:00
stripes. I hope you'll try this technique, and I'd love to see your creations. Please tag British Girl Bakes
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in your photos on Instagram so I can see them. Thanks for watching! Remember to click the thumbs up
13:12
button and subscribe to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week
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