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Trendy Neon Leopard Print Cake
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Sep 6, 2024
In this cake decorating tutorial I show how to create a trendy neon leopard print cake with neon and leopard print frosting, decorated with homemade leopard print chocolates. I used my 4 Minute Buttercream for this cake and the recipe is here: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/recipes/buttercream-frosting/ For my online cake decorating school and Club membership click here: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/online-courses To read a transcribed version of this tutorial (with photos!) click here: http://www.britishgirlbakes.com/trendy-neon-leopard-print-cake/ SUBSCRIBE to my channel for new cake decorating tutorials every week!
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0:00
I'm going to show you step by step how to create this trendy leopard print cake with leopard print frosting and decorated with homemade leopard print chocolates
0:11
Start by assembling your cake and this design will work best on quite a tall cake, so ideally use three layers of cake
0:17
Give it a crumb coat, let it set and then for the final coat of frosting I used neon green by mixing leaf green and yellow gel colours
0:25
The yellow is a brightener and makes the green really pop. I have an online course on the basics of
0:29
buttercream and one of the modules teaches how to create any colour of butter cream and I've put the link for my online cake school in the video description and at the top of the screen
0:37
When your frosting's nice and smooth, put the cake in the fridge for at least an hour to set the frosting
0:43
When it's firm you're ready for the next step. For the leopard print part of the frosting you'll need three colours of buttercream
0:49
We'll start with two shades of brown for the spots and I'm using melted chocolate and I'm adding some brown gel to make one bowl of buttercream even darker
0:56
I'm using my four minute buttercream and the recipe and tutorial link is a nice
0:59
the top of the displayed and in the video description. You'll need a small round tip for this
1:04
next part, ideally a number two, number three or number four, and we'll start with the lighter
1:09
colour of brown. Wrap a piece of acetate around your cake to measure it and cut it so that
1:16
it's an inch or two longer so that you'll be able to wrap it even when there's extra frosting
1:20
in between the acetate and the cake. This acetate is from a roll so it curves and you'll
1:24
see why that's important later. Put your cake back in the fridge to keep the frosting firm
1:30
Lay the acetate out on a counter so that it's curving upwards towards you
1:33
weighing it down with some objects like a pair of scissors or a bowl, and pipe little squiggles of the light brown buttercream all over the acetate
1:41
Go all the way down to one of the long sides, which will be the bottom of the cake
1:45
and from one short side all the way to the other. But don't pipe all the way across to the other long side
1:51
only go up as far as you want the leopard print frosting on the cake to go
1:54
I think it looks best when it goes less than halfway up the cake
1:58
Now use the darker brown buttercream to pipe around the light brown squiggles
2:02
You can use the same round piping tip to manually trace around each squiggle
2:06
or use a larger round piping tip like this one, a number 12
2:10
to pipe a dot over the top of each squiggle, not completely covering up the squiggle
2:14
and this will create irregular dark brown markings around the lighter brown centres of the spots Put the acetate in the fridge for 30 minutes so that the buttercream spots set and meanwhile mix the final colour of frosting I using my leftover light brown
2:29
buttercream mixed together with some plain white buttercream and some yellow gel
2:33
and then adding a drop of orange to make the colour a bit warmer. Spread the yellow buttercream all over the spots once they've set
2:42
going all the way down to the long side of acetate which will be the bottom of the cake
2:46
and all the way to both of the short sides, but stop where your spots stop, which will be the
2:50
uneven top edge of the leopard print frosting. The spots will be hard from the fridge
2:55
but be gentle as you spread so that you don't knock and damage any of them. This side of the acetate that you're piping on will eventually be pressed against the
3:03
cake, and that's why this side should curve upwards, so it will wrap around the cake easily
3:08
If you can only find sheets of acetate instead of a roll, it won't curve like this
3:12
so it won't be as easy to wrap around the cake later. Now straight away while the buttercream is still sticky
3:18
take your cake out of the fridge and lift the acetate up, lowering the bottom edge down so that it rests on the cakeboard
3:24
If you're enjoying this tutorial please click the thumbs up button to like it and subscribe to my YouTube channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week
3:33
Wrap the acetate around the cake, always making sure that the bottom of the acetate is resting down on the cakeboard
3:39
so that this leopard print frosting goes all the way down to the bottom of the cake. the cake. Press the acetate firmly against the cake to stick the frosting to it, and where
3:47
one end of the acetate overlaps the other, press on the overlap to squeeze out any excess
3:51
buttercream and scrape it off with an offset spatula and then put the cake back in the fridge
3:56
to chill the leopard print frosting. While the frosting is chilling, we're going to make
4:00
leopard print chocolates to decorate the cake. Melt some white chocolate and some semi-sweet or dark
4:05
chocolate and mix them together to make a light brown to match the light brown of the buttercream
4:09
spots. When you melt the chocolate, melt it at 80% power in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time
4:15
so you don't overheat the chocolate. Use a paintbrush to brush little random spots into a
4:20
sphere mould. I have a set of three different sizes of sphere mould and I'm using all three to make
4:24
different sized chocolates. These are the same as the moulds to make hot chocolate bombs. You can make
4:30
however many chocolates you like, but remember you'll need two of these hemispheres to make each
4:34
sphere so you need an even number or you can make an extra in case one breaks Put the moulds in the fridge for about 10 minutes to set the light brown spots and then use melted semi or dark chocolate to paint
4:45
around the spots to make the darker markings. Don't paint complete circles around each spot
4:51
keep it random and irregular, by painting two little curved lines around each spot
4:55
not connecting the lines, so that there's part of each dot that isn't surrounded by dark brown
5:01
Put the moulds back in the fridge for another 10 minutes and melt some more white chocolate. Again
5:05
using 80% power and 30 second intervals in the microwave so that the chocolate doesn't burn or seize and separate
5:12
You can make snow leopard chocolates with plain white chocolate or add yellow gel, and a drop of orange and brown will make a more natural leopard print yellow colour
5:20
Candy colours, which are oil-based, are ideal for this, but you can use the gels you use to colour buttercream, which I'm using now
5:28
Just don't add a lot of colour because that can cause the chocolate to seize
5:32
Use the back of a spoon to spread the chocolate into the larger hemispheres, covering the spots and pushing the chocolate all the way up to the top edge of the mould, so it's nice and thick at the top, which is where the two halves will join so you want a solid rim for that
5:45
For smaller spheres, it will be easier to fill the mould, instead of just painting the surface, but this would make the large chocolates really heavy, so I don't recommend filling those
5:57
Put the chocolates back in the fridge for about 30 minutes and then pop them out of the moulds, gripping each chocolate in the fridge for about 30 minutes and then pop them out of the moulds, gripping each other
6:02
each mould on each side of a chocolate and pulling the mould apart with your thumbs while pushing
6:06
up from the bottom with your fingers and the chocolates will pop out easily. I love the combination of
6:12
white and yellow chocolates. I tried to match the shade of yellow chocolate to the yellow of the leopard
6:16
print frosting and I'm really happy with how well they match. I made some brown chocolates too to
6:22
experiment and some plain white ones to make a gold chocolate ball too. These are going to look fantastic
6:27
on the leopard print cake. I made a few extras and I'll show you how to use them at the end
6:32
To attach the halves, drop one half into a pan that's been heated on the stove and as soon as you see melted chocolate around the base of the chocolate, quickly lift the chocolate up and press it against the other half
6:42
Don't leave it in the pan for any longer when you see the chocolate starting to melt, because you'll melt too much of it and you'll end up with a misshapen ball
6:49
For a gold ball after attaching the two halves of the white chocolate and putting some gold luster dust in a Ziplock bag dropping the ball in and shaking it around to coat it in gold powder Don touch it until you place it on the cake so that you don wipe off the gold
7:05
Now the exciting part, revealing the leopard print frosting. Take the cake out of the fridge
7:10
and pinch the top corner of the acetate and peel it off the cake, leaving the leopard print
7:15
frosting behind attached to the cake. I love my four-minute buttercream because it firms up and
7:20
sets well and makes so many cake decorating techniques possible, like this one. For more cake-a-dict
7:25
as an inspiration join my club for access to all of the classes on my online cake school
7:29
both current and future classes, as well as exclusive members-only live demonstrations and
7:34
Q&A sessions. The link for my online cake school is in the top of the screen and in the video
7:39
description, or you can go to British Girl Bakes.com. When you've peeled the acetate off
7:44
use a frosting smoother to scrape around the cake a few times, paying particular
7:47
attention to the join where the two ends of acetate met, where you'll have a ridge
7:51
in the buttercream, but you can flatten it with a bit of pressure on your frosting smoother
7:55
Wipe any smudges of buttercream off the cakeboard and now it's time to attach the leopard print chocolates
8:00
You can do this with leftover buttercream or with melted chocolate. Put a dot of either on the cakeboard wherever you want to place a chocolate and press the chocolate down into the dot and also against the frosting on the cake
8:11
The melted chocolate or buttercream will set in a few minutes and will secure the chocolate in place
8:16
For melted chocolate, spoon it into a Ziploc bag and cut off a corner to squeeze the chocolate out
8:22
You can stack the balls on top of each other using a few dots of buttercream or melted chocolate to keep them in place
8:28
Combine different sizes and colours of the leopard print chocolate to make a fascinating sculpture on top of the cake, with a few balls down on the cakeboard to match
8:36
To raise the gold ball up, I used an extra half I had of a brown ball
8:41
I'm glad I made that extra half! And there's a stunning, classy, neon leopard print cake
8:48
If you have any leftover chocolates, you can make hot chocolate bombs with them. them. I have a full tutorial for these and the link is in the top of the screen and the video
8:55
description, but the gist of it is to fill half a chocolate with hot chocolate powder and
8:59
mini marshmallows and I added bailey's to mine too, and then melt the rim of the other half
9:04
and attach it to make a sphere. This makes a beautiful, unique gift, put it in a cellophane
9:09
bag inside a mug for easy and secure packaging. Thanks for watching
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