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Acetate Cake Hacks Part 2
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Sep 6, 2024
In this cake decorating tutorial I demonstrate how to use acetate to decorate 6 eye-catching cakes with intricate, symmetrical and even gravity-defying designs. This is Acetate Cake Hacks Part 2 - for Part 1 (where I show how to assemble a cake using acetate to achieve neat, even layers) click here: https://youtu.be/brEJI-kf1JQ I use this extra-tall roll of acetate for my cakes: https://amzn.to/2LH0cV7 The Secret To Vertical Stripes tutorial - https://youtu.be/lHwy5wbs8Tg How to Make A Cake With Wrapping Paper tutorial - https://youtu.be/jwPNlIWgN9c Squiggles and Circles Cake tutorial - https://youtu.be/we_JcpSteLg My 4 Minute Buttercream Frosting - https://youtu.be/MFKfXbnU1Lw My online cake decorating school: http://www.britishgirlbakes.com/online-courses 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!
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0:00
Hi! In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to use acetate to decorate your cakes with six very different designs
0:07
For all of these designs we're going to decorate onto the acetate and then transfer the design to the cake, and there are three benefits of this technique
0:15
Firstly, it's easier to pipe or spread decorations onto a flat surface instead of the side of a cake
0:21
Secondly, some designs are impossible to apply to the side of a cake because of gravity, and I'll show you one of these designs later in the tutorial
0:29
Finally, and most importantly, when you decorate with acetate, the decorations can lie flat and smooth against the cake instead of parts of the decorations sticking out from the frosting
0:40
I'll start with a quick introduction to acetate. You can buy it at craft or baking shops or on Amazon, and if you can find a roll of acetate, that works best because it curves around the cake easily and stays in place
0:52
Just make sure it's at least as tall as the cakes you decorate. You can rinse it and reuse it, so it's a good investment
0:58
and there are so many possibilities with it. In part one of this tutorial, I shared a technique to assemble cakes using acetate
1:06
to create perfectly even, straight layers for naked cakes, semi-naked cakes, or just to provide a neat foundation for your decorations
1:14
And I'll put the link for that tutorial in the video description below. Acetate is better than parchment for these techniques
1:21
because it's much steadier, so your design won't buckle and crease and get distorted
1:25
I've put the link to the extra tall roll I use in the description below. Okay, for all of these techniques except the last one, you'll need a
1:33
chrome-coated cake to start with, with the sides as vertical as possible so that
1:38
the cake is the same width at the bottom and the top and the design will line up
1:41
straight on the cake. Wrap your acetate around the cake and cut it an inch or
1:46
two beyond where the ends meet to allow room for frosting on the cake, which
1:50
will make the circumference a little bit bigger. Then put the cake in the fridge
1:54
Now for the decorating techniques. For the first five techniques we're going to apply a design to the acetate and then transfer it onto the
2:03
sides of a cake. This first technique is a quick and simple way to achieve this marbled
2:09
look which is stunning on its own or it can be dressed up with more details like
2:13
this. Choose the colour and mix at least three shades of the same colour by
2:18
dividing the buttercream into bowls and tinting one bowl to be your darkest
2:22
colour and then adding different amounts of that buttercream to each of the
2:25
other bowls of white buttercream to make lighter shades. Spread your acetate out on the counter and spread little dabs of the coloured buttercream all over it
2:34
using little arc motions to spread it on and swiping your offset spatula off at the end of the arc so that it doesn't pull the acetate up with it
2:42
What you can see on the acetate will eventually be pressed against the side of the cake
2:47
so it doesn't matter what this upward-facing part looks like. It's the buttercream pressed down against the acetate that will be visible
2:54
You want to cover the whole piece of acetate with buttercream, and by spreading it to be a little bit of acetate with buttercream, and by spreading it on with this motion, you're blending the colours pressed against the acetate very slightly
3:03
to get a natural veining effect, but not blurring the colours together completely
3:08
The reason for doing this on acetate rather than straight onto a cake is exactly what you can see here
3:13
When you spread the buttercream to apply it, it blends together as you spread
3:17
and you want a more distinct division of the colours for a marble effect
3:21
and that's what's being created underneath this buttercream. So by using the acetate to flip this design around, we're going to make
3:27
that other side visible. After covering the acetate, spread the buttercream to make
3:33
sure it's an even thickness and double check that the butter cream goes all the way up to the
3:37
edges and corners of the acetate. Now take your crum-coated cake out of the fridge, and
3:42
because it's cold it will be firm and hold its shape when you apply pressure to it next
3:47
Lift the acetate up and rest the bottom edge on the cakeboard so that the design
3:51
will go right down to the bottom of the cake, and angle it upwards so that it
3:55
it presses against the side of the cake. And if you've used a roll of acetate rather than a sheet
4:00
it will wrap around the cake for you. Line it up, adjusting a section at a time to make sure the
4:06
bottom of the acetate is resting on the cake board, and press the sides gently to attach them to
4:10
the crumb coat of the cake. You can use your hands for this, or a fondant smoother, and you need to
4:16
apply a bit of pressure so that the acetate design is pressed against the cake so that it sticks to it
4:20
Where the two ends of the acetate meet or overlap, press on the join to flatten the
4:26
buttercream underneath the acetate as much as possible, scraping off any buttercream
4:30
that oozes out, and we'll tidy up the join later. If you're enjoying this tutorial
4:35
please click the thumbs up button and subscribe to my channel to see a new cake decorating
4:39
tutorial every week Put the cake back in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or the freezer for at least 15 minutes to chill and set the frosting design When the cake is cold take it out of the fridge and peel off the acetate to reveal the marbled frosting underneath
4:55
Dip a metal frosting smoother into hot water and dry it off and then scrape around the cake
5:01
which will smooth out any bumps in the frosting, and most usefully, it will also smooth out the seam in the frosting where the two ends of acetate joined
5:09
Use the hot frosting smoother to scrape gently upwards, scraping off any excess buttercream to leave a smooth join, flush with the rest of the frosting design
5:19
You'll probably have some air pockets in the frosting, where air was trapped underneath the buttercream design and the buttercream wasn't pushed all the way down flat against the acetate
5:27
and you can fill those in with any leftover buttercream, spreading it on and smoothing it with a frosting scraper to fill in the hole
5:35
The top edge will be messy, so use a sharp knife to trim it
5:39
slicing the blade through the frosting just above the crumb coat to leave a small lip of marbled frosting around the top of the cake
5:46
Now spread a few dollops of different shades of coloured buttercream around the top of the cake
5:51
and then smooth it with your offset spatula. And the colours will blend together, but if they blend together too much, just add a bit more of the lightest or darkest colour
5:59
to make the different shades more obvious. Once the top is smooth, use a frosting smoother to smooth the sides
6:07
and tidy up the top edge like you would on a cake with normal frosting, and there it is
6:13
Okay, next we're going to use a cookie cutter to make this ombre pocadot pattern
6:17
Mix a few shades of whatever color you want to use for the polka dots, and then spread those colors onto a sheet of acetate. The acetate should be
6:25
taped onto a baking tray or a cutting board or any other flat surface that you can lift up in a minute
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You don't have to do ombre, of course. You could just do one color, or you could make three separate blocks of color if you wanted the
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the colours of the pocodots to be different but not blended together in an ombre design
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Spread the buttercream so that it's all the same thickness and then put it in the fridge to
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chill it for about 20 minutes, or you can put it in the freezer for 10 minutes. When the frosting
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has chilled and set, use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Of course you can use any shape cookie cutter
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for this. I'm going to show you a way I tried the didn't work, so that you don't waste your
7:01
time trying it too. I planned on outlining the polka dots on this piece of acetate
7:06
scraping off the rest of the frosting, and then spreading the background frosting color onto this piece too
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But it's way too much work to scrape up all of the excess buttercream, so instead
7:16
I recommend cutting the circles out of this buttercream and then transferring them onto a clean sheet of acetate
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which will hold your final design. Cut out rows of circles and place them in the same position on the clean acetate
7:28
so that the ombre matches up. When you cut out a circle, check the underside to see which side is lighter
7:35
so that you place it the right way onto the clean acetate. Press down gently to attach it to the
7:40
acetate. I'm starting with my middle row of polka dots, cutting them out of the buttercream
7:46
in a straight line so that they'll all be the same shade of orange, and placing them onto the clean
7:51
acetate in a row, spacing them equally along the sheet. Of course for this technique I could have
7:57
used a lot less frosting on a smaller piece of acetate, just to get the poca dots I needed. Now that I know
8:03
this is a better way to cut out the shapes, I know for next time and so do you. Remember that the side of the poca dots that you can see is going to be pressed against
8:12
the cake, so the side that will be visible is phased down, and that's the side that will have
8:16
the ombre coloring, whereas this side that we can see here has been spread and smeared around
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to smooth and level it, so the colours are almost completely blended. That's why it's
8:26
important to cut the circles out in rows, because then you know there'll be the same color
8:30
on the downwards facing side, even though you can't see it at the moment
8:35
As you work, you'll notice that the buttercream gets softer as it warms up
8:38
which makes it easier to cut through and to stick onto the clean acetate with just a
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tiny bit of pressure to secure each polka dot. But if you notice that the shapes are
8:47
distorting as you lift them up or press them down, put the tray of buttercream back in the
8:51
fridge or freezer for a few minutes to firm it up. Okay, there we have the polka dot pattern
8:57
and I'm going to put this back in the fridge for a few minutes to make make sure the polka dots are cold and firm before continuing, and meanwhile I'm mixing my
9:04
next colour of buttercream, this deep burgundy, which will surround the polka dots
9:10
When the polka dots are cold, spread the buttercream all over them, covering up the entire
9:14
piece of acetate all the way up to the edges and corners and completely covering up the
9:18
polka dots. Aim for the same thickness of buttercream all over. Now immediately
9:24
apply the acetate to your cake, while the buttercream on the acetate is still soft and pliable
9:30
Take your cake out of the fridge and the cake and crumb coat will be cold and firm so they hold their shape for this part Lift the acetate up remembering which is the top and the bottom if you want the ombre to go in a certain direction
9:42
and angle the acetate downwards so that the bottom edge rests on the cakeboard
9:47
Lift the top edge upwards until the acetate is pressed against the side of the cake, and then wrap the acetate around the cake
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always paying attention to that bottom edge to make sure it's sitting on the cakeboard
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And adjust the acetate as you need to to, to lay to. line it up, pressing a section at a time against the cake to attach the design to the crumb coat
10:05
You can use a fondant smoother if you have one, but don't apply too much pressure
10:09
or you'll squeeze the buttercream out from underneath or above the acetate, and distort the pattern
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You can see that this end of my acetate is sloping up the cake, and I should have adjusted it at this point, but I didn't notice it until watching the footage later
10:23
Oh well, you can see from my mistake, that if you don't make sure the acetate sits down on the cakeboard all the way around the cake
10:29
part of the design will slope upwards. Put the cake back in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or 15 minutes in the freezer to chill and set the frosting and then peel the acetate off
10:39
carefully pulling it off with the excess buttercream from the join of the two ends of the acetate
10:44
Use a sharp knife to cut off the top of the design, whatever is sticking up above the top of the cake
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but leave a little bit sticking up over the top so that you can fill that in with more frosting to cover the top of the cake
10:55
smoothing that with your offset spatula or a frosting smoother the way you normally would
11:00
And next we'll tidy up the sides of the cake. Acetate wrapped cakes rarely look perfect when you peel the acetate off
11:06
You have to do a few touch-ups to fix air pockets and smudges before they look fantastic
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Dip a metal frosting smoother into hot water, dry it off, and then scrape around the cake a few times
11:17
which smooths any bumps in the frosting and takes off the excess buttercream from the top edge of the cake
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where you've just spread it on. For the join of the two ends of the pattern, use your hot frosting smoother to scrape upwards
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to scrape off the uneven buttercream where the two ends of the acetate met
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Now that the surface of the buttercream is smooth, we're going to fill in any air pockets by spreading on more buttercream
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using either orange or burgundy depending on where the whole is, and then smooth over that section again with the frosting smoother
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Even if there's an air pocket right on the edge of an orange polka dot, you can still use burgundy buttercream
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to fill that in. It's fine, just scrape over it a few times to take all of the burgundy off
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the polka dot. Tidy up the top edge and if you have any smudges of color on your cake, like here
12:06
where some orange butter cream got onto the acetate where it shouldn't have, you can gently
12:11
gouge that bit out of the frosting and fill in the hole with the right color, and then smooth
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over it. Here's the finished polka dot cake. To create vertical stripes on cakes, tape your
12:24
acetate onto an upside-down baking tray and spread buttercream all over it. The edge that's taped down
12:30
will be the top of the cake, and the acetate should be at least an inch taller, so that you have
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space for the tape, and you'll cut that frosting off at the end. Imprint stripe grooves with a
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striped cake comb, chill the frosting, and then spread the next color all over the acetate
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covering up the first stripes. I have a full tutorial on vertical stripes, including different styles
12:52
and troubleshooting tips, so this is just a quick outline, but if you want more details
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you can watch that one by clicking the link in the top of the screen or in the description below
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this video. Lift the acetate up, line it up against the side of the cake, press it against
13:07
the crumb coat all around the cake, chill it again, and peel off the acetate. Do any touch-ups like
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filling in air pockets, smoothing the seam where the two ends of the acetate met, and t
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the top and then cover the top of the cake with frosting and add any details or decorations
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you like. Turn any design into a cake by taping acetate over the top of the design and tracing
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it with buttercream. Use a piping bag fitted with a small round tip like a number four or just
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cut a tiny bit off the end of a piping bag so that there's just a small hole for the
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buttercream to come out of. Work your way across the design colour by colour to trace as much
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as you want to replicate. I have a full tutorial on this. this cake if you want more step-by-step instructions and you can watch it by clicking
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the link in the top of the screen or in the video description below. When you've finished piping
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the design, chill the acetate in the fridge for 20 minutes or in the freezer for 10 minutes
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Pipe or spread another colour of buttercream over the top, going right up to the edges of the
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acetate, and spread it to smooth over the top so that it's all the same thickness
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Lift the acetate up and wrap it around a chilled and crumb cake pressing it against the sides of the cake with your hands or a fondant smoother and then chull the cake again to set the frosting Peel off the acetate trim the
14:27
top of the frosting, dip a metal frosting smoother into hot water and scrape around the cake
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to smooth out any bumps, and then add details like buttercream borders, buttercream
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shading, and sprinkles. You don't have to use buttercream for these techniques. You can also
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use melted chocolate. For this cake I'm using candy melts but you can use white
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chocolate tinted with colors instead. Melt the chocolate or candy melts at 50
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power in the microwave for one minute at a time, stirring after each time so
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that you don't overheat it and then pour it into zip-ploc bags. Cut the
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corners off and drizzle over acetate, creating whatever design you like. Here
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I'm piping these squiggly circles by making circular motions with my wrist, overlapping
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different colors and going right up to the edges of the acetate, but not completely covering
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the whole surface so that you'll still be able to see the frosting underneath the design at the end
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Doing this with chocolate or candy melts is fun because you would never be able to pipe this
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kind of design onto the side of a cake because of gravity, but with acetate you can drizzle
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and then lift it to transfer it onto a vertical surface. Lift the acetate up and wrap it
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around your chilled and frosted cake using the same method as with buttercream, lining the
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acetate up straight against the side of the cake by resting the bottom edge of the acetate down on the cake board and wrapping it around
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pressing it gently against the cake to attach it. Chill the cake again and then peel off the acetate and voila
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I show every step of decorating this cake and adding the final touches in a full tutorial and you can watch it by clicking the link at the top of the screen or in the video description below
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This final technique is a bit different to the previous ones. Frost your cake and chill it to set the frosting and you
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meanwhile spread buttercream onto acetate to create shapes to stick onto the sides of the cake
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This will give the illusion of fondant, but with the taste of buttercream. Smooth the buttercream as much as you can with your offset spatula or a frosting smoother
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In the final step of this technique, I'll show you how different the effect is, depending on how thick the buttercream is
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Chill the buttercream you've spread onto the acetate until it's firm, about 20 minutes in the fridge or 10 minutes in the freezer
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and then press a cookie cutter into it, which I'm doing here for just. the balloon part of a hot air balloon. If you want a smaller version of the shape, you can
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use a sharp knife to trim it to size like this. You can also use a knife to free hand
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shapes, like I'm doing here for the basket of the balloon. Scrape off the excess buttercream
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from around the shape you've cut out, not worrying about getting the acetate completely
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clean because we're going to take the shapes off it next, but you just need room to get to the
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shape. The buttercream will have warmed up and softened by now, so chill it again in the
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fridge for a few minutes until it sets and then use an offset spatula to carefully lift up
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the shapes, sliding the spatula underneath the shapes and separating them from the acetate
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The underside will have air pockets, but the top will be nice and smooth, and that's the part
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we're going to display. You can use your finger to smooth the edge of the shape if it's a bit jagged
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and you can leave the shapes like this, or you can paint on some details. I'm using gel food
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colors to paint on some lines, and adding some shadowing by smudging the lines. This is just
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just gel color, but you can mix it with vodka or a clear extract like lemon extract if
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you want to thin it out to make the colour softer or to cover larger areas of the shape
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Chill the shape again if it warms up during this process, otherwise the warmth of your hand
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when you touch it will leave an indent in the shape or smudge the buttercream
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Then when the buttercream shapes are cold, take your cake out of the fridge and spread
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on a bitter fresh buttercream where you want your shape to go
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the shape up and press it firmly against the cake to attach it. If your buttercream shape is
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quite thick like this one, it will stay flat, and only the middle section will be attached to
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the cake with the frosting you've just spread on. Chill the cake until two hours before you serve
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it and then leave it at room temperature and it will be fine, but this technique obviously won't work
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if you want to display the cake in a hot place, like outside in sunlight, because the heat will
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melt the buttercream and the shape will slide off the cake. This pink balloon is much
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thinner than the teal balloon, so when I press it against the cake it curves around and
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moulds to the shape of the frosting. So if you want your shape to do this instead of staying
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straight, make sure you spread your buttercream thinly before cutting out your shape, and leave
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it for a few minutes at room temperature before applying it to the side of the cake so that it
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starts to soften a little bit. I love this buttercream shape technique and I'll be doing
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more experimenting with it soon, so stay tuned for some fun designs coming up. Remember to like this video
19:04
by clicking the thumbs up button and subscribe to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every
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