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Ultimate Guide To Icing Sheets (Sugar Sheets) On Cakes
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Sep 6, 2024
In this cake decorating tutorial I cover the basics of icing sheets (sugar sheets): how to store them, how to prepare your cake for them, and how to apply them, and then show you three styles of decorating cakes with them. My icing sheets are from www.sugar-art.ca and you can use the code EMILYBGB to get 20% off your order! For my online cake decorating classes, including my step by step class on how to decorate an icing sheet fault line cake with two tone swirls and buttercream flowers, click here: 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, I'm Emily of British Girl Bakes and I'm going to walk you through the basics of icing sheets
0:05
How to store them until you use them, how to prepare your cake, and how to apply icing sheets to the cake
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And then I'm going to show you how to decorate them with three different techniques. icing sheets are thick, edible sheets of sugar. They're sensitive to light. You can see how this one has discoloured on one side where it was exposed to sunlight
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They come in fun, bright patterns that are sticky on one side and usually come attached to acetate backing sheets
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which you should peel off just before you use a sheet. The sheets harden with exposure to air, so you should store them in an airtight bag
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and to avoid discolouring, place the bag inside an envelope or put them in a dark place, like inside a drawer
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I have a discount code you can use for these icing sheets, and I put it in the description below this video
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Before using your icing sheets, you need to prepare your cake. Icing sheets won't stick to buttercream that has already set
1:03
so if you're using a crusting buttercream, like my four-minute buttercream, you'll need to apply your frosting just before using the icing sheet
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You could apply the sheet straight onto a crumb coat, but if you have crumbs or bumps or dense in the crumb coat
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it's better to apply a smooth final coat on top before attaching the icing sheet
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Spread the buttercream on to cover up the crumb coat, and as you smooth the frosting, really focus on getting straight sides, because if the frosting's
1:31
wider at the top or bottom, the icing sheet won't go on straight, and it will either ride up or down
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the cake instead of sitting straight, or it will buckle and crease as you apply it. This isn't as
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important if you're not going to cover the whole cake with the icing sheet, so if you're going to do
1:48
a fault line or peekaboo design, you don't have to worry about this as much. It's okay if you can see some
1:54
shadowing of the cake through the final coat of frosting, like you can see here, because
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icing sheets become even more opaque as they set, and you won't be able to see this subtle
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shadowing through the patterns on the icing sheets. If you're going to do a peekaboo design, you
2:09
don't have to frost the whole cake at this point, just where you're going to apply the peekaboo
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shape or shapes, and I'll cover this in more detail in the next steps. Because icing
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sheets are opaque, it's okay if the frosting is a color that's not white, like this purple
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frosting. Even though parts of the icing sheet design are white, and you might expect to be able to see the purple frosting through them, you can't
2:32
Here's a sneak peek of what the icing sheet pattern will look like after applying it
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As soon as you've finished frosting your cake, peel the acetate backing off your first icing sheet and press the base down against the cake board to line it up straight
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and then push it gently into the side of the cake, pressing it firmly against the frosting to secure it
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and starting at the bottom of the cake to make sure it goes right down to the base
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Each end of the icing sheet should be straight, going vertically up from the cake board to the top
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of the cake, not slanted. And if it's slanting like on this side, it's because it doesn't go all the
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way down to the bottom of the cake, and that's because the frosting on the sides of my cake isn't
3:12
perfectly straight. The cake is wider at the top than at the bottom. At this stage, you can just
3:18
peel the icing sheet gently off the cake and then scrape off some of the cake and then scrape off some of the the frosting from the thicker parts of your cake In my case the top so that it straight and then reapply the icing sheet You have to work quite quickly if you do this
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because you don't want your frosting to set before you scrape it, and you don't want the
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icing sheet to dry out and harden. Once you've made sure the sheet goes all the way down
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to the bottom of the cake, so it's sitting straight, press the sheet against the frosting
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with your hands, or you can use a fondant smoother. You'll probably have to use two or
3:51
or even three sheets to cover your cake completely, and I'm cutting a strip out of a second
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sheet to finish wrapping this one, which is a four inch cake. I like to cut the strip a
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little bit bigger than I need, maybe an inch wider, because you can trim it later. Press it on
4:08
and then immediately cut off any excess with scissors before the sheets set, because they'll
4:13
crack and snap if you try to cut them then. Icing sheets are a little bit sticky, but not
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sticky enough to stick to each other and conceal an overlap, so it's best to cut the
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second sheet at the same place that the first one ends, so that they sit right
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next to each other. If you have an overlap, you can try brushing the edge of the
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bottom sheet with some piping gel to make the top sheet stick, but applying any
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liquid is a bit risky because it can make the colours bleed on the pattern on the
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icing sheet. Don't worry too much about the patterns lining up and matching, because
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the patterns on icing sheets tend to be quite busy, and when the cake is finished
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you'll hardly notice the join, like on this cake, where you really have to be looking for the join between two icing sheets to notice it
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When you're happy with the sides, trim the top of the icing sheets so that they're the same height as the cake
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You can measure and cut them before applying them, but it's tricky because if you mismeasure by just a millimeter
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you'll have either frosting or the icing sheet sticking out at the top of the cake
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It's easy to trim the sheets now, while they're still soft and pliable, and since the buttercream frosting will have still
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started to set by now you can rest the blade of your scissors on the top of the cake as
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you cut to use it as a guide of where to cut and then tidy up any jagged cuts
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afterwards so that the icing sheet is perfectly flush with the top of your cake. If
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you're enjoying this tutorial please click the thumbs up button and subscribe to my
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channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week. If you're going to decorate
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the top of the cake you might choose to leave it as it is but you can also cover
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the top with an icing sheet. I use a cake pan or a cake board the size of my cake as a guide and draw a wider circle around it to leave
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room for the frosting on the cake. The icing sheet should still be on its acetate backing while
5:59
you're doing this, and then when you cut it out, you'll cut through the icing sheet and the backing
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If the frosting on your cake has already set, spread on some more to completely cover the
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top of the cake, being careful not to spread the buttercream over the edges and onto the
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icing sheets around the sides of the cake. But if that does happen, you can wipe it off with your offsets
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or a paper towel. Then peel the acetate off the icing sheet circle and place the
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icing sheet on top of the cake. It should be bigger than your cake, which gives you
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room to trim around it, pressing the bottom blade of your scissors gently against
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the sides of the cake to line the scissors up and cut the excess of the edges of the
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circle so that it's the same size as the cake. You can go around several times to
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tidy up any jagged cuts or trim off even more until there's no icing
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sheet sticking out over the edge of the cake The seams where the icing sheets join will probably be disguised by the pattern on the icing sheet but if not you can use piping to disguise the join and add some colour
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and texture and interest to your cake, which I'll show you in detail in the next step. For a fault-line
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design, don't worry if the icing sheets don't go all the way down to the bottom of the cake
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because you're going to cover that part with frosting later. And instead of pressing the
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icing sheet onto the frosting and then t the top, you can pre-cut the icing sheet so that it's a little
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bit shorter than the cake, since the top of the cake will be covered with frosting as well
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so the icing sheet doesn't need to go all the way up exactly to the top of the cake
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Of course, you don't need to cover the top of the cake with an icing sheet for a fault-line cake
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because you'll be frosting over the top. For a peek-a-boo design, immediately after frosting the area where you're going to create your
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peekaboo shape, place a piece of the icing sheet onto that area
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It doesn't have to be the same shape as the peekaboo yet. Just cover an area slightly bigger than the shape you'll event
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use for the design. I'm using two different patterns for this cake, which will be two
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birds kissing, so a different pattern for each bird. This is a great way to use up any
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parts you've trimmed off from other icing sheets. The rest of the cake is still covered
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with just a crumb coat, but now that the peekaboo background pattern is in place, it's ready
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to be frosted with a final coat in the next step. Okay, the final step is to
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decorate your cake. I'll show you a technique that adds some nice texture, as well as
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conveniently covering up the join of icing sheets, and a trendy design that's a great
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solution if your icing sheets don't go all the way up to the top or down to the bottom
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of the sides of your cake. Finally, I'll show you the rest of the process of creating a peekaboo cake
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To add texture to this cake, I'm using a piping bag fitted with a petal tip, a Wilton 104 tip
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and I'm pointing the narrow side of the tip away from the cake and pressing the wider side
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into the side of the cake, and squeezing out the buttercream as I move the piping bag up in a
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diagonal to pipe a ruffle of buttercream. Wherever I pause and hold the tip in place for a
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moment while still applying pressure to squeeze out the buttercream, the buttercream creates
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a wave out of the narrow end of the tip, which is why that's the end pointing away from the cake
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so that there's space for the ruffle to wiggle and wave as it goes. I'm piping several ruffles onto the
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cake, following the same diagonal direction, going up the cake and overlapping each
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ruffle by about halfway over the previous ruffle, so that you can't see any of the
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icing sheet pattern between the two ruffles. I'm letting them stick up a bit over
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the top edge of the cake, and as I lift my piping bag away, I release my pressure
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on the bag at the same time to create a neat end to the ruffle. You can of course
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choose where you want the ruffles to go, so if you don't like the seam where your
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icing sheets join, this would be a great point. place to cover up with this piping. When you've piped all of the ruffles you want, chill the
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cake for about an hour in the fridge so that the ruffles set and firm up and won't be damaged by
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light pressure on them. While the cake is in the fridge, prepare edible gold paint by mixing
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gold luster dust with a drop of clear alcohol, and I'm using vodka, but you could use a clear
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extract like lemon extract instead. You want a thick liquid, almost paste-like, to get a nice bold gold
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colour It best to use a thin stiff paintbrush for this so you can be very precise about where you paint the gold And once the ruffles have set in the fridge you can start painting them Angling the brush to paint along the wavy edge of the ruffle using little dabbing motions from the side of the ruffle onto the edge to create a gold rim
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Tadda! The next design is a fault-line cake, which just means that the top and bottom of the cake will be bordered by another partial layer of frosting
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Spread the frosting all around the bottom and top of the cake, leaving the middle exposed so that you can see the icing sheet pattern
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After spreading the frosting on, I'm using a cake comb to imprint some texture into the frosting
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going around several times until I'm happy with the smoothness of the frosting. I'm going to decorate this cake with some two-tone swirls and piped flowers
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and I cover every step of this design in lots of detail in my online class
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and you can click the link in the top of the screen or in the description below this video for more information
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For a peekaboo shape, start by cutting doubles of your shape out of parchment paper
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I've cut out four little birds for the two birds I'm going to create, so I have two copies of each bird
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Of the two copies, cut one about two thirds from the left and one about two thirds from the right, so that they overlap in the middle
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This is important for revealing the peekaboo shape later. Line the two parts of your shape up on the icing sheet on your cake, and while holding them in place
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spread buttercream around the edges to secure it. The icing sheet will be slippery, so you'll need to hold
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the parchment shapes firmly in place and spread from the inside towards the outside of the shape
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so you don't push any buttercream underneath the parchment paper. I'm tearing a random shape for
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another peekaboo shape, and I'll cut this one down the middle, but not all the way through
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so that it stays together but also gives me space to peel it apart for the peekaboo
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Press the parchment onto the icing sheet on the cake, which should be bigger than the parchment paper shape
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and while holding the parchment in place, spread buttercream around it. Then when the shape is outlined, spread buttercream over the rest of the cake and smooth it out as normal
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making sure that the middle section of the peekaboo shape stays visible. Finally, it's time to reveal the peekaboo
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Slide your offset spatula underneath the parchment, using the slit and the slid and
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the shape like I did for this random shape or going in between the two sections of the shape if you cut them like I cut the birds
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Peel the shape off to reveal the icing sheet pattern underneath. A few tips for this. First, I don't recommend using very intricate shapes like these birds, which have thin parts sticking out and small details like the zigzag edges of the wings
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And so when you peel off the parchment, those details get lost easily
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with the uneven edge of the peekaboo shape. Also, avoid very busy patterns, or patterns that contain the same or similar colors to the frosting
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because it's difficult to see which are the parts of the peekaboo shape, like this tropical pattern
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which has black in it, so the navy frosting dividing the bird's tail and wings gets lost
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in the design. Finish decorating your cake however you like, and you can store the cake at
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room temperature or in the fridge. The icing sheets will be fine at either temperature, and the condoing
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condensation in the fridge won't affect them. Thanks for watching! Remember to click the thumbs up button and subscribe to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week
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