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Let's turn this into this in six easy steps! In this striped cake tutorial I'll share everything
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I've learned while making hundreds of striped cakes starting with the first one back in 2018
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Step one is to assemble a straight cake. Of course you're always going to try to make your cake
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straight but this is especially important with striped cakes because when you eventually hold
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your striped cake comb against the side of a cake you want the grooves to push through the frosting
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evenly all the way up and down the sides of the cake. If the cake leans to one side the stripe
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grooves will dig through the crumb coat up here and you'll get crumbs in your striped frosting
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Before you frost the cake with stripes you need a crumb coat which is this thin layer of frosting
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to cover the cake and it traps any crumbs that come off the cake so that you don't get any crumbs
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in your stripes. It doesn't have to be perfectly smooth because you're going to cover it up next
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but focus on straight sides by pushing the base of your cake comb down on the cake board as you
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scrape to line it up straight. Then put the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill this frosting
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so it sets and gets firm. When you can touch the crumb coat without damaging it, it's set and you're
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ready for step three, the final layer of frosting. Spread it all over the top and sides of the cake
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so that it sticks up around the top of the cake. This frosting needs to be at least as thick as the
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grooves on your striped cake comb. A striped cake comb looks like this and it can be made of metal
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or plastic or acrylic and all of those will work but before using this, use a straight edged cake
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comb to scrape around the cake a few times until the sides are smooth and straight without any big
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gaps or indents. Then switch to a striped cake comb and press the base down on your cake board
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before pressing it gently into the frosting as you spin the cake, imprinting the grooves of your comb
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into the frosting. You'll need to scrape around the cake a few times to get these really neat
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and you're looking for a smooth surface of the frosting within the grooves and also on the stripes
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that stick out. If there are any air bubbles you'll get random flecks of different colours in your cake
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later. When the striped grooves are neat put the cake into the freezer for 20 minutes and set a
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timer. You want the frosting to be firm enough that it will hold its shape but not completely
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frozen. Next fill the striped grooves with whatever colour or colours you choose. You could spread this
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on because the first colour of buttercream has set so it's firm and it will hold its shape but it's
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much quicker to pipe it into the grooves. Make sure this frosting fills the entire groove so that
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there aren't big gaps or air pockets within the stripes. Then move straight on to step six which
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is to scrape, scrape, scrape, even as you're doubting the whole process because there are frosting smudges
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all over your cake and it looks like a massive cake fail and then suddenly boom! You've scraped
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off all of the excess frosting and left behind these impossibly neat stripes. If you see any
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specks of colour within the stripes it's because there were air bubbles in the frosting. You can
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dig those out with the corner of a cake comb and then spread or pipe the correct colour into that
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hole and then scrape to smooth it. I like to use a hot metal cake comb for this part so that I don't
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leave any texture behind on the smooth frosting. And that's it! Perfect buttercream stripes in six
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easy steps! Subscribe to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week and visit my cake
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school on britishgirlbakes.com for online courses to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques
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and designs. Thanks for watching