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8 Colorful Cake Decorating Ideas
Oct 14, 2025
Use these colorful cake ideas to brighten up your cakes for any occasion! In this tutorial I’ll walk you through 8 fun and creative ways to decorate cakes with colour to make eye-catching showstoppers. 🥣My Recommended Cake Decorating Tools: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/my-recommended-tools-for-cake-decorating 💫Start your FREE 7 day trial on my cake school: https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/p/all-you-can-cake 🎂Take my FREE course on 10 Frosting Techniques: http://britishgirlbakes.com/free-course 👩🏼🍳My 4 Minute Buttercream recipe https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/recipes/buttercream-frosting/ 📄READ a written version of this tutorial (with photos!) https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/8-colorful-cake-ideas/ 👍Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week! 💬 SAY HI! Website: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/britishgirlbakes
View Video Transcript
0:00
Ready to add lots of color to your
0:02
cakes? In this tutorial, I'm going to
0:03
show you eight colorful cake decorating
0:05
techniques that are fun, eye-catching,
0:07
and surprisingly easy to do. First up is
0:10
a sparkly homemade stencil design. Write
0:13
a message or number on a piece of
0:14
parchment or wax paper and cut it out.
0:17
Poking the scissors into each letter and
0:19
cutting around so that the rest of the
0:20
paper is left intact. Wrap this stencil
0:23
around a cake after the cake has been in
0:25
the fridge for at least an hour to chill
0:27
so that the frosting is firm. with
0:29
another strip of parchment to cover up
0:30
the bottom of your cake if your stencil
0:32
doesn't go down far enough to protect
0:34
the frosting from jumping sparkles
0:36
later. Then spread buttercream over the
0:38
stencil. You can use the same color or
0:40
something different. And then press
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edible glitter or colorful sanding sugar
0:43
onto the buttercream on the stencil so
0:45
that it sticks. Peel the stencil off and
0:48
you'll have a sparkly colorful message
0:49
left on your cake. Watercolor frosting
0:52
is probably the quickest way to add lots
0:54
of color to your cakes. Spread a few
0:56
colors of frosting around the cake
0:57
randomly, choosing colors that mix
0:59
nicely because these will blend
1:00
together. Scrape around the cake a few
1:02
times to smooth these colors over the
1:04
cake and then spread any of the frosting
1:06
you scraped off back onto the cake to
1:09
fill in any gaps. The more times you
1:11
scrape around the cake, the more the
1:13
colors will blend together. Watercolor
1:14
cakes are striking just like this. But
1:17
to take them to the next level, you can
1:18
carve the buttercream to show off the
1:20
color or colors underneath. And I teach
1:22
this technique in my free course on 10
1:24
frosting techniques. The link for the
1:26
course is in the top of the screen and
1:27
in the video description or go to
1:29
britishgirlbakes.com.
1:30
Instead of blending colors together,
1:33
create buttercream stripes using any two
1:35
colors you like. With this technique,
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spread the first color all over your
1:39
cake and use a striped cake comb to
1:41
imprint stripe grooves into the
1:42
frosting. Using this just like you'd use
1:44
a regular cake scraper, pressing down on
1:47
the cakeboard to line it up straight for
1:49
each scrape. Put the cake into the
1:50
fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for
1:52
15 minutes to set this first color. And
1:55
then spread or pipe the next color into
1:57
the grooves. Scrape around the cake. And
1:59
don't worry, the first color is cold and
2:01
firm, so you won't damage it. But you
2:03
will smear the second color all over the
2:06
cake, and that's fine. Just keep
2:07
scraping again and again with a
2:09
straightedged cake comb or icing scraper
2:11
or frosting smoother to take off all of
2:13
that excess color, and eventually you'll
2:15
be left with perfectly neat, colorful
2:17
stripes on your cake. A checkerboard
2:19
cake is a really fun way to add color to
2:21
the inside of your cake using two
2:23
flavors or two different colors. This is
2:25
my very vanilla cake recipe, which is
2:27
the perfect size for a checkerboard
2:29
pattern baked in four 6in pans. But
2:32
first, we need to make sure that the
2:33
cakes are the right height by using a
2:34
serrated knife. Trim off any domes, and
2:37
you can trim off the bottom if you want
2:38
to take off the darker colored edge. The
2:41
cake layers should be as tall as they're
2:43
going to be wide. You'll see what I mean
2:44
in a minute. Use cookie cutters 2 in
2:47
apart in size. These are 2 and 4 in. And
2:50
the cake is 6 in wide. So when you cut
2:52
the cake with the cutters, you'll make
2:54
three rings of cake that are 2 4 and 6
2:57
in wide. Now alternate the colorful
2:59
rings to assemble your cake. So the
3:01
colors change with each ring, but also
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alternate as you go up the cake. So pink
3:05
is on top of white and white is on top
3:07
of pink or whatever colors you're using.
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This tall 6-in cake will serve 12 to 20
3:12
people depending on how you slice it.
3:14
Look at this gorgeous colorful
3:15
checkerboard pattern. If you enjoy
3:17
piping or want to practice, a vintage
3:20
cake is a great option for lots of
3:22
color. Choose a color scheme or go for a
3:24
full rainbow using as many piping tips
3:26
as you have and then play around
3:28
layering different shapes and textures
3:30
and colors and having lots of fun. I
3:32
have a very detailed tutorial on this
3:34
style and the link is in the top of the
3:35
screen. A much quicker way to add lots
3:38
of color to your frosting is to pour
3:39
multicolored sprinkles into your
3:41
frosting before you use it. Set aside a
3:43
few spoonfuls first without sprinkles
3:45
and then spread the sprinkled frosting
3:47
onto your cake as normal. And when you
3:49
smooth it, don't worry about any trails
3:51
left in the frosting by sprinkles
3:53
dragging around with your cake comb.
3:55
Just use the plain buttercream you set
3:57
aside to spread over those trails and
3:59
then scrape again and again until it's
4:01
all smooth. The sprinkles look really
4:03
bright and fun embedded in the frosting
4:05
like this. One more idea for sprinkles,
4:07
and this one is perfect for birthdays.
4:09
Start with chocolate chips and melt them
4:11
in the microwave at 50% power for 30
4:14
seconds at a time, stirring between each
4:16
interval until the chocolate is smooth.
4:18
Spoon it into a Ziploc bag, squeeze it
4:20
into one corner, and snip off the tip.
4:22
Level your sprinkles on a plate and pipe
4:24
your letter or number directly onto
4:26
them, but in mirror image since you're
4:29
looking at the back right now. Start
4:30
with a thin outline and then trace over
4:32
it to build up the shape so it's thick
4:34
enough to hold together. While the
4:36
chocolate is still melted, press a
4:37
toothpick into the bottom so it will be
4:39
easy to attach to the cake later. Leave
4:41
it to set for an hour at room
4:43
temperature or chill it in the fridge or
4:45
freezer for 15 to 30 minutes. Once it's
4:47
firm, lift it up and you've got a
4:49
sprinkled covered chocolate topper ready
4:51
to push into your cake. Ta-da! Homemade
4:53
stencils are so easy to make and so
4:55
versatile. It's easy to add lots of
4:58
colors by tinting a few small amounts of
5:00
buttercream. I like to do this in a
5:01
cupcake pan for quick cleanup instead of
5:03
lots of little bowls. And then just
5:05
spread two or three colors over each
5:07
stencil and scrape over the stencil a
5:09
few times to blend the colors and to
5:10
take off the excess to leave a thin
5:12
smooth layer of colorful buttercream
5:14
behind when you peel off the stencil.
5:16
Tell me in the comments which colorful
5:18
cake decorating techniques were your
5:19
favorite and ask me any questions you
5:21
have. And visit my cake school on
5:23
britishgirlbakes.com to take my free
5:25
course or choose any other course or
5:27
membership to learn hundreds more cake
5:28
decorating techniques and designs. See
5:30
you there.