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5 Parchment Paper Cake Designs
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Sep 6, 2024
You can achieve endless cake designs without buying expensive tools! In this tutorial I’ll show you five ways to use parchment paper for cake decorating. *Take my FREE course on 10 Frosting Techniques on my ONLINE CAKE SCHOOL https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/free-course/ *LEARN The Basics of Cake and The Basics of Buttercream in my most popular online courses! https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/ *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/parchment-paper-for-cake-decorating/ *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
In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to use parchment paper to create elaborate cake designs like this, this, and this
0:11
To create perfectly symmetrical patterns like zigzags, wrap a strip of parchment paper around a cake and draw a line where the two ends overlap
0:20
Don't worry about the top edge yet. Fold the paper in half and half again until the folded paper is the width you want for each section of the zigzag pattern
0:30
Create another fold to mark where you want the top of the zigzags to be
0:34
Cut diagonally up from the bottom of one crease to the top of the next
0:38
Then cut in the other direction, which will create the other side of your zigzags
0:43
This is going to be your stencil. Wrap the zigzag stencil around your cake after the cake has been in the fridge for at least an hour
0:51
so the frosting is cold and firm. After a few minutes at room temperature, there will be tiny beads of condensation on the cake
0:58
which will make the parchment stick to the cake and stay in place. Spread another colour of buttercream over the exposed cake that's showing underneath the stencil
1:07
and once all of that's covered up, scrape around the cake with a straight cake comb or frosting smoother
1:12
to flatten this buttercream. Spread more buttercream over any indents and scrape until it's completely smooth
1:19
Then peel away the zigzag stencil to leave the zigzag pattern behind on the cake
1:24
If there are any smudges of buttercream on the cake, you can scrape them off with a toothpick
1:28
And since the frosted cake is cold, that frosting, the blue on my cake
1:33
will be so firm that you won't damage it with the pressure of the toothpick
1:37
As an optional finishing touch pour some sprinkles into a bowl and dip your finger into another bowl with some water in it Press your wet finger into the sprinkles so that they stick and then into the top of the zigzag
1:50
and the sprinkles will stick to the soft sticky butter cream instead of your finger
1:54
Chill the cake in the fridge for about an hour to set the zigzag butter cream
1:58
and then you can wipe the smudges off the cakeboard with a paper towel wrapped around your finger
2:02
brushing right up against the cake without damaging the cold set frosting
2:06
Tadda! Another fun cake designed to create with parchment paper is a dotted pattern
2:13
Just like the previous pattern, wrap a piece of parchment paper around the cake to measure it
2:17
and then fold it in half and half again as many times as you like, in both directions, to form a grid pattern
2:25
The vertical creases will meet the horizontal creases and form points, or I'll call them joins, in this tutorial
2:31
wrap the parchment around the cake and push a pin or toothpick through one of the joins to hold it in place
2:38
Then continue to poke a pin or toothpick through every other join, pushing through the parchment and into the frosting on the cake underneath
2:46
When you peel the parchment paper off, you'll have an even grid of dots that covers the cake
2:51
Now use a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip to squeeze little dots of buttercream onto each of the holes you poked to create a dainty, subtle pattern that complement
3:01
any other decorations without distracting from them. As well as patterns, you can use parchment paper to create designs like this bunny rabbit
3:09
and I'll show you a much more detailed character in a moment. Draw or trace the outline of your shape, cut it out
3:16
wrap the parchment around the cake, and spread buttercream over it. Scrape off the excess with an offset spatula or cake comb leaving a thin smooth layer of buttercream over the parchment stencil and then peel the parchment off to leave the silhouette behind To add some colour and texture you can pipe added details like these flowers
3:37
To add much more detail for character cakes, use parchment paper to trace an image, but only outline one colour at a time
3:46
For this platypus, I'm starting with the turquoise body, and then using different pieces of parchment to outline the feet
3:52
tail and beak, which are all this orange colour. And then the hat and finally the eyes
3:58
When you lay the parchment pieces over each other, you should see the outlines of all of the
4:03
details of the image. Cut out all of the details to make stencils, which you'll use for each
4:09
colour separately. Tint each colour of frosting, and I'm using gel colours with my four-minute
4:15
buttercream. Starting with the background colour, the largest block of colour, spread the buttercream over the
4:21
stencil to cover the shape you cut out and then smooth it with a cake comb
4:26
Peel the parchment away from the cake and use a toothpick to touch up any smudges of buttercream
4:31
around the edges of the shape. Put the cake in the freezer for 10 minutes or the fridge for 30 minutes
4:36
and then line up another parchment stencil on the cake. Chilling the cake sets the first stencil details
4:42
so that this next stencil doesn't damage them. Use your toothpick for any touch-ups and for texture
4:49
like the waffle grid on the tail, you can use your toothpick or the edge of your offset spatula
4:54
to score into the buttercream now while it's still soft. Continue with the rest of your stencils
5:01
and coloured butter cream to add all of the details to your character, chilling between each stencil For tiny details you might choose to use a piping tip instead of a stencil like tiny eyeballs which I poking with my toothpick to expose tiny white dots in the centres You can also
5:17
use a toothpick or offset spatchel for thin lines, like the mouth and the brim of this hat. And the
5:23
band around the hat could be done with a stencil, or you can pipe it and then flatten the buttercream
5:28
with an offset spatula. And there it is! A detailed character made with homemade parchment paper stencils
5:34
To wrap a cake in chocolate, cut parchment to wrap around the cake and you can scrunch it up if you want to add extra texture
5:42
Melt chocolate chips, white chocolate, milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, whatever you like
5:47
and then pour the melted chocolate onto the parchment paper. Spread it around with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon, going right up to the edges to completely cover the parchment
5:58
Slide your hands underneath the parchment straight away before the chocolate sets and lift it up and wrap it around your cake
6:04
It's easiest if the cake has been in the fridge, so it's cold and firm and less wobbly than when it's at room temperature
6:12
Put the cake wrapped in parchment into the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 20 minutes
6:17
and then peel the parchment off to leave the chocolate wrap behind. If you cut your parchment a little bit taller than the cake, you'll have a wall to hold in any decorations like these glittery chocolate multiples
6:29
So pretty. I hope you've seen some ways you can save money on expensive cake decorating tools by using
6:34
parchment paper instead. Check out my cake school for online courses on hundreds of cake decorating
6:40
techniques and designs and join my club plus for access to every master course, mini course and live
6:45
workshop. Thanks for watching
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