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How to Write Happy Birthday on a Cake
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Sep 6, 2024
Make your HAPPY BIRTHDAY message gorgeous with these techniques and tips! In this tutorial I'll show you: 0:20 What to use to write a message on a cake 1:11 Different styles for writing HAPPY BIRTHDAY 1:31 Different techniques to write HAPPY BIRTHDAY 4:30 How to space your message on a cake 6:36 Tips for writing HAPPY BIRTHDAY on cakes *Start your FREE 7 day trial on my cake school https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/p/all-you-can-cake/ *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/how-to-write-happy-birthday-on-a-cake/ *SUBSCRIBE to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week!
View Video Transcript
0:00
Make your happy birthday message neat with gorgeous lettering using these tips
0:04
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to position your message, various materials to write with, and different lettering techniques
0:12
I'll be using buttercream cakes for all of these techniques, but you can use whatever frosting you like
0:19
Let's start with what to write with. The most convenient option is usually buttercream, because you can use the leftovers after frosting your cake
0:28
Spoon a little bit into a piping bag with a small round piping tip
0:32
or if you don't have one, use a Ziplock bag and cut a tiny piece off one corner to pipe the buttercream through
0:39
Another delicious option is melted chocolate, white, milk, semi-sweet or dark chocolate
0:44
whatever you like. Spoon the melted chocolate into a Ziploc bag and cut a corner off
0:49
making a tiny hole for thin lettering or a larger hole for thick lettering
0:54
Edible paints are a third option. You can buy them ready mix. or make your own by mixing metallic luster dust with a few drops of clear alcohol to make a thin paste
1:04
If it's too runny, you won't get bold-colored letters. You'll need a tiny paintbrush, and I'll show you how to do this neatly later
1:11
Now here are some options of how to write Happy Birthday on cakes
1:15
and I'll show you the techniques for each of these next. You can print in all capitals, tri-pointalism, copy a simple font
1:23
or use a different technique to copy an elaborate font. write in cursive or use imprints for gorgeous perfect fonts
1:31
Let's dive into the techniques for writing Happy Birthday on Cakes. To pipe a line, squeeze the piping bag to push the buttercream out
1:39
pull to make a line, and release your pressure on the bag as you pull it away
1:43
to finish the line neatly. Like I mentioned, you can use a Ziploc bag instead of a piping bag
1:50
but it won't be as neat, because the piping tip is much more solid than the plastic of the Ziploc bag
1:55
so the lines will be straighter with a piping tip. To pipe a dot for this pointerless technique or for example the dot on an eye squeeze the bag to push the buttercream out and release as you pull away For a line of dots hold the piping tip at the same angle for each dot for the neatest results
2:14
To copy a font, print out your message and refer to it as you pipe
2:18
I like to place the word immediately below where I'm piping, because then you can look at each printed letter as you're piping
2:24
to mimic the font most accurately. Just keep in mind that if your piping is thicker than
2:29
the printed letters, your word will take up more space on the cake. For cursive, I recommend
2:35
piping just one letter at a time, and then pausing, to look at the printed message to check
2:40
what the next letter looks like, and how it connects to the previous letter, and then piping the next
2:46
letter. This is the neatest method compared to trying to pipe the entire word at once. For more
2:53
elaborate fonts, that you don't feel confident replicating freehand, try this technique. Print your message
2:59
Sip it over and trace the reverse side onto parchment paper. Now press the pencil side against the cake and retrace over the message again
3:09
and your pressure will transfer the pencil from the underside of the parchment paper onto the cake
3:14
Note that pencils are no longer made with lead. They're graphite, which is non-toxic, but if this faint trace bothers you, don't use this technique
3:22
If you're comfortable with it, pipe over the pencil lines with buttercream and voila
3:26
I find writing with melted chocolate, trickier than buttercream, because it flows continuously out of the bag
3:34
compared to buttercream, which only comes through the tip, when you squeeze the bag
3:38
so you have a lot more control when piping with buttercream than you do with chocolate
3:42
With chocolate, as you finish each line, if you pull the bag away, you'll leave a drizzle or trail or peak of chocolate at the end of the letter
3:49
You can minimise this by pushing down slightly, before pulling the bag away
3:53
and then use a toothpick to flatten any peaks. It's not as neat as buttercream, but it's another option for writing Happy Birthday on cakes
4:03
For gorgeous perfect fonts try letter embossers These are made by sweet stamp and my discount code is in the video description After chilling the cake to set the frosting arrange the letters on the cake
4:14
wherever you want them to go and press each one into the frosting. Then use edible paints and a
4:19
tiny paintbrush, the smaller the better, to fill the letters in and the imprints will guide
4:24
your paintbrush to fill each one neatly. So perfect. But whichever style of writing you choose
4:30
the neatness of your message really depends on how well you space it
4:34
Let's look at what not to do. If you start writing Happy Birthday without planning the position of your letters
4:40
your words can end up off-center or even worse, crammed in tightly to fit onto the cake
4:45
Ugh. So, how do you space your message? Here are six options
4:51
You can freehand your letters, meaning that you pipe them before planning where each one is going to go
4:56
And this is successful if you start with the middle letter. This centers the word, and then you can pipe the letters before and after
5:03
So for birthday, there are H letters, the middle two are T and H
5:08
so you could pipe these two underneath the middle letter of Happy, which is the first P
5:13
Or I'm going to move them slightly over to the left, since the I in the first half of birthday is so narrow
5:18
So it's really only half a letter. If you print your message in a certain font to copy
5:25
you can position your letters by holding that printed word above or below where you're going to pipe
5:29
centering the printed word on the cake and then copying the spacing of the printed
5:33
letters so that your piped word is centered too. Instead of printing your message to copy
5:39
you can write the letters on a piece of paper and hold that up to the cake as a guide
5:43
centering the word you wrote and then piping below or above it so that the piped word is
5:47
centered too. Another option is to outline your word with the toothpick before piping
5:54
starting with the middle letter to make sure the word is centered on the cake and then pipe over the
5:58
letters. This way, you can take your time with the toothpick to make sure each letter is the
6:03
same height and check that you like the shape of each letter, and then when it comes time to pipe
6:08
all you focusing on is squeezing the piping bag with constant pressure and holding your wrists still and steady to pipe straight lines rather than focusing on the little details of the lettering If you using the
6:19
pencil tracing method, spacing is very easy. Just center the message on the cake before you start
6:25
tracing. And if you're using letter embossers, arrange and rearrange them until they're in the
6:31
exact spot you want them to be before you press them into the frosting on the cake. Okay, now some
6:36
tips for success for writing happy birthday on cakes. First, you only need a tiny amount of
6:42
buttercream to write happy birthday. Look at how much there is if I scrape a message off a cake
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It's just a tablespoon or so. But it's easier to pipe with a bag about half full than an almost
6:52
empty bag, so I suggest using more than you'll actually need. I have another tutorial on nine
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ways to use leftover frosting for ideas on what to do with the extra buttercream. I recommend
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writing on a cake before piping borders or other details on top of the cake
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cake so that you have the biggest space available to move your wrist without having to navigate
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around piping or other decorations. While you're piping, keep a toothpick handy and use it to
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adjust your letters to make the lines smoother or to manipulate them, to make the whole bigger
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in a pea, for example. I always chill my cakes before writing on them, because when the frosting on the
7:27
cake is cold, it's firm. So if you pipe a message you don't like, you can scrape it off straight away
7:32
with a toothpick or offset spadgola, and you won't damage the firm frosting on the
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the cake. I hope this tutorial has been useful. Visit my cake school on British Girlbakes.com
7:42
to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs and join my Club Plus membership
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for access to every master course, mini course, live workshop and five minute Fridays, where I teach
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7:56
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8:01
cake. Start your free seven-day trial by clicking the link up at the top of the screen or in the
8:06
description or by going to my cake school on british girlbakes.com. Thanks for watching
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