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Coloring books are an entertaining and calming activity
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but colouring a cake is even more fun. The frosting on your cake needs to be very firm so that you don't damage it as you colour
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After you've smoothed the frosting, put the cake into the fridge for a few hours or even overnight
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so that it gets very cold and the frosting sets. Find a picture you'd like to create on your cake
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or draw one, or just go freestyle straight onto the cake, if you're feeling confident
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melted chocolate works well for this because it gets very firm when it sets so you won't damage it later as you colour these are semi-sweet chocolate chips melted in the microwave for thirty seconds at a time at fifty per cent power so that the chocolate doesn't burn or seize
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stir until any lumps of chocolate have melted and the chocolate is smooth spoon it into a sandwich bag and push it down to one of the bottom corners i know in some countries ziplock bags are harder to find or more
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expensive than piping bags so you can use a piping bag instead that's fine. Cut a tiny
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piece off the corner of the sandwich bag or the end of the piping bag to pipe through. Now
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outline your design which can be just on top of the cake or around the sides as well
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Piping with chocolate is easier than piping with butter cream because the chocolate flows so easily through the hole in the piping bag You could choose a theme like a Christmas scene for your kids to colour during the Christmas holidays
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or rainbows and unicorns, or construction vehicles, whatever they're into. Pause at each corner before piping the next line so that the chocolate pulls a bit and attaches to the cake
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because if you pull away too soon, you'll pull the chocolate with you and leave rounded corners
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and leave rounded corners instead of sharp ones. You can adjust or tidy up the chocolate
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by nudging it with a toothpick straight away while the chocolate is still soft, before it sets
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You can scrape any mistakes off the frosting and since the cake has been chilled and the frosting is firm
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you won't damage the frosting. You'll just take off the chocolate. It's much trickier to pipe onto the sides of the cake
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because you can't see as well what you're doing and because of gravity
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which pulls the chocolate down, so unless you keep the tip of the piping bag pressed against the cake
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your chocolate lines will fall down to the cakeboard. If your lines are too thick, you won't be able to pipe smaller details
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and if that happens, push the melted chocolate to the other corner of the sandwich bag
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and cut a smaller piece off of this corner, so that your lines will be thinner like this
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And now even for smaller details you be able to leave space inside the shape so that you have something to colour in later After piping the design put the cake back in the fridge for about 30 minutes to set the chocolate
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Meanwhile, prepare your colours. There are a few options for this. You can buy edible markers, but they don't work as well on butter cream as they do on fondant
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The ink doesn't work for very long, I think because of the oiliness from the butter in the butter cream
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and if you press too hard you'll poke through the firm outer layer of the butter cream
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and the soft butter cream underneath will cover up the tip of the pen
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You can use piping gel, but if you want a quick option that you can make yourself
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just use the gels you use for tinting butter cream, diluted with a few drops of a clear alcohol, like vodka, or a clear flavour extract
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You can make a colour palette in a cupcake pan, or mini cupcake pan, or using a few bowls, but one pan is much quicker to wash than lots of
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of little bowls. I drew the colours I was going to use and taped them to the cupcake pan
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because I wasn't sure how easily you'd be able to see the colours in the pan. I'm using peppermint
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extract for my Christmas colouring cake to dilute the colours to make them easier to paint with
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If you're not going to use your colours straight away, cover the pan with plastic wrap
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like cling film or saran wrap so that the extract or alcohol doesn evaporate When you take your cake out of the fridge the frosting and chocolate will stay firm for about half an hour depending on the temperature of the room
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This gives you lots of time to colour in the design. Having a different paintbrush for each colour is ideal
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but if you don't have that many paintbrushes, have a glass of water and a towel or paper towel handy
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to clean the paintbrush after each colour. The smaller and thinner the brushes, the better
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so that you can reach into the small parts of the design. Practice makes perfect
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This is a fun activity for children, but also a very calming, therapeutic activity for anyone
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I persuaded my husband to test it out with me as a date-night activity, and we had so much fun with it
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And if you want to do this as an activity with kids and don't want to spend as much time preparing it
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skip the chocolate outline and just let them paint straight onto the cake to make their own masterpiece
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I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial. Tell me in the comments who you're going to make this with or for
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For more cake decorating ideas and courses and memberships, visit my online cake school on
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British Girl Bakes.com. Thanks for watching. Do you put that in your mouth? Yeah, it tastes like mint
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Wait, let me tell Mama! Mama! Can we eat the cake? Thank you
