The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (10 page)

used uncoloured buttercream here (F).

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F

7 Continue working around the cake piping the

coloured and uncoloured ruffles alternately until

you have covered the whole cake. Finish the cake

with tiers with different textured finishes as

desired.

Tip

This type of ruffle uses a lot of buttercream

and is therefore heavy, so make sure that

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each ruffle starts at the very base of the cake

so that the weight of the ruffle is supported.

110

To create this cake…

• 20 × 15cm (8 × 6in) round cake (bottom tier), 15

× 7.5cm (6 × 3in) round cake (middle tier), 13 ×

7.5cm (5 × 3in) round cake (top tier)

• Dowel rods

• 800g–1.25kg (1lb 12oz–2lb 12oz) buttercream

• Paste colour: blue (Sugarflair Baby Blue)

• Piping bags

• Small petal nozzle (Wilton 104)

• Cake scraper or ruler

• Palette knife

• Cake stand or covered cake board

Cover, dowel and stack the cakes (see Covering

Cakes in Buttercream Basics) and place on a stand

or covered board. Cover the top tiers using patting

strokes (see Palette Knife Brushstrokes in Palette

Knife Techniques). Leave 200–250g (7–9oz) of

buttercream uncoloured, then divide the rest into

three portions, colouring each a darker shade of

blue. Pipe the ruffles as described in the tutorial

and finish by piping ruffle flowers, using the

Carnation tutorial as a guide, around the middle

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tier (see Carnation and Sweet Pea in Piping

Flowers).

Up and Down Two-tone

Ruffles

1 To achieve two-tone ruffles, prepare the colours

you have chosen in two separate bags, without any

nozzles. Prepare another piping bag with a small

petal nozzle (Wilton 104) (A).

A

2 Cut the ends off the piping bags with the tinted

buttercream and squeeze into the bag with the

nozzle. The top colour (stripe colour) should be

squeezed to the side of the piping bag where the

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narrow/pointed part of the nozzle is, then squeeze

the other colour on top of the first (B). Use the same technique for the other colours.

B

3 You can now start piping either at the top or the

bottom of the cake. Make sure that the narrow/

pointed part of the nozzle is pointing in the same

direction that you want your ruffles to fall (either

up as in C or down as in D).

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C

D

4 Holding the bag sideways at an angle and with the

wide part of the nozzle touching the surface of the

cake, continuously squeeze the piping bag with

constant pressure and drag it around the cake until

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the two ends meet. Slightly wiggle your piping bag

as you pipe to make wavy ruffles.

5 Repeat the process for the succeeding ruffles

making sure that they are close to each other and

maintaining the angle (E).

E

Tip

Make sure you apply slight pressure to the

nozzle against the cake to ensure that the

ruffles stick to the cake. To adjust the

thickness of the ‘stripe’ just turn your piping

nozzle and squeeze the piping bag until you

get the desired effect.

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To create this cake…

• 20 × 7.5cm (8 × 3in) round cake (bottom tier), 15

× 15cm (6 × 6in) round cake (top tier)

• Dowel rods

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• 650g–930g (1lb 7oz–2lb 1oz) buttercream

• Paste colours: red (Sugarflair Ruby Red), orange

(Sugarflair Tangerine), yellow (Sugarflair Melon),

brown (Sugarflair Dark Brown), dark brown

(Sugarflair Dark Brown and Black)

• Small petal nozzle (Wilton 104)

• Piping bags

• Cake stand or covered cake board

Cover the cakes with a smooth finish, dowel and

stack the cakes (see Covering Cakes in Buttercream

Basics) and place on a stand or covered board.

Colour 200–250g (7–9oz) buttercream brown and

50–80g (13⁄4–3oz) darker brown then cover the

bottom tier using a blending effect (see Blending in

Palette Knife Techniques) and completing it with a

perfectly

smooth

finish

(see

Smoothing

in

Buttercream Basics). Colour 100–150g (31⁄ –51

2

⁄2oz)

of buttercream each of red, dark orange, light

orange (use a little less Tangerine paste to achieve

this) and yellow. Use this and the remaining

uncoloured buttercream to pipe the top tier as

described in the tutorial, and finish by piping a

camelia at the base of the top tier (see Camellia and Hydrangea in Piping Flowers).

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Squiggly Ruffles

1 Divide and mark the surface of the cake into equal

size panels. You can use a ruler, toothpick or side

scraper to do this (A).

A

2 Fit the piping bag with a small petal tip (Wilton