The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (14 page)

B

2 Prepare all the colours you need in individual

piping bags and use scissors to cut a tiny hole at the end of each bag. Outline your patterns with dots by

holding the piping bag straight on to the cake, and

gently squeezing the bag until a small dot appears

(C). Make sure to stop squeezing the bag before you

pull it away. It is best to outline patterns first before piping the inside of the patterns.

155

C

3 Repeat the same process and start filling the

inside part of the patterns with your chosen colour,

ensuring that you don’t leave any gaps in between

the dots (D).

156

D

4 Pipe a dotted line as a stem to connect flowers

and leaves. Pipe some more dots as borders. If your

dots have some ‘spikes’, wait until they have crusted then gently press the spiky points down (E).

157

E

158

159

To create this cake…

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

× 10cm (6 × 4in) round cake (top tier)

• Dowel rods

• 1.65–2.55kg (3lb 10oz–5lb 9oz) buttercream

• Paste colours: pink (Sugarflair Pink), yellow

(Sugarflair Autumn Leaf), violet (Sugarflair Grape

Violet), green (Sugarflair Spruce Green), light

orange

(Sugarflair

Tangerine),

dark

orange

(Sugarflair Tangerine), black (Sugarflair Liquorice)

• Cookie cutters (optional)

• Cocktail stick (toothpick)

• Piping bags

• Scissors

• Palette knife

• Cake stand or covered cake board

Crumb coat, dowel and stack the cakes (see

Buttercream Basics) and place on a stand or

covered board. Cover the cakes with 600–800g (1lb

5oz–1lb 12oz) of uncoloured buttercream and give

them a smooth finish (see Covering Cakes in

160

Buttercream Basics). Mark the surface with cookie

cutters or draw your design freehand using a

cocktail stick. Divide the remaining buttercream

equally into seven parts and colour each one pink,

yellow, violet, green, light orange, dark orange and

black. Fill your piping bags and snip the ends off to make a small hole. Pipe your design following the

tutorial.

161

Leaves

If you think that piping leaves on a cake can only be used to accentuate the piped flowers or to cover

imperfections, think again. By using a leaf nozzle,

you can create a really striking texture on a cake.

We’ve described two below, the first shows that

simple plain lines become not so plain after all, and the second makes a fabulous spiked effect. You can

use different colours to add visual interest.

1 For the first effect, using a small leaf nozzle

(Wilton 352), hold the piping bag straight down

with two points of the nozzle against the cake.

Starting from the corner of the cake, gently squeeze

the piping bag as you drag vertically upwards (A).

When you reach the top edge of the cake, stop

squeezing the bag and pull abruptly to leave a small

peak.

162

A

2 Repeat process around the cake with 1–2cm

(1⁄ –3

2

⁄4in) gaps between, using alternating colours of

white and yellow (B).

B

3 For the second effect, mark a guide line to

indicate a border 2.5cm (1in) wide at the top and

bottom of your cake. Identify the middle of what

will be the back of the cake by measuring the

163

circumference and dividing in two. From this point,

hold your piping bag at a 20–30 degree angle and

squeeze the piping bag to create a row of five or six small leaves vertically. Repeat the process and pipe

rows of leaves close to each until you get back to the middle part of the cake, making sure there are no

gaps inbetween the leaves. Repeat the same process

on to the other half of the cake (C).

C

4 To pipe a big sunflower-like flower, use a large

leaf nozzle (Wilton 366) to pipe the petals (D), then cut the tip of a piping bag and pipe ‘spikes’ for the centre of the flower. This technique is described in

more detail in the Piping Flowers chapter.

164

D

Tip

A small leaf nozzle (Wilton 352) is the only tool

used to create these strikingly different

textures. It all relies on how much pressure

you put in squeezing your piping bag and the

position of your nozzle. Do not forget to stop

squeezing your piping bag before you pull it.

Otherwise,

you

will

have

a

long

and

funny-looking leaf.

165

To create this cake…

• 15 × 13cm (6 × 5in) square cake (bottom tier), 15

× 10cm (6 × 4in) round cake (top tier)

• Dowel rods

166

• 1.15–1.55kg (2lb 91⁄2–3lb 7oz) buttercream

• Paste colours: white (Sugarflair Super White),

yellow (Sugarflair Melon and Autumn Leaf), teal