The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (28 page)

D

3 For the delphinium, outline the shape (like a big

wavy teardrop) with small dots using violet tinted

buttercream. Fill in with small blobs of a mix of

violet, white and blue tinted buttercream (E). Using

a palette knife with a fine tip, one that is almost the same size as the blob, squish the blobs down. There

is no need to wipe the palette knife – the more the

colours blend together, the better (F).

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E

318

F

4 Finally, use dark green tinted buttercream, and a

piping bag with the tip snipped off, to pipe the

stems (G). There is no need to spread it as it will

give

another

variation

in

texture

and

a

three-dimensional effect.

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G

Tip

When creating the petals at the edges of the

delphinium flower spike, squish the blobs

down as if you are pulling them to the centre.

This will give a more defined shape and a

neater result.

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321

To create this cake…

• 25 × 15cm (10 × 6in) round cake (bottom tier), 20

× 20cm (8 × 8in) round cake (middle tier), 15 ×

13cm (6 × 5in) round cake (top tier)

• 3.05–4.15kg (6lb 11oz–9lb 2oz) buttercream

• Dowel rods

• Paste colours: violet (Sugarflair Grape Violet),

blue (Sugarflair Baby Blue), yellow (Sugarflair

Melon), dark yellow (Sugarflair Autumn Leaf),

brown (Sugarflair Dark Brown), dark brown

(Sugarflair

Dark

Brown),

mocha

(Sugarflair

Mocha), light green (Sugarflair Gooseberry), dark

green (Sugarflair Spruce Green)

• Palette knife painting set

• Piping bags

• Scissors

• Cake stand or covered cake board

Cover, dowel and stack the cakes (see Buttercream

Basics) and place on a stand or covered board.

Colour the buttercream in the following quantities:

250–350g (9–12oz) each of violet, blue, yellow,

dark yellow, brown, dark brown, mocha, light green

322

and dark green. Keep 250–350g (9–12oz) for

piping,

and

use

the

remaining

uncoloured

buttercream to cover the cake with an uneven

texture (see Palette Knife Brushstrokes). Create the

blended background using the two greens and most

of the blue buttercream following the gradient

blending tutorial. ‘Paint’ the flowers using the

remaining colours and following the palette knife

flowers tutorial.

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Marbling

Marbling is a technique where you can use as many

colours as you like without having to worry that you

will overwhelm your cake. In our version, you will

pipe your chosen colours one after the other until

there is a pattern. Afterwards, you will only have to use a simple cake comb or palette knife to blend

them together which will give a more sophisticated

look.

1 Decide on your overall design and mark the

outline of some simple flower shapes using a

cocktail stick (toothpick) (A).

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A

2 Select as many colours as you like – in this

example we used three different colours in each

petal. Put all the tinted buttercream in piping bags, and use scissors to snip off the tips. Starting from

the outermost petals of the flower, pipe short arches in layers of colours (B).

325

B

3 Using your cake comb or a palette knife with a

large rounded tip, hold it almost flat to the cake,

gently press down and drag it towards the centre of

the flower. If you use a comb you will get a lovely

texture and a more variegated blend (C).

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C

4 Repeat the same process with all the petals,

alternating the colours (D).

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D

5 Depending on how big your flower is, you can also

pipe two or more layers of petals, but it is important always to start at the outermost layer. Finish the

flowers with a piped circle or with sprinkles.

Tip

Cake combs or zigzag cake scrapers come in

different sizes but a 2.5cm (1in) wide one is

useful to have. They are made of thin plastic

material so you can easily cut a larger one to

your desired size.

328

To create this cake…

• 20 × 20cm (8 × 8in) round cake

• 1.2–1.8kg (2lb 101⁄2oz–4lb) buttercream

329

• Paste colours: light blue (Sugarflair Baby Blue),

dark blue (Sugarflair Baby Blue), violet (Sugarflair

Grape Violet), green (Sugarflair Spruce Green)

• Piping bags

• Scissors

• Cake comb or zigzag cake scraper or palette knife

with large rounded tip

• White sprinkles (nonpareils)

• Cake stand or covered cake board

Crumb coat and place the cake on a stand or

covered board, then give it a smooth covering using