The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (32 page)

A

2 Cover your cake with a smooth finish (see

Covering Cakes in Buttercream Basics) then put it

in the fridge to chill until the surface is hard enough for you to hold the stencil against it without it

sticking. This will make it easier for you to work on the cake. Position and hold the stencil on to the

cake firmly then squeeze the thinned buttercream

on top of the stencil (B).

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B

3 Use a palette knife to level out the buttercream

and to take off the excess (C).

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C

4 Since the background buttercream is cold, wait

until the thinned buttercream firms up a little

before gently pulling the stencil away (D). Repeat

the same process on the other sides of your cake.

D

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Tip

It is best to wait for a few seconds to a minute

until the design has hardened before you pull

away the stencil to avoid smudging.

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To create this cake…

• 15 × 15cm (6 × 6in) square cake

• 1.35–1.75kg (3lb 2oz–3lb 14oz) buttercream

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• Paste colours: purple (Sugarflair Lilac), beige

(Sugarflair

Caramel),

light

green

(Sugarflair

Eucalyptus)

• Stencil

• Piping bags

• Palette knife

• Scissors

• Small leaf nozzle (Wilton 352)

• Small petal nozzle (Wilton 104)

• Cake stand or covered cake board

Crumb coat (see Crumb Coating in Buttercream

Basics) and place the cake on a stand or covered

board. Cover the cake with a smooth finish (see

Smoothing in Buttercream Basics) using 600–800g

(1lb 5oz–1lb 12oz) of purple buttercream. Colour

the remaining buttercream in the following

quantities: 600–700g (1lb 5oz–1lb 9oz) beige and

150–250g (51⁄2–9oz) light green. Use the beige

buttercream to create the stencil pattern on all four sides of the cake, following the tutorial. Pipe roses on the top in beige (see Rose and Rose Bud in

Piping Flowers), lifting them into position with

scissors, and add leaves in a mixture of beige and

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teal (see Sunflower and Leaves in Piping Flowers).

Pipe a bottom border of shells (see Shells and

Fleur-de-lis in Piping Pattens and Textures) using

beige buttercream in a piping bag with the tip

snipped off.

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Sponging and Stamping

Stamping has always been used in a wide variety of

popular crafts to add a repeating pattern onto a

surface. It’s a technique that lends itself well to cake decorating. In our version, we take the blank canvas

of a cake and, using just an ordinary sponge and

different colours, we create a vibrant background

that can be enhanced using small tools like cookie

cutters, plungers or rubber stamps, pressed into the

surface of the cake.

1 Tint buttercream in different colours, put into

separate bowls and ‘thin’ them by adding drops of

water to achieve a runny consistency (A). One of the

colours should be black, or at least dark, so that it can be used for the actual stamping and will show

up well against the background.

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A

2 Cut a clean sponge into small squares and dip one

in one of the bowls of thinned buttercream (B).

Gently pat on smoothed surface of the cake. Use a

different sponge in each colour, and make sure that

before you apply the colours to the cake, you

remove the excess buttercream. Repeat process

until cake is covered with different colour patches,

except your black or dark buttercream (C).

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B

C

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3 Dip your cookie cutter or flower plunger into the

bowl of thinned black or dark buttercream, tap

against the side of the bowl to remove any excess,

and press it gently on the surface of the cake.

Repeat as often as you like (D).

D

4 As a finishing touch you can add embellishments,

for example you can match some coloured edible

pearls to the colours of the patches and apply them

by piping a small dot in the right colour and adding

on a pearl using tweezers to the centre of each

flower stamp (E).

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E

Tip

With this technique use white or plain

buttercream to cover your cake. When

applying the patches, you will only use a

minimal amount of light tinted buttercream, so

you need a light background for them to stand

out. It is also helpful if your cake is chilled so

the surface does not dent when patted.

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