When your frosting you always what to frost on top of frosting. Don’t go on a new spot, go on a spot you’ve already frosted, then you want to push the frosting around. I’m using a back and forth motion going edge to edge, that helps push the frosting around the cake.

Cover the whole cake. Then we’ll smooth everything over. The most important thing is to cover the whole cake and then we can remove any extra frosting. If it’s a little too thick you can remove anything you don’t want. This will help get a good shape and you won’t get crumbs in your frosting.

Now that the whole cake is frosted I’m going to go around one more time to smooth the edge and to bring up that lip. Make sure your spatula is straight up and down and don’t worry about any frosting on the side, we’ll clean that up later.

Now we have that lip and we want to straighten up the top. So clean your spatula off really well. And you want to do a motion were we take a little bit of that lip that we built up and gently spread it over. And then come off the cake like this.

Then turn the cake around. Ans see how bringing that lip over gives you a nice, crisp edge. Now you can use a spatula like this and that keeps the handle out of the way, and a spatula like this might get in the way. If you use a spatula that’s bent you don’t have to worry about that handle getting in the way.

After each time I swipe to clean up that lip I scrape the spatula on the edge of the bowl before I start on the next side. Just keep going around and see how that makes a nice clean edge? Just smooth it into the center of the cake. Now we have a good, smooth base cake. And we’re ready to decorate the cake.

Before we start our decorating we’re just going to clean up any excess frosting that’s on there. You can just take a napkin and wrap it around your finger to wipe up any excess frosting coming as close to the cake as you can. Then just fold it in again just to wipe up any extra frosting on the platter.

Clean that up so that we’ll have a fresh start for decorating.

What your going to need are two cakes baked in a loaf pan. As you notice there are little domes on the top of each. I’m going to slice off the dome using a serrated knife. It’s really easy, sort of like cutting bread. You wouldn’t want to cut bread with a dull knife.

I noticed these are a little chilled, too. Yes, you want to chill your cakes in the freezer for about half and hour to 45 minutes. That will firm it up and you’ll have fewer crumbs.

Train Birthday Cake Decorating Video

So, one of these is going to be the engine and the other one is going to be the train cars. So I’m going to make this one into the train cars. So all you have to do is cut it in half and then in quarters. The next step is we’re going to cut off two section off the side, just to make it a little narrower. Because it’s the engine car.

Now we’re going to cut at an angle a little piece off here and a little piece off here. So now we’re going to cut a little piece out, a little section. I’m going to cut about halfway. You don’t want to cut all the way through. I’m going to cut that portion out and just lift it up. And then I’m going to place it here.

Now we’re going to start assembling and crumbing our cake. I have some colored frosting over here. We have blue and green and yellow. And we’re going to use that to crumb coat our cake.

Now what I recommend is first is put a nice dollop on top and smooth it out. Some of it will come over the side and that will help you frost the sides. For the top, what I recommend doing id try to use the full length of your spatula. And sort of go back and forth with a pretty firm touch. Almost like a wave, I angle my spatula just a little bit.

For a smaller cake like this you have an option. You can do the sides first and have a lip and just smooth it over. Or you can do the top and just smooth it down.

Now the hardest part is the corners. What I recommend is going all the way across so you get that lip again on that corner, and then you can scrape it off.

What we’re going to do after you have everything crumb coated and put it in the fridge, I just want to show you one thing. You can actually use the chocolate frosting as a glue. Because if your going to start icing this, this piece is going to move around. I just want to adhere it, just use a dollop of that.

I have one ready for you to go. This one is ready to frost. I’m going to start with the blue. I’m frosting the top first, then I’m going to do the sides. Another trick when you doing a rectangle or square cake is to put a little frosting on the corners. They tend to sag over a little bit. Again, we’re just going to get covered. It looks a little messy but we’re going to clean it up.

So now that we have it frosted I think we’ll assemble it on the tray before we put the candies on. I’m actually going to pipe a train track on first. I’m just using a pastry cone filled with the chocolate frosting that we were using before. What I’m doing is holding in place and squeezing until I have a little dot, Then pulling across and ending on another dot. And sort of tail off by swishing your pastry cone quickly. Sometimes if you get breaks, your moving too fast.

So now it’s time to put the train on the tracks. So what I have is a larger off set spatula. You can use any kind of spatula that is pretty flat and push it underneath the cake, gently lift up and put you hand under there to guide it, then place it right down on the track and slide it out.

Now it’s time to decorate it with candy. We have these little gunny rings, we can put two on each like that. And the tops are going to get a little bit of licorice. So now it needs it’s cargo. So I’m going to turn that around again and maybe we can put some little chocolate candies in this one or jelly beans. And I’m actually going to put a little coal in this one.

So now it’s time to do the smoke stack. You can use little peanut butter cups or whatever candies you like and place it right there. And maybe some lights. I’m going to use licorice again.

We’re going to start with two 9 inch cakes, but you can use 8unch if you’re serving fewer people. I’m going to start by cutting a little slice off the bottom, and then I’m going to cut a little U shape out. So it will be like the legs and the belly, and I’m going to place it on our serving platter right in the middle.

Now this one I’ve already trimmed the dome off the top and I’m e going to start cutting out the tail and the head. Now I’ve already made templates so you don’t have to go straight in and cut, this will give you a little guide line, and you can make your own. So now I have a tail, which I’ll move here, and ahead.

How to Make a Dinosaur Birthday Cake Video

So now we’re going to start our crumb coat. A crumb coat basically helps seal in the crumbs. Another trick is to freeze your cake for about 30 minutes and that will also reduce the crumbs. SO we have some green frosting, we actually used some neon green food coloring. We’re also going to use this frosting as glue. We’re going to stick it underneath. Now that those are glued done I going to start crumbing the cake.

Just try to cover the entire surface, the sides and the top. Once you have it all crumbed, you have to freeze it for another half an hour just to seal it all in so that your final coat is nice and clean. I have one ready.

I’m going to go right in and start doing the final coat of frosting. Just scoop it on. It’s pretty thin, you can use about a quarter inch layer. Now you go around and frost all the sides so that they’re nice and smooth Now I’m going to take my spatula and pull it in towards the center of the cake. So basically I’m holding the off set spatula and holding it flush with the cake and coming in from the sides. I describe it as an airplane landing and then taking off again.

It’s always a good idea to have a hot water on hand, and just make sure you dry it off. To decorate the dinosaur I have an assortment of chocolates. I’m going to use them for the spots and the spikes. And I also have a pastry cone filled with vanilla icing.

What I’m going to do first is some various size spots. I’m going to put two up here for googly eyes and maybe some for toes. Now let me put the drops down the back.

And now I’m going to do the teeth and the eyes. I’m going to make two little dots. If you want you can make a happy dinosaur, but I like to have the teeth. So I’m just holding and pulling up so you get a point. So now you have your dinosaur.

The first step is to just cut right down the middle. And then were going to cut a peace sign. We’re going to cut here to here. And if you need you can use toothpicks to mark the middle. We’re going to use it as a guide line and flip these over and rotate them. And your going to have a butterfly’s wings.

Now we’re going to move into the crumb coat. A crumb coat is basically this coat of frosting that you spread over the entire cake and that seals in your crumbs. So we’re just going to start spreading it on. I like to put a nice big dollop on top. I like to get a nice, thick coat of icing on. Maybe about a quarter inch.

Once I have that I’m just going to start smoothing it out and make sure it’s covered. And each time I lift up my spatula I’m going to scrape it off that way you’ll get cleaner lines. You can dip you spatula in hot water and it will melt it off, just be sure you dry the spatula.

How to Make a Butterfly Birthday Cake Video

While your spreading I noticed you put a lot on and then your scraping it off.

Exactly, it gives you a little more room for error. So you don’t actually hit the cake or the crumb coat while your frosting it. And if you want this cake to be bigger to serve more people you can always layer.

Would you have to cut the layers together so that it would fit on top?

What I would do is cut one cake pt a little frosting on it and place the other cake on top and then cut out the shape that you want.

It looks like were about ready to put some more decorating on it. And this is the part your going to help me with. What you have here is some pastry cones. And I’ve actually pre-tinted some frosting. We have some green, a yellow and a pink. Just basic food coloring.

So what I’m going to do is we’re going to place the pattern on the butterfly. Squeeze some frosting. Then I’m going to take my spatula and then just spread it toward the center. Now I’m going to put some pink on here. I want you to take your spatula and put it in the hot water and you can help me spread this.

If you want it to trail down and make a pointed shape you can bring it down and also as the icing gets thinned out it gets a little transparent. You can get a little shaded effect. If you want, you can always come back and accent it a little bit and maybe accent that shape just for a little wow.

There’s a technique to piping though, right?

If your right handed your going to hold the bag in your right hand and squeeze at the top, with your other hand you guide. You don’t want to squeeze in the middle because sometimes the icing can come out the back and you can also have less control.

Now, for a little added decoration we can put candies on. SO we can just do a little something like that. And you don’t have to use any color palette, you can just blues and purples, whatever kind of butterfly you want to make. And then we have candy sticks for the body.

And the final step if you want it to really glisten, we have some sanding sugar. Sanding sugar is just a coarse sugar. And you can just sprinkle it on top and give it a little sparkle. You can get it at the store. They come in colors too, so if you wanted to use a pink or a green. And there’s your butterfly.

All you need is a 13×9 regular baking pan. What I would recommend first just to get started and set up is to actually mix your colors and set them aside and start to cut. So you can use just store bought coloring and drop in drop by drop so you don’t make it too dark, because it can be concentrated. We can see it’s already getting darker. Like I said, just keep adding the color. It was probably about a teaspoon of color.

Now we’re also going to add the yellow. So I’m just going to add the yellow, just a couple of drops. Then stir it, and then add a couple of drops to make it darker to really stand out against the blue. So it’s like a few more drops. Let’s see if that gets us to a nice, bright yellow. That looks good.

Blue Jeans Birthday Cake Video

We’re going to move right into the cutting of the cake. Now you’ll notice it as a dome. We’re going to slice that off just going around, you can put your hand on top just to support it, just make sure you don’t cut your hand.

Now we’re going to flip in over. Now we’re going to cut a one inch slice down this side. This is going to be the belt. I’m going to just eye ball this. If you want, you can use a template, or you can mark where you’re gong to cut with a toothpick just like this. Slice that down, remove your toothpicks and cut this right down the middle.

Now it’s time to arrange it. We’re going to place this right down and use this as a little flare on the jean. We’re making bell bottoms. Now this extra piece that I had, we’re going to place this across the top and cut it to the size right across the top.

Now we have this down in the place that we actually want it and you can use this as a kind of glue. I’m going to take a little bit so the cake doesn’t slide while I’m icing it. And it can also be the glue to the pieces that you’ve already cut. The next step is to crumb coat your cake. A crumb coat is just a thin layer of icing that covers the entire cake that seals in any crumbs that might pop up.

So I’m just going to continue around all the sides and the top and cover the cake completely with the frosting. For best results after you have this all crumbed, chill it for a while and that will firm up the frosting a little bit. I already have one chilled that we can start decorating.

So now we’re ready for the final coat. I’m going to spoon some of the frosting on and I’m using an off set spatula to spread it. Use whatever you can find in your home to help you out. Now I’m going to smooth the edges. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just as long as the whole cake is coated.

And now the fun part, the decorating. We have out yellow frosting and we also have an assortment of candies that we’re going to decorate our cake with. So I’m going to take a little bit of the frosting and put it into a pastry cone. The first thing I’m going to do is pipe little stitching on the cake. Cut a tiny hole in it and then we’re going to do the stitching on the pocket.

Now the candy. We have fruit roll ups, these are great for belts. Open them up, take it off the paper and then we’re going to cut it to the size that we need. What we’re gong to do is laying it down into the frosting. You can use scissors or a knife and just trim it. And this one makes a sort of tassel. It’s cut out already. So you can just drape it down. Now what we’re gong to do is apply some candies. To make them stick I would use little dots of frosting.

You can also put little patches on, this is also a fruit roll up. You can go to the candy shop and use whatever candies you like to use. I think our jeans are done.

We’re going to need three, eight inch round cakes, and one cake that we’ve baked in an oven proof glass bowl, like this. Now let’s start cutting. I’ve already cut the dome off one cake and converted it onto our cake platter. I’m going to cut the dome off of this one using a serrated knife. Set this aside. Now, I’m going to cut this one in half also.

Rotate the cake as you go instead of cutting straight through. One tip is to chill your cakes in the freezer before you cut them. This will reduce the crumbs. What I’m going to do now is cut a small circle in the center of each cake. This way we can insert the doll later.

Princess Doll Birthday Cake Video

You can use either a small, serrated knife or you can also use decorative pastry cutters. Cut it right in the middle. One trick to keep a nice, clean edge on your decorating surface is to take pieces of parchment paper and tuck them under the edge of the cake.

I tinted our frosting pink just using food coloring you find in the grocery store. I’m going to take a nice size dollop and place it right on. Then I’m going to take my off set spatula and spread it evenly over the entire surface. Then we take another cake and invert it right on top. Try to keep them as centered as possible. And then the top.

Okay, now it’s time to do a crumb coat. A crumb coat is basically just a thin layer of frosting that covers the entire cake and it seals in the crumbs so that your final coat looks nice and clean. It looks like this one is completely covered. SO I’m going to go ahead and show you a nice trick.

You can actually keep spreading the frosting with your off set spatula, but a nice way to get it really smooth is to just use a piece of paper. Cut the paper like this, curve it to the side of the cake and pull it straight up. You get a nice, smooth edge, continue around the entire cake.

Okay, the sides look really smooth. I’m just going to go ahead and smooth the inside also. It doesn’t matter how that’s going to look because that’s going to get filled in later. And now that I’ve finished my crumb coat I’m going to remove the pieces of parchment paper.

Just slide them right out. If there is still a little bit of a messing edge, just come back with your off set spatula and smooth it over. Now that our crumb coat is done, I’m going to set it in the freezer to set up before we finish frosting it.

It’s time to do our final coat. And for this one we’ve placed it on a really nice platter to serve it to match. Take a nice sized dollop on top and start spreading it on. You can actually turn a pedestal like this to make it easier to frost the cake.

Now you have a few choices. You can go ahead and make it smooth again with that same technique we did with the crumb coat and the paper or you can give it a little texture. You can do lines up and down.

I think I’m going to give it some little swirls. You can just take your spatula, press it in to the frosting and spin it, and lift up. It sort of looks like billowing fabric. There is really no pattern to this, it’s all random movements.

Now that we’re done frosting the cake, it’s time to insert the doll. We’ve take a fashion doll and just wrapped it in some plastic wrap. This will protect the clothing so it doesn’t get any frosting on it. I have one ready and we’re just going to stick her right in there. The we’re just to cover with a little bit more frosting to cover that hole.

If you fashion doll has long hair, you may consider wrapping it in plastic wrap as well so it doesn’t get frosting on it.

The next step is we’re going to pipe a decorative pattern on the bodice using the frosting. Always squeeze a little bit of the frosting into the bowl before hand in case there’s any air pockets. Squeeze and hold in place and then pull out as you release pressure and you’ll get a nice little rosette or star. Continue around the entire bodice. I’m going to put some straps over her shoulders.

Now we can add some candy highlights. I have these little stars which will be perfect for a fairy princess. You can put them in little clusters of three. I’m going to put one that’s a little bit bigger right on her bodice. I think I’ll put some little stars right next to it.

And now, for the crowning touch you can make a wand and a hat for the fairy princess. I love to use doll so the birthday girl can keep it as a special memory.