Cake Decorating Ideas

This is my fourth time decorating a cake and I apologize if I use the wrong terms. I hope to someday take a course in cake decorating so that I can learn the proper techniques and correct name for all the tools.

The Two-Tier Floral Cake cake was created using an amazing vanilla recipe I found online. It is so moist and has so much flavor. Each tier was divided into two layers and filled with a butter cream icing seedless raspberry jam mixture. The entire cake was covered in butter cream icing, with a yummy almond flavoring. Each layer was sprayed with a almond, sugar, water simple syrup to lock in moisture before the entire cake was covered with white fondant.

Several days before creating the cake, I prepared the flowers to allow sufficient drying time. Made from gumpaste, the center piece flower was created using a heart cutter and a gum paste ball tool to feather the edges. There are three hearts for both layers attached with a watered down gum paste mixture. The center of the flower is a flattened ball of gum paste which I made a pattern using a scratch tool. This flower was placed in a forming disc to dry which gave it the shape. The large leaves on top of the cake were cut out by hand and the veining was scratched on using a gum paste tool. The smaller leaves were cut out and veined using a leave cutter and a gum paste tool.

The larger mauve flowers on the side were created using a cutter and the pattern on the petals was created by rolling a gum paste tool. A smaller cutter was used for the center, which was attached using the gum paste mixture. The orange flowers on the bottom tier were created using the same technique, but with a different cutter. A small piece of white gum paste was flattened and attached to the center. The other smaller mauve flowers on the side of the cake were created by rolling out gum paste and pressing a design board into the gum paste before cutting out each flower. All of the flowers were brushed with a vodka and silver pearl dust mixture to give them a shimmer.

The bottom band was created by measuring the circumference of the cake and then rolling out a gum paste strip the correct length and width required to create the band. A pattern was pressed into this band before it was cut. I used a rolling cutter that cut one side flat and the other side zigzag. This strip was also brushed with the vodka silver pearl dust mixture. The gum paste mixture was used to attach the band to the cake. A scallop border was used on the top and bottom of the second tier.

Before the flowers were attached to the side of the second tier (using royal icing) a simple crisscross drape pattern was piped along the edge.

First Name: Joyce
City-State: Kentville, Nova Scotia