Cake Decorating Ideas

To make the Zebra Striped Star Cake, bake three cakes of each size pan. I used a 6, 8, and 10 inch pans. Stack the cake layers using buttercream between. When you put the top layer on, cut it at an angle and then cut a hole in the center that goes down to the top of the second layer. This hole should be slightly larger than the tier that will be sitting in it. It will need to be slightly larger because both of these tiers will be covered in fondant and you will need to make sure you have plenty of room. For the top layer, just cut at an angle.

Put buttercream entirely on each tier and chill. While the cakes are chilling, get the stars cutout from gumpaste, attach the floral wires and let them begin to dry. Once the stars have started to get dry, I used a thickened cookie glaze (topa’s glaze) to put the zebra stripes on the stars. I then let them continue to dry overnight.

For the fondant, I used white fondant so there’s no need to do any mixing. I work my fondant until smooth, roll it out and begin covering my chilled layers one at a time usually beginning with the largest tier. Once all tiers have been covered, I put dowels in the first 2 layers so that the cake sits evenly. I also have cardboards under each layer for this purpose. Once the dowels have been inserted, I stack the cake using piping gel between the layers to make sure there is no shifting during transport.

All of the decorations and embellishments are made from buttercream. For a middle tier, a stamp is used to create a design outline. On the middle tier, I freehanded the zebra designs then filled it in with buttercream and smoothed out with a spatula dipped in warm water. The bottom tier is just random polka dots made with different sizes of round tips.

I used a larger size round tip to do the borders for each tier, changing them up on each tier just to give it more originality. As for the board, I covered it in the regular silver cake board paper, found the center then measured 5 inches away from the center to create a circle. I took a zebra bandana that you can buy at any craft store and cut it into 1X4 inch strips and hot glued them down along the circle I had created. I then did this again at 4 inches. Once I had finished this, I glued down a 10 inch cardboard so that the cake did not sit directly on the ruffles. I did not do the final border on the bottom tier until I had the cake secured on the board. Now that the cake is completed and secured to the board, I started positioning my stars to create a fairly symmetrical look.