The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (33 page)

To create this cake…

• 15 × 20cm (6 × 8in) square cake

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• 1.5–2kg (3lb 5oz–4lb 8oz) buttercream

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

light green (Sugarflair Spruce Green), light yellow

(Sugarflair Melon), light pink (Sugarflair Pink),

black (Sugarflair Liquorice)

• Plastic bowls

• Clean sponge

• Scissors

• Small flower cookie cutter or flower plunger

• Colourful edible pearls

• Tweezers

• Piping bags

• 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 plain buttercream. Colour the

remaining buttercream in the following quantities:

150–200g (51⁄2–7oz) each of light blue, light green,

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light yellow, light pink and black. Reserve a tiny

quantity of each to use to stick on the edible pearls, then follow the tutorial above to colour the

background and stamp the flower design. Pipe a

little unthinned buttercream in the matching colour

in the centre of each flower and add edible pearls.

Using 150–200g (51⁄2–7oz) unthinned light pink

buttercream plus a little darker pink for the centres, pipe hydrangeas round the bottom (see Camellia

and Hydrangea in Piping Flowers).

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Textile Effects

Open your wardrobe doors and take a look at all

those tops, dresses and cardigans. Notice the prints

and those lovely fabric textures? In this chapter,

we’ll show you how to recreate these textile effects

using luscious buttercream. With just a few small

tools you’ll be magically producing embroidery, lace

and crochet like a skilled needleworker.

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Brushed Embroidery

Embroidered design, whether simple or lavish, will

always add an exquisite quality. To embroider your

cake, you will use a simple tool – a brush – hence,

the ‘brushed embroidery’ technique. Flowers are

particularly suited to this method, so that’s what we have chosen as our example, although animals and

birds and any other subject you have seen in an

embroidery will work well too. Here, you will gently

stroke the buttercream towards the centre of your

design, leaving not only colour but also a wonderful

thread-like texture on the surface of your cake.

1 If you are using an image you have found, as with

buttercream pattern transfers (see Transfers,

Stamping and Stencilling), make sure that you

make a mirror image before you print, especially if

you need to be precise with the positioning of the

pattern. When the pattern is transferred, over-pipe

the outline with quite a thick line of buttercream

(A). If you are piping the design directly on the

surface of the cake, make sure you use plenty of

buttercream so you have enough to brush (B).

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A

B

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2 Look at your flower pattern as a whole, and

imagine where the stem should be – that will be the

direction where all the strokes should go. Dip your

brush in a bowl of water, and wipe off the excess

water with a tissue. Using your damp brush, pull

the buttercream towards the centre of your flower

(C). Repeat the process to the rest of the petals. If you have pulled all the buttercream, but need more

to complete the flower, over-pipe the outline again

slightly (D).

C

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D

3 Pipe the centre of the flower with dots and spikes

to create a three-dimensional effect, just like real

embroidery (E). There’s no need to brush them but

you may do so if you wish.

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E

4 Using green tinted buttercream, pipe leaf outlines

and repeat the brushed embroidery method, this

time brushing towards the central vein of the leaf

(F).

F

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To create this cake…

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

× 10cm (8 × 4in) round cake (middle tier), 15 ×

10cm (6 × 4in) round cake (top tier)

• 2.4–2.9kg (5lb 6oz–6lb 7oz) buttercream

• Dowel rods

• Paste colours: red (Sugarflair Ruby), black

(Sugarflair

Liquorice),

green

(Sugarflair

Gooseberry)

• Small round or square tip paintbrush

• Bowl of water

• Piping bags

• Scissors

• Cake stand or covered cake board

Crumb coat then cover the top and bottom tiers

using 800–900g (1lb 12oz–2lb) of uncoloured

buttercream with a smooth finish (see Covering

Cakes in Buttercream Basics). Cover the middle tier

with 400–500g (14oz–1lb 2oz) red buttercream,

give it a textured finish with a palette knife (see

Palette Knife Techniques). Dowel and stack the

cakes (see Dowelling in Buttercream Basics) and

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place on a stand or covered board. Colour the

remaining buttercream in the following quantities:

700–800g (1lb 9oz–1lb 12oz) of red, 200–300g

(7–101⁄ oz) black and 300–400g (101

2

⁄2–14oz) green.

Refer to the photograph and follow the tutorial to

paint the poppies and foliage. Pipe the centre of the flowers to add texture, using a piping bag with the

tip snipped off.

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Lace

Lace evokes such an elegant and timeless style,

especially on a cake. There are a few lace-effect

variations and each of them is equally impressive.

The Irregular Lace project involves freehand piping

using

black-tinted

buttercream

on

a

white

background to highlight the intricacy of the lace.